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Blizzard bans pro Hearthstone player a year for his support of Hong Kong protesters

Corrik

Member
I don't honestly understand how people are getting the "choosing money over basic human rights" thing began. It seems like a huge leap and embellishment to say that.

Also, the protesters, to my knowledge, are not protesting for liberation and freedom from China to my knowledge, though many are stating with Free Hong Kong and liberate Hong Kong etc. I mean, it would be like someone supporting the South breaking away from our country during the Civil War to say that. Surely Northerns would have been upset if another nation was like Free the South and etc.

So, I am confused how the messaging has gotten to that point. China introduced laws the same as they did in Macau in the same scenario. Hong Kong didn't want them, so they rescinded them. However, Hong Kong becomes fully part of China in like 20 some years, so it isn't like Hong Kong is some free sovereign area.

Also, I am confused why people wouldn't boycott Chinese made products if they are so upset with China than boycotting Blizzard games.
 
I don't honestly understand how people are getting the "choosing money over basic human rights" thing began. It seems like a huge leap and embellishment to say that.

Also, the protesters, to my knowledge, are not protesting for liberation and freedom from China to my knowledge, though many are stating with Free Hong Kong and liberate Hong Kong etc. I mean, it would be like someone supporting the South breaking away from our country during the Civil War to say that. Surely Northerns would have been upset if another nation was like Free the South and etc.

So, I am confused how the messaging has gotten to that point. China introduced laws the same as they did in Macau in the same scenario. Hong Kong didn't want them, so they rescinded them. However, Hong Kong becomes fully part of China in like 20 some years, so it isn't like Hong Kong is some free sovereign area.

Also, I am confused why people wouldn't boycott Chinese made products if they are so upset with China than boycotting Blizzard games.

That's a false equivalency, Hong Kong has not been part of proper China since 100 years before China's fall to communism when Hong Kong became part of the British Empire mid 19th century during the Opium Wars against the Qing dynasty.

Hong Kong has largely developed within it's own bubble for over a century up until the late 20th century. The two systems policy worked for the most part early on when Hong Kong returned in 99' due to the leaders up until now. Unlike Jintao or Zemin, Jingping is way more hardline than either of them. For instance Jingping has done away with term limits and is pretty much de facto president for life. Xi Jinping is now the most significant ruler in China since Mao Zedong, and he has the backing of the party.

So things have naturally been escalating and even though China backed off the extradition plans, the people know that if they give Jinping an inch, he will take everything from them.
 

Corrik

Member
That's a false equivalency, Hong Kong has not been part of proper China since 100 years before China's fall to communism when Hong Kong became part of the British Empire mid 19th century during the Opium Wars against the Qing dynasty.

Hong Kong has largely developed within it's own bubble for over a century up until the late 20th century. The two systems policy worked for the most part early on when Hong Kong returned in 99' due to the leaders up until now. Unlike Jintao or Zemin, Jingping is way more hardline than either of them. For instance Jingping has done away with term limits and is pretty much de facto president for life. Xi Jinping is now the most significant ruler in China since Mao Zedong, and he has the backing of the party.

So things have naturally been escalating and even though China backed off the extradition plans, the people know that if they give Jinping an inch, he will take everything from them.
Except it isn't. Hong Kong has been a part of China for over 22 years in 1997 and becomes fully a part of it in And in 28 years it becomes fully apart of China.

If Hong Kong doesn't want to be a part of China, then sorry to tell them it is gonna happen in under 3 decades fully. However, the extradition laws is not Free Hong Kong, Liberate Hong Kong, and oppression of basic human rights. That is just being embellished way too far to virtue signal and try to show having a moral high ground.
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
RIP to this fucking legend.
VR1hZ5E.jpg
Is this actually real
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in china or usa. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on company streams or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.
Me knowing about china problems does not changes anything. I cannot influence anything that happens there.
I can say that I condemn Blizzard and china for their actions but so what? I don' even play shitty Blizzard games
 

Tumle

Member
To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in china or usa. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on company streams or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.
Me knowing about china problems does not changes anything. I cannot influence anything that happens there.
I can say that I condemn Blizzard and china for their actions but so what? I don' even play shitty Blizzard games
Ah well then, you don’t understand the influences both China and the US has on the world..
also very bold for someone who’s country was under Russian influence, only 30 years ago..
if you can’t see past your own backyard, you are in trouble..
 
