J. Allen Brack: Regarding Last Weekend’s Hearthstone Grandmasters Tournament

[Bleu42]

Figured this goes without saying, but they mean him expressing any political views, not just pro HK. I don't know why you need that explained to you.

Then explain to me why an American team, who held up a sign saying FREE HONG KONG, BOYCOTT BLIZZARD received ZERO punishment? Not sure why this situation needs to be explained to you.

[Kallisto]

WOWWWW. Took you less than five minutes to use the EXACT argument we already called bullshit on. Saying "they're both political statements" is like saying "acid and water are both liquids", in the sense that both statements technically correct but intentionally miss the point (that one is harmful and the other is vitally important) in favor of pushing a fallacious strawman narrative. NO ONE is advocating for zero rules. MOST of us are advocating for a company that prides itself on American values like civil liberty and basic human rights to take a stand on behalf of a player whose values clearly align with those.

Oh, and politics being generally satirical in games? Deus Ex, Bioshock, WC3, or virtually ANY OTHER GAME that touches on issues like racism, oligarchy, political philosophy, etc....wave a big 'ol fucking hello.

Sit down clown, you're punching outside your weight class here.

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So you're totes cool with them not banning the American team and subsequently putting out a blatantly political pro-China statement then? Or are you just here to white knight for senpai?

How many times do idiots like you need to be pointed out that the weibo statement didn't come from them and weibo edits everything for the Chinese audience with pro China phrases.

[Kumorii]

LOL reading comprehension.

Care to explain? I've explained, even in that quote you quoted. Nor did I claim they DON'T suck their dick, they could be. I'm saying that the event INDICATES to them being racist, more so than being pro-chinese government for reasons I've gone over. I never made a statement you claim I made, unless you can point to it. Saying something indicates towards something else doesn't mean "suckind chinese dick" isn't happening, that's your assumption and yours alone.

You wanna keep on doing one liners or will you actually try and elaborate your thought, or is that too much to ask?

[Onikaroshi]

For that matter, Metzen went on record with several anti-Trump statements both before and after he was at Blizz. Never heard a peep out of the management on that one ;-)

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There are hundreds of things you can do. Donate. Organize. Send relief aid in the form of food or building materials. Raise awareness.

It's not that you CAN'T do anything. It's that you're too lazy and disconnected to bother. If it's not happening to you, you don't give a shit. And while I certainly can't MAKE you give a shit...consider that someday you may be the one who needs help, and that the person in a position to give it may refuse because they're just as callous as you're being now.

Also, I would love to hear what you're doing about the hate and bloodshed occuring on your own soil (wherever that might be).

None of that is what China and Hong Kong need, what they need is an internal revolution to overthrow the totalitarian gov't, sending aid is putting a band-aid on an amputated limb.

And I do what I can here, vote for the laws that help, donate to charities that are reputable, vote for people who can hopefully make a difference, not my fault that the only people who can win around here are people like trump and Hillary, America needs a hard shift in gov't and the way we do things

[Vasilisa]

So Blizzard finally decided to try and minimaze to losses. Unfortunately for them going into "our relationship with China had nothing to do with that" took a lot of credibility from their statement.

[Humppaveikko]

This is a prime example of a PowerPoint made by the company lawyers.

[Onikaroshi]

Good on you for donating. Do take some time to volunteer, if you can--there was a time when my region was hyperconservative, and thanks to widescale grassroots efforts, it's become a progressive bastion over the space of a single decade. Also keep in mind that a bandaid is still better than letting someone bleed out, and many voices added together can add meaningful external pressure to a foreign policy issue. Especially if one of those voices happens to be one of the largest, richest, and most powerful companies in the gaming industry.

I live in the middle of nowhere in the deep South, not many opportunities to do that, I just prefer to stick to local issues, in country where people still die of starvation even though we're first world

[munkeyinorbit]

Posted at 5 PM on a Friday so it goes under the radar, dismisses the implications of their actions and doesn't even apologize.

Disgusting.

So what are you going to do about it? Nothing I bet.

[Lazuli]

Lol typical damage control, blah blah blah no one cares dude your lies are so fucking obvious.

Hmm I *wonder* why they're too scared to post this on official forums or any other open discussion where we can roast the fuck out of them

[YourPalFleisch]

"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."

