I don't really think that's up to even J Allen brack. He's still too low on the pole for that decision. I'm pretty sure they would have to have a vote or something. They basically sent brack out to die. I mostly blame kottick and netease. Even still if people really have a problem with this you need to contact your local government.
Seems like a perfectly reasonable and fair resolution. He did knowingly break the rules and should suffer some consequences. Blizzard needs to stay neutral in these matters and that is just what they have done. They don't need to apologize at all.
Desktop ------------------------------- Laptop- Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
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1 TB WD Black SN770 NVMe SSD ------1 TB WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD
People need to understand that it sets precedence. Today it's fighting for human rights for Hong Kong, but tomorrow it's fighting for or against Trump for presidency of 2020. Then, since they didn't ban the previous application of "freedom of speech", where does it stop?
Did they vastly overreact? Yes. They've since lowered the sentencing to six months and returned the money, which is a step in the right direction even if it took community backlash. They're still screwing up in places, but them banning the guy in the first place was not one of those screw ups. The severity was.
Desktop ------------------------------- Laptop- Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU ---------------AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS with Radeon 680M graphics
AMD RX 6600XT GPU -------------------AMD Radeon RX 6800S discrete graphics
16 GB DDR4-3200 RAM ----------------16 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
1 TB WD Black SN770 NVMe SSD ------1 TB WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD
Does anyone actually give a shit about this? Oh no, you got banned from a fictional game with no impact on your actual life. Maybe next time use the proper forum to protest and not at Blizzard's expense.
I can understand them. And actually you can't blame them either.
If a hong kong sympathiser could talk, what about a chinese sympathiser? Or a white supremacist, or basically any one? Where do you fixe the limit? So they don't tolerate anything. It's the only good position they can take.
Ho and more than half the products you buy come from china. So also, stop being hypocrites.
Last edited by Tarba; 2019-10-12 at 06:51 AM.
The opposite actually - you even quoted the exact opposite.
He didn't want MORE freedoms taken away over some protest.
You don't get to influence a game if you aren't in the game, you don't get to influence China if you aren't allowed in China.
It is a fine balance which many of the social media whingers posting in here just aren't aware of.
Sports has long been a way of allowing the world into oppressive regimes, let's keep it that way ok.
Challenge Mode : Play WoW like my disability has me play:
You will need two people, Brian MUST use the mouse for movement/looking and John MUST use the keyboard for casting, attacking, healing etc.
Briand and John share the same goal, same intentions - but they can't talk to each other, however they can react to each other's in game activities.
Now see how far Brian and John get in WoW.
I don't know if they could have crafted a worse statement than this.
Gotta love all the Americans going on about China's oppression and human rights violations while ignoring that the US's record in these areas is as bad - if not worse. (At least China only oppresses its own citizens). At least China does not try to spread communism around the world.
Also, we will protect our national dignity.
I still feel the backlash against Blizzard was misdirected. Although the actions sucked by Western standards, reality is that for every company operating in another country they have to operate by that country's rules. Are China's rules authoritarian like out of 1984 and give no voice to the individual? Absolutely. But China has been that way for 70 years and isn't going to change for the NBA or Blizzard. It's the cost of doing business there. So when something like this happens, the choice to the company is play along or don't do business in China. But China isn't alone in having draconian rules. If you've traveled the world at all you know that in certain countries there are just certain things you cannot do, that are contrary to freedoms in the West. There are plenty of examples of that in minority and women's rights around the world, not just in politics. If someone from a company in Israel says something pro-Palestine, they are going to get a lot of grief there. Vice-versa in some ME countries. There are rules a mile long if you travel in Dubai or UAE. In many countries bribes that you'd be arrested for, in other countries are just the normally expected way to operate. So the "Blizzard is bad I'm unsubbing" reaction just greatly oversimplifies the reality of doing business around the world where laws and cultural expectations often conflict with a lot of Western values, like freedom of speech in this case.
That said, Blizz could really use some decent PR help because the communication around this was handled about as poorly as could be. This letter response is underwhelming too, and about a week late.
Desktop ------------------------------- Laptop- Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU ---------------AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS with Radeon 680M graphics
AMD RX 6600XT GPU -------------------AMD Radeon RX 6800S discrete graphics
16 GB DDR4-3200 RAM ----------------16 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
1 TB WD Black SN770 NVMe SSD ------1 TB WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD
With this being Brack's official reaction I'm looking towards Blizzcon.
I just hope he'll get booed off the stage during the opening celebration. This is gonna be a grand shitshow.
Challenge Mode : Play WoW like my disability has me play:
You will need two people, Brian MUST use the mouse for movement/looking and John MUST use the keyboard for casting, attacking, healing etc.
Briand and John share the same goal, same intentions - but they can't talk to each other, however they can react to each other's in game activities.
Now see how far Brian and John get in WoW.
You can't blame Blizzard for their stance or their actions. This is just the latest outrage fad that the internet is up in arms about, most people'll have forgotten all about it a couple of weeks from now, when there's inevitably going to be something else making them ornery. No point in potentially pissing off China about this. I admit, this one gained more media traction than the usual stuff, so maybe this one'll stick. Though I still very much doubt that it will.
Man, Blizzards leadership are bitches of the China Communist Party. Pathetic slaves to the money. How can they be so spineless.
They're both political statements, one opens the door for the other. They let him do this and next there's pro and anti Trump talk on every winners interview, none of that belongs in a game competition. You say there's politics in video games, and yes, there is, but it's used as a plot device and is generally satirical, playing and watching games is about taking a break from the bullshit we're inundated with on a daily basis.