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To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in china or usa. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on company streams or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.
Me knowing about china problems does not changes anything. I cannot influence anything that happens there.
I can say that I condemn Blizzard and china for their actions but so what? I don' even play shitty Blizzard games

Congratulations for missing the entire point of this thread and why people are not happy with the current situation.

Blizzard is just one company that the Chinese tech company Tencent has invested they have their claws in several game studios and movie studios.

The issue is western companies censoring movies and games to satisfy the Chinese government and businesses want their money and access to the chinese market at any costs.

If you can't see how Chinese companies can block creativity and freedom of expression to satisfy a authoritarian government is a problem then I can't help you.

This is a foreign government dictating how entertainment should be and the whole idea of not expressing your beliefs should be subjected to punishment and you not caring because MUH VIDEOGAMES is really telling just how uninformed you are.
 

Tesseract

Banned
To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in china or usa. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on company streams or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.
Me knowing about china problems does not changes anything. I cannot influence anything that happens there.
I can say that I condemn Blizzard and china for their actions but so what? I don' even play shitty Blizzard games

don't worry mate, we'll always protect your sorry ass
 
Except it isn't. Hong Kong has been a part of China for over 22 years in 1997 and becomes fully a part of it in And in 28 years it becomes fully apart of China.

If Hong Kong doesn't want to be a part of China, then sorry to tell them it is gonna happen in under 3 decades fully. However, the extradition laws is not Free Hong Kong, Liberate Hong Kong, and oppression of basic human rights. That is just being embellished way too far to virtue signal and try to show having a moral high ground.

They have the moral highground and there is plenty of evidence to support their claims of police abusing their powers and this started as a peaceful protest and only escalated once the police started using brutal tactics to shut them down.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Congratulations for missing the entire point of this thread and why people are not happy with the current situation.

Blizzard is just one company that the Chinese tech company Tencent has invested they have their claws in several game studios and movie studios.

The issue is western companies censoring movies and games to satisfy the Chinese government and businesses want their money and access to the chinese market at any costs.

If you can't see how Chinese companies can block creativity and freedom of expression to satisfy a authoritarian government is a problem then I can't help you.

This is a foreign government dictating how entertainment should be and the whole idea of not expressing your beliefs should be subjected to punishment and you not caring because MUH VIDEOGAMES is really telling just how uninformed you are.
I understand, agree and see all of that but at the same time it's easy enough just not to interact with those companies. It's not going to stop 100 million people downloading call of duty on mobile anyway.
I do not support them lol. Of course I do not.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Ah well then, you don’t understand the influences both China and the US has on the world..
also very bold for someone who’s country was under Russian influence, only 30 years ago..
if you can’t see past your own backyard, you are in trouble..
I know, I know....
Don't get me wrong. Communists are terrible. I don't know if I can say to explain my point any better though...
Let's end my part on this - I do not support communists and I want people to have FULL freedom of speech. I don't even play those games... maybe I should not write in this thread without having anything really to say. Sorry ;)
It just seemed weird to me that people want to show their political opinions during game tournament but I guess it's a good public place to do it. It worked afterall
 
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Ar¢tos

Member
I don't touch Activision games (I also don't have any interest in any game of those other companies listed).
I didn't buy Sekiro because it was published by Activision, mostly because I don't agree with Activision monetization schemes, but I'll had this stupid Blizzard move to the list of reasons to keep away from Activision games. (i get more fun from single player indies anyway).
 
To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in china or usa. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on company streams or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.

Statements like this are weird. This paints what is happening like it is some political opinion between opposing parties in the west. It is not. People are grumbling like someone just inserted their opinion about US tax reform politics into their videogame entertainment.

The other side of this "political" opinion is literally a totalitarian dictatorship that kills people.
 
I know, I know....
Don't get me wrong. Communists are terrible. I don't know if I can say to explain my point any better though...
Let's end my part on this - I do not support communists and I want people to have FULL freedom of speech. I don't even play those games... maybe I should not write in this thread without having anything really to say. Sorry ;)
It just seemed weird to me that people want to show their political opinions during game tournament but I guess it's a good public place to do it. It worked afterall

I don't live in the US either but do you think it's right that a country is punishing citizens of another country by proxy? Do you think it's ok to be retroactively punished for wrong think? Can your job decide not to pay you for work already done because you annoyed another country in your own language, to an audience speaking your own language?
 

Ravielsk

Neo Member
To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in china or usa. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on company streams or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.
Me knowing about china problems does not changes anything. I cannot influence anything that happens there.
I can say that I condemn Blizzard and china for their actions but so what? I don' even play shitty Blizzard games

Allow me to demonstrate how dumb this statement is just by moving it back in time to 1936 Summer Olympics.

