Overwatch Director Confirms that Symmetra has Autism
Symmetra is one of many Overwatch characters designed to be diverse and representative to players from all walks of life.
Answering a fan letter, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan confirmed that Symmetra, a support character best known for building turrets, is on the autism spectrum disorder (via Yahoo eSports). Her autism was hinted at in the Symmetra: A Better World comic published last year.
"I'm glad you asked about Symmetra," Kaplan replied to a fan named Samuel (via Mashable), who wrote in to thank the Overwatch team for giving him another means of bonding with his brother. "It was very astute of you to notice that she mentioned the spectrum in our comic. Symmetra is autistic. She is one of our most beloved heroes and we think she does a great job of representing just how awesome someone with autism can be."
With Overwatch, Blizzard set out to create a diverse cast of characters. Another comic published last December confirmed that Tracer is a gay woman. Although such character traits have no gameplay-specific effect on matches, the game's commercial and critical popularity may encourage other triple-A developers to create more representative characters in their titles.
Just as importantly, the presence of characters like Tracer and Symmetra gives fans personalities to identify with and rally around, even if only for a match or three in a multiplayer shooter.
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replyDavid Craddock posted a new article, Overwatch Director Confirms that Symmetra has Autism
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Its really hard not to see this as a stunt or "Shock value" to get more people into the game.
LOOK A GAY CHARACTER!
LOOK A AUTISM CHARACTER
LOOK A HANDICAPPED CHARACTER IN A WHEELCHAIR!
It doesn't add anything to game play.
to quote Adam Sandler "Gold Jacket, Green Jacket, Who gives a shit"
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Its not that. It just seems they added stuff in like this to be "edgy" and "Different"
it adds nothing to game, since the characters don't interactive with each other on a personal level in game, Like in mass Effect.
Just bugs me. Do something because it makes sense or adds value to the character.
This stuff just seems like shock value, needless shock value.
An extreme example would be like they made a character Gay so more gay people would buy there game. Not saying Blizzard did this, but you get what Im saying.-
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You might not realize it but your attitude is very dismissive of people who are different than yourself. If a character is just like you then it's normal and not worthy of comment. If a character is too "different" then it's a gimmick and must have ulterior motives. Why are some people more deserving of representation in video games than others? Must every character adhere to the same mold of normalcy so as not to rock the boat? This sort of attitude stops short of real discrimination but it still makes people feel marginalized and unwelcome.
This stuff matters to the people who identify with it. It doesn't matter to you and that's totally fine, just ignore it. -
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Hey there Greg man, I get what you are saying. For what it's worth, I felt the same way reading the headline.
HOWEVER
I don't play Overwatch (competitive ruined it for me but that’s beside the point). I don't follow the comics or the website or the hidden (or not hidden) bits of lore spread all over the place. So I think, in my ignorance of the whole game's story, it seems to me that they just keep releasing "shock value" bits of lore. Upon closer inspection (reading this thread, mostly) it appears that Blizzard has fairly carefully planned out this stuff.
So my question for you is: how invested are you in Overwatch lore? If you aren't at all, consider that maybe Blizz has done a lot of work you aren't aware of and this newest headline isn't for shock value but part of creating a better representation of the world's culture wrapped up in a fun multiplayer shooter. -
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You sure her having autism doesn't resonate with you?
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Whether Blizzard says "Tracer is gay" or "Symmetra is autistic" because they cynically want to get more money from a new/expanded audience, or simply as a matter of that being how they designed the character, the end result is more representation for groups that often don't see any.
And that isn't a bad thing, even if it's coming only because some suit wants the appearance of being a good social actor. -
It may add something for someone who can relate.
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why can't they all be white, healthy males between the ages of 18 and 35?
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It's not I care. I honestly don't care if a person is Bi, Straight, Gay, Trans, whatever, it's honestly none of my business since it doesn't effect me at all.. However i worry about the reason behind doing things like this. I just can never tell if something like this is Genuine, or just a ploy to get a certain audience to play the game.
Stuff like this always happens in the film industry.
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what do you mean "stuff like this" - aren't films and games supposed to represent more people? appeal to more people? that's the goal here. expose the content to more people that can associate with it. not limit it or pigeonhole it.
there is no reason to "worry" about the reason behind it.
are you similarly worried about what cast members are of what potential attributes in Mass Effect andromeda?-
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Hooray for being a cynical asshole!
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If they did do it to target a certain audience why would that make it not "Genuine"? That seems like a perfectly valid reason for doing something.
If the actual implementation seems forced, tasteless, or ham-fisted then criticize that, but if not then what's the problem? -
You sound concerned
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Even if we assume that companies are doing stuff like this purely for the worst, most cynical reasons, it can still be really powerful for people to see characters like themselves represented in media in positive ways. If it's a stunt this time, it'll be less of one next time, and eventually we'll have media that represents the actual demographics of our society. That's a good thing.
