Why Blizzard MUST Do More For Representation
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Yes, it is important to see two women kissing on screen & in your favourite video games. Even Overwatch 2. Here's why.
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I am so thankful to have your voice in our community, SVB! Thank you for using your platform to continue this sort of discourse!
Not the biggest, or the most popular creator (in this day and age, that's probably something to be proud of) but hands down, SVB is the most important and the most thoughtful voice in the OW community.
I just have to say, you are honestly one of, if not the most inspirational overwatch creator out there. The way you constantly strive and fight, not just for the game to be better, but try to teach the community and the players to be better as well. The way the community rejected you over false claims and after a brief break you come back as strong as ever and still make content like this and shine light on important issues that don’t get spoken on often.
As much as I appreciate what you do, PLEASE do not burn yourself out on this game too much, you are way too pure of a human to deserve driving yourself insane waiting for activision blizzard to fix their game.
this man is a national treasure
Can we make it global please? Not everyone lives in the same country:)
you speak and explain about this so well, while also maintaining that queer people are not a political stunt. Thank you
I wonder if the same argument can be made for religion? like Sikhism Islam Hinduism Buddhism Christianity Judaism
100% can and should
I’m a middle/high school teacher and never comment on YT videos. I just want to say keep up the good work SVB. You don’t have to be a licensed educator to be a teacher. ❤
Representation is also things like OW having characters from all over the world. I lost my shit and still love that OW is one of the few internationally known games that features a Dutch character. It's just cool to see something 'personal' like that be represented. I dont think anyone else bats an eye wehether he's Dutch or Belgian or German or whatever though.
I guess the same thing applies with representation in other forms. You just have to be part of the 'minority' to appreciate it.
Just remember the only places practicing this are NA and Europe. The rest of the world basically sneers at the suggestion. Minority is also relative, whites make up only 16% world pop and Asians a whopping 59%… context matters.
I appreciate diverse representation despite not being in most minority groups. It's refreshing.
@@manlymanmann7592 Thats true but when a character reflects your experience it really makes you feel seen on another level
@@ironman1458 yeah I can relate because it's rare for me to identify with a character. When I do, they always kill them. Most recently the dude in Andor that wrote the book. Anyway, glad you found it in overwatch
I am gay, a preppy/femboy, I have openly come out as transgender then replaced it with femboy due to the toxicity of the community, I'm also Native American, a dying dying culture and we have many dying languages, now I don't feel like every two seconds I need to beg a billion dollar corporation to use my minority status to make more money, and use them as a marketing scheme, also many billion dollar corps like Blizzard and Riot probably don't care whatsoever when they do this.
I am so glad SVB is a part of this community
🍍
@@neapleo agreed
@@KaiTheAussie 🤝
"He's a bit like Ross" Damn I feel sorry for that guy.
🤓
Relatable, SVB. Love you contents, it hasn’t been an easy year for you, keep up the good works!
I listened to the entire video hoping you would tell me something I don't understand but when it comes to race I really don't understand why I should care what a characters race is. I am a white dude who consumes next to no western media cause I prefer Foreign films and shows, Columbian drug dramas or korean love stories. I don't relate to somebody based on something as useless as race. The only time a persons race matters is when in a medical setting. I do relate to characters based on their backstory more than anything. Characters who have lost a younger sibling or very close loved one often allow me to relate with them. Seeing them overcome their own grief. I also seem to get a similar feeling from watching somebody struggle protect their own family to prevent the loss in the first place like in Nier for example. With that said I can understand how you may relate to a 2nd generation immigrant but if that same Indian character was just a gun slinging one man army without that backstory and you still related only due to race I would consider you at least slightly unconsciously racist.
This may bee a bit of a hot take and I genuinely apologize if I offend some people here.
I'm all for Diversity/Inclusivity/Representation in all forms of media... but as long as they do it right and not just out of left-field. I say this in a sense that I would rather producers make new, original characters, that way it gives them all the room in the world to do whatever they want in order to make them represent a certain demographic. Rather than taking a character who as already been established for years, if not decades and then willy-nilly turn them into something different. To me, that's not true representation, that's tokenism.
True representation would not only be making an original character, but introduce that character the exact same as you would anyone else. That way it would make it look normalized and would make the character fit in just as well with other characters. No need to make a giant hoopla about a character being LGBT of any kind, just treat them like everyone else.
