Blizzard issue severe penalties for Hearthstone player supporting Hong Kong protests

3 hours ago, elend said:

I am living in China.

You have my sympathies.

3 hours ago, elend said:

The Chinese people, especially young people, are extremely patriotic.

"Extremely patriotic" is a very charming way to say indoctrinated and oppressed.

3 hours ago, elend said:

They are just that patriotic and nationalistic.

Yay, nationalism! In a country under dictatorship no less! What could possibly go wrong?

3 hours ago, elend said:

Also, the Hong Kong people never ever said something about "liberating" Hong Kong from Mainland China. If that would have been one of their demands, the protests would have stopped very quickly a long time ago.

You mean the protests in which violence between chinese law enforcement and the crowd has been going for days, because China doesn't want to let people keep their freedoms, which they were promised 1997? Are you sure you didn't mean to say "Would have been stopped..." Also yay, totally no issue whatsoever with taking people's freedoms away, never mind breaking a promise in the interest of gaining polititical influence, because who wants freedom anyway? Dude, I can't possibly imagine why these people want to keep their freedom instead of being assimilated by the authoritarian Chinese pseudo-communist regime that is running the whole show with an iron fist since 1950 or somesuch.

But no, say it isn't so! Clearly a country that has no interest in freedom of speech, and knocks citizens, which become "uncomfortable" due to speaking up against the "government", down on the social ladder by taking certain liberties away from them is bound to inspire truly heartfelt and honest patriotism. It's not like anybody in China would have to worry about China's social scoring system or anything, right? I mean, it's not like for example being denied plane or train tickets would be in any way a problem for anybody, eh? "People with low ratings will have slower internet speeds; restricted access to restaurants and the removal of the right to travel". Totally nothing to worry about, right? It's also not like Blizzard bending the knee to the Chinese government, or else they get their privilege to do business put in question (just because a participant in a tournament has political opinions), is in any way indicative of a problem, right? I'm not going to defend Blizzard's actions here, they're cowards, but there is still the problem that it's the Chinese authorities who are putting their feet down to protect their position of power by any means necessary.

I suggest reading less Chinese newspapers. It's not often that people on either side of the political spectrum agree on something, especially not when it's about politics, but in the case of China, the left and the right agree overall that the current situation there is a total shitfest. It's almost delightfully ironic that the only person in this thread arguing at least slightly in favour of China when it's subjected to (slightly exaggerated) criticism happens to be somebody who lives in China. Weird...

Uh, I merely wanted to state, that Hong Kong Protesters never protested for total liberation. Because it came up many times in some form or the other. Furthermore I just stated that the urban legend of "paid for by the government" citizens / netizens or even bots seems a bit silly. I tried to show why this is most probably not the case.

I did neither defend nationalism (I am German and well aware of nationalism and its causes and dangers thanks to the german school system) nor the Chinese government. I am not sure why you read all of this into my short post. And don't worry, I don't read Chinese newspapers, due to my lack in Chinese language proficiency.

And yes, I did indeed mean "would have been stopped" of course. That was worded a bit weird on my part.

Also about this:

It's also not like Blizzard bending the knee to the Chinese government, or else they get their privilege to do business put in question (just because a participant in a tournament has political opinions), is in any way indicative of a problem, right? I'm not going to defend Blizzard's actions here, they're cowards, but there is still the problem that it's the Chinese authorities who are putting their feet down to protect their position of power by any means necessary.

I see this more of a problem of late stage capitalism, where immense profits (aka the Chinese market) are way more important than one's values. Ultimately Blizzard here is to blame. Neither the Chinese people, nor the government implored Blizzard to punish the player - although, yes, they already did so many times with other companies or persons. But the core of the problem remains the same: Money and profits being put above literally everything else, by companies who want to get filthy rich in China. China is merely playing Captialism's own game and they are actually quite adept at that.

Solution: Punish the companies who behave that way and don't buy "made in China" because it's your money that went to China and made the rise of the middle class, which has such an enormous soft power now, possible. We are all guilty, imho.

3 minutes ago, elend said:

I did neither defend nationalism (I am German and well aware of nationalism and its causes and dangers thanks to the german school system) nor the Chinese government. I am not sure why you read all of this into my short post.

Okay, sorry for snapping at you. When I get hints of people defending something that quite clearly shouldn't be defended, I tend to get a bit worked up. Thanks for clarifying things, though.

The NBA is now going anti-Hong Kong following the Blizzard incident. Same for Google.

Nothing is what it seems

*edit* What I mean to point out is there are many foreign vested interests in this.

2 hours ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

What I mean to point out is there are many foreign vested interests in this.

Such as?

2 hours ago, elend said:

Also about this:

 

 

I see this more of a problem of late stage capitalism, where immense profits (aka the Chinese market) are way more important than one's values. Ultimately Blizzard here is to blame. Neither the Chinese people, nor the government implored Blizzard to punish the player - although, yes, they already did so many times with other companies or persons. But the core of the problem remains the same: Money and profits being put above literally everything else, by companies who want to get filthy rich in China. China is merely playing Captialism's own game and they are actually quite adept at that.

