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

[Onikaroshi]

The same would happen to one if he would do this on a soccer/foodball game.or whatever sport game. Grow up kids

Try doing it at work as well, you'll soon find yourself holding a box with your little dancing hulu girl in it in the parking lot.

[Chickat]

Don't tacitly support a tyrannical dictatorship - it's really not that hard to understand. Activision-blizzard literally turns billions in profits every year. They by no means *need* the Chinese market.

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.

[Dch48]

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.

[GenericDragon]

To all those people who are saying he violated a rule, so he deserved it, here is the rule:

Rule 6.1, which reads:

Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player’s prize total to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard’s Website Terms.

Without even considering that the application of the rule it subjective to "Blizzard's sole discretion" that its image has been damaged, the only reason this could happen is because Chinese communists who want to oppress Hong Kong are angry or offended by it. They are the only "group of the public" that would be offended by someone showing support for people fighting to keep their freedom. So no matter what Blizzard says, the decision was made because it made them look bad in China.

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.

[Dch48]

This answer is full of crap seriously.

Blizzcon 2018: Don't you have guys phones?
Blizzcon 2019: Don't you have guys communism?
Blizzcon 2020: Guys?

All i have to say.

Which makes no sense at all. A bunch of gibberish.

[meroko]

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.

[Tarba]

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.

[schwarzkopf]

A corrupt dictatorship is threatening people's freedoms so the best thing to do is capitulate to the dictatorship's demands for less freedom?

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.

[Coffeh]

I don't know if they could have crafted a worse statement than this.

[Walkerbo]

"We are very angered and disappointed in what happened at the event last weekend and highly object to the expression of personal political beliefs, as always we will defend the pride and dignity of China."

Direct quote from Blizzard.

But don't worry guys his specific views had nothing to do with it.

This
/10 char

[InTheEnd]

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.

[Grimalkin of Old]

Also, we will protect our national dignity.

[Auxora]

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.

[Dch48]

This
/10 char

They will defend the pride and dignity of Hong Kong as well. They took no sides.

[Galathir]

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.

[schwarzkopf]

That might be one of the most ignorant things I've ever read.

I'm sorry that reality and rational thought is something that offends you, as such I'll not enter into any further rational discourse with you lest it offends you more.

[ophion1990]

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.

[Onikaroshi]

Hes an excellent gamer who earned a platform, and he chose to use it to support human rights and the basic principles of freedom (I know, how awful!). Blizzard's own motto is "every voice counts". As such, the issue is not so much with what the player said as it is with blizzard's own hypocrisy.

It's not his stream to make that choice, and allowing one opens up the door to all. Would you be defending him if he had said "heil Hitler"?

[Reinhart11]

Man, Blizzards leadership are bitches of the China Communist Party. Pathetic slaves to the money. How can they be so spineless.

[Onikaroshi]

No, because that's obvious hate speech and is intended to be threatening and harmful to Jews. There's a huge difference between hate speech and advocating for human rights, and any attempt to compare the two is entirely disingenuous and a complete fallacy.

Inb4 the bullshit tried-and-tired argument of "oH bUt WhO gEtS tO DeFiNe wHaT HaTe sPeEcH iS?!" It's common fucking sense, don't waste time trying to bark up that tree. In case you need a clear dictionary definition: "Hate speech is abusive or threatening speech or writing that expresses prejudice against a particular group, especially on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation."

Moving right along.

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.