In the case of Raze and KJ they’ve been hinting about them for like 2 years now so it’s not out of the blue, and in terms of past characters coming out I see no issue if a love life was never previously stated. You’re under the assumption that a character is straight until proven gay, but if a character has never been specified to be with someone, making them come out as gay may not be turning them into something different. They might have always been designed as gay just not stated on release, it only feels like they were turned into something different for you because you assumed something about them that was never stated. Ofc they should continue to make new diverse characters but there isn’t an issue in clarifying and fleshing out a character we didn’t know something about previously.
@@SamWhite-pg7bj What you're saying is true, but the problem with most media nowadays is that they create a character, flesh them out, let them develop a big fanbase and then out of nowhere their sexuallity is revealed and it's something that had zero hints or set up behind it, that in turn causes all the fans that knew the character for years to have a quite a bit of whiplash and understandably so. That's why I agree with @ingenium2872 that if you are gonna have a character be LGBTQ+
it should be part of their conceptual idea from the start and not 2 years into them being released.
@@apowolf1340why?That’s your fault for assuming the character is straight, and society’s fault for assuming heterosexuality as the default. If they’ve never had a love life before there’s no reason to assume them as gay, straight, bi, aromantic, etc. And what’s wrong with being a fan of a character that turns out to be LGBT anyway? Gay people have enjoyed characters that turn out to be straight and they mostly don’t think it’s “out of left field” or “weird”. It’s because, even internally, you just feel uncomfortable with gay people, not because being gay is “weird”. Being LGBt isn’t some huge part of your identity. It’s something as casual as your last name, hair color and what shoes you wear. But because of its stigma, people complain no matter what if there’s a lgbt relationship/character. If there’s only a small substory like S76, people think it’s “woke” and “token brownie points”. If it’s hinted at for a long time like killjoy and raze, it’s “we’re getting the woke agenda shoved down our throats!!!” if a character is released and immediately presented as lgbt it’s also “WOKE SJW!!!” “TOKENISM!!!” but if a character is released and after several years announced as gay/bi/trans/whatever, it’s, like you said, “out of left field” and “gives whiplash”. The point is, it’s not the fault of companies or LGBT people to have to accommodate their literal identities because some gamers can’t handle people who aren’t straight or cisgender. The problem is that being queer is stigmatized, and LGBT, being an ethnic minority, a woman, etc, are all not considered the norm. They’re considered “extras”, or “not required” by people who don’t fit those groups and are literally not even considered as people - just political. Imagine how disgusted lgbt (or other marginalized groups) people feel when they finally see themselves represented on the screen after centuries of erasure and the anti-sjw angry gamers complain that “it’s just politics” or whatever while you’ve suffered years of discrimination for just being you.
Great video SVB. Hopefully this helps some folks understand better.
I think the lack of inter-hero flirtation vooce lines from our two heroes more of boils down on the personality and lore. Tracer looking like she's in a monogamous relationship and Jack seems very damaged about letting go of Vincent that he's shut out any room for romance in his life. I do remember Tracer has inside-spawn voice lines about what she could bring home to Emily. So on this argument I'd want to point out that Reinhardt is a romantic and Baptiste a flirtatious personality and why they get flirtation lines. Nonetheless, I honestly would enjoy seeing a trans or nonbinary hero next. Really loved what Magic the Gathering with their nonbinary hero.
Im not trans and I also dont play apex but I was really excited when I found out one of the new apex characters was trans. I think when they changed mccrees name to cassidy they shouldve instead had that character be trans. Its a better in lore reason for a name change and also it would probably piss of the asshole the character was initially named after.
Unfortunately if they did add a nb character like Lynx 17 I'd bet loads of people would misgender them I've already seen quite a bit of misgendering towards them Unfortunately
@@KodaCreates I think one of the reasons Lynx gets misgendered (although transphobia definitely plays a part, especially if they got added to the game) is because of the fact that them being non-binary is so vague in the comic. I don't think they get referred to with they/them pronouns even once, it's only on Twitter that their pronouns got mentioned.
@@MagnusMurder ohh I wasn't aware they were confirmed on twitter, welp I think that confirms they'll never be added to the game, if they wont use their pronouns in side material (a place that tends to have a lot more rep because only people that are already in grossed in the world/story are likely to bother reading side material so they don't have to worry about it affecting purchases of the main material) there's no way they're going to in the game which is sad because they'd be such a great addition
Onnthat note, I think we are all happy that Bap got a flirty line with Lifeweaver 😏
Very valid points however it's worth noting that the reason companies do this is purely economical: the more people talk about and associate positively with a brand the more likely sales are to increase. In places where things like LGBTQ+ issues are not marketable, companies won't publish this. Riot didn't publish this on the South Asia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia accounts on twitter because it is either illegal in some cases or would actively hurt sales in most cases. While I still think showing equality is incredibly important, remember exactly WHY they're doing it and crucially, the places they AREN'T doing it.
