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

[Nokami]

You simply cannot pretend that this was purely about "them r00lz" when you are a company that literally has stock owned by a holding company with ties to the Chinese government, not to mention a SUBSTANTIAL business presence in China (in connection with which, by the way, you've already set a PR nightmare precedent through Diablo Immortal).

Wait, so you can't uphold your tournament rules because you have ties to certain countries? Nice logic.

[frozenembers]

So, an honest question to everyone who is buthurt here: He broke the rules he agreed to. Blizzard punished him for it. The specific issue he broke the rules for. to protest against china vs HK are irrelevant.

So my question: If this EXACT situation had been repeated, except it was an American who hijacked the broadcast to protest against Trump, and received exactly the same punishment, would anyone here even have batted an eyelash?

This issue is about the the rules he broke for which he was punished. It is NOT about WHY he broke the rules, or WHAT he broke the rules for.

woah woah, get outta here with your logic and reasoning. these sheep dont care about any of that stuff.... they feel better when they are part of outrage culture. they have to have something to lash out about.

in violation of rules he acknowledged and understood

[Varitok]

If six months and no removal of winnings was the initial penalty people wouldn't be as much up in arms as they are.

They corrected that mistake, time to move on. Whether you like it or not or choose not to believe them that's your choice.

Go ahead and move on, Most won't. I truly hope this gets Overwatch removed from China, fuck bending over for authoritarians.

Not all of us are spineless fence sitters

[korijenkins]

"always listening and finding ways to improve—it is part of our culture"

O K

[Voidism]

That rule of theirs is very vague. You can easily interpret it as pretty much anything Blizzard doesn't like.

And it doesn't specify politics. Stop spreading that fake news.

[Kagthul]

Did it ever occur to you that there would have been no punishment if it wasn't an official Blizzard stream? Blitzchung can say what ever he wants, with in reason, on his personal social media accounts and Blizzard can't touch him.

No, actually he can't.

It doesn't say that it is limited to official Blizzard outlets. It says if you do anything that makes Blizzard or Hearthstone "look bad" - anywhere - they can shitcan you.

[Varitok]

Human rights aren't political.

Thats the issue.

Also, there's the whole part where by kow-towing to China, they are allowing China to dictate what is, and is not acceptable speech to other countries.

This guy isn't Chinese, and the casters weren't Chinese.

Im not a Marco Rubio fan, but he nails it here:

It's hard to get through people who just shrug every time someones human rights are violated. People think China violently and brutally crushing people who just want to breath free in the face of their murderous, iron fisted authoritarians regime is just politics and nothing more. The west has lost it's fucking spine, people should be ashamed of themselves.

[Kagthul]

Except that Blizzard did no such thing. They didn't ban him because he protested china. They banned him because he broke a rule about using the platform for ANY kind of political messaging. What he chose to protest is completely irrelevant.

I have a bridge in New York to sell you.

[Nokami]

It's hard to get through people who just shrug every time someones human rights are violated. People think China violently and brutally crushing people who just want to breath free in the face of their murderous, iron fisted authoritarians regime is just politics and nothing more. The west has lost it's fucking spine, people should be ashamed of themselves.

Yea, but can we first stop at our own country? Like bombing innocents in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya or the guantanamo shenanigans? Are those not broken human rights? The West does not have a spine here because we are not a single fucking bit better. We are killing innocents for money reasons (hey, oil!) but now we are suddenly the good people. It's so awkward to see such responses especially coming from americans who do that all the time.

[Kathranis]

And a GAME channel is the WRONG place for it. Instead of that you do that at CNN, the Guardian etc like Snowden did.

I don't agree with that. I think anywhere is an appropriate place if it gets the message across. The fact of the matter is it's only because it was against the rules that his message had any impact. The fact that he risked his livelihood is IMO brave and commendable.

At the same time, that doesn't mean it should be without consequences. Just because he's fighting for a good cause doesn't mean he's exempt from the same rules that everyone else has to follow. And if the enforcement of those rules has been inconsistent, that needs to be corrected.

