Blizzard + Late 2019 USA: A Confessional

[Deleted member 23893]

10.06.2019

Just convinced a long time friend that just moved back into town, that he should play Overwatch with me. I played back in 2016 at launch, and had a good time, but hadn't played much since then. Recently though, I had picked it up on PS4 and was getting back into it.

I've always loved the character designs, and recently my 2 year old daughter took a liking to Tracer, specifically her Christmas skin (not that I let her see the gameplay itself). So it holds a weird place in my heart.

Last year I convinced the same friend to get into Destiny 2 (and pick up a Black Friday PS4 to do so with). After he purchased, he quickly out leveled me. I fell off. Ever since then, he brings up my abandoning of the purchase I convinced him to make in a joking manner (but not that joking). I don't blame him. I resolve that after that debacle, I'm gonna make a concerted effort to play Overwatch with him. For a few nights, we have good fun...

10.08.2019

An epochal shift in how we all view Blizzard takes place.


10.27.2019

I am at a crossroads. My friend continues to want to play. To be honest, so do I. I love the game. But I also feel gross about it. On one hand I want to join in with every #fuckBlizzard bone in my body. On the other, I don't want to waste good will with my friend. Abandoning him with yet another game I convinced him to purchase.

Also, I am fatigued. These past few years have in many ways depleted me. Every Trump argument with a family member. Every rally I've attended. Multiple personal trials beyond that.

In this instance, I don't think I can go all in. And in many ways I disgust myself...

 

[Theswweet]

Roommate started playing OW again shortly after the Blizzard thing. Asked if I want to play, told him I uninstalled B.Net. He asked why and told me it was a dumb reason.

Gah.

 

[Deleted member 8852]

It's fine if you want to spend sometime with your friend, OP. Nobody should feel pressured to do anything against Blizzard.

 

[Chainshada]

While I get the sentiment, it's not a subscription game. If it was WoW then it becomes more of an issue because you're continually giving them money..But they already have your money. I'd feel fine with it as long as I never bought anything off their store. I was very close to coming back to give WoW Classic a shot, they saved me some money.

 

[Lego Killer Moth]

I mean if you already own the game I guess you can play without feeling guilty. Just don't buy any loot boxes or anything and you aren't really supporting Blizz anymore I guess.

 

[Acidote]

Do whatever you want to do, and let your friend do whatever he wants to do.

 

[RoboitoAM]

Man just play the damn game, this is dumb. You already own it.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

I'm the exact same way with Call of Duty. Now I'm seeing people with a lot more geopolitical knowledge rightfully tearing apart some of the uh, "creative liberties" they've taken with actual historical context and it's putting an extra layer of hurt on me. And just to be clear, I know COD has had a very long run of problematic creative choices, and an even more problematic "but it's not political, it's just entertainment" kinda handwave the issue away.

Now personally, there are only two personal times I can ever remember hitting points of intrigue in any part of COD narratives, and that was the nuke scene from COD4 and the discovery about the non-prompt choice moments in Black Ops 2 that can have cascading effects through the story. Outside of that, I've really kind of just looked at them as Hollywood-style military aggrandizement setpieces and I've either just outright held no interest in actually reading much into the underlying context, as the narratives in these games generally just completely fail to grab me in any way. That said, I don't want that to come off as a handwave because I >do< monitor discussions revolving around the narrative issues, I just don't personally pay attention to any of that stuff as I actually play through these games.

And why do I keep playing these games when I know they're horrible? They're just safe, reliable fun for me. I've played every mainline entry in the series since it debuted on PC as a WWII series, and I've only not had fun with COD3 and COD Ghosts. My exact consumption of the games is usually a single breeze through the campaign and then weeks of multiplayer afterwards, and I actually have very little experience with any cooperative modes in any of the games -- I unlocked and dabbled in the original Zombies mode introduced in World at War and haven't touched Spec Ops from MW2 or any other iteration of zombies or coop since, even the times when they got celebrities to play Zombies characters and stuff that I thought seemed cool.

