Blizzard

[Eraser]

Surely you must've heard of the professional Hearthstone player who got banned by Blizzard about 3 milliseconds after making pro Hong Kong protestor statements during a championship live stream. Lots of people (saying they are) uninstalling all Blizzard games over this. I'm a bit on the fence about it. China are massive dicks and Blizzard definitely could've handled this better, but I also understand the two way split they're in.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/ ... g-protests

[MKJ]

whats the split, precisely?
blizzard decided to act on a political statement, not only banning the player but confiscating his prize money?
Shutting down the stream I can understand, if your policy is to not allow political statements. Taking away someones prize because you don't agree with their views? That's odd, especially as a corporation.

[Eraser]

whats the split, precisely?

Between standing up for your own values and making big, big moneys in China. Blizzard doesn't want to risk their foray into the Chinese market so they have to appease the great red leader in Beijing. The question is, what was the minimal thing they had to do in order to remain in good favor with China? Sure, Blizzard could've said "fuck Chiaya-nah" and stuck to their guns, risking an all out Battle.net ban over there (like the NBA has experienced) but I don't think that's a realistic expectation. It would be the morally right thing, but eh, I'm not that naive.

I'm not going to be apologetic for the way Blizzard handled this, because it's terrible. I only understand that making statements like that on a live stream can't be expected to go without repercussions. If Blizzard had shown they had at least done some effort to protect Blitzchung in all this then the punishment might've not been as severe and the community backlash might've been a lot less intense. Right now it looks like Blizzard just rolled over and didn't give a fuck. That's bad.

[Κracus]

Yup, I uninstalled Overwatch. It's not just the player they also fired the casters for letting him make his statement. All to appease China. It's not just Blizzard either, China has been forcing any companies they have leverage on to do as China wishes.

[scared?]

hong kong is part of china...protesters need to move to a better country cuz they they will lose this fight...

[Transient]

They put profit over principal, that's not the kind of company I want to support by buying their products. :down:

[seremtan]

chinese communist party = literal fascists

[Whiskey 7]

I understand the dilemmas here and Blizzard surely should have managed the situation far better.

I'd like to say beware of China :paranoid: Whether we like it or not, they are a growing international force in so many ways so maybe methinks I better learn Mandarin.

Quick Google to find

Mandarin Chinese is the most popular language in China, with over 955 million speakers out of China's total population of 1.21 billion people

And the population numbers for a quick comparison and a URL to a site of some interest
http://worldpopulationreview.com/

Population USA - 327.2 million
Population China - 1.435 billion
Population India - 1.339 billion

[seremtan]

corporations will happily use their official events, social media, and general clout to promote (political) issues like international women's month, trans rights, diversity, pride etc because doing so enhances their brand (and hence their share value), and we applaud them for it

we shouldn't though. it's really no different in its intent from cancelling people for protesting about HK, Uyghurs, or just liking an orange man tweet

corporate "values" = shareholder value and nothing more. it's not rocket surgery

[Therac-25]

They did post an official apology.... to China:



Blizzcon is gonna be amusing in a couple of weeks.

[Don Carlos]

Ouch

[Eraser]

Post a link to the source so we can verify it's indeed coming from Blizzard and it indeed says what the image claims it says.

[Therac-25]

Post a link to the source so we can verify it's indeed coming from Blizzard and it indeed says what the image claims it says.

https://www.weibo.com/5883095259/Iax1avYRU?type=comment#_rnd1570796011637

(The comment is by the playhearthstone account, which is the official Hearthstone one).

[seremtan]

does Dr Geebs still post here?

i just cringed so hard i need medical attention

[Eraser]

Pretty shocking.
I translated the complete statement with Google Lens and the language is a little softer than what the translation in the picture suggests, but still, it's appaling they made an official statement towards Chinese players but are completely silent on the Western front.

[Eraser]

And now Blizzard has declared Blitzchung's view had nothing to do with their decision and it was not made under Chinese influence. They now reinstated his winnings and halved his ban duration.

Blizzard is digging a deeeeep hole for themselves.

[Transient]

I know Blitzchung kind of put Blizzard in an impossible situation with no real good answer, but Blizzard managed to make the worst move every step of the way. :down:

[Don Carlos]

There will be mass protests at Blizzcon because of this fuckery.

[seremtan]

in before woke activists claim that all criticism of CCP totalitarianism is 'sinophobia' and therefore 'hate speech' and our cowardly governments publicly agree because there's money to be made by not upsetting the CCP

it's coming, lads

[Therac-25]

:olo: :olo: :olo:

[Eraser]

Blizzard expects a shitstorm