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Blizzard is banning people in its Hearthstone Twitch chat for pro-Hong Kong statements
- Thread starter Deleted member 18944
- Start date
They are going to have to sincerely address it in the opening speech otherwise it's going to be a shit show. People will be bum rushing the stage non stop.
Money over Freedom, Bizcon going to be amazing for seeing how they'll try to milk all the sheep.
There's definitely some truth in this. Whoever is advising or informing their PR policy on this is having an absolute horror show.
Having a rule where contestants are forbidden from making political statements on their platforms and at their events might have been possible were it clearly communicated in the first place. Distancing themselves from a contestants remarks and seeking to appear neutral if they really want that Chinese money may have been possible too. But knee jerking the moment Blitzchung won has kind of left them in a no win scenario. Give the winnings back? Too late, you took it away first. Release an awfully worded statement justifying why you did it in the first place? Not as good as admitting it was pure and simple a PR blunder borne out of tip-toeing around commercial interests and seeking to avoid alienating mainland Chinese investors and customers. Now every subsequent piece of censorship is inherently related to the whole saga, every incident worsens the optics, and - like a snowball effect - it continually draws attention to the thing you're hoping will quietly go away.
Just let people say what they want to say. You can't have a devoted, international fandom and a player base that's supposed to respect and love your work, and at the same time expect to thought police it. Honestly, they should be reviewing their comms, events and social media / online people top to bottom, doling out consequences internally - and letting people say whatever the hell they want. They don't have to broadcast anything they don't want to be associated with, they don't have to promote anything they don't want to be associated with, they just need to do the commercially sensible thing and stick to their events and their product. Respect the customer.
This is exactly what I expect to happen. No on stage presentations, no QAs, just a Direct video for each of their franchises.
Supposedly they have to have something else since they sell exclusive stage content for Virtual Tickets.
The more they pull shit like this, the bigger a shitshow Blizzcon will be. I hope they keep doubling down on this shit just so that Blizzcon can be as big of a shitshow as possible.
Havent they already promised a bunch of content for their paying customers? If people bought Blizzcon tickets and were promised certain events that dont happen or end up being watered down then thats probably going to be a shitstorm all by itself.
Maaaaan the heat they would get...
Oh absolutely.
I honestly wouldn't be shocked if they mute the audience and pipe in their own cheers and remove any trouble makers with haste. Planted people asking questions.
None of it would surprise me if i am blizzard i go on complete lockdown and control the whole thing. Problem is though, people have phones. But this is all assuming people there even give a shit.
Those "live"-streams are all going to have a 30-second delay, minimum. You know, they're gonna "fish tank" it like CBS does with the Big Brother feeds if anything untoward happens.
None of that solves people wearing shirts or carrying signs though.
You either die a sole proprietor or live long enough to be corporation.
My 1 year ban is permanent now.
It is one thing to censor your products but another to attack the rights of your fans.
My 1 year ban is permanent now.
It is one thing to censor your products but another to attack the rights of your fans.
Is it selfish to say that I actually hope that they don't have fully open Q&A sessions, regardless of what happened last year and this year?
The sessions where they prescreen the questions have so much more quality questions and answers.
I guess I expect people to ask interesting things about the lore or some design decision and what not, and not why it has been 14 years since they were promised a green version of this sword or that item or something just super niche. :D I don't blame people asking the questions they want, but still, hahahh, some sessions would be better if they have filtered questions.
It might be too late to cancel Blizzcon. No way the venue is going to refund the money when it's in a couple weeks plus they'll have to refund all the ticket sales. They gotta go do it.
As far as I've seen for the past few years, all of the stage panel Q&As have been pre-screened. However, that doesn't stop a person from submitting one question and asking another, which gets you the diablo meme from last year.
I actually found the informal q&A sessions with the devs that used to happen off stage way more interesting, because people would ak more in depth questions about balance and content design. But those have gone the way of the dodo.
Anyway, I'm still going and will wear my choice of shirts and put a Mei meme on my ipad. But I'm sitting quietly and minding my own business, unless there is more direct PR nonsense from on high.
It does because Blizzard can remove any and all of these people from the event. But again this is assuming people going actually give a fuck about the situation.
Signs will never get through the front door and same with shirts unless they are hiding it which can 100% result in getting kicked out.
Wasn't aware the Diablo Immortal questions were prescreened. But perhaps they were and I don't remember. It's been a while. :D
Doing that in itself will generate heat on social media too. There's no winning here.
"Blizzard kicks out Blizzcon attendees for wearing Hong Kong shirts" is another PR storm to deal with, bigger than having people show on stream with it.
I'd be shocked if more than 12 were there protesting. I think the majority of blizzard fans don't give a fuck.
Events do this all the time. Worst case scenario if they let them in is what i earlier. Don't cut to audience, pipe in fake audio and mute the crowd and have stand in people to ask questions. Either way they they are going to get hate but the fact they haven't changed their stance tells me people aren't quitting their games in any significant amount which doesn't surprise me because i still stand by most people don't give a shit.