I always feel scummy about it, but I get my moneys worth in fun value out of these games so reliably that it's sort of a truly guilty pleasure. It's so weird to catch reports of them just sneaking creative edits to real history in just to drive the entertainment factor is weird, not to mention how their parent company just handled the Hearthstone and Hong Kong situation.

Anyway, I secede that I have zero grounds to put up a fight or try to justify myself if I get called out -- it feels deserved. I don't read into COD even though it has some heinous shit, and I keep buying them because it's really just fundamentally fun to me and easy for me to ignore all the metatextual problems with its narrative and themes.

 

[Giever]

Just play it if you want to. We're almost all contributing to some manner of atrocity and while that's not an excuse to not try to be better, everyone is going to pick and choose what causes they can fight for or contribute to. If you already own the game and aren't buying lootboxes then you're really only supporting them via playerbase and metrics.

 

[dodo]

playing or not playing a game is not activism. join a local org or something if you really want to make a difference.

 

[Lump]

I cancelled my preorder of W3 Reforged and haven't played any OW since the debacle. I opened OW last week, just looked at the new Halloween items, realized I just didn't care about any of it, and shut off the game without even playing a match. There's just this gross feeling now that just makes me not want to play any of it.

 

[Niosai]

Don't feel shame. They already have your money. Simply playing the game isn't supporting them.

 

[Numberfox]

Roommate started playing OW again shortly after the Blizzard thing. Asked if I want to play, told him I uninstalled B.Net. He asked why and told me it was a dumb reason.

Gah.

Click to shrink...

He sounds like a typical gamer.

 

[Richter1887]

I mean you already paid and have the game so they are not gaining anything if you play it.

If I were you I would boycot them by not buying anything from them in the future.

 

[Deleted member 27751]

As an Australian I have no real understanding as to why American's get so wrapped up in their politics that they literally feel depleted and depressed. I do understand the Blizzard point but not with that much feeling, albeit I do definitely have sympathy for those in Hong Kong suffering the terrible tragedies pushed onto them by a tyrannical China. However what I do know is this: you sound like you need actual real help, not a video game forum help. Seek it please as such dance arounds like this could only lead to worse mental health.

 

[Ashflow]

You want to play the game. Your friend wants to play the game. You both already own it.

Don't overthink it op.

Play the game.

 

[TechnoSyndrome]

It costs more money to Blizzard for you to use the servers in the game you paid for years ago than to not. Just don't buy anything new from them.

 

[m_dorian]

I loved the return of Classic but i felt that unsubscribing from WoW was the only meaningful thing to do to demonstrate my displeasure with Blizzard. And i think that if this is not meaningful to them, it will be for me.

 

[kami_sama]

On the case of OW, I think playing the game isn't that bad.
You're not paying Blizz for it, only if you buy lootboxes would it be bad.

 

[Wispmetas]

As an Australian I have no real understanding as to why American's get so wrapped up in their politics that they literally feel depleted and depressed. I do understand the Blizzard point but not with that much feeling, albeit I do definitely have sympathy for those in Hong Kong suffering the terrible tragedies pushed onto them by a tyrannical China. However what I do know is this: you sound like you need actual real help, not a video game forum help. Seek it please as such dance arounds like this could only lead to worse mental health.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I don't think feeling disgusted with yourself Over playing a game is something normal...

 

[Darkstorne]

However what I do know is this: you sound like you need actual real help, not a video game forum help. Seek it please as such dance arounds like this could only lead to worse mental health.

Click to shrink...

Where did you get that from!? Sounds like he's just exhausted from the last 3 years of right wing politics and how that's straining family relationships. I'm facing the exact same exhaustion in the UK with our Brexit vote, and if anything I'm jealous that Americans get a vote to reverse the Trump problem soon, while I'm likely stuck with Brexit for a lifetime =P That's not a sign of mental health issues - just a sign that he has liberal views that aren't aligning with the direction his country is moving in right now.