I feel like you have a good argument. The pride icon being called rainbow is dumb as well as other things you addressed in the video. However soldier and tracer not flirting with other characters makes sense. Lena already has a girlfriend and soldier is to busy seeking vengeance to think about such things. It also hasn't been confirmed that Pharah and Mercy have that kind of relationship. All there is is just voice lines like the "knight in flying armor" one to tease the Pharmercy shippers.
You're probably right about them not doing as much as they could (only Emily Zero Hour picture) but most of these suggestions don't work.
Nah, SoyVB, this is a horrible take. Stop forcing your indentity politics down our throats. We do not care. I main Lucio and I do not relate on a single thing with him yet I still love playing him. So why do you need to relate to a characters sexuality? Actual perverts. Can you people think about anything other than gender, sexuality, race and other identity politics?
Lol I didnt realize your own experience was universal. So just because you like a character you dont relate with you speak for all of humanity? Indeed your take is much more smarterer edgelord
You genuinely make some of the best content in the community. You have such good views, and express them perfectly. You have put so much effort into make this game the best it can be, and clearly have so much love in your heart. Keep it up man, you have my complete support.
SVB you are brilliant man, you are so concise and respectful in how you approach these topics
I have watched you approach these topics and other hard topics that go beyond Overwatch over the years, and I both and love and appreciate you and your attitude you bring
Please keep being you bro and keep up the brilliant work
i’ve always been of the group that doesn’t much care for the relationship aspect of entertainment, straight or gay, so LGBT stuff never bothered me, but i also didn’t care if was there or not. your explanation makes it apparent that these things matter. I love reinhardt and brigitte, because my lineage is from the northern european countries, specifically norway germany and sweden, and i find them the most comforting. great video, changed my perspective
Very nicely put together video SVB. I havent seen such a good explanation of representation before, thank you
SVB continues to be the GOAT of the OWCC community
Representation can be such a blindspot when you are part of the majority and you dont even notice it. Something that completely blew my mind and was very eyeopening to me about queer representation is how natural it is to have straight copules in every story. Why is it ControversialTM to have a gay kiss in a kid's cartoon but it is mega normal to have straight kisses and relationships? What really is the difference? You dont want gayness shoved down your throat? Well maybe I dont want straightness in all my media. How about that?
Anyway thanks for talking about this.
Wth why do u wanna see gay characters kiss in a KIDS show????? 😅 groomer and also too straight characters kissing isn’t normal anymore that’s really strange or offensive now days it’s like if anybody kisses now days it’s controversial!!!
Great video. Superb explanations and arguments and gives you stuff to think about. Thank you and may you produce such great content for another decades to come.
Hey, super dedicated fan SVB. I am present for most of your twitch streams (Knormin). I have a lot of respect for your views because I know you act out of a good heart. Honestly this video was difficult for me but it made me do a lot of introspection. "What is my aversion, and where do my beliefs line up". If you were ever willing I would love to have a discussion on the other side of this argument. ONLY with the goal of understanding and respect for our fellow man.
Thanks for all your awesome content.
It's pretty easy to feel like representation doesn't matter when you're the one being represented 95% of the time. Thank you for this
New overwatch player, still discovering content creators, hadn’t heard of you before yesterday. Instant sub ❤
It’s also hilarious that the same people saying “shut up no one cares” are the ones getting pressed about this
just because %5 of the community are gay doesnt mean the game should shove gay chracters down our throats and make it their whole personality. it will feel like shiity netflix shows that add charachters not because of their stroyline but because they're gay and they make it their whole persona which isnt fun. and also because not every player agrees with this lifestyle or supports it.
Ok so am i as a gay man with 96% of the media being shoved straight characters down my throat? Damn. Ever thought of anyone else’s perspective aside from yours? And idgaf if noe every player agrees with “this lifestyle.” I didnt get to fucking choose being gay as my lifestyle so who is anyone to “not support it.” This isnt someones favorite colour where you agree or not, this is my actual life.
