Oh Blizzard, what have you done? If you don’t know what I’m referring to by now, Blizzard has come out and openly admitted one of their characters is gay/queer. Everyone’s favorite and lovable character, Tracer, was seen kissing a friend in the Blizzard’s recent Christmas comic.
Of course, this is the internet, so news travels fast. Perhaps even a bit faster than Tracer’s in-game ability. Sadly, this also means that are a lot of hurt feelings out there, with people feeling like Blizzard owes them something. Or that their favorite character in the game wasn’t the one that was outed, so something else that’s extremely silly. Just looking at Blizzard’s own forum is enough to send a rational person, well insane. Serious, it’s turning quite toxic over there.
Update: Blizzard’s official stance and confirmation of Tracer’s sexual preference.
As in real life, having variety in our characters and their identities and backgrounds helps create a richer and deeper overall fictional universe. From the beginning, we’ve wanted the universe of Overwatch to feel welcoming and inclusive, and to reflect the diversity of our players around the world. As with any aspect of our characters’ backgrounds, their sexuality is just one part of what makes our heroes who they are. From the very beginning of our work on Tracer’s story, it just felt right to make this an aspect of her character.
I for one am tired of the crap and wish it would stop. Now, before you jump the shark, hear me out. First, I love all my fellow humans, regardless of race, sex and preference. If you’re a *insert race & sex* who loves or is attracted to a *insert race & sex*, then that’s all you. Doesn’t make me like or dislike you any more than the other person? No, well not unless you owe me a large sum of money. The fact that Blizzard either had this planned from the start or caved due to all the “Shipping” fantasies, doesn’t mean one thing to me. And honestly, it shouldn’t matter to you either. Everyone is different and everyone likes different things. That’s the way the world is, except it.
Tracer is an in-game character, quite an annoying one at that. Her preference of partners in a comic book world, a book that you likely would have never read, shouldn’t make any difference to you. So if you happened to be the best Tracer player in the world and because she’s openly queer, does that mean you’re going to stop playing with her? How’s about another iconic fictitious character that after how many years is now being labeled as queer; Wonder Woman. Do you hate her now because of her status? Or is she still the same strong and incredibly awesome heroic who kicks tons of ass and keeps the citizens of DC Comics safe? What about Max and Chloe from Life is Strange or Elle from The Last of Us or even Korra and Asami from The Legend of Korra? This isn’t anything new, it definitely shouldn’t be strange and is hardly unique.
To me, Tracer will be that same pain in the ass character who’s stopping me from taking a point or getting in my way as I’m trying to blast her teammates. I don’t care if she’s whatever new status she is, It doesn’t matter, It shouldn’t matter. When we get over that, we as a whole will be in a better place.
Besides, for all we know, she could be bi-sexual!