Blizzard is also at least as responsible, if not more so, for the thrashing their public image is taking as a result. Their response was hasty, lacking in compassion and common sense. I don't think anyone expects a business to really come out on one side of the issue or other, or to make it known that they will allow people to co-opt their platform for political activism. But it's undeniable that they've completely mishandled this. They've also allowed their publishing partner in PRC to use pretty heated rhetoric on social media regarding the issue, and have yet to address that.


Personally I think this is a good first step, but it really only addresses the rules violation ruling itself, which is not going to be enough to untarnish their reputation for most people. IMO they need to make some sort of ovation that actually benefits the public good somehow. I don't expect them to come out in support of HK or anything, obviously, but a donation to humanitarian charity or something at the very least would go a long way to showing good faith.

[Archmage Alodi]

I would perma ban people who mix up gaming with politics if it was up to me.

[OriginalName]

because its NOT the same fool.

How isn't it the same, they raised a "support hong kong" sign live on a blizzard hearthstone stream.

[Akasha64]

They punished the guy for derailing the tournament/broadcast with politics. Some people were offended by what he said. The guy understood he was violating the rules, but did it anyway. Seems like a fair punishment in my book, and heck now they even lessened it.

[Varitok]

Yea, but can we first stop at our own country? Like bombing innocents in Iraq or Guantanamo shenanigans? Are those not broken human rights? The West does not have a spine here because we are not a single fucking bit better. We are killing innocents for money reasons (hey, oil!) but now we are suddenly the good people. It's so awkward to see such responses especially coming from americans who do that all the time.

Your whataboutism changes nothing. Again, you're going out of your way to just dodge the issue at hand while going "w-w-w-what about this?!? you're a bad guy!". Excpet, I supported none of that, Stop with your morally grey fence sitting and deal with the issue that was brought up and don't try to hop subjects to avoid dealing with it. If you're fine with authoritarians crushing the freedoms of people, say so but don't try to whataboutism your way out of the topic.

[Silverware]

Everyone seems to readily accept that China plays a large role in what movies turn a profit in Hollywood, so why is it surprising that the same applies to video games?

The Chinese market has been Blizzard's personal loot pinata for a decade or more. The West is a secondary market for Blizzard. It's always been obvious, if not outright stated on occasion. This didn't come out of nowhere and nobody should be surprised at this series of events. I'm sorry that this is how some people had to find out. Congratulations on finally paying attention, I guess, but I'm just too worn out to care at this point. Maybe listen more to Blizzard critics in the future, instead of dismissing them out of hand for x y or z reasons.

[rips]

he broke the rules he payed for it

grow up


If you wanna boycott Blizzard over this please do the same everywhere where China has its Fingers in or else shut up you Hypocrites

[Varitok]

They punished the guy for derailing the tournament/broadcast with politics. Some people were offended by what he said. The guy understood he was violating the rules, but did it anyway. Seems like a fair punishment in my book, and heck now they even lessened it.

Except your bullshit excuses for him go out the window when Americans did the same thing and got zero punishment for it. They're just crush chinese decent and you're using capitalism as a way to bend over for China, so good job. I'm sure the chairman appreciates your support.

[Voidism]

They punished the guy for derailing the tournament/broadcast with politics. Some people were offended by what he said. The guy understood he was violating the rules, but did it anyway. Seems like a fair punishment in my book, and heck now they even lessened it.

With their vague rule, anything anyone says can be interpreted as a violation.

[THEORACLE64]

Holy fucking shit, they're not even apologizing.



This shitstorm just keeps getting worse.

They don’t need to, that’s why. They did nothing wrong. A player broke the rules of the broadcast channel (regardless of the subject matter), which they acknowledge, and Blizzard took action. People are seriously dumb if they can’t understand the simple facts behind it.

[Hitei]

They punished the guy for derailing the tournament/broadcast with politics. Some people were offended by what he said. The guy understood he was violating the rules, but did it anyway. Seems like a fair punishment in my book, and heck now they even lessened it.

That might be a reasonable take if they didn't actively allow people to go political in OWL--and if they didn't literally let an american HS team do the exact same thing EVEN MORE AGRESSIVELY a couple days later with ZERO punishment.