@@vex2960 both of your points and arguments are basically stupid with all due respect, why does a person's sexuality matters??? If I'm watching a show and there's a guy always waving a straight flag around if there even is one, and talking about tits always, And they make it the characters whole persona, that'd piss me off. Even tho I'm a normal guy and I like those things too, but for example we're playing overwatch Here why does a fictional cartoon characters sexuallity matter? Validation? is it insecurity? That's why you're trying to seek validation from the content you consume? If you make the point of representation then, every country should be represented by every show and game, every religion, every race ect... if you want representation then go watch gay porn that simple. Minorities dont make the rule, just because even 10% of the population are gay doesnt mean every show every game should "represent them" and just because a staight white prrson watching a movie and sees loads of white people, they dont get a fuzzy feeling inside and be happy theyre being "represented" that's stupid. So again if you wanna feel represented go watch netflix or any left wing agenda show or gay porn. And also as a person of color that's Muslim I'm not here crying for the developers to add a Muslim character and make it his whole persona, that'd be weird and I wouldn't like it. And I might view what you do as wrong and I wouldn't agree with your lifestyle or moralism, its your choice at the end of the day and it has nothing to do with me, but I wouldn't want something political like that in the content I consume, and I don't think sexuality should even be relevant in games, and that's why I wouldn't like it.
@@thugl8653 well said brother
I agree with all, but ... Rein and ana flirting? And what other interaction example you would list as a proper "counterpart" of the LGBTQ+ representation? Because I recall little straight representations in OW as well?
We don't want straight representation or gay representation. Keep politics out of games.
fax
8:32 About romance options in RPGs... I remember finding Tali in the first Mass Effect game extremely endearing (and many will agree), but feeling arbitrarily locked out of a romance option with her felt really odd. Her character in ME1 is about the only character I've genuinely felt I wanted to romance (on a personal level). She was delegated to staying down in the engine room, off to the side, as if not important enough. I think she might be a good demonstrative example for straight men to relate to how it would feel if every character romance option was straight, and therefore similarly arbitrarily locked away behind a developer decision to include a romance option or not.
Representation is fine, biased over representation however is not. Inclusion is needed and good, but every variation needing representation at all times is not possible nor productive.
Each day my respect for you grows. Great content, especially this video. Keep fighting the good fight
11:16 - Pharah won’t be a LGBT+ character, because Blizzard doesn’t want to ruin Egypt’s reputation.
This country has about 95% Muslim populations, plus don’t forget about their ancient history and cultures.
If Blizzard make Pharah a LGBT+ character, then the Egyptian government is mostly likely to ban Overwatch from their country. They could do a Iran to their female military officers/soldiers to ensure that one of them wouldn’t end up like Pharah.
Therefore, Blizzard is mostly likely to give Pharah a boyfriend to avoid this conflict with the Egyptian government.
No she is lesbian as a arab Im dispointed
Love how well you can get a point across SVB. I aspire to be as well spoken as you. 💕
What’s the background music? Sounds like something from undertale. Also do you have superchats enabled?
3:07 my parents. they set up Alexa and Google Nest all by themselves, fix their own electronics, and do their own schedules and planning without help from me.
Quality must come first.
Shakespeare’s work survives where his contemporaries’ have not because it is superior in quality. Marvel movies may not be exceptional, but the underlying story arcs (eg The Hero’s Journey) are all retellings of tried and proven stories. As you note, stories that resonate most with us tell us something about ourselves.
But then that’s just it… That lens of judgment must be calibrated according to some standard. A comparison by nature requires two things.
If your standard of comparison is that which is like yourself, then not only are you thus limited in available material, but also restricted in growth as the only absorbable aspirations are ones you already hold at least partially.
Good stories - true quality literature - tells us something about the nature of mankind. It describes the human person in body, mind, and spirit, and the most powerful stories deal with the spirit of man. Stories about the body and pure worldly existence are often trite and boring. We should aspire to higher stuff than that.
But competitive video games, while they may have a veneer of story for marketing, aren’t truly “about” the story. They are about placing your manual inputs against others in competition, and it is enjoyable when skill and challenge meet in equal measure to produce flow. In the same way, the game of soccer does not have a “story.” The players do, an individual game or series or tournament will… but the game itself exists as something which can only be directly experienced. In that regard, it doesn’t matter if the avatars of player agency are people or aliens or gundams.
Let’s not lie, if Blizzard came out and said Mercy was straight and in a relationship with Genji, the LGBT would be pissed and probably try boycotting Blizzard 🤣
If they came out and said Mercy was gay, a lot of people would still be pissed. This is why they won’t do it, they won’t win either way so I don’t blame them.
