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Overwatch Bug Causes Player Headaches Over Skinny Mei

The fan debate rages on over the true body type of Overwatch's Mei.

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

With the launch of Overwatch's Year of the Rooster, Blizzard Entertainment finally offered up a unique Legendary costume for Chinese character Mei. The studio was hit with complaints that Mei's Winter Holiday skin wasn't that different from her normal costume, but her festive outfit for the Chinese Lunar New Year is definitely a change.

Mei in her Christmas outfit and her Lunar New Year outfit.

The problem came when some Mei fans noticed that the skin made Mei appear a bit skinnier that previously presented. Mei is a character that's supposed to be dealing with cold weather and there's long been a discussion in the community whether she has a fuller figure than most of Overwatch's female cast, or if she's just wearing a heavy coat. Some enjoyed Mei having a more unique body type, much like Russian bodybuilder and tank Zarya.

Those Mei fans expressed disappointment in finding a skinny Mei in the Year of the Rooster costume. This mirrors conversation around one of the sprays inspired by last year's Summer Olympics, showing a coatless, skinny Mei playing ping-pong. "Thick Mei" fans disregarded that as Blizzard having its wires crossed, until the new costume launched.

Other fans noted that even if Mei was skinny now, the anatomy of the new costume didn't quite work out. The change was especially noticable in profile.

It turns out they were right.

Note: Mei's CryoTank no longer connects to her body in profile, thanks to the bug. And her spine is broken.

Blizzard later confirmed that Mei's waist in the new costume was a bug that was going to be fixed in an upcoming patch.

"There's a bug with Mei's Luna and Chang'e skins right now that's causing her waist to appear much smaller than normal. We've already fixed the bug internally, but it's going to require a patch to implement (ideally it'll be included in whatever next patch hits your gaming platform)," said an Overwatch community manager on the official forums.

That new patch hasn't launched yet, but skinny Mei isn't the only bug that the new Overwatch skins introduced. Reinhardt's new Journey to the West-inspired Wujing skin has a bug where cracks no longer appear in his shield when it gets weaker. Another bug involves D.Va, who apparently falls through the map on Ecopoint: Antarctica if she leaves her mech. Blizzard says it's investigating the issue. And in the new Capture the Flag brawl, a number of players have noted that they've been kicked for inactivity while guarding their flag, even if they're moving.

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