#Tracergate a marketing scheme for overwatch?

First thing's first, I apologize for calling it tracergate, it's what everyone else has been calling it. I really hate when people put "gate" at the end of everything, It's really very annoying.

Any way, I would like to present enough evidence to create a spark of a theory on the whole situation, And that Blizzard entertainment is using clever marketing schemes and the current US tension surrounding SJW and political correctness to create viral interest in their product.

This was posted by Lead Dev Jeff Kaplan 6 day's ago in response to a post in the battle.net forums by a user named Fipps:

We actually already have an alternate pose that we love and we feel speaks more to the character of Tracer. We weren’t entirely happy with the original pose, it was always one that we wrestled with creatively. That the pose had been called into question from an appropriateness standpoint by players in our community did help influence our decision—getting that kind of feedback is part of the reason we’re holding a closed beta test—but it wasn’t the only factor. We made the decision to go with a different pose in part because we shared some of the same concerns, but also because we wanted to create something better.

and than in that same post he goes on to say:

We wouldn’t do anything to sacrifice our creative vision for Overwatch, and we’re not going to remove something solely because someone may take issue with it. Our goal isn’t to water down or homogenize the world, or the diverse cast of heroes we’ve built within it. We have poured so much of our heart and souls into this game that it would be a travesty for us to do so.

However, at the time there was only 1 person to ever complain about it. Even so, within a little over a week, Blizzard, Who almost never caves even when the entire community is up in arms, EVEN to the point of nearly killing off it's cash cow World of Warcraft in the process, caved immediately?

When you add it with the fact that they already had a plan on removing the poss and would probably get hit with a backlash anyway, They used an insider to post on the forums with a fake complaint that they knew would create viral outrage amongst the gaming community. Since no press being bad press, And Overwatch actually being an amazing game and able to stand on it's own two feet would gain even more attraction from press.

More info on the original complaint poster. The account is relatively new, has beta access, and the only comments ever made are the post in question and defending the post in question.

I'm still fine tuning this theory. Please add your thoughts and input! Also, sorry for my over punctuation habit!

Links: us.battle.net... Jeff Kaplin's post
us.battle.net... Flips post
us.battle.net... Flips post history

a reply to: Tjoran

Would you mind offering a detailed explanation of what Tracergate is?

Context required!

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Tjoran

Would you mind offering a detailed explanation of what Tracergate is?

Context required!

TL;DR
"Someone" on the overwatch beta battle.net forum posted a complaint that one of tracers purchasable poses " just reduces tracer to another bland female sex symbol." overwatch.blizzplanet.com...

In response, Blizzard issued a statement and apology and removed the pose from the game. People were outraged.

For a way better explanation, I'll leave a few links from people who can explain it a bit better. No point in rewriting it.

www.reddit.com...

www.rockpapershotgun.com...

us.battle.net...

a reply to: TrueBrit

some people flipped out when they realized a female had a butt.

a reply to: Tjoran

I'm sick of fat or ugly or both SJW's projecting their insecurities into games.

It's a game, it's fantasy, it's not real, all they do is make their efforts look like a joke when they focus on such trivial things like a female character being too sexy and then nobody takes them seriously when they attempt to complain about legitimate things like unequal pay in the workplace etc

If they want to fight "Social Justice" give them a gun and dump them in the Middle East to fight all the injustice their hearts desire

I don't see what wrong with a female being viewed as sexy if they are in fact ....sexy. Credit where credit is due. Who cares about this being a sex symbol...last time I check we all have literal sex apparatus attached to our bodies for sex....so why not glorify the body in an attractive way or even pevert the body so as one can view it in a different light. This is all fantasy anyway.

Is Trobjorn beard to big and manly as to offended bearded men and their own masculinity..

Are McCree,Junkrat and Genji offensive to those with prosthetic limbs because their are more hightech and better?

Is roadhog offensive to obese people because he is unrealistically fat?

Reaper is refered to as a terrorist...so what.

It's all just silly to make a big deal about anything in a game IMO because games are just works of fiction like any other.

I can't wait to play the Game.

Too much imitation life...not enough reality.....it aint good chilluns...aint good..

originally posted by: Athetos
I don't see what wrong with a female being viewed as sexy if they are in fact ....sexy.

In regards to the controversy here, I reject it on 2 different grounds

1) body parts aren't just inherently sexy/sexual simply because they exist. the argument here suggests that because you can see a womans butt shape (when she wears tights), it is automatically sexy...that seems more their issue than any objective issue

2) Even if it was sexy, so what. their complaint is that sexy on that character didnt work because that character is sassy and smart, etc...I guess if you are sexy, you cant be sassy / smart / etc...you remain only a 2 dimensional being. sexy people cant be smart, smart people cant be sexy, etc. that to me is extremely sexist.

So yeah..I dismiss their claims
But
Blizzard will do what they do. They changed it, and thats not an issue really except that they changed it on the wave of the drama, which means puritans seen this as a signal to just scream about things being sexist and developers will cave. bad precidence. they should have waited and changed it (if they wanted to) after the demands died down.

Maybe we could get back on topic though?