Overwatch Developer Calls Activision-Blizzard Diversity Tool “Creepy”

What we noted here is that Mario is short. Like he’s actually shorter than Peach, so we gave him quite a high body diversity score for that.

It is being mocked as the “diversitometer” and the “wokeometer.” Activision-Blizzard has managed to go beyond the sleeziness of the Bobby Kotick years already just by moving as far in the other direction as possible. As opposed to treating women like garbage, now the geniuses at Activision-Blizzard are categorizing everyone and every character in their games according to how far they deviate from an attractive Caucasian male norm. Declaring that set of immutable attributes as the norm is what has many people up in arms, but make no mistake… defining your characters simply by physical attributes is heading in a societally damaging direction. Isn’t it strange how Activision-Blizzard and The Walt Disney Company seem to be moving into ideologically parallel territory, even if Disney isn’t in the hot seat in this article today.

Despite representing that Overwatch was using this tool for determining “diversity,” Blizzard soon caught massive backlash online for a variety of sociopolitical reasons. As a result, the company walked back the details of this program on the official page covering the issue. This same program had been worthy of Activision-Blizzard using it at the Games Developers’ Conference and its own official page for their website, but now was treated like a pariah:

There has been conversation online regarding the Diversity Space Tool, particularly concerning its intent and our commitment to diversity. We’ve edited this blog post to clarify that this prototype is not being used in active game development. We would like to add the following comment for additional context:

Started in 2016, the Diversity Space Tool–currently in beta–was designed as an optional supplement to the hard work and focus our teams already place on telling diverse stories with diverse characters, but decisions regarding in-game content have been and will always be driven by development teams. The tool was developed at King, and has been beta tested by several developers across the company, all of whom have provided valuable input. 

The objective of using the tool is to uncover unconscious bias by identifying existing norms in representation and acknowledging opportunities for growth in inclusion. It is not a substitute for any other essential effort by our teams in this regard, nor will it alter our company’s diversity hiring goals. Over the past several years, the development of the tool was done with the support of all our employee DE&I networks, and we collaborated with external partners to create an even more robust tool. 

The tool isn’t meant to be used in isolation;  teams would sit down with company DE&I staff to identify existing norms and then discuss, educate, consult, and collaborate on how a character’s representation is expressed beyond those norms. This process is intended to create a conversation where our developers, assisted by the tool, challenge assumptions, assess choices, and find opportunities for authentic representation to be fostered in our games.

Activision Blizzard is committed to reflecting the diversity of its millions of players around the world through representation and inclusion in its games as well as its employees. Our intent with this blog entry was to share an in-progress piece of our journey in this endeavor. We recognize and respect that all people may be on their own, unique point in their journey with DE&I. The Diversity Space Tool is not a definitive evaluation of diversity in game content; rather, it is a bridge in opening previously unspoken conversations into how thoughtful inclusion can happen – and thrive – in games.

It’s getting worse for everyone at Activision-Blizzard now. You may have wondered how that could even be possible but it turns out all of this was a public relations effort that was foreign to everyone working on games. That’s where character artist Melissa Kelly comes in:

But if Activision Blizzard development teams are using the company’s tool to check for arbitrary diversity points the way the company claims, they don’t all seem to be currently aware of it. Melissa Kelly, a character artist at Blizzard who worked on Overwatch, said on Twitter that “Overwatch doesn’t even use this creepy [dystopian] chart, our writers have eyes.”

“You know what drives our diversity? The devs!” she continued in a thread. “We have people who work on the game from these cultures. That’s it! That’s literally it.” A senior engineer working on Overwatch 2 confirmed on the same day that the Overwatch team has not used the tool and even “didn’t know it existed until yesterday.” Neither Overwatch team member returned Kotaku’s request for comment.

So to summarize all of this, Activision-Blizzard — a company purchased by Microsoft which has been previously compared to a cesspool — wanted to repair their reputation so they invented a diversity measurement tool and presented it at GDC. Then, when it was revealed that this diversity measurement tool is inherently racist, sexist and every other “ist” you can come up with, Activision-Blizzard said none of their teams were actually using it. On top of that, now their own employees are calling it creepy and dystopian.

It all begs the question for entertainment companies everywhere: when are you going to start treating people like people again instead of this religious obsession with tribes and identity groups? Because clearly it’s not going the way you intend for it to go. And anyone with a modicum of thought could figure out why even before any of this was implemented.

Best of all, statistically we know that 60%+ of the total human population lives in Asia. Yet somehow Activision-Blizzard decided attractive Caucasian males of an average American height are the norm. With that assumption, the company inadvertently revealed their own bigotry. It seems that is what happens when people and companies try to set hierarchies based on immutable attributes. Who would have guessed?

For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below. Let us know your thoughts on how entertainment companies can possibly go any more wrong than what we’re reporting on here. We’re both grasping at straws and terrified…