His point about "There is consequence" is pretty strong and hard to argue against....
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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
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His point about "There is consequence" is pretty strong and hard to argue against....
Found this on Blizzard subreddit:
Pretty much
It's really a shame for Blizzard. They always supported pro human/freedom values and actively promoted them. As soon as those values cross chinese government restrictions they take a u-turn.
Imo that clearly shows they do not stand behind those values after all. They just look at ways to make the most money. I'm disappointed.
The entire time I was reading the statement, something felt off about it to me. This explains it. A native English speaker would never put, "there is a consequence" in a press release.
The ". . ." at the start was suspect, but I didn't read too much into the rest of the statement... but holy shit, it's absolutely not J Allen Brack or even the NA PR team for blizzard writing this.
These kind of things do happen in english, but not in a (should be) well reviewed, several copies, PR piece.
Blizzard is in an unenviable position. It's a no-win situation. Once Blitzchung forced it's hand, the heavy-handed response only made things a lot worse.
Being lgbtq is not a political statement. This picture seems more like trying to drag them under the bus as well.Found this on Blizzard subreddit:
Pretty much
I might be completely off on that, though.
"Divisive social or political views"
The spirit is the same, but they don't stand to lose money and may even profit of LGBT views so they're allowed.
The last bit about "There is a consequence" is pretty damning, and we know for a fact that they lied in the press release so they've opened themselves up to this type of accusation.
That seems like such a dumb conspiracy to me. Awful PR talk does usually sound awkward, especially if you don't have anything good to say. Isn't it enough to understand that Blizzard bows to the CPP purely for financial intentions anyway?
Let's stay on the ground. No fucking way would they just let someone from China write this for them...
The fuck you mean it's not a political statement?
It fucking is and they are pro LGBTQ because, like all companies, they make money on it, by pretending they care.
Where money cannot be made, Hong Kong protest, they do not support
Whether it should be or not, it's certainly divisive.
I mean, I don't think human beings wanting to not be extradited to fascist governments illegally is a 'political statement' either, but, y'know.
The point is that they're full of shit.
Just going to point out that Blizzard omit LGBT info for their characters in China so they would appear straight. So it's another incidence of them kowtowing their values for Chinese Government which is anti LGBT
Bullshit-grade PRspeak and milquetoast slight backpedal, which is about what I expected. The only thing that surprises me is that they're still punishing the casters, which I guess means is the one point China is adamant about. Of course they tiptoe around it and only adress it in a single particularly bullshit line in the entire lengthy non-apology.
Unfortunately this will be enough to appease a lot of fans of their games into forgetting the whole thing, which of course is the whole point.
Unfortunately this will be enough to appease a lot of fans of their games into forgetting the whole thing, which of course is the whole point.
Support for the LGBT community constitutes a mild political statement here, but it's extremely divisive in China and Russia. I don't think you can downplay that.
Do you think it's a stretch that china would dictate some of the language in a PR statement? The whole point of this controversy is to appease china. I think it''s a stretch to say blizzard would draft a statement without running it by them. They have to defend the dignity of their homeland, remember?
It ABSOLUTELY is. Everything is political, some people affected more by politics than others so it's often difficult to grasp if you live a relatively privileged western life. If Russia had anything like the sway China has over Blizzard, there's no way Blizzard would be so free to push LGBTQ rights like they so frequently do (they already censor LGBTQ aspects of Overwatch out of the Russian market). So trying to pretend that the right to free speech and campaigning for democracy goes against their rules and has nothing to do with the tournament being in China, is just blatant bullshit.
Yeah, I've been teaching English in Taiwan for five years, and while the highlighted parts can be a hallmark of a native Mandarin speaker trying to write formally in English, they can also just be the hallmark of someone who doesn't really have a solid grasp of English conventions. I'd file it under "maybe, but probably not."
Nice damage control Blizzard.
I can't believe they seriously think for a second they can convince anyone that this had nothing to do with their relationship with China.
I can't believe they seriously think for a second they can convince anyone that this had nothing to do with their relationship with China.
Interestingly, as a non-native speaker, "there is a consequence" doesn't sound to weird to me. Perhaps Spanish and Chinese have similar structures. :D
However, "We now believe he should receive his prizing." sound extremely weird to me. Is this even proper English? I have never seen "prizing" used like this.
Yes, "prizing" is not really used like that. "Prize" as a verb is reserved for valuing something, usually in the past participle form ("The mushrooms were prized for their aroma,") and the gerund form is really rare as the object of a sentence. "There is a consequence" is not weird in terms of phrasing, but rather tone; it's the kind of paternalistic tone you'd expect from a Chinese authority, not a PR statement, but there's really not enough evidence to suggest that's what's going on here. It could be instead written that way to signal compliance with certain standards.
Ah, my apologies, didn't know that about him. Only saw that he was one of the leads at Blizzard and thought this sounded quite relevant.
Some one posted earlier that the old CEO publicly denounced GG.
Prizing is defo not a word. And for the other statement the normal English phrase would be There are consequences- I've never heard There is a consequence being used.
