Blizzard removes HK Hearthstone Champion and takes away his prize to please China

[Kukachu]

Nope

Is up for Blizzard to decide what is wrong and right with that pathetic excuse of a rule that can be bent in any direction.
Blizzard went full Rambo on the guy when they DIDNT had to.
I even bet 10 bucks bobby kotick's mouth was still smelling of cum from Chinas D when they decided to go full rambo on the guy.

So yep then...

[Jshadowhunter]

[Alvito]

What they did is wrong and immoral, they could simply just afk ignore it, why did they need to go that extreme, to firing even the casters who probably had no idea about anything in first place
My hope is ppl chant free Hong Kong in blizzcon, that will f8ck blizz and ruin their bending for china, if they want a piece of china market, they must learn they will lose everywhere else market

They can't just ignore it. A company can't let individuals use them as a bullhorn for their issues. The good news is for this guy he raised more awareness than he could have hoped for.

[Gdcotton]

One year ban, a bit too much yeah. But also,
Keep your fucking politics out of video game related stuff. Its that simple. It isn't a free platform to say what you want like people somehow think it is when there are rules and contracts. He broke the rules, he got punished(excessively a bit). Its that simple. A lot of people are acting like Blizzard is so horrible and opposes the protests(which are a bit much in some areas), when the main thing they strive to do is keep politics out of their games.

[Kathranis]

to firing even the casters who probably had no idea about anything in first place

To be clear, the player was dressed as a protester and they egged him on to use the protest slogan.

[Big Thanks]

One year ban, a bit too much yeah. But also,
Keep your fucking politics out of video game related stuff. Its that simple. It isn't a free platform to say what you want like people somehow think it is when there are rules and contracts. He broke the rules, he got punished(excessively a bit). Its that simple. A lot of people are acting like Blizzard is so horrible and opposes the protests(which are a bit much in some areas), when the main thing they strive to do is keep politics out of their games.

My personal gripe comes from the harshness of the repercussions and from the fact that I dont believe it was done for the greater good of the tournament environment.
That is all.

[Jshadowhunter]

https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/11...464305665?s=20
ex-vanilla wow dev chips in

[Kathranis]

https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/11...464305665?s=20
ex-vanilla wow dev chips in

Does Mark Cern have a career outside of chipping in whenever Blizzard does something?

[Stormdash]

Shameful. Disgusting. Cowardly.

[apustus]

Please, I want this now.
Seriously. Imagine if the majority of all grandmaster players stood with Hong Kong, and people at blizzcon chanted Liberate Hong Kong.
What the fuck would they ever be able to do? They'd be so fucked.
I WANT IT

LET IT HAPPEN

Well don't let us stop you. I assume you already have your ticket ready?

[Socialhealer]

Does Mark Cern have a career outside of chipping in whenever Blizzard does something?

The guy is better than any schmuck yesman ass kissing devoid of ideas dev working at blizzard now.

classic wow & d2, some of the best blizzard has ever made, so good they had to bring classic back! and diablo 2 > diablo 3 > diablo immortal.

Of course blizzard disagrees because those old games lack MTX, which is the only reason to make a game in 2019, loot boxes content = best content!

[Sinraye]

Think about it another way. Let's say you support LGBT rights. Let's say you support the BLM movement. How would you feel if you came out of your house tomorrow morning to find your house and car covered in spray-painted rainbows and BLM messages? They're just trying to get their message out. Why do you care that they fucked up your house and car to do it?

That's basically what happened to Blizzard when this idiot said those things on Blizzard's platform. They can support his message, but not by risking the ability of all Chinese citizens to access their games.

There are ways to support certain types of movements, but very often that requires us to be discreet about it.

Your example is not the same thing, what you are talking about is destroying property with spray paint on a physical object which has nothing to do as a medium for communication. The purpose of a camera and an interview is to serve as communication mediums to the public, and punishing someone on ambiguous grounds for a small statement is censurship and against freedom of expressing ones opinion - keep in mind that we are not talking about opinions that oppress a people group - like if the person saluting hitler, at most it insults a government which one should be able to voice their disdain over (even if that was not the purpose of the interview).

[Lumineus]

You don't care if China bans Hearthstone because you don't have to live in China. Well, fuck you for not caring about the millions of players who would lose access to the game they've spent lots of money on and enjoy playing. You don't have to live with the repercussions of your Internet activism. The citizens of China do.

Before you spout any bullshit about them moving out of China, I believe Mr. Trump is still president in the USA. When exactly are you going to move? I thought not.