I know, I know....
To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in Germany or Britain. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on public interviews or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.
Me knowing about Germany's problems does not changes anything. I cannot influence anything that happens there.
I can say that I condemn Britain and Chamberlain for their actions but so what? I don' even care about shitty Olympic games.


Later that century about 6 million Poles(not counting the ones outside of Poland) bit the dust and Warsaw was almost razed to the ground because the world collectively ignored Germany's problems. How goes that saying ? Something about not remembering history?
 
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This has been known for awhile but has been consistently brushed off as alt right / conservative conspiracy nonsense. Ironically, I see a lot of Left wing pundits and commentors also pointing out China's behavior so it doesn't even make sense to brush this off as conspiracy.

The fact that you are seeing it in the news now should be evidence that China is getting weaker. What appears to be "China getting away with it so many times! We have to stop them!" is actually the mask slipping and China getting caught. These bans, their censorship, their creep into Western economies and markets, their strong-arming of weaker nations has been going on for awhile. They do this all the time.

(...)

Oh, I'm aware. Its just that this current string of events final blew it right out in the open. People are suddenly starting to realize, especially Americans, how deep seeded China's reach really is and it ain't pretty.
 
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Tumle

Member
I know, I know....
Don't get me wrong. Communists are terrible. I don't know if I can say to explain my point any better though...
Let's end my part on this - I do not support communists and I want people to have FULL freedom of speech. I don't even play those games... maybe I should not write in this thread without having anything really to say. Sorry ;)
It just seemed weird to me that people want to show their political opinions during game tournament but I guess it's a good public place to do it. It worked afterall
No you should be able to express your opinion. sorry if my response was less tha n friendly.. just feel that its a matter that should have a high priority.

China can do what China wants to do, its up to its people to rebel ( like Hong Kong does). but if western companies want to throw out democratic values and punish people for speaking up about abuse of human rights, just so a couple of super wealthy people, can get a little more super wealthy.. they should be called out for it.
 

Corrik

Member
No you should be able to express your opinion. sorry if my response was less tha n friendly.. just feel that its a matter that should have a high priority.

China can do what China wants to do, its up to its people to rebel ( like Hong Kong does). but if western companies want to throw out democratic values and punish people for speaking up about abuse of human rights, just so a couple of super wealthy people, can get a little more super wealthy.. they should be called out for it.
Again. What exactly "human right" is being abused here?
 

iNvid02

Member
It's not just about politics in games (which I am actually against, just as I think politics should stay out of "vidya game jurneeylizm"). It's to do with stemming the influence China has on western entertainment, it's better to not let this shit become the status quo because censorship will dig its claws into a lot more shit eventually and before you know it, politics and games are intertwined and we all gotta deal with this bullshit even more so than we do now.

And this whole creeping slowly thing is how everything happens - which is why Hong Kong is trying to stop the extradition policy to not let China get a foot in the door. And they have every right, Hong Kong was one of our (British) territories and we made a deal with China that it would remain independent-ish for 50 years (year 2047). These cunts have no right.

Finally, watching a modern day revolution give resistance to one of the world's foremost superpowers may actually inspire us lazy western cunts to have a little more faith when it comes to our own political system e.g. Brexit
 

Corrik

Member
I don’t know.. how about free speech and the right to protest?

Or you think Activision Blizzard should hold the values of a dictatorship higher than the values of an individual persons rights and freedom?
How are they being denied Free Speech? How are they not being given the right to protest? I assure you if any protest overtakes and shuts down one of our airports in the United States that we would shut that shit down real quick also.

The fact they are letting Hong Kong police take care of it and not bringing in the Chinese Military is actually surprising. Even in America you can't go damaging and destroying government buildings and infrastructure during RIOTS. Like, it's all embellishment. Everyone who talks about Hong Kong has to pump it up 100x past where it actually is. I mean, it is okay to be against China and their government policies and not blow this crap out of proportion.
 

