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Blizzard has removed Hong Kong Hearthstone player blitzchung from Hearthstone Grand Masters and rescinded all his prize money
- Thread starter Lump
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It's very likely they aren't sure how to approach this yet. This is far from a simple issue from their standpoint as they are heavily invested in China and likely afraid of China blowing up their decade plus efforts to break into that market.
There is no good answer to give. Even lots of fans understand that by now. If they can somehow have the situation under control in Blizcon, this may just be it. Damages are done, to every party involved.
"Oh, new shinnies", players, probably, in three weeks, Blizzard hopes.
If the bootlickers at Blizzard make a statment, it will be similar to the statement just made by fellow bootlickers at lolesports/riot:
https://twitter.com/lolesports/status/1182711322791698432/photo/1
https://twitter.com/lolesports/status/1182711322791698432/photo/1
yes, i didn't think THQ could be overtaken.........but blizzard did it in one day and has only made worse with each passing.
All i can hope is that people keep posting support and more on the reddits and this shit if nothing is done............hits blizzcon full force. I really hope people don't just forgive them for showing some D4 shit and hope those trailers get the most downvotes in history along with nothing but #FreeHongKong in the comments.
For once this is a community united against the bullshit
The whole Vice interview is very informative I recommend reading it all.
I particularly found the fact that prospective employees with offers are pulling out of working for them to be a good sign that pressure is hitting them from even less publicly visible directions.
I also sympathize with the suggestion that the whole industry probably has this problem, and the employee doesn't even know where else they could get a job that is free from this sort of entanglement.
I particularly found the fact that prospective employees with offers are pulling out of working for them to be a good sign that pressure is hitting them from even less publicly visible directions.
I also sympathize with the suggestion that the whole industry probably has this problem, and the employee doesn't even know where else they could get a job that is free from this sort of entanglement.
Yeah, some quotes from the end of that article sum it up the whole situation pretty well:
Everyone loses either way, Blizzard got the unenviable position of having the spotlight thrust on them for something that's affecting the whole market. There's no way they can spin this positively, and there's no way the higher ups and legal team will let anyone walk it back at the risk of irritating China and losing cash flow.
They are praying to whatever god they believe in(that almighty dollar) that people will just move on and forget.
It's pretty well known that Blizzard pays below industry standard and has long attracted talent based on their pedigree. Now that the pedigree is collapsing (which started long before this, to be fair), it makes sense folks are going to be less interested in working there.
I concur (from extensive personal experience in entertainment communications/PR) that this is a wildly sensitive and complicated subject to address with all audiences. But one of the number one roles in comms (internal/employee-focused, or external/PR) is that you try and get ahead of the story before it's written for you.
That they haven't said anything is really troubling...
From the Vice interview:
Brutal to read. I sympathize a ton with all the employees there whose work I've loved for decades.
Also, the Vice article indicates a video was coming from Brack for employees, although it's been delayed. And they posted *something* for employees, at least, even if it was a low-effort "I'm listening" notice. It's kind of terrible, but better than outright silence.
That they haven't said anything is really troubling...
From the Vice interview:
Brutal to read. I sympathize a ton with all the employees there whose work I've loved for decades.
Also, the Vice article indicates a video was coming from Brack for employees, although it's been delayed. And they posted *something* for employees, at least, even if it was a low-effort "I'm listening" notice. It's kind of terrible, but better than outright silence.
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There is absolutely a good answer. They support Hong Kong and their right to protest. China is all bark and the more companies push back the more they will see this. Just stand for what is right and say that if they lose business it is worth it to uphold the right to protest. Turn what is already the worst thing I have seen a gaming company face into a feelgood moment of solidarity. This is a clear decision imo.
The alternative is to yield to ccp censorship which will become a constant problem to appease that they will have to tackle endlessly especially as China gets even more aggressive in controlling the message. I think to stay the course long term is the path of most resistance.
If "Out of season April Fools joke" was them being nice... whew I'm excited
They can't "keep the light on" regardless of whether they get money from China because blizzard is likely to lay off tons of employees even after record profits.
Why are we painting this like Blizzard is actually in a tough spot? Don't fucking take money from oppressive regimes. Jesus Christ.
Riot is 100% owned by Tencent so this shouldn't come as a surprise.
I don't think anyone's saying Blizzard is in a tight spot morally, there's an obvious correct answer for what to do.
But the reality is that they're not going to, and the alternative is to give up the cash to someone else because this is absolutely going to keep happening at other places as well. Late stage capitalism is fun, because the right answer is to effectively get out of the game.
They're not in a tough spot, morally. They're in a tough spot in every other way that counts. It is a nightmare to try and get far smaller decisions made than this one with all the entanglements, contracts, and stakeholders involved. It's never as simple as we think it is, in practical terms. Again: morally, it's absolutely the right thing to do. But making it reality is a fucking Kobayashi-Maru-esque mess.
If I could only show you what I had to do this week to get two TWEETS out about a topic with zero moral ambiguity....it's INSANE. A decision like this can't (and probably shouldn't) be made hastily. But they absolutely have to start communicating. They have to say something. They have to give us and their people an indication of where the discussion is.
It's probably not a situation that's fixable by individuals or singular corporate decisions. Media trade policy and international investment policy needs to take media censorship into account.
It's funny to think back to our hubris in the 90s expecting free trade to export democracy. You always expect everyone else to be manipulatable, but never expect yourself to be.
It's funny to think back to our hubris in the 90s expecting free trade to export democracy. You always expect everyone else to be manipulatable, but never expect yourself to be.
