Blizzard bans competitor who made political statement about Hong Kong

[Wucked]

I really don't get what the outrage is about.

It doesn't matter what Blizzards connection to China is. The guy used Blizzard's platform to spout his political agenda on a platform that is not only not designed for it, but has strict and clear rules against it. The commentators were egging the guy on and made no attempt to stop it, so they deserved punishment too. The only issue I had with the whole fiasco was that the punishment was too harsh - but this is typical Blizzard; they always knee-jerk react. This fixed this earlier yesterday by lessening the severity of it.

I can tell straight away that you’re a paragon of virtue and correct behaviour. Protests should be spoken quietly and only in the appropriate circumstances, as defined by corporate policy, because that’s exactly the correct way to have people pay attention. Personally I like writing politely worded letters to my local Chinese restaurant, in my spare time.

The hypocrisy on this topic is unbelievable though. People want to "boycott Blizzard" for seemingly dampening free speech and apparently bowing to the whim of China to not hurt their precious company, yet seem to forget or disregard the other companies, platforms, or services that have done similar (or worse!), or/and have ties to the Chinese government in some way; and they don't mind happily using those services on a day-to-day basis while throwing Blizzard under the bus.

Yes, everyone should shush because of consistency. If you’re not angry at everything you have no right to be angry at anything. One incident never leads to a wider understanding of an issue, nothing ever snowballs.

But every other service is fine, right? Let's just focus on the alpha-evil that is Blizzard and ignore everything else while talking about it with friends on iPhones, or maybe use those iPhones to discuss this on Reddit who took a $150 million "investment" from TenCent... yeah, that company, the ones that have major political bias and actively help to censor criticism towards the Chinese government and assist in surveillance of the public, and who also have majority control, investments, or shares in Grinding Gear Games, Epic Games, PUGB, Activision/Blizzard, Riot, Clash of Clans, Frontier Developments, Paradox, and others.

Completely agree. Protest bad, because iPhone and Reddit.

Don't forget to pick up your free game this week on Epic Games' store while you're cancelling your Blizzard accounts before you head over to Reddit to jump on the bandwagon.

Brilliant! Playing a free game absolutely forfeits your right to free speech and protest. There are no distinctions to be drawn, no nuance.

Well I have to say that I’m completely convinced, we should all shut up about this immediately. Blizzard good, China good.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Great obnoxious attitude you've got there. Will really bring people round to your way of thinking.

 

[Wucked]

Oh I’m sorry, should I speak on this subject in a way that meets with your approval? As far as I can tell this whole thing is pretty obnoxious. But I’ve said my piece, I’ll say nothing more. I’ll leave you to frown your disapproval at my choice of words.

 

[Teaf]

Oh I’m sorry, should I speak on this subject in a way that meets with your approval? As far as I can tell this whole thing is pretty obnoxious. But I’ve said my piece, I’ll say nothing more. I’ll leave you to frown your disapproval at my choice of words.

There's no frowning from my side. You're just as entitled as I am to give your opinion on the subject as is everyone. Granted, I'd have rather heard your thoughts in a constructive fashion rather than tearing down my thoughts and feelings on the matter with extremely sarcastic and obnoxious retorts. There's plenty of posts in this thread I agree and disagree with, and even a couple that could be hypocritical, but I'm not going to sit here and tear them down with sarcasm to try to prove a point. Take StriderX for example. I can't agree with some of his/her points as I feel differently, but I do agree with some they've made and it was interesting to see the argument from their perspective with some very well laid out arguments on the subject.

 

[Infiniteey]

There's no frowning from my side. You're just as entitled as I am to give your opinion on the subject as is everyone. Granted, I'd have rather heard your thoughts in a constructive fashion rather than tearing down my thoughts and feelings on the matter with extremely sarcastic and obnoxious retorts. There's plenty of posts in this thread I agree and disagree with, and even a couple that could be hypocritical, but I'm not going to sit here and tear them down with sarcasm to try to prove a point. Take StriderX for example. I can't agree with some of his/her points as I feel differently, but I do agree with some they've made and it was interesting to see the argument from their perspective with some very well laid out arguments on the subject.

I'm with you on this one. Blizzard over reacted and was overly harsh, but BC was wrong to do it live on the air and it falls completely in line with their set rules.