I'd also suggest that it's hard to know what Blizzard could have done to avoid your reaction. How could they persuade you (and do they really have an obligation to try hard?) that they're doing this out of genuine desire to tell rich stories that appeal to a broader audience? The impression I get from your comments is that you are reflexively suspicious of motives when things like this happens. It might be worth thinking a bit about why you feel that way and if you want to react like that. -
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maybe if you were a part of one of these under represented groups, to have some kind of representation in a game you play might mean something to you. especially when there's nothing or hardly anything out there in TV, Movies, video games that do. i think that it doesn't affect gameplay is part of the point.
it doesn't really matter to me whether or not blizzard does this. just gonna move on with my life.
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A physical response to a fan that sent him a letter is "shock value"?
http://68.media.tumblr.com/5a34ca6e969e9344dde6924129f7c43e/tumblr_omik0xyihX1sg2p9io1_1280.jpg
Seriously dude?-
No, my bad. I was wrong. http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=36075557#item_36075557
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All good. People are way too quick to kneejerk. I don't see a problem either way, Overwatch's diverse cast is a huge reason why it has connected with so many people. There's a significant number of people are who are super into the characters but don't even play the game very much. At Blizzcon there were cosplayers of both sexes in all ages, shapes, and sizes, and it worked because the cast can actually back that up.
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No, Greg legitimately can barely write a coherent sentence. RIP, all my editors.
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TMWTB hiring dyslexics as a fuckin STUNT.
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Yeah one just needs to look at that stunt EA tried to pull a few years back to see how a company can do this the wrong way.
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Greg, you quoted Adam Sandler. You quoted Adam Sandler, Greg.
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Oh come on. I've got autistic cousins and suddenly they have one, ONE, video game character who is like them. You're knee jerk reacting because this feels token, whereas I think it's great that a dev even thought of doing this. Just like tracer being gay they didn't make a big deal of it at all and rightly so - it was confirmed in a fan letter FFS.
There are 24 characters, and roughly 1% of people are somewhere on the autism spectrum, so that's a decent 1 in 4 chance that one of the Overwatch characters would be autistic whether Blizzard mentioned it or not. And they did. Casually as no big deal, in a comic.
Honestly? If you think they're pushing diversity for the sake of it, or even marketing, I'm totally fucking okay with it normalising minorities of all sorts. -
Maybe they should change lucio from being black as it doesn't add anything to gameplay.
Some people have autism. Blizzard are big fans of lore and backstory for their games.
The fact that it bothers you at all completely justifies why Blizzard should have bothered to put someone like that in the game.
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Considering what she does involving the level of math it would require, it makes sense.
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the fuck...?
whats the minimum size character roster to include every permutation of possible human characters?
you'vd got:
lawful good - chaotic evil spectrum
hetero- homo- bi- and a-sexual
+ trans-sexual (miss any?)
human, robot, animal, etc
body size
age
physical disabilites
mental disabilites
corporeal-ness?
live, undead, inanimate object (poltergeist possessed)
social status
economic status
policital leanings
ethnic background
geographic origin
...
favorite food...
this should be fun -
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Casey Kasem
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Spy.
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No but Zarya will get her own therapy dog in the next patch.
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Sounds like I just found my new main!
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Overwatch is really awesome about diversity for the most part. Yes Blizzard is clearly going out of their way to reach under-represented groups with these comics (as needed when it's something deeper than just race/gender/ethnicity). And that's a good and healthy thing that more companies should do, not something we need to crack jokes about. Their treatment of the subject matter is respectful and understated.
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I'm not going to stop anybody from making jokes about it, but from what I've observed (here and elsewhere), more often than not it comes from a place of cynicism. The undertone there is "lol this is dumb, what's next?"
Put yourself in the shoes of someone who sees this (or the Tracer reveal if you prefer) as really heartwarming because it's a respectful representation of someone like them in their favorite hobby, when usually they feel ignored and left out. They start to feel like maybe they're recognized and accepted after all, and then all their friends are cracking jokes about how silly it is. You don't see how that could be hurtful?-
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I thought this was a nice story :(
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it is! We can't have nice things. :(
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It is a nice story. Jeff Kaplan sounds like a good dude.
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Still amazes me that Blizzard got this great game designer out of EQ raiding.
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Ah, the low effort trolling in a Blizzard thread.
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I hope Doomfist wears a hearing aid so us hearing impaired people can be represented finally.
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just you, you dirty white
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The hell?
You don't see any reason to be cynical about a corporation waving the inclusion flag? They do stuff like that all the time.
Fwiw, I think Blizzard is great for creating an inclusive cast of characters in Overwatch, and I don't think they're anything but honest here. But I can understand the cynicism. -
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I look forward to the inevitable Hollywood movie where they white wash everyone.
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One of my students plays a lot of Overwatch in his downtime. Next time we meet we're gonna match Chinese names with the English names of each character, and lead into a discussion of these recent character developments.
Should be a great way to fill up a 90 minute lesson. -
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I'm personally waiting for them to add a character that complains about Blizzard lore
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