Companies only exist to make money. For all the games Blizzard has done, many of them I love, but we all have to agree on this, or the discussion is fucked. Some also engage in social progress, but only when it aligns with the profit motive, and when it doesn't, that shits out the window.
At the very core, people are asking Blizzard to cut ties with China, and make less money, and that's where it stops.
At the very core, people are asking Blizzard to cut ties with China, and make less money, and that's where it stops.
It's their choice. Either they drop the Chinese market or they loose a lot of the western one.
What A disgusting, lying, POS statement. One of the dumbest statements I have seen.
They got poo on their hands and instead of cleaning it with water, they used poo water, and then they try to convince people that they cleaned their hands lol.
They got poo on their hands and instead of cleaning it with water, they used poo water, and then they try to convince people that they cleaned their hands lol.
Yeah. Nah.
Glad the kid got paid, but this is still maximum bullshit.
Blizzard are still talking out of the side of their mouth, and still plainly care more about not offending the CCP than they do about the CCP's multitudinous human rights abuses.
"We as a company, promote to the point of exploiting the ideal of basic human rights because it will produce good will and make us money. But since every voice matters we have listened loud and clear the voice of Chinese government so we do not do such things there."
The official broadcast is a place "about the tournament and where everyone should feel welcome"
So basically what you're saying is Hong Kongers who believe in their own independence aren't welcome
Well played, Blizz. Well played.
So basically what you're saying is Hong Kongers who believe in their own independence aren't welcome
Well played, Blizz. Well played.
still can't delete my account completely without sending them an ID. if you black out everything but the name and dob will that still work?
nevermind: authenticator worked today to remove my account, removal ticket was successfully created
nevermind: authenticator worked today to remove my account, removal ticket was successfully created
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Tfw you get someone in China to ghostwrite a blog post for you denying any influence from China.
God damn it, this. As a non-native english speaker, something felt off for me too. But I could not determine the reason for that. Jesus, blizzard keeps sinking to lows that I could not have imagined when I was 20-22 years old, dreaming about maybe maybe someday working for them. Even James Cameron could not follow them to where they have went. This is too deep.
I found the fact that certain parts of the statement was indented to be strange
One small but noteworthy development that has been overlooked: according to a known Blizzard source on a private Discord channel, part of the restitution for Blitzchung is that he has not been removed from Hearthstone Grandmasters. This was conspicuously omitted from the statement from Brack.
I am not personally familiar with either the Discord channel or the source in question, and this obviously doesn't stand in for any official communication, but Slasher seems confident this is coming from an established liaison.
Blitzchung has indicated that he plans to issue his own response and answer questions about his plans soon. To be honest, I would be astonished if he returned to the game after this. He can't be happier with the statement than any of us, and at this point even the restitution of the prize money is tainted.
In the meantime: perhaps there is no stopping this runaway train, but I'd like to reiterate that I find it unwise to fixate on the question of Who Really Wrote the Statement. Brack signed off on it either way; it's his job to tank the damage. As I've said previously, something does stink about this, as though Blizzard's usual PR and crisis management at home has been short-circuited, but let's proceed on the basis of certainties as much as we can.
I am not personally familiar with either the Discord channel or the source in question, and this obviously doesn't stand in for any official communication, but Slasher seems confident this is coming from an established liaison.
Blitzchung has indicated that he plans to issue his own response and answer questions about his plans soon. To be honest, I would be astonished if he returned to the game after this. He can't be happier with the statement than any of us, and at this point even the restitution of the prize money is tainted.
In the meantime: perhaps there is no stopping this runaway train, but I'd like to reiterate that I find it unwise to fixate on the question of Who Really Wrote the Statement. Brack signed off on it either way; it's his job to tank the damage. As I've said previously, something does stink about this, as though Blizzard's usual PR and crisis management at home has been short-circuited, but let's proceed on the basis of certainties as much as we can.
So blizzard caved to China
and caved to public pressure
being wrong twice doesn't make you brave.
and caved to public pressure
being wrong twice doesn't make you brave.
The "we absolutely are and I will explain" part comes off as very weird. Even for an apology/explanation press release, that's still a very weird way to phrase things. It sounds more like something you would see in a poorly written high school essay.
Again, what is with the way this is written? I know PRSpeak. I've written press releases before. Nobody writes like this. It comes off as someone writing a bad essay.
More weird phrasing.
I have never heard anyone use the term "prizing" before. The sentences after also read weirdly.
Here's the "there is a consequence" part we all know about.
I'm sorry, but there is no way someone can read this and feels like it comes off as written by a native English speaker born and raised in America.
Boo!-Bell even linked to another Brack press release in this vein here: https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/22887360/message-from-j-allen-brack
Compare the two. THAT is PRSpeak and how one of these things is actually written.
Yes it is. There is an entire political party in America that is fighting against LGBTQ rights tooth and nail. Just yesterday there was a thread about Uganda voting on a "Kill the Gays" law. The only place where LGBTQ issues aren't political is in the minds of people who wish they weren't political and don't want to face reality.