{"id":60516,"date":"2013-11-25T16:27:07","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T14:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=60516"},"modified":"2013-11-25T16:30:03","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T14:30:03","slug":"blizzard-on-damage-control-over-female-character-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/60516-blizzard-on-damage-control-over-female-character-design","title":{"rendered":"Blizzard on damage control over female character design"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday (22 November 2013), RPS published an interview<\/a> conducted at BlizzCon 2013 with\u00a0<\/em>game director Dustin Browder about Blizzard’s new MOBA, Heroes of the Storm.<\/p>\n

RPS journalist Nathan Grayson asked Browder about the sexualised nature of female character design, and his response kicked off a storm of controversy over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Below are the questions and responses for full context. Note that RPS indicates Browder was being pressed for time by his PR rep as no doubt they had a busy interview schedule.<\/p>\n

RPS:<\/strong> You have some interesting alternate outfits for heroes. Roller Derby Nova, especially, caught my eye. On its own, that\u2019s totally fine \u2013 just a silly, goofy thing. A one-off. But it got me thinking about how often MOBAs tend to hyper-sexualize female characters to a generally preposterous degree \u2013 that is to say, make it the norm, not a one-off at all \u2013 and StarCraft\u2019s own, um, interesting focus choices as of late. How are you planning to approach all of that in Heroes?<\/p>\n

Browder:<\/strong> Well, I mean, some of these characters, I would argue, are already hyper-sexualized in a sense. I mean, Kerrigan is wearing heels, right? We\u2019re not sending a message to anybody. We\u2019re just making characters who look cool. Our sensibilities are more comic book than anything else. That\u2019s sort of where we\u2019re at. But I\u2019ll take the feedback. I think it\u2019s very fair feedback.<\/p>\n

RPS:<\/strong> I have to add, though, that comics might not be the best point of reference for this sort of thing. I mean, it\u2019s a medium that\u2019s notorious \u2013 often in a not-good way \u2013 for sexing up female characters and putting them in some fairly gross situations.<\/p>\n

Browder:<\/strong> We\u2019re not running for President. We\u2019re not sending a message. No one should look to our game for that.<\/p>\n

RPS:<\/strong> But it\u2019s not even about a message. The goal is to let people have fun in an environment where they can feel awesome without being weirded out or even objectified. This is a genre about empowerment. Why shouldn\u2019t everyone feel empowered? That\u2019s what it\u2019s about at the end of the day: letting everyone have a fair chance to feel awesome.<\/p>\n

Browder:<\/strong> Uh-huh. Cool. Totally.<\/p>\n

[PR says we’ve run over, tells me I have to leave]<\/p>\n

RPS:<\/strong> Thank you for your time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n