So the account deletion is possible again?
I want mine gone. They have nothing for me now that Bungie did the right thing and bailed
I want mine gone. They have nothing for me now that Bungie did the right thing and bailed
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Blizzard Releases Statement, Reduces Blitzchung And Casters' Suspension To Six Months And Restores Blitzchung's Prize Money
- Thread starter Deleted member 18944
- Start date
Account deletion stilll asks me for a photo ID and their taiwan traditional chinese page is completely down on my end.
"Sorry, not sorry" really isn't what people were wanting to hear from you, Blizzard.
You had better hope the Chinese pick up a lot of the slack for you going forward, because you've lost everyone else, especially smaller countries in the Asian subcontinent who absolutely despise China's influence.
I mean it was of their own free will. There were no legal consequences for them (an American company) from doing nothing in this situation. I'm not even sure China would've banned their games, considering it was just the actions of one player.
"We had to do this or lose the Chinese market" would at least be... something, a concrete confession of their real values.
If they actually did this to preemptively suck up to Pooh, holy shit, that's even more pathetic than I imagined.
This statement sounds like it was the result of a negotiated compromise with the Chinese government. In other words, it's garbage.
Fuck Blizzard. At least Blizzcon should be really interesting this year.
Fuck Blizzard. At least Blizzcon should be really interesting this year.
Whoever is going to Blizzcon, PLEASE try and get footage of the amount of security at the door now that it's out that the place is gonna be invaded by protestors lol
Being less punitive on the subject should have been the first decision? How about not punishing anyone for speaking up against oppression by a genocidal regime.
When you finally wake up to a statement by them and it's a heap of trash. Yikes.
Good luck keeping all your employees in the next few months. Especially when quite a number of those will likely feel humiliated when they have to deal with angry fans at Blizzcon over the deplorable decisions from you stupidly rich top manager fucks.
Good luck keeping all your employees in the next few months. Especially when quite a number of those will likely feel humiliated when they have to deal with angry fans at Blizzcon over the deplorable decisions from you stupidly rich top manager fucks.
Do they usually allow political messaging of any kind on their platforms? I'm sure their rules have something addressing things like this. That's motivation enough for a ban. Their own relationship with China just makes the situation unfortunate, but only potentially hazy as the ban could be(seen as) politically motivated.
I'm not understanding the people saying he shouldn't have been banned at all. Is this solely because they agree with the players' stance on freeing Hong Kong? Blizzard aren't required to provide a platform for anyone's political protests and banning him will discourage others from thinking it's ok to attempt the same through their events. It's not like they're pushing the opposing message, is it?
If you began hosting events intended for entertaining everyone and people involved started using them to push their political views you would exclude them from participating.
Edit: I want to make it clear that I have no interest in stoking the anger here, I've just seen Blizzard's actions as the normal actions of a business, I.e., concerned with profit and business as usual.
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Yeah, well, one puts its citizens into concentration camps and harvests their organs, among many other things, but sure, let's go with "both sides" and whataboutism, I guess.
Can you remember them ever doing anything substantive during the height of GamerGate?
Of course they wait until Friday for it to not be as covered by the news and to "minimize" the damage. That and a 6 month ban is still huge.
The other issue is that blizz is incredibly incredibly inconsistent with this type of ban and chose not to enforce it when the same thing happened elsewhere which is a major issue in general. If your gonna have a rule enforce the fuck out of it.
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There's a lot of suspicion from some linguists/native Chinese speakers stating that this reads exactly like it was written by a native chinese speaker. There are so many awkward sounding phrases and grammar mistakes that are extremely common to a native chinese speaker apparently. Here's an analysis:
I don't have anything to add other than I'm glad they gave his prize money back but 6 month ban is still absurd. They're not going to get anywhere until they reverse the whole thing.
i mean, as soon as something like this happens in destiny 2 bungie will also buckle.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/assets/4379635/image_38293_fit_940.jpg)
Bungie gets $100 million investment from Chinese gaming company NetEase
Expanding beyond Destiny to ‘build new worlds’
www.theverge.com
(before someone gets trigger happy, this is not a defense of blizzard, it's just to show that most companies are partially owned by a chinese one and that one way or the other the CCP has power)
Political statements are an incredibly vague category; there is no way to enforce it without selectively choosing to attack particular unwelcome opinions. Especially for vulnerable groups, their very existence can be a political issue in regions, certainly their rights would be.
On a broader level, you can claim damn near anything to be political. Someone just saying they're from a country is giving legitimacy to that state (there are a number of countries out there that people deny exist!), and possibly pushing for people to define themselves according to the government they're citizens of as opposed to all of the other ways that people can use to define their identity.
So, even if that's the rule, the fact that Blizzard chose to enforce it now makes a statement about their ulterior motives simply because it's what they decided what political.
It isn't bad to target specific political stances. Nazism is a political movement. Fuck that shit. I'll be happy if that's banned. But you don't ban it because it's political, you ban it because it's an ideology that espouses the abuse of vulnerable groups and allowing that ideology would allow support for that abuse.
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My understanding is that Blizzard China enforced the rules. If the rules are the rules and they aren't meant to be political, then I see this as an unfortunate circumstance.
