It's the sort of thing that culture critic Anita Sarkeesian has focused much of her work on, too: appropriate presentations of female characters in video games. Kaplan continues that this isn't censorship, nor is the studio ceding creative control to the community, it was doing the right thing by Tracer and the game as a whole. We made the decision to go with a different pose in part because we shared some of the same concerns, but also because we wanted to create something better.' 'That pose had been called into question from an appropriateness standpoint by players in our community did help influence our decision - getting that kind of feedback is part of the reason we're holding a closed beta test - but it wasn't the only factor. He later added that the decision to remove this particular pose for Tracer was an easy one because the studio wasn't happy with it, and the pose was something the team had been debating internally prior to this coming to light. Overwatch creative director Jeff Kaplan jumped into the fray saying that the pose would be removed, agreeing with others who share Fipps' sentiments. The forums' reactions to that plea went, well, about as smoothly as you'd expect. Ultimately, Kipps says he wants Tracer to be a role model that isn't overtly sexualized for his daughter.

'This pose says to the player base, 'Oh, we've got all these cool diverse characters, but at any moment we are willing to reduce them to sex symbols to help boost our investment game.'' It just reduces Tracer to another bland female sex symbol.'ДЄnd before you say, 'Wait, Widowmaker is all about flaunting her body and sexuality,' Fipps posits that character is partly defined by her pronounced curves and proclivities. In it, she's glancing over her shoulder, her butt framed by a few straps over her leggings.ДЇipps argues as such: 'What about this pose has anything to do with the character you're building in Tracer? It's not fun, it's not silly, it has nothing to do with being a fast, elite killer. Over on the game's official forums, a user noticed that one of Tracer's - more or less the figurehead for the game - victory poses put her in a position that forum-goer 'Fipps' thought wasn't befitting of the character. Fans of Overwatch, Blizzard's colorful new shooter, discovered just that recently. Sometimes a beta test is more than a glorified demo that the marketing department pushes for to drum up pre-orders.

Tracer overwatch