Oh, the poor Chinese players. You mean the ones who've gotten fat and happy off The Party's indiscretions. Because that's the only way you're affording Bli$$ard's MTX heavy products in China, not by working in a sweatshop for slave wages and barely being able to afford food and clothing. I guess that's all too familiar to these left-leaning tech firms in the Bay Area, though. Funny how we don't have to pack people into studio apartments like sardines to make ends meet in red states. Hmm.

Sorry, but I'm gonna keep voting Republican because they're the only ones willing to stick it to China and the short-sighted megacorps suckling its teats, even if I don't think tariffs are going to be terribly effective because God knows Apple and Samsung are not going to take profit hits on their absurd $1000 smartphones lightly and all the iZombies will pile out of Starbucks with their protest signs. It's too much fun to watch "progressive" pundits whine about it and then denounce Hong Kong while defending Antifa thugs with the same breath.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Does Mark Cern have a career outside of chipping in whenever Blizzard does something?

Not really, no.

He's that irrelevant. Although his fanbois do give him (rather than Blizzard) credit for releasing Classic.

[Jshadowhunter]

Marco rubio
https://twitter.com/marcorubio/statu...659135488?s=20

[Triceron]

Your example is not the same thing, what you are talking about is destroying property with spray paint on a physical object which has nothing to do as a medium for communication. The purpose of a camera and an interview is to serve as communication mediums to the public, and punishing someone on ambiguous grounds for a small statement is censurship and against freedom of expressing ones opinion - keep in mind that we are not talking about opinions that oppress a people group - like if the person saluting hitler, at most it insults a government which one should be able to voice their disdain over (even if that was not the purpose of the interview).

People have been fired over flashing the WP symbol. Would you defend this on the basis of a freedom of expressing one's opinion?

Keep in mind the context of the interview - the guy dressed up as a protestor and said their slogan. It's one thing if the interview went down with him saying he wants to bring up the HK issue and his personal beliefs, and another to be making a scene out of it for shits and giggles.

I think this was a joke done in bad taste gone very wrong. There are very offensive connotations to that. It may not be oppressive, but it's very offensive in context to a wide group.

[Blitzn]

Blizzard in China is not controlled at all by Blizzard in the USA. Just a heads up for you. Not one person who made that decision lives outside of China, and the decision was made by the Chinese version of Blizzard, which is ran by the Chinese Government.

No I don't agree with what they did, but Americas hands are tied

[Potatowizard]

I'm confused.

Using Blizzards China's platform, he knowingly and wittingly injected his own agenda and political opinions into a live broadcast. It caused a media shit storm. Good for him. This is why he did it.

If this guy was from the states and was talking about concerns over the tax increase of insulin -- and shouted "PEOPLE NEED INSULIN! GET LOBBYISTS OUT OF GOVERNMENT! GET BIG PHARMA OUT OF THE GOVERNMENT" the result would have been the same from Blizzards actions.

Would any of you care? No.

[Malikath]

[QUOTE=Triceron;51689837]People have been fired over flashing the WP symbol. /QUOTE]

imagine being so full of bullshit that you have to distort events to attempt make a point, pathetic and shameless.

[Jastall]

For those folks in support of boycotting, please add these other self choice "entertainments" to your boycott list....go the full way in your heat.

-League of Legends developed by Riot Games....which is fully OWNED by Tencent.

-Path of Exile developed by Grinding Gear Games....which is 80% OWNED by Tencent.

-Fortnite made by Epic Games...which is 40% OWNED by Tencent

-Any of these studios which has varying shares from 5% to more UbiSoft, Paradox Interactive and Supercell....they hardly own a 5% in Acti-Blizz...meh

Side note.... at any given time half the top twitch streams are games owned by Tencent or has a shares in their development companies....start boycotting Twitch, ya know to send a message.

Also might as well stop using Discord which owned partly...you guessed it...Tencent

....wait you are going to make an excuse that only Blizz. is at fault and not these self interest money grabbing companies that work with the chinese and appease them?...I mean they are silent about what is going on in HK so they must endorse the government....right?

Ill logic and extreme passion can lead to disastrous conclusions, every hot head is looking at this through the lens of Politics, and self hate to the company, yet if you carefully regard the situation and consider the same would happen in any other part of the world we wouldn't get that active...

As an example....Let some American player yell Lock her up or Impeach Trump...that same outcome would and should occur.

Indeed. I have no lost love for China at all, but anyone who thinks there was any other way this could end is incredibly naive at best. Blizzard isn't in the business of sticking it to the Chinese government, it's in the business of making money out of their games, and China is way too big a market to feasibly ignore. There's no way in hell they would put some small-time pro gamer over their largest playerbase. I would expect someone with, say, a MAGA hat shouting pro-Trump slogans to be punished in the exact same way.

Basically, if you expect a gaming company to stand up for your morals, you gonna have a bad time. The guy who was interviewed played a stupid game and won a stupid prize.