 

[Wucked]

There's no frowning from my side. You're just as entitled as I am to give your opinion on the subject as is everyone. Granted, I'd have rather heard your thoughts in a constructive fashion rather than tearing down my thoughts and feelings on the matter with extremely sarcastic and obnoxious retorts. There's plenty of posts in this thread I agree and disagree with, and even a couple that could be hypocritical, but I'm not going to sit here and tear them down with sarcasm to try to prove a point. Take StriderX for example. I can't agree with some of his/her points as I feel differently, but I do agree with some they've made and it was interesting to see the argument from their perspective with some very well laid out arguments on the subject.

It was overly sarcastic and unnecessary. I’m seemingly unable to discuss this in a casual manner. That’s why I’m not going to speak on it any further, sufficed to say that I disagree with Blizzard’s actions, and harbour a strong dislike for the Chinese regime.

 

[Teaf]

It was overly sarcastic and unnecessary. I’m seemingly unable to discuss this in a casual manner. That’s why I’m not going to speak on it any further, sufficed to say that I disagree with Blizzard’s actions, and harbour a strong dislike for the Chinese regime.

Hey no problem, and no hard feelings, I respect your opinion that you disagree with Blizzards actions and I'd have liked to hear your thoughts, but I completely understand China right now is a very touchy subject and it hits very close to home for a lot of people whether they are Chinese or not.

 

[labbby]

It was overly sarcastic and unnecessary. I’m seemingly unable to discuss this in a casual manner. That’s why I’m not going to speak on it any further, sufficed to say that I disagree with Blizzard’s actions, and harbour a strong dislike for the Chinese regime.

I can tell straight away that you’re a paragon of virtue and correct behaviour. Protests should be spoken quietly and only in the appropriate circumstances, as defined by corporate policy, because that’s exactly the correct way to have people pay attention. Personally I like writing politely worded letters to my local Chinese restaurant, in my spare time.



Yes, everyone should shush because of consistency. If you’re not angry at everything you have no right to be angry at anything. One incident never leads to a wider understanding of an issue, nothing ever snowballs.



Completely agree. Protest bad, because iPhone and Reddit.



Brilliant! Playing a free game absolutely forfeits your right to free speech and protest. There are no distinctions to be drawn, no nuance.

Well I have to say that I’m completely convinced, we should all shut up about this immediately. Blizzard good, China good.

He was overly sarcastic ?

 

[UncleRhino]

so many foreign companies are playing to chinas fiddle. Just shows how much leverage they have

 

[Mark A]

As with anything these days with social media and the new outrage culture it has brought with it, I bet 90% of the people bashing Blizzard have no clue about what is even going on in HK.

 

[Rofflay]

so many foreign companies are playing to chinas fiddle. Just shows how much leverage they have

You wait until they get 13 Aircraft carriers and a nuke strikeforce. Social credit system, South China sea domination and then onto Africa!

 

[Fubsy]

Do none of these companies have any tegridy?

Next thing will be banning Winnie-the-Pooh.

 

[Wucked]

Do none of these companies have any tegridy?

Next thing will be banning Winnie-the-Pooh.

Some individuals as well. For instance Emlyn_Dewar, rightly calling out my obnoxious attitude, but claiming the location of Chendgu. Clever. I almost missed it. Where he claims to live Winnie-the-Pooh is indeed banned. Isn't OcUK also banned there?

 

[StarShock]

As with anything these days with social media and the new outrage culture it has brought with it, I bet 90% of the people bashing Blizzard have no clue about what is even going on in HK.

I'm pretty sure that's the whole point of this sort of a public protest. One dude says 4 words on blizzards stream and suddenly half the community is talking about whats happening in HK. I bet a hell of a lot more people know about it now than they did before.

 

[chrcoluk]

used to love blizzard but those days are long gone.

They used to make great games like warcraft 1,2,3 and starcraft1. Now its just competitive multiplayer games, even the single player starcraft 2 forces you to play at the faster speeds only for the purpose of grooming the player for battle.net games. Seems they kind of like epic now with their focus on competitive multiplayer gaming and a chinese influence.

 

[elh_2009]

Do none of these companies have any tegridy?

Next thing will be banning Winnie-the-Pooh.

I know of a farm with lots of tegridy!