JCK75

Member
So I don't feel for the NBA because they don't have a policy against political statements, but I feel it's fair for a company like Blizzard to not want political messaging at their events even if I agree with the political messaging, I haven't watched long enough to know if that is the stance or if they have allowed other messaging previously too.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
So I don't feel for the NBA because they don't have a policy against political statements, but I feel it's fair for a company like Blizzard to not want political messaging at their events even if I agree with the political messaging, I haven't watched long enough to know if that is the stance or if they have allowed other messaging previously too.

such a rule does not exist in blizzard
 

Corrik

Member
So I don't feel for the NBA because they don't have a policy against political statements, but I feel it's fair for a company like Blizzard to not want political messaging at their events even if I agree with the political messaging, I haven't watched long enough to know if that is the stance or if they have allowed other messaging previously too.
People forget how they shut down NBA players kneeling instantly by pointing out that unlike the NFL they had a policy that prohibited things during the anthem.
 

TheContact

Member
wow if they winnie the pooh mei
that would be fucking hilarious

i allready pre ordered overwatch tho .
maybe they will remove the lootboxes


6b2dffae-6702-4501-9a5b-30fd3c1f446e.png


the internet seems to be ok with what blizzard did

This doesn't really mean anything since it's all digital now. The real protest is when you delete your account. Oh, except Blizzard is conveniently having technical issues with people being able to delete their accounts. Hm....
 

Tumle

Member
Oh so I REALLY need someone to explain to me how this makes business sense for Blizzard then.
investors seeing the number 1 billion, and thinking they all want to play there games.

in todays age, its not enough to make a profit it must always be better than last profit margin... at one point that practice will break.. I think its breaking for Blizzard right now, since they are going all in on tapping into that 1 billion!!
 

iconmaster

Banned
Again. What exactly "human right" is being abused here?

It seems like you're deliberately confusing things to muddle the issue.

Blizzard is not generally being accused of violating any human rights, but kowtowing to China to the detriment of their Western fans.

Concerning Hong Kong, you are narrowly focusing on the immediate cause and disregarding the underlying causes.

Concerning China, you could show more concern for its history of human rights abuses in Hong Kong and what that would mean for them in that "28 years" from now. Oh but "sorry, that's gonna happen."

Btw, at least one lawyer thinks Blitzchung may have a route toward forcing Blizzard to settle over this.
 
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mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
investors seeing the number 1 billion, and thinking they all want to play there games.

in todays age, its not enough to make a profit it must always be better than last profit margin... at one point that practice will break.. I think its breaking for Blizzard right now, since they are going all in on tapping into that 1 billion!!

But if only 50 million of the 1.5 billion care about your games, then what? I'd rather satisfy the all the Western countries that already love our games, then piss them off for the future 1.5 billion (that are legally limited to how much they are even allowed to enjoy your games in the first place).

What happens if 5 years from now China decides to change policy to limit online gaming to Chinese only developed games?
 

Zog

Banned
To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in china or usa. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on company streams or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.
That's how I feel about commercials. People are there watch a tv show, not commercials.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in china or usa. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on company streams or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.
Me knowing about china problems does not changes anything. I cannot influence anything that happens there.
I can say that I condemn Blizzard and china for their actions but so what? I don' even play shitty Blizzard games
If only the international community was brave enough to speak out against Hitler. You should at least know something about that.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
That's how I feel about commercials. People are there watch a tv show, not commercials.

But nobody is banning companies for showing commercials during TV shows, just because that's not what you are there for.
 

Zog

Banned
But nobody is banning companies for showing commercials during TV shows, just because that's not what you are there for.
My point was that you don't ONLY get what you came for. If you go grocery shopping, you may also have to stand in line to checkout. If you go to a movie theater, you get commercials too. The examples are endless so when someone says 'I don't come here for this' it's pretty meaningless.
 
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Helios

Member
To say the truth - I live in Poland and I couldn't care less what happens in china or usa. It is distant in physical and cultural manner. Showing Your political stances on company streams or in tournaments is NOT the right place. People go there to watch games.
Me knowing about china problems does not changes anything. I cannot influence anything that happens there.
I can say that I condemn Blizzard and china for their actions but so what? I don' even play shitty Blizzard games
You have a point, and if all Blizzard did was delete the VODs and issue a statement that they do not want their platforms used for political agendas the backlash wouldn't have been nearly as big.
But they didn't. They banned the player, retracted all his winnings and started kissing China's ass.
And don't be afraid to express your opinion, even if people here are getting a bit too heated up.
 

FMXVII

Member
Oh, I'm aware. Its just that this current string of events final blew it right out in the open. People are suddenly starting to realize, especially Americans, how deep seeded China's reach really is and it ain't pretty.

Deep-seated.

Deep-seated.

Like, knee-deep in U.S. CEOs' arse pockets, deep-seated.
 
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