We never know though… Maybe we will see some relationships in PvE.
they’ve known tracer is a lesbian since the beginning of time and they still made a crazy large amount of p0rn of her 💀💀
I am very grateful to see someone speak out about this, as a new (and bi as well as gender fluid) player I thought that no one was queer and that they were all straight, I had no idea that tracer and soldier 76 were gay at all and it made me feel a bit disconnected from the game as most games I play do (or did) have some representation in them! this video made me feel supported and represented and like a part of a community I love.
seeing urself being represented is just so nice
I love ur perspective, but to be frank, as a trans i would love to see a good representative in a marvel movie. Sadly all the Marvelstuff that came out recently that touch this matter a bit, do it in a aweful cringy way. They just ruin both parts, they shove the LGBTQ-representation so much in your face, that they completly discard the person behind it or the hero-part. It just oozes being "woke" for the sake of "wokeness" and u can really feel the corperate engineering behind it all.
I hate Tracer from the depths of my heart, but i love how they just told us she was gay, by telling a cute christmas story, where she gets a present for her gf, or just show a picture in a cinematic on her console on the plane. They dont put it so upfront and go like.. "Hey this is Tracer she is gay" and then talk about her coming out for 10min, and how much hardship she had to endure becasue of it... as if its her whole identity.
Marvel is soooo dependent on the writer sadly, characters like Wiccan and Hulkling are either written beautifully or stripped to their most barebones archetypes😓
Can we just remember that OW is a 13+ game. adding sexual content into the game would put that up. comics, lore and everything else is seperate to the game its self so would not affect rating . in that respect sure do what ever with it
There is nothing inherently sexual about knowing 2 men are dating or 2 women are dating, neither is there anything inherently sexual about a trans person.
@@hellthornsystem personally agreed. But i would see what rating boards think about it. its easy to say dont worry about this or that and they are only doing to keep china happy,etc. but they have done the same thing in keeping it a 13 rating to reach more potential players. i dont care if they go full on and end up with a AO rating but that would get them banned from all consoles and several countries too
@@vapour80 are you implying a ratings board would percieve 2 men holding hands and being affectionate as inappropriate for children?
@@hellthornsystem in a game that no one holds hands in the first place?
@@vapour80 it's an example. Not the point of my arguement. Don't twist my arm over misunderstandings.
SVB. Thank you. This is why you're my favourite creator. You're literally the only creator I have ever hoped to meet in person. From the bottom of my heart: thank you.
You just put into words exactly how I felt about this topic, great video
Excellent video SVB! Thanks for continuing to use your platform to discuss important issues like this one. 💜
This was a thoughtful and insightful explanation. Thank you for sharing these kinds of videos.
ugh, truly thank you SVB. We need this
I won't be impressed with overwatch til they add a serbian, albanian, or romanian
Man I love SVB. Top tier creator.
thank you for this, SVB, and i mean this with all of my heart.
So eloquently put, thank you for this video :)
Everything is really well put, thanks for this video. I often lack arguments when I try to defend this point, I will try to remember what you explained here.
Beautifully said. ❤
I went into this video not expecting much and that I would dismiss your arguments out of hand, but this was a pleasant surprise, you are clearly very intelligent. The point about the reversal of the sexes was an especially interesting dilemma that you brought up. However, I do have some reservations. First, whatever the idealism in the video right now, the reality is that Overwatch just tweeting out a picture of lesbians kissing out of the blue is simply doing more harm than good. In fact, I imagine some gay people are insulted by the pure PR stunt. Also, where is the end game for this line of representation? Should we bring in a spreadsheet to include every non-binary, disabled, anorexic person and post a picture of them as an Overwatch character on Twitter? This is obviously your “normalization” argument taken to the extreme, but you see my point.
The one way that I would be fine with it is if they actually make a compelling story with tracer that has depth enough the bring in her sexuality and it’s effects on the plot of a comic or something. Then rather than promote it like Valorant did, just let it be normal, don’t post about it. Do Reinhardt and Bap ever randomly have pictures posted kissing women? No, so let the story of tracer develop and if that leads to a tweet with a kiss then sure.
really cool to get your perspective, that episode of "Masters of None" opened my eyes to things ive never thought of. Wow I didn't even know soldier 76 was gay.
I think that "representation" is more something for specific pieces of media focusing on "representing" or rather highlighting and making the view/player understand a different perspective/speaking to people who have that different perspective (I am intentionally general here since it doesn't really matter whether we are speaking about different sexualities, ethnicities, maybe people with certain mental/physical illnesses ect.). I don't think "representation" matters that much in other forms of media focusing on different things. Not saying its bad either, I think its cool to have certain characters reflect certain different perspectives so that those characters become more relatable to that demographic, but I do think that its not really important beyond that... And ngl, often it does feel like a cooperation is just trying to get brownie points for "inclusivity", which leaves a very bad taste in regards to "representation" in the mouths of many, which then reflects negatively on actual well-executed inclusivity. "Demanding" inclusivity probably doesn't help that...