Sigh. That was a mixed bag. Most of it is justifications for the ban and whataboutism. He says he disagrees and supports Hong Kong but that is the smallest part of the video.
These kinds of takes really make me convinced nothing is going to happen, no change is going to be made and Blizzard will keep doing business as usual when they decide to drop all kinds of nice blingies as a distraction during Blizzcon. Though I don't know what I was hoping for to begin with.
Such defeatist attitudes.
If people dont want to Boycott Blizzard because they simply don't believe this is a big deal, fine.
This whole "it's terrible but we can't do a thing about it" defeatest bullshit is the most asinine thing.
Worst part is that most if not all the comments agree that Tali did a "reasonable and not driven by emotion" response and that he did the proper research before ranting.
It's depressing seeing the people who should be doing something wave it away.
The guy is a Blizzard defender/apologist, always has been. He's basically Blizzard PR.
He is eloquent and that is enough to convince some people. Even if most of what he is saying is horsehit. It was literally a video of everything I hate about this. "Why do anything!" "Why give Blizzard a hard time if you don't give Apple a hard time."
Like holy shit change has to start somewhere. Does it make any sense at all to take on the biggest megacorps out there or do you make a smaller company change position and hope it starts a chain reaction.
The entire video is full of dumb shit. Says he protests but mainly cause it's down the street. This is his way of making fun of westerners that protest. Then he says he was going to not go to Blizzcon but last night changed his mind because he can't boycott all companies with China ties... such a manipulative trash video.
"Keep the lights on?"
What are they some shoe-string budget mom and pop store? Last I checked Activision-Blizzard was a BILLION dollar company. What the entire company is going to go under without access to the Chinese market? A move that would also hurt Chinese business/companies invested in the industry?
GTFO with that "poor ol' us" logic. Not being able to make even more billions due to restricted access to China is not a justification for supporting an oppressive regime and doing their work for them.
Apparently they don't need to, they've got youtubers doing it for free!
The statements by Sottle, Raven and another caster that are still doing Blizzcon literally read like variation of the exact same statement. So many pr statements from everyone but Blizzard
Reading all the subreddits for Blizzard games gives me hope that there is a lot of people who won't let it die down. Shills like Taliesin seem to be the minority here.
And another of those billion dollar companies that doesn't pay taxes. Well, not sure a single one of 'em does but fuck if that's a valid excuse.
Seriously hard to feel sorry for these unethical giants earning fewer billions of profit.
I think what they meant is if they were to say piss off China as a response and be barred from doing business in China as a result, it would cause a significant impact to their business which would in turn likely lead to a significant restructuring/layoffs among other things. It just is what it is. There's no option to be in for them that doesn't have a significant effect on their business. So, we'll see how they go about it. It being a successful company overall doesn't mean they can willingly just cut off an arm on a whim. Likely why they haven't said a thing yet.
Do not look at youtubers or streamers whose livelihoods literally depend on blizzard games being successful/relevant. I don't understand why anyone would. Few would go out of their way to nuke their income, as sad as that may be.
Going by the comments on that post, the Blizzard situation seems to escalate to other, similar companies. Which is very good.
To be clear, I'm not defending anything about this. They've got the money to survive, they easily could. I already said there's a clear, morally unambiguous choice here. But they're a public company and those investors demand growth, so if they're not going to suckle at the teat of China, the executives would sooner gut more of the operation than face a loss. The company wouldn't go under, but they absolutely would start hacking away at it just to keep the bottom line steady.
It's a shitty situation, but from the perspective of an employee who is just trying to survive, I get it. The same things crap keeps happening with almost every large corporation and it's only going to get worse until someone actually starts slapping sanctions on these actions.
One can only hope that this keeps escalating to the point where companies feel that making business in China like this is too risky and not worth the constant kowtowing.
Would be curious how the CPP would react if a large number of the giants no longer does business over there. You gotta keep your masses entertained, after all, and if you remove many worldwide trendy toys...
But yeh, no point in dreaming about that for a long time.
Would be curious how the CPP would react if a large number of the giants no longer does business over there. You gotta keep your masses entertained, after all, and if you remove many worldwide trendy toys...
But yeh, no point in dreaming about that for a long time.
I'm hoping people keep it alive just to troll and shit on blizzard if nothing else.
Like, it would be great if someone asked awkward questions at blizzcon out of legitimate care about the subject, but I'll take someone doing it for the lulz if it keeps the convo alive.
I hope more companies realize that Chinese money comes with huge potential drawbacks as well.
I'm really interested who else from the big ones in the industry is keeping a very close eye on all of this. I can imagine a lot of pr people trembling and going they won't be next.
There's not much to talk about until they say something.
If they don't, there will be plenty to talk about when Blizzcon comes.
Because theyre just not going to take questions and or ensure the mic gets cut off anytime someone starts a question about this. I fully believe that no protest is going to be visible at blizcon this year so they can stay quiet and hope it blows over with diablo 4 and OW2 announcements.
THQ is like, thank fuck these idiots exist.
Even if Blizzard cuts the mic or delays camera feeds, there will undoubtedly be people recording any protests that occur regardless of Blizzard's actions.
They've basically given attendees three weeks to plot how to get through.
Entire gaming and tech world is now waiting for Blizzard's response. This or another thread will pick up again once we have something new to discuss. I can't imagine Blizzard not saying anything with just 19 days left to Blizzcon. It would be the biggest elephant in the room of any gaming event I can ever think of.
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