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General: Heroes of the Storm: Browder Steps In It & Later Backtracks
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Heroes of the Storm's Justin Browder was recently interviewed by Rock, Paper, Shotgun. During the interview, Browder was asked about the "hypersexualization" of female character models, most notably Kerrigan from Starcraft. Browder responded by saying "We're not sending a message to anybody. We're just making characters that look cool." To say that a brouhaha erupted is to sell the understate things.
Browder has been taken aback (or his bosses at Blizzard have) and he has issued an apology on the official Heroes of the Storm page.
In a recent interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, I responded poorly to a statement the interviewer made about over-sexualized character designs in games, and I want to apologize for that. This is a serious topic and I don’t want anyone to think that I, or anyone else at Blizzard, is insensitive about how we portray our characters.
It takes work to make compelling characters, but it’s important to take a step back to ensure that we’re not alienating our players. We have an amazing roster of heroes and we will always strive to make sure that everyone can have a hero that they identify with and feel powerful using. And at the end of the day, we all want the same thing. A great game where we can all have fun battling for glory and maybe some bragging rights.
On the stage at BlizzCon, I spoke about Heroes being a collaborative project, shaped by the passion, love, and support of gamers like you. We’re building this game together, we’re listening, and your thoughts are valued.
I would like to thank Rock, Paper, Shotgun as well as our players for their feedback on this important issue. We want to do better, so keep the feedback coming and thanks for the continued support. We’ve got some pretty amazing things in store for you and we’re looking forward to seeing you in the Storm.
Dustin Browder
Game Director, Heroes of the Storm
What do you think of Browder's statement and later apology? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
This have been a good conversation
AMEN!!!! ^^
Wait, wait, wait, wait . . . Wait . . . People are moaning and groaning over sexualized characters in a Blizzard game? Really?!
. . . You know what, I'm gonna say good for Blizzard. That's right, I said it! So sick and tired about this over sensitive crap that's been spreading in media these days. Next is people saying the sexy cosplays some woman wear is offensive to the female form (if they haven't already). I mean look at the one that was cosplaying as a female Lich King! That was by her choice. HER CHOICE!
Does it hurt you in anyway? Does it make you upset?
Why? It's not going to effect you in any manner so why waste the energy to even bring it up?
You know what's fun about chaos? I do, but I won't tell.
+1
Seriously people would complain if they made lame characters, and now they complain if blizzard trys to make cool characters. Because while its ok to be a genacidale mass murderer in games its terrible to be sexy?
Wonder if this is just a bunch of plain looking female geeks being upset because they feel bad for a fantasy pixel that they can not measure up too, or will the human race really just stop reproducing one day and kill each other off for fun instead.
Wow... The world has gone mad. Next thing he will say is "Dirty Orcs" and someone will be upset and consider it racism.
Why does the Orc's skin have to be green? I find that offensive.
Why does the female character look too provocative. We fixed this buy making them muslim. Then had them cover their face and ankles.
What next? Women's Rights group?
They are pixels for god sake.
I just read the brief article above and feel puzzled about the reaction. Im sure there is more to this than we have been told. Im just not motivated to read the entire article.
Apparently there is a whole editorial piece about this issue at Rock, Paper, Shotgun. If you're interested in more, that's the place to go.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
RPS gave him a loaded question because they wanted to stir some shit up, get some more page views. They don't actually care about gender issues. Please don't support that garbage 'journalism' by visiting the article on their site.
BY THE WAY, this is what was referred to as "hypersexualization" of female character models
http://wac.7725.edgecastcdn.net/807725/website/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Heroes-of-the-Storm-Nova_zps7e962674.png
...seriously?