¬_¬ uh huh. Can't wait for Blizz's commercial showing the Chinese military and the Hong Kong protesters sharing a game of hearthstone so they can all get a long better. I hear Kendall Jenner is free.

[Calenzo]

Lobosan, I just gotta say, I agree with everything you've said and your analysis is right on the money. I appreciate you and the effort you are putting here in on this thread. Please don't ever let these people dissuade you from behaving the way you know is right, though don't think I need to tell you that.

I do feel the need to tell the rest of you trying to play devils advocate or arguing the other side for whatever reasons that you need to take a step back and try to remain objective. This post from Blizzard is not even an apology, it's barely even resembling something that could be called an apology. It's a basic thing a team of PR people and lawyers sat down together and carefully concocted in order to try and appease their western audience while also not actually losing any ground in China. They apologized to China though, specifically and directly, and vowed to always uphold the pride and dignity of China at all costs. That is what the difference is.

If you want to keep supporting Blizzard or whatever free of a guilty conscience, by all means please continue to do so, but please don't try and help cover their bullshit. Just go away and keep playing your games, stop pretending like you give a shit about people, and stop trying to get in the way of people actually trying to do good.

[protip]

The initial reactions to blitzchung's actions vs. the actions of the AU team show the influence that China had on the decision. Even if the mistake has been corrected, it's clear that Blizzard went out of their way to appease China's government by enforcing censorship on their behalf. An apology and an acknowledgement of the circumstances that led to this mistake is an absolute minimum level of contrition necessary for me to believe that Blizzard is actually learning from this debacle.

[Historical Tenacity]

Presumed Fascist Dictatorship: WTF DO SOMETHING

Blizzard: One year Ban and no prize money because reasons. We'll vigorously defend China and Chinese beliefs without fail and this is not appropriate anywhere.

Rest of the World: WTF?

Blizzard: Our decision wasn't based on what they said or our relationship with China. Everything must be focused about the game.

Also Blizzard: There will be no penalty for AU for not focusing on the game.

Me:

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Glad we got a response at least. As well as a reduction in penalties. But still not a great look.

They probably did honestly just react too quickly with the ban and then reacted too quickly again with AU to try and not fan the flames. Because that contradicts everything they said in the post and ended up backfiring quite a bit. It could genuinely be a mistake, but most likely it was just about money as per the usual.

[Sorshen]

Friday 5pm hypocrisy. J. Allen Brack is a master off bullshit takes.

[TirielWoW]

It's cute how he posted that without the ability for people to leave comments.

He knows exactly what would happen.

[KronoFett]

I'm not shocked at the amount of Blizzdrones in the thread. How can you justify the casters getting fired? Their reasoning still makes no sense. The casters can't control everything the other person says.

Screw you Blizzdrones. I can accept up to a certain point, but I can't accept the casters still getting banned. The stupid "apology" is so hypocritical and half-assed. But really this website is made fun of because of you blind blizzdrones supporting everything Blizzard shits out probably with over 8 store mounts linked to their account.

[Lazuli]

Sorry, but a literal half-apology is not enough.

100% bullshit that they're claiming this had nothing to do with their ties to China.

There is absolutely no way to defend China's violation of basic human rights. They don't deserve to have people bending over backwards to appease them.

If Blizzard was a real company, they'd be using their success and reputation to fight for human rights, not to ignore them because its more financially beneficial.

Companies have a moral responsibility to use their success to fight to improve the world, not just to fight for the biggest profit margins.

You can't "Bring the world together through epic entertainment" until the world is actually on the same page when it comes to human rights, and you can't choose to just ignore the violations while claiming that.

That's not how capitalism works. It goes like this: Fuck everyone else, make $$$$ regardless of the moral cost, occasionally throw up a donation or whatever to humanize our company and NPC suits. Companies are inherently 'evil' by design which is to make money, you can't expect them to do any actual good. No one wants to spend their billions on saving the planet when it could be used furthering your monopoly instead.

Thats why this poor attempt at damage control is so obvious, it so very clearly had to do with their cucklord big dicc daddy China.

[Addiena]

There are a lot of Commies in this thread tonight, or commie apologists at the very least.

[srathgar]

Because they egged him on and was an active part of getting him to say what he did.

[UndedoKoleda]

I have a question for all of you - How would you feel about this whole fiasco, if a Chinese player won the tournament and in his interview said something along the lines of "screw Hong Kong", and got banned for it? Would you be as outrages as you are now?