I feel like very often we alienate the demographic that we actually are trying to make more inclusive with this demanding, almost even aggressive often, pursuit of inclusivity.
Edit: I do also think that there is value in normalisation, but as I said, it usually feel more like a PR stunt, and the reason those exist is while people "demand" it. And this in return alienates those who I think should see it the most. And per definition, representation has to be done organically. Either you highlight both queer and straight couples, or neither, otherwise it will feel like its just done for "brownie-points".
i would pose you to think why people "demand" it, and why there are people seeming sort of desperate for these kinds representations. its probably because there is a lack of normalisation in the first place. a lack of these characters up front, and when they are, theres often a lot of backlash. normalisation not only needs to occur in direct stories but also media like overwatch (a game that is meant to show diverse heroes). these characters arent meant to be boring cardboard cutouts of white males, they should be reflecting some depth which includes sexualities. why should we just assume every shooter game character is straight? its because they exist that they should be shown as a full range.
its also a good thing regardless of it being a PR move because normalisation is more beneficial. i hear the "pr" argument a lot but how are we able to differentiate between it being pr and just adding a character that reflects the world? we should always be holding companies to the fire with how they operate behind the scenes regardless of if they add diverse representation, so i see that as a separate issue.
@@strawberrydialectics But, as I wrote in the original comment, I think this approaches fails at actual "normalization". Often it feels everything but normal when big companies do big reveals of "That character was this all along actually", especially to people to whom this still needs to be normalized. Thats what I meant by this alienating those people. These things are, in my opinion, not targeted at people who still have weird feelings towards different sexualities and might struggle with accepting them as normal, they seem to be targeted at people for whom it is already normalized (And there is a large group of people who almost over-normalize diversity, because no matter in what direction you make a big deal about it, you are still making a big deal about it, and thus not normalizing. How harmful this actually is is something I am not sure about and I still have to think over it, but it is definitely alienating to many).
Thats the problem I often have really. By making a big fuss about it and encouraging companies to make a big fuss about it we are essentially not normalizing. We are even pushing away many people through that.
Thank You SVB I’ve saying this for a while that OW rep has always been ass you barely would know anyone’s sexually unless u read some random comic. Representation in media is something i never fully understood until I got older and damn was i wrong for not giving a damn. Love what Valorant is doing.
people and what they love is not politics. never has been, never will be. Its ridiculous that people say having a queer character is POLITICAL. me being gay isn't political, its who I am.
Am I crazy or are there black bars slowly scrolling down the screen?
i see them too. hope u didn't do crazy stuff last 5 month
Man, i just don't really like the fact of the sexualization of characters, it just makes me feel uncomfortable considering that people had to draw this and really were proud of it, like seriously even if it was male and female it doesn't matter just the sexualization of things just don't need to be sexualized and that's just annoying
Justin Groot should see this, the guy who writes most of the voice lines.
I like being represented but pandering is not representation, and pressuring people to add representation will just be pandering
Bump bc Pride event is upcoming and Blizzard said they wanted to handle this event well. Let's see what they do 🤞
as a white (on the outside) /Indian dude, straight, completely agree. My situation is a bit strange because I strongly identify with two very different parts of the world although on the outside I look like a Jack Smith, but my gf is a girl (obv) and seeing her face light up when she gets to play as a female character or sees media that relates to her makes my heart happy. Also, if media nails being biracial, I def connect to it 100%, moreso than other media which while it def feels mostly relatable, *almost* gets there
also holy fuck i cannot write rn lmao
Good stuff, commenting so hopefully more people can see it
I do agree it is important but inclusivity by corporate business is a neo-liberal way of gaining brownie points with the public. It's all posturing and doesn't do much to help any of the people they are portraying.
It makes people aware of their existence but most people are already aware. They would better serve the LGBTQIA+ community by directly improving their material conditions.
thank you for making this ❤
I don't comment much so just dropping something for the algorithm on this one :)
Interesting perspective, but while it matters, it's a bit more complicated than that and very often done in a bad and unhealthy way, destroying stories and meaning. Forgive me if I'm referencing incorrectly, since I watched this while falling asleep and am writing based off of memory. Also as a heads up, I'm writing mostly about LGBTQ here and less cultural background, although some of it ties together. Also as a 2nd heads up, I'm a german and germany is extremely multi cultural, it's actually getting more rare to meet "germans" on the street. This does affect my perception on ethnicity, since I basically don't care about it. Everyone is just.. human, nothing more, nothing less.
