Brigitte Has Many Similar Facial Features to Other Overwatch Characters: Is "same face" a Problem?

​The buildup for Overwatch Hero 27 was huge. Fans scoured lore content for clues, and Blizzard acted as a catalyst for the hype with a series of cryptic tweets. After Brigitte was finally released, excitement crested among fans and players. She'd already gained some popularity after the "Honor and Glory" video. Still, there's been some controversy regarding her design changes from her first appearance to her in-game appearance.

The argument is that Brigitte is falling into the common design flaw of "sameface," where female characters will have less facial diversity than their male counterparts for the sake of making them a specific flavor of "attractive." It's a fair debate. Blizzard has done a lot of hard work to design their characters, and it's clear that the developers care about pushing back against certain preconceived notions about gender and race. One needs only look at lead designer Jeff Kaplan's snarky remark to the accusation that Blizzard makes too many female characters.

Still, there is an extensive history of making female characters as attractive as possible, especially in video games. So, does Brigitte fall into this trap?

To find the answer, we need to look at the rest of the women on the Overwatchroster. To say Blizzard doesn't have a specific set of physical traits geared toward female characters would be naive. Even though these women come from all over the world, most of them have the small nose, similar face shape, pouty lips, and wide eyes, complete with eyeliner mysteriously grafted onto their skin. This is compared to characters like Junkrat, Roadhog, Reinhardt, and even Brigitte's dear dad Tobjorn, where the design was clearly not concerned with attractiveness. Brigitte does, unfortunately, have most of these traits. It's difficult to look at her and not see pieces of Zarya or Tracer or Mercy.

Blizzard is not nearly the biggest offender when it comes to this trend, and Overwatch is the leading game in the world today with regards to overall diversity. 

But it's because of that reputation that we know Blizzard can do better with Overwatch characters. Male characters don't have to justify their existence by being attractive, and their female comrades should receive the same treatment.