Yeah, that’s some good straw-manning. Pretty much every discussion I’ve seen about Overwatch’s characters (including ones on this forum, I believe) basically go:
- It’s nice that they’re trying to have some racial diversity in the cast
- It’s a pity all the women are skinny and wearing catsuits
Aside from that, it is clear that Overwatch’s character design philosophy is almost identical to that of the old fighting games, basically established by Capcom in Street Fighter: conspicuous diversity. This is problematic in and of itself.
Hanzo can’t just happen to be Japanese: stereotypical Japanese-ness has to be his defining character trait, so he dresses like a samurai, has a borderline offensive accent, and talks about honor all the fucking time.
Symmetra can’t just happen to be indian, she has to have a stereotypical Indian accent, and have a bindi worked into the design of her costume.
Personally, I think of this as the “World Heroes” design philosophy, because that series was a little more unabashed in using tortured geographical stereotypes (also literally having a character called fucking “Mudman”). It’s a cheap and easy way to get character diversity while still having consistency. The design philosophy extends through the gender representation, where you can have as many women as you want, as long as they’re all SEXY women. (off the top of my head, the closest I can come to an exception is R. Mika, who is a wrestler / grappler, and so has a slightly different body shape, but I’m probably missing something obvious).
Compare to TF2: the demoman is stereotypically Scottish in affect, but not visually. The Heavy is Russian (yes, with accent), but characterized more by bigness and dumbness (yes, there’s some stereotyping going on there) but doesn’t go shouting about Mother Russia. Unlike, say, Zangief, his primary accessory isn’t a bear, but a sandwich. TF2 isn’t perfect (nothing is), but despite having designs that are both distinctive and consistent, they don’t rely AS heavily on lazy stereotyping.
Of course there’s lots of personal judgement in there. The line between respectful homage and offensive stereotype can be pretty variable for each person. Ans of course, there are obvious good reasons to have consistent character designs, and on it’s face diversity is good, but it still has to be handled correctly.
Edit to add:
So, if that line is variable and it’s a minefield, then how do you avoid problems? All you have to do is act like you give a shit. Blizzard is, via their statements, acting like they give a shit, which is why they’re getting praise here.
