[ScreenRant] Overwatch's Idea Of Diversity Could Use Some Work (discussion on the portrayal of mental health with new character Sigma)

[Love Machine]

Sigma's mental health problem seems to be "consciousness split across time which makes him experience events in a nonlinear fashion" ,which really isn't the sort of thing that you put in the game to add diversity/representation. His backstory is straight up Event Horizon-style cosmic horror.

That Sigma's a victim being used and abused by others taking advantage of his current state seems to have been a deliberate choice to avoid the Spider-Man style "lab accident causes good scientist to go evil" trope.

Click to shrink...

I agree with what I think you're saying. Cartoon villainy (regardless of whether or not it's Sigma's own undoing) is kind of separate from real-world issues, and I don't believe Blizzard should have to tick certain boxes when designing every character. They have one of the more diverse rosters out there, even if most of the details are outside the game. Personally I love the angle of Sigma's backstory, but I'd be interested to hear from someone for whom this hits closer to home, and if/how they identify with the character.

Also, maybe I've got my definitions mixed up, but are you confusing trope with cliche? It seems to me that they're straight up using the "lab accident" trope (nothing wrong with this in itself), while attempting to subvert the "good scientist gone bad" cliche. Either way, I think they're successful thanks to the exploitation angle and the sheer mind-boggling nature of his condition/abilities.

 

[data]

Okay, that's pretty fued up that Blizzard is basically making light of mental health issues with the asylum outfit.

 

[Layell]

I was thinking a lot about this, and I'm really unhappy they went full on the bare feet, voice lines, orange jumpsuit and asylum skin. I love Overwatch a lot but this compounds my main frustration about its plot and characters.

Overwatch was released 3 years ago, and by now it should be very obvious how the team at Blizzard handles plot. They love to look horizontally at more events happening, Baptiste's orphanage, Dva in Korea. They are more than happy to keep adding more characters and concurrent events. If we are lucky we get a look into the past which just adds more questions than it answers.

What they haven't done is move the plot forward in any substantial way. Winston has pushed a button, and I guess a few people noticed, aside from that nothing. Thus characters don't move forward from the situation they are first introduced in. So Sigma is always going to be that guy who is really smart, but also mentally unstable and totally being used by the bad guys.

No other character has moved forward from their introduction, not Zarya, not Symmetra, Reaper, anyone.

Unless Blizzard starts listening Sigma will never be redeemed after this, and he ought to be.

 

[TheEchosOfTheCyborg]

I've been getting a bit uncomfortable with how dismissive some fans have been about the concerns over Sigma, I don't even mean the stuff on this thread, some of it has been outright vicious, here is a sample:

"It's fiction, it doesn't matter if their a stereotype!"
"Fiction doesn't reflect real issues!"
"Real gamer's are not part of the crowd that gets offended by everything"
"The era of the over entitled gamer thinking that they have a right to inject their ideas into the character design and work of actual artists...."
"It's a trope it can't be bad!" (F*** you TVTropes, thanks for encouraging that s***)
"Just because you're offended doesnt mean you're right."
"I know im not the only one tired of this whiny generation. This is why artists can't Express themselves anymore."
"Oh noooooo, We have to find problems about a video game and overthink things."
"So where were these people when the Arkham games were a thing?"

I just don't get it? For me personally as someone with depression and autism, I wouldn't have had concerns if it wasn't for the bare foot "asylum look" and the skins that seem to be deliberately playing into stereotypes about mental health issues, like why? Don't get why this has gotten so many people nasty about it.