Tracer oh Tracer!

If you’re into your games it would be pretty hard to have not heard of Overwatch. The FPS game that was spawned from the ashes of “Titan” has taken the game world by storm. Voted game of the year by many websites/events this is another feather in an increasingly bushy cap for the overlords at Blizzard. This however isn’t an article about the game itself, but more-so about the latest news that has spawned from Blizzard’s comic “Overwatch: Reflections”. Tracer is gay.

Before I start can I just say that if you’re offended by this development, then please smack yourself round the face with something extremely blunt. I personally think this is a fantastic thing for Blizzard to do. Many game companies claim they are all for “diversity in games”, but where many of these companies preach it, Blizzard live it.

They know full well that there will be closed minded individuals who will look at this news in horror and declare this as another nail in the coffin for decency, but they don’t care. They want their games to represent everyone, they want anyone to feel welcome, feel like they belong and good on them.

The real genius though is the fact that I fully believe that Blizzard knew this from the get-go with Tracer. They made her front and centre of Overwatch, (“the face of Overwatch” so to speak), they made people love the character (if not the god awful fake accent) and then announced this. Did they do this as a way to “betray” their fanbase? Of course not! What this does show is that it doesn’t matter what gender or sexuality someone identifies themselves as, it doesn’t matter in the slightest. What matters is that anyone can be a hero, not just the straight white man.

In the world of Overwatch and beyond, Tracer was a hero before the announcement and she’s the same hero after the announcement. For those who disagree. Deal with it.