In an interview with Kotaku’s Nathan Grayson, Overwatch’s creative director Jeff Kaplan responded to criticism of the game over cultural appropriation. Some have come out and harped on some character skins that they felt did not respectfully portray certain cultures, namely Pharah’s Native American skin and Symmetra’s Hindu goddess one.
Here’s Kaplan:
I don’t know if we would change Pharah specifically at this point because a lot of players have that skin and are in love with the concept of what it is. That would be a harder decision, but we’ve actually talked about that for future skins. We’ve really gone back and forth on that. With future skins, could we have the skin of a hero that’s actually a different hero. There are good reasons on both sides of it to do it or to not do it.
So fear not fanboys, you’re probably not going to lose your Thunderbird it took you a hundred loot boxes to earn. But, moving forward, Kaplan’s going to try extra hard not to tick off the PC police. Give up, Kaplan. You’re never going to win this battle.
Here’s Kaplan again:
If we did cross a line that’s inappropriate, will we take action to correct it, or figure out what action we should take to correct it. We’re very open-minded. We’re very receptive of feedback and we want to be sensitive.
Oh boy, leaving enough rope to hang himself. I’ll see you tomorrow, when someone finds something else offensive about Overwatch.
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