OP, I agree with most people here saying you already own the game. No harm jumping in for a game or two a week if you see it as a way of keeping in touch with a friend =)

 

[Daysean]

Bruh have fun with your friends wtf

 

[Deleted member 27751]

Where did you get that from!? Sounds like he's just exhausted from the last 3 years of right wing politics and how that's straining family relationships. I'm facing the exact same exhaustion in the UK with our Brexit vote, and if anything I'm jealous that Americans get a vote to reverse the Trump problem soon, while I'm likely stuck with Brexit for a lifetime =P That's not a sign of mental health issues - just a sign that he has liberal views that aren't aligning with the direction his country is moving in right now.

OP, I agree with most people here saying you already own the game. No harm jumping in for a game or two a week if you see it as a way of keeping in touch with a friend =)

Click to shrink...

Because the way he describes the last three years as being exhausting and with "multiple personal trials beyond that" alongside the clear disgust he personally explains when playing or thinking about the game. While I agree that the actions Blizzard have taken recently are beyond acceptable and in fact they should be raked over the coals for their stupid foot-in-mouth situations so far, this person is clearly facing other demons as well that would be best to gain help from actual professionals and not a gaming forum.

 

[teacup]

ehhhh I think a seperate issue is where do you draw the line. Nintendo / Sony / Microsoft are all supporting blizzard by having their games available. Do we boycott them?

EDIT: and a lot of companies would do the same thing blizzard did If made to

 

[Podge293]

Give it about 2 weeks and most people will stop giving a shit about the latest controversy

 

[SwitchedOff]

OP, if it helps, here's somebody else who has totally ditched Blizzard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtbBaajyuQ

 

[Ryuelli]

Play the game, have fun with your friends.

 

[Acquiesc3]

You paid for it already and want to play with your friend.. so play it. This ain't hard OP, don't let anyone pressure you (especially online folks)

 

[Soundchaser]

Don't worry about the game you already bought, you can boycott the future games at least.

 

[Scuffed]

It's a number of things that has stopped me buying into Blizzard titles. It's not just the Hong Kong censorship. That was just the straw that broke the camel's back. They have a hypocrisy, hubris and disconnect that makes me uncomfortable to support.

 

[Deleted member 20831]

Gift your friend a better game than OW?

 

[Arkeband]

Just don't buy their lootboxes, playing their game isn't tacit support of their executives lack of backbone toward China.

And by that same token, refusing to play their stuff isn't activism.

 

[Deleted member 49535]

You own the game. It's fine if you don't want to support them any further, but not playing anything they've ever made is honestly incredibly dumb. The vast majority of Blizzard probably has the same opinion about China anyway.

Turning to the internet to tell you whether it's fine to play the game or not is also dumb, but then again, you probably only stopped doing it because the internet told you so.

Make your own decisions.

 

[names2hard4you]

Playing Overwatch or not, as sad as it sounds is not gonna solve this huge geopolitical problem. The issue is China's politics, which bleeds into the decision this business has made to not affect its revenue.

Whether you play or not, you won't be sending much of a message to this company, nor will you be actually helping the people in Hong Kong since they already have your money from when you bought the game... If you want to do that, there are organizations you can donate to to help out. Play with your friend.

 

[FreeangelGP05]

Play the game, have fun with your friends.

Click to shrink...

.

 

[Deleted member 10551]

ehhhh I think a seperate issue is where do you draw the line. Nintendo / Sony / Microsoft are all supporting blizzard by having their games available. Do we boycott them?

EDIT: and a lot of companies would do the same thing blizzard did If made to

Click to shrink...

Well, Blizzard went way over the line by being enthusiastic about it. If they had made it merely "no politics in this" , gave a token suspension, and didn't go all in on "defending China's honor"- I would not have deleted my account. The fact they went that far meant there was no going back for them.

The idea is to show other companies that if you act like that, you will lose money and lose customers forever.