#butt pose

It is important to me that everyone know that, in Marvel Puzzle Quest, Cyclops has a move called “Mutant Revolutionary” which is him doing the boobs and butt pose that lady superheroes always do.

It makes me laugh every time.

So, work with me here a second. Some folks got upset at changes to one of Tracer’s poses and slandered the character design for Zarya saying Blizzard is pandering to Social Justice Warriors- as if a game should never pander. 

"Pander” does suggest that the desire you are feeding is inappropriate, so maybe that’s where the insult is. But switch that word to “entice” and maybe you’ll see where I am coming from.

Doesn’t most character design entice part of a game’s audience? Let’s reduce some variables by talking only about female character design. Four other characters entice users in a way we are all familiar with: leggy, emphasized chesticles, and suggestions of stereotypically trope-like personalities. Mercy is the self-sacrificing goddess, Pharah the hard edged warrior, Widowmaker the sexually-charged killer, and D.Va is our manic pixie gamer girl.

Tracer staying cinnamon roll caters to a different segment of the audience. Powerful Zarya caters to yet another segment, and so on down the list. Mei? Absolutely! Symmetra? Sure! 

I get that it sucks when something that enticed you is replaced with something that doesn’t - but that reaction is personal and subjective. Can’t we leave discussions there? Respect those views, accept them, but leave them there? It seems that fights get nasty when the combatants confuse personal enjoyment for virtue or absolute good. 

Personally, I love the new and different. I will be super stoked if they add another female character who is different and interesting, even if I am not personally enticed by them. I’ll be disappointed if Blizzard’s next female character fits too much in one of the molds they already have - but that’s as far as I can take it. I can’t yell about how they ‘should’ have done something different because I’ll know that someone out there is going absolutely bonkers over the new character, and their appreciation is worth just as much as mine.