The problem is that Blizzard China piped in and talked about defending the pride of their country, making the punishment inherently political. Whoever made that statement also needs to be held accountable.
The problem is that Blizzard China piped in and talked about defending the pride of their country, making the punishment inherently political. Whoever made that statement also needs to be held accountable.
Oh, okay. Blizzard didn't just cower before tyranny, it's actually consistent with their values.
Better clear up those misunderstandings about Chinese influence and tighten up your policies, that's the REAL problem here.
Cowardly lickspittles.
Better clear up those misunderstandings about Chinese influence and tighten up your policies, that's the REAL problem here.
Cowardly lickspittles.
Good he got his cash. Blizzard can go fuck themselves. He didn't do anything wrong and instead you assholes decided to fuck him over just to please China. Fuck right off.
There is a section of the statement after the 6 month ban announcement that they make it clear he is "welcome back into the pro circuit if and when he wishes."
I hope he publicly tells them to get fucked personally. Use this story to spin up some support behind another game like Hearthstone for people to get behind. Maybe even get the devs of said game to do some sort of promo in support of Hong Kong just to really twist the dagger.
Isn't it interesting how people who always say that we shouldn't paint all of China in a bad way and that we shouldn't make it a 2 sides thing always bring in the US and imperialism/something we did wrong in the past as a whataboutism?
"One of our goals at Blizzard is to make sure that every player, everywhere in the world, regardless of political views, religious beliefs, race, gender, or any other consideration always feels safe and welcome both competing in and playing our games."
Political views = free HK/fuck the nazi 🤔
Political views = free HK/fuck the nazi 🤔
Man Blizzard used to be the top of everyone's "best developer" list a few years back and even though I never played anything from them, I agree from just looking at their catalogue of games.
But right now, they are at the bottom of the gaming industry in everyone's eyes.
But right now, they are at the bottom of the gaming industry in everyone's eyes.
6 month suspension is 6 months too long. Free Hong Kong.
What are they telling their chinese customers? Probably something completely difference.
What a fucking joke lol. Blizzard is done.
What are they telling their chinese customers? Probably something completely difference.
What a fucking joke lol. Blizzard is done.
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While I personally think Blitzchung will never return to Hearthstone, he did post this:
https://twitter.com/blitzchungHS/status/1182883648313253888
It's relevant on subjects where US Imperialism/interventionism actually had a role in creating the bad situation. China is not one of those situations, US has very little responsibility for the current Chinese government and it's abhorrent practices.
Absolutely! Blizz loves China inconditionally, and was worried China might sour up.
I consider the player needed some kind of sanction for breaking ToS, but 2 weeks are more than enough, even a bit high.
I'm not sure about the 'China actually wrote all of this' theory, but I'm 100% on board with this being a bad statement. Really curious if they will actually do Q&A sections at Blizzcon at this point.
Also, regardless of Blitzchungs' situation: If Blizzard keeps the casters' status as is - fired immediately - they still absolutely have what they really wanted out of this. No other shoutcaster who likes to get paid will ever allow this talk from now on and will instantly cut off anyone who's even trying to bring it into an interview. Which also means, no one will blame Blizzard/China for this when it happens, only the casters who shut down an interview.
edit I didn't see the casters' penalty also went to "only" half a year. Still, this is simply using fear tactics against future casters/players alltogether.
Also, regardless of Blitzchungs' situation: If Blizzard keeps the casters' status as is - fired immediately - they still absolutely have what they really wanted out of this. No other shoutcaster who likes to get paid will ever allow this talk from now on and will instantly cut off anyone who's even trying to bring it into an interview. Which also means, no one will blame Blizzard/China for this when it happens, only the casters who shut down an interview.
edit I didn't see the casters' penalty also went to "only" half a year. Still, this is simply using fear tactics against future casters/players alltogether.
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Basically the whole of that Blizzard statement was "keep politics out of our games". It's basically keeping China happy whilst trying to also pander to the right as well.
Did they already forget that the world realized their Western response is nothing but smoke and mirrors, and it has been globally established their statements to the Chinese Government is considered to be the true ones.
Nothing in the Western statement is addressing the rage Blizzard expressed against the Blitzchung and casters, and also not addressing the fact they proudly announced that Blizzard would do anything to uphold the dignity of China.
Nothing in the Western statement is addressing the rage Blizzard expressed against the Blitzchung and casters, and also not addressing the fact they proudly announced that Blizzard would do anything to uphold the dignity of China.
Blizzcon will be really interesting 6 after last year (mobile Diablo) and this, I can't see them do any open mike q&a anywhere.
If they do, it will be amazing!
That said, fuck em. After years and years of slowly losing me as a player, this is the finals straw to put them in my EA corner.
I have enough to play as is and my memories of playing Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 will always be one of my best game experiences.
They have a lot of work in front of them of they want to come back from this.
If they do, it will be amazing!
That said, fuck em. After years and years of slowly losing me as a player, this is the finals straw to put them in my EA corner.
I have enough to play as is and my memories of playing Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 will always be one of my best game experiences.
They have a lot of work in front of them of they want to come back from this.