For example, I think you referenced Marvel and the basic super hero trope. While I 100% agree that it statistically doesn't make sense and doesn't reflect the world, in reality, and I find this very interesting, we just ignorantly assume people in these stories are straight when we actually haven't been given any information. Even in reality, people are rarely "open" about their preference, so even straight people are disguised, it's just our perception that is different. Then again, the couples that are shown are 99.9% straight, which doesn't make much sense (statistically).
The problem with inclusivity/representation arises, that stories, instead of being well written, with deep and complex meaning, turn shallow, by writing characters with backgrounds for inclusivity/represantion that actually have zero relation with the overarching story. What I mean is, their background doesn't even matter or make a difference, it's just shoved in your face what their preference is, when normally, it wouldn't even be highlighted or talked about, because it simply isn't a relevant part of the story. The series you mentioned was a really good example of a contrast to this, because it isn't "all inclusive, all representation", it is specifically for the immigrant niche and specialized and targeted content is perfectly fine, cause in reality, we have preferences and writing all inclusive content is pointless as a result. If the story is good, people will like it regardless, and if people want to see a story or a character that reflects their own life and experiences, they can look for it and it likely exists (even though a lot less and more rarily, which is a bit sad), but the solution isn't to force represantion of meaningless info that doesn't impact the story at all.
In the context of video games, or specifically Overwatch, again I find it a very interesting point, yet also shallow, cause I personally struggle to see how it matters. I judge by their personality, their manner of speech, what they say, (and a bit by how cool they look to me). Their preference behind that is completely irrelevant. Does it affect their personality? Probably. Do I notice how it affects it? To be honest, not at all. If they would write more flavor and story to make those details relevant, then it would be a completely different topic. From playing all the characters, I actually don't even know their preferences, I only know the Soldier and Tracer thing, cause social media was flaunting it.. from how they act, I would have only been able to guess that they're human.
As a little bonus, I love playing both Pharah and Mercy and I would love to ship them. Too many memes already exist about it. But otherwise, I do think the cultural representation in Overwatch is nice. I really like the different languages and accents and that has meaning for me. Just their preference being flaunted for inclusivity, I'd pass. At least, if they want to go with it, they have to actually write it properly and add meaning. It's not being flaunted that they're straight either, so technically we can assume whatever we want and have our own reality about them. :shrug: But that's basically how I think about it.
Same thing in regards to VNs. Mass Effect (as an rpg example) actually has gay romance options, as a contrast, but VNs are usually targeted niche content, so obviously not all inclusive. They're trying to be mostly inclusive with the romance choices, so all tastes of their target audience are covered (the shy one, the outgoing one, etc..), but beyond that, no. I also think that it's better this way. I don't mind if some VNs are written for both, as long as the characters are nice and tie well into the story and also don't take up too much of your time if you don't actually care about them, but otherwise, I'd just say that more lgbtq VNs/stories should be written and advertised for in general so that more options for them exist, but making the targeted content "worse" for people not interested in that, is again, not a good solution. Preference is and remains preference and forced inclusivity makes it less enjoyable for everyone.
One last comment in regards to cultural inclusivity that just barely came to mind, where it was done poorly. The recent Lord of the Rings series has been pretty inclusive, yet it really annoys me. Ethnicity has a logical background in evolution and travelling in those times was difficult and risky. It simply doesn't make sense to be so diverse, at all. That's simply not how it works. I did hear that quite a few people complained about this as well, but I didn't follow the mainstream opinion so I dont actually know what people think nowadays, but I'm very focused on "meaning" and "logic", so details like that really ruin stories for me when they make zero sense. I don't like real life politics in my stories, if I want to see politics, I watch politics. But I guess that is "my" preference.
Well I hope my perspective was an interesting contrast to yours! Feel free to debate my points, I'll answer when I have time.
Thank you so much for putting this out so well spoken and clearly!
Thank you for making this video. I really hope Blizzard and the community take notes of what your saying here cause it is so important and true.
Legend
Couldnt disagree more. Representation in the manner you discuss doesnt matter, especially in video games. In video games you control the character, this is much different than story driven narrative and why videogames often translate terribly to movies/tv shows. Its far easier to see yourself in a character when you are literally looking through their eyes in FP style games, and thus blending the immersion and allowing you to relate and empathize with the character. Additionally what is the purpose of OW? Is it a story driven narrative where you have complex characters? No its a shooter game where the goal is to click heads. The closest thing to story you get in the game is the little voice interactions before the match starts. You cant compare OW to a movie.