 

Solution: Punish the companies who behave that way and don't buy "made in China" because it's your money that went to China and made the rise of the middle class, which has such an enormous soft power now, possible. We are all guilty, imho.

For me the issue here is, Blizzard is currently adopting anti-free speech policies (Free speech used to be a American value) just to keep its foothold in China (which I can't see to be absolutely a good thing at all). The Chinese government has been known for censorship in games. Ubisoft once attempted to get into the Chinese market, which backfired badly. Blizzard already got their PR level sent down thanks to the censorship they commited.

You would be surprised that US is basically Capitalism but cranked up to 11. China uses their "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" economic system.

BTW, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/business/china-blows-whistle-on-nationalist-protests-against-the-nba.html

mmorpg.net has closed their comment section in the meanwhile.

Edit: https://www.pcgamer.com/hearthstone-caster-nathan-thatsadmirable-zamora-steps-down-over-blitzchung-controversy/

This controversy is sure sending the company tumbling down...

8 hours ago, elend said:

I did neither defend nationalism (I am German and well aware of nationalism and its causes and dangers thanks to the german school system) nor the Chinese government. I am not sure why you read all of this into my short post. And don't worry, I don't read Chinese newspapers, due to my lack in Chinese language proficiency.

I think if you ask your friends in China, probably most of them won't say anything about they like the Chinese government. I don't really like it either because so many Guangzhou's construction doesn't make sense and it's a waste of tax, but sincerely though, having something bad doesn't mean the whole thing is bad, so this depends on how much you want to actually see. In my guess though, if you really hate it, you won't even live there, right?

Another thing is that, what Chinese said, does have influence from the government, but more of the time, they just like to dump whatever they want to say. Internet is the same all over the world. Internet is a place for you to unload your stress "relatively safely" due to the anonymity. That's my 2 cents. Blizzard just happens to be in this pickle because they are unlucky. That's it.

For the one who asked me the previous question, I think you should at least look into the thing and try to at least use your mind to live there to understand.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/09/american-university-students-blizzard-censor-americans-see-how-that-goes/

Yay capitalism.

Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times.

No one is going to help Hong Kong. No one wants to lose a market of BILLIONS.

Cash rules everything around me, CREAM get the money, dollar dollar bill y'all.

27 minutes ago, FractalBeast said:

Cash rules everything around me, CREAM get the money, dollar dollar bill y'all.

WU-TANG IS FOR THE CHILDREN

I always see people getting put down because of the moronic POS government they live under and it's extremely unfair. I've seen so many "fuck the Chinese" type posts lately (not here ofc but elsewhere) and it honestly pains me - I've been insulted merely for being American, since our president is a dumbfuck and an international embarassment.. As if by simply being an American citizen I am somehow responsible for the orange buffoon. It sucks a fat dick. People ought to remember that it's only the brainwashed who blindly follow their leaders, and that roughly half of people on this little blue rock aren't stupid enough to really think their government is "a force for good". Many are strongarmed into supporting it or simply not mentioning it for fear of retaliation.

Remember, it's the Chinese government and the American corporations who bend to their will that are the problem. These corporations (Blizzard, Apple) consider the bottom dollar to be more important than human rights or constitutional rights. They are the ones who should be the target of your ire, not the common Chinese guy who has no influence in this one way or the other..

https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2019/10/blizzard-removes-175-mei-statue-from-gear-shop-as-hong-kong-embraces-her-as-mascot/94938/

So they've decided to give blitzchung his prize money and halved the ban in a longwinded, meandering leviathan of a blog post designed purely to bore readers to the point of skipping over the part buried in the middle where they deny any influence from the CCP at all. Pathetic.

BlizzCon is gonna be very interesting this year. And you thought the Diablo Immortal announcement was bad.

As I watched the Diablo Immortal situation unfold in real-time, I clearly remember thinking to myself "It can't get any worse than this"

Like Jurassic Park, nature finds a way.

edit: here is a link to the official response from the Blizzard President, in case anyone wants to read it.

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/23185888/regarding-last-weekend-s-hearthstone-grandmasters-tournament

6 hours ago, scalliano said:

So they've decided to give blitzchung his prize money and halved the ban in a longwinded, meandering leviathan of a blog post designed purely to bore readers to the point of skipping over the part buried in the middle where they deny any influence from the CCP at all. Pathetic.

Some people are already saying that this isn't enough to cover the damage.

Another thing is that, while China allowed NBA news to air again in their place, the whole BoycottBlizzard movment already attracted quite a bit of more people to support HK protests. Hopefully this sends Blizzard in deep shit as more and more people support HK protests.

• Fuck Blizzard (for this stunt)
• Fuck the NBA (for the whole fiasco around Houston Rockets player tweeting support for Hong Kong then bullied into backpedaling)
• Fuck Apple (for removing Taiwanese flag from Chinese and similar markets and this)
• Props to South Park for their "Band in China" episode. They have some major cajones for standing up to China like this.

Not only do I agree with everyone (Especially Armaetus) on this, but I would also like to mention that TAIWAN IS THE REAL CHINA!