During a presentation, Kaplan defends the portrayal of the Overwatch characters. Especially Tracer’s homosexuality is simply normal.
Recently, Jeff Kaplan, the Game Director of Overwatch, gave a presentation on “World Building” – that is, creating a game world – at the D.I.C.E Summit 2017 in front of many other game developers. One of the points was also the diversity that arises from the numerous, different heroes.
Especially Tracer, who was shown in a relationship with her girlfriend in the comic “Reflections”, remains a hot topic of discussion. However, Jeff Kaplan believes it is important to show situations like these:
“In a comic, we wanted to show the heroes in their normal everyday situations. It became known that Tracer has a girlfriend at home – and no boyfriend, as many had assumed. And that is all part of – as we see it at the Overwatch team – the representation of: Normal things are normal. And it is important to show normal things as normal, so they become even more normal.”
That Tracer is homosexual remains a small sensation, as she is the “cover girl” of Overwatch. Another point that Kaplan addresses during his presentation.
He concludes the speech on the topic of diversity with another comparison. In a graphic, he shows the last 10 years of major shooters and their packaging – especially Call of Duty and Battlefield.
“Few people have invested as much time in these games as I have, and it is probably even more time than I want anyone to find out. (…) But when it comes to design, shooters always have this “grim soldier guy.” (…) We have an LGBT character on the cover, who is also a woman. That is something we are quite proud of.”