Additionally you assume that gays will identify with a gay character just b/c they are gay. Same for trans, or skin color or whatever minority group flavor of the month. This is beyond stupid. The whole concept of empathy allows you to understand the plights of others without having to be in the minority. One of the reasons Schindler's List is so popular is because it allows the audience, who largely are unjewish, to put themselves in the world. Same could be said for several movies about slavery in America's history or really any movie about any atrocity.
Furthermore, is OW not marketed to the world at large? I know you feel as though you are right, that for instance, queers should be accepted, however there are whole swaths of the world that disagree with you and feel just as righteous about it as you do. In this sense you are arguing blizzard should intentionally hurt its product, potentially exposing it to bans or restrictions, to make a subset (maybe the largest subset, but a subset none the less) happy while potentially exposing the company to risk of violating fiduciary duties.
"Additionally you assume that gays will identify with a gay character just b/c they are gay." such a good point
great video; nailed every point so well and honestly. hope to see overwatch do something soon.
I get his points, I do, but honestly I disagree with some of these points. not exactly against him, but I rlly don’t think blizzard needs to change their game around for these reasons, or add new characters just so certain people can relate to characters, it’s just a video game in the end. good video tho
This is so beautifully put, and I wish I could have explained this as well as you did here, SEVERAL times in the past. I will be saving this one to send to people, thank you 💚🏳️🌈
BASED
Beautiful and important video, love you bro and keep up the great work
Sorry you're getting so much hate in the comments. Representation matter. And the people who don't say it matters have never had to think about their own identity
Why would we have to think about r identify we r not spy’s lol 😂
William in Invincible is amazing, the world could always use more Williams!
I’m usually not a big fan of when they change a character from an original story and change the race or sexuality, nor do I partially like the sprinkling of characters that are there to check off representation boxes. I like when these things are subtle and not called attention to for 3 seconds to say “look at us”. For example, bill or Ellie in the last of us (game) we’re very well done, and it didn’t feel like tokenism.
All of this being said I feel like I’ve been a bit pig headed and I found this video to be poignant and very well conveyed and it made consider things a bit differently
I mean you can’t really “change” sexuality. Race is different because it’s phenotypical. But that’s because being straight is considered the social norm, they didn’t change anything but instead they added it. For example, tracer was never said anywhere to be straight. They announced she was a lesbian later, but they weren’t changing anything? It would be other people’s fault for assuming straight as the default.
Damn, SVB, you didn't have to pop off, but I'm glad you did
Blizzard already pushes diversity with their characters and tracer is canonically lesbian, isnt that enough?
we appreciate you so much SVB
thanks for bringing that up
No it wouldn't. Tracer has somebody. Why would she be flirting with other people?... dumb argument. Same with Morrison. It simply doesn't fit his persona. These don't make sense. It's as though you're on an agenda to push more queer into overwatch when there basis behind the game falls behind a story that's a bigger issue than this.
overwatch has a lot of it in the lore but not excessive amounts like apex it is realistic the relation ships have meaning in lore
i see traits as something i relate to in games reinhardt (young) being a gremlin reinhardt (old) being calm also winston being analytical breach being a little sly. I dont see German, Scientist, or Sweedish as a trait, but a mere description. and so, as a Chinese i dont see oh look mei she is Chinese ill give her a try, or oh sage is Chinese ill give her a try (i have barely ever played sage). this goes for other descriptions like male/female, sexuality, race, they mean next to nothing for relatability
For you and some others,that’s completely fine. For others,sometimes they want to have pride in those things (because some of those latter things you mentioned,people have been bullied for or oppressed for…or etc etc..)
@@thelingeringartist power to you all
What you said about marvel was deadpool both had LGBTQ characters by 2022.
all my homies love svb
Very well said. Thank you SVB.
Were blessed to have you in this community dude.
thank you so much for this ❤
Now I know why you are so familiar for me love your videos men. Dhanyawad Bhai
Interesting way to cross over your own personal experiences, your side project on TV and film in the soak and overwatch.
Have to admit when I first saw that image on the thumbnail I thought the OW team had given mei a girlfriend 😂
9:37 that would be extremely out of character for not only soldier, but tracer too as she has a gf n I doubt she’d cheat
man, what a godly beard u have grown in. im so jealous
incredible video SVB
Always insightful and well said.
I love your work SVB. It is a big deal!
Thank you SVB!
SVB is happy now...