Tracer
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About
Tracer is the call sign for Lena Oxton, a playable Offense hero in the multiplayer first-person shooter Overwatch. The British former fighter pilot uses a protoype device known as the chronal accelerator, which she can use to travel back in time or teleport in front of her.
Origin
Following the cancellation of Blizzard's MMO Titan in 2014, the character Tracer originally originally designed for Titan became the first hero character during the initial development of Overwatch. During Blizzcon 2014, Tracer was introduced as one of the first 12 Overwatch characters.
Spread
On November 7th, 2014, a page for Tracer was created on the Gamepedia[1] and Wikia[7] Overwatch wiki sites. On July 27th, 2015, the Team-Overwatch.com YouTube channel uploaded an animated video explaining Tracer's origin story (shown below).
On March 25th, 2016, Blizzard forum user Fipps started a discussion thread in Overwatch’s beta feedback page asserting that one of Tracer's victory poses objectified her as a female sex symbol. After hundreds chimed in with their opinion on the debate, a Blizzard staff member replied that the pose would be replaced and apologized for any offense. Over the next two weeks, many criticized Blizzard for succumbing to the demands, until the company released a revamped pose inspired by a classic pin-up poster (shown below).
On April 19th, Blizzard released a promotional video announcing Tracer as a playable character in the MOBA game Heroes of the Storm (shown below). On May 24th, Overwatch was officially released, including Tracer as one of the original playable characters.
"Reflections" Comic
On December 20th, 2016, Blizzard released a comic titled "Reflections,"[4] in which Tracer is shown kissing another woman on a couch in an apartment (shown below). That day, the comic was submitted to the /r/Overwatch[5] subreddit, where it gained over 14,700 votes (90% upvoted) and 6,500 comments.
Meanwhile, Twitter created a Moments[6] page titled "Tracer is Overwatch's first LGBT character," collecting various Twitter reactions to the comic. In the coming days, several YouTubers published reactions to the comic strip, including Hammeh (shown below, left) and Tyrodin (shown below, right). Meanwhile, other YouTubers posted mashups of Tracer animations with iDubbbz' "I'm Gay" video (shown below, bottom).
Search Interest
External References
[2] Gamespot – From the Death of Titan to the Birth od Overwatch
[3] Polygon – A guide to the first 12 characters in Blizzards Overwatch
[4] PlayOverwatch – Reflections Comic
[5] Reddit – New comic – Tracer Reflections
[6] Twitter – Tracer is Overwatch first LGBT character
Related Entries 16 total
Sub-entries 1 total
Recent Videos 1 total
Recent Images 6 total
Top Comments
Baron o Greato
"This character is homo" "This character is black/asian" "This character is trans"
AND……that's it.
Seriously,are we really focusing this much about the character's sexuality,gender,ethnicity rather than their personality?
Can we just appreciate them for who they are?For their charisma,for what they do?
At this point,why even bother creating a backstory,give them emotions,if we can just focus about their sexual orientation?Because judging by this situation,this creates more attention and visibility rather than good writing.
"A woman turns out to be attracted to other women?This is a serious issue and deserves much more attention than….her abilities?Her story?Her character?Nah,who gives a crap about this pointless stuff?!"
Come on.
Eazy123
- Removes win pose because it's too sexual
- Have character making out with a chick
Blizzard you cray
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