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

[Kallisto]

well I remember 2 years ago there was some political sh8t in hearthstone tournament in australia too, but i can't remember at all what it was about
i still really hope this force blizz to revert their decision, because this isn't 'political' agenda, we aren't talking about wages or food or allow p0rn, we are talking about literally a country directly controlling another country
if asking for ur freedom from a tyrannical oppression is 'politics', then what exactly is basic human right? watching pr0n?

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what ? china was alone 4 out of 9 million wow players during TBC, the massive hit from ban Wrath in china f8cked blizz, hence why wrath had only a 12 million sub, because they lost entire china market due to ban (and a joke ban too, blizz had to change every npc in wrath to please china, they even renamed DK to unhappy knight lol)
China was a massive part of blizz players since day 1, blizz literally changed everything in wrath (also it took them up to 2 years, and got released only 2 months pre-cata) just to please chineese market, there is no way to say blizz don't care, there is even some unique models for china servers only, check the Bonestorm boss (can't remember his name, 1st boss in ICC) model in china server, surprising he looks even more horrifying with patched skin instead of being skeleton

I'm not saying blizz don't care.

I'm saying that certain people on this forum want to fuck over Chinese gamers

[Aggrophobic]

What bullshit. They banned them becuase it pissed China off. Theres really nothing else to it.
Disgusting is what it is.

[Starla]

And then China, like it does to everything they don't like, ban Blizzard's access to China, meaning millions of players can no longer access Blizzard games, meaning a lot of innocents get hurt. It also means a huge cut on Blizzard's bottom line that could lead to more layoffs. But surely all those millions of players and those that lost their jobs would be ok with it "because it's a good cause" they didn't sign up to join?

Way to go off on a tangent.
If you want to start imagining fictional scenarios..go for it...but that's not the present reality. There is just no comparision to be made with the human rights abuses by the chinese govt and chinese people having access to a freakin game.

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They generally don't care about chinese gamers. Hell a lot have come out to say Chinese gamers should be banned regardless because of MTX or because they won't die in uprisings against the communist party.

How about trying to stick to the facts?
I think we have enough drama mama stuff going on here as it is.

[hynx]

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied; chains us all irrevocably" -Judge Aaron Satie

So fuck China, and fuck Blizzard.

[Arrashi]

How can anyone say how Blitzchung is smart... after he did such a dumb thing? Its insane how naive some people are.

He wanted to bring attention to issue as every protester does. And he surely succeded.

[Tic Tacs]

What bullshit. They banned them becuase it pissed China off. Theres really nothing else to it.
Disgusting is what it is.

Hypothetically, what if someone showed sign Free Palestine, Boycott Israel, what do you think Blizzard should've done in that case?

Personally, I think Blizzard should stay away from politics, granted their games have various political messages but letting people use their platform to push their political views on large audience is unacceptable and "but we do that all the time in trade chat" statement is misleading. Trade chat is where everyone can talk while live cast is restricted to select few.

[Alvito]

Holy fucking shit, they're not even apologizing.



This shitstorm just keeps getting worse.

Why should they?

[Eosia]

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.

Glad I am not the only one who sees this. If he had shouted "Blood and Soil!", "Build the Wall!", or some other patently offensive thing this would not be an issue. In fact, people would be pissed at Blizzard for not permanently banning him.

[Alvito]

How can anyone say how Blitzchung is smart... after he did such a dumb thing? Its insane how naive some people are.

If he really does care about the issue he brought a lot of global attention to it in a way he couldn't have otherwise. Now how genuine it is has come into question seeing how he is laughing as he goes to say it as is one of the telecasters. Either way, it has shined a bigger light on what is happening in Hong Kong. The reality of all of this is though most that really care about such things already knew about all of this. Anybody that just found out last week isn't going to do a damn thing other than get puffed up and spew nonsense for a few days.

[FelPlague]

Bingo someone already did a language breakdown of it I got a good laugh out of some of the other stuff people have found like this gem about the timestamp of the artical

lolol yeah cause 5:30pm is 8:30 am in china that means it has to have been china lololol
you sound like the person who went "fel your just a china bot you started posting 2 hours ago, and its 10am for china, proof"

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What bullshit. They banned them becuase it pissed China off. Theres really nothing else to it.
Disgusting is what it is.

Yet they allow free hong kong posters, and LGBT stuff which china HATES
odd.

[ProphetFlume]

"There's no room for those kind of statements! These are just fun games, no one should care."

[Tic Tacs]

"There's no room for those kind of statements! These are just fun games, no one should care."

[tmamass]

In other words, while you might have grounds to justify your decision, NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WILL BELIEVE THAT'S ALL THERE WAS TO IT.

and there are people who belive in aliens in area 51....
if you dont punish the first rule breaker and 2nd will soon do the same.

[Shadowisp]

The heart of the matter is the "Corporation" made a decision that effected both professional players and sportcasters without fair representation, they acted quickly and harshly, and failed to justify their decision at the time they made the decision. They were judge, jury and executioner in this affair.
They also took nearly a week to make this statement. This would be unacceptable in any other professional sport with a governing body.

There should be an International Sports Body for eSports that handles matters of player/coaching regulation, an independent sport tribunal to hear such matters. The corporate overlords can't be the sole decider if a professional player career is over.

[Gurahk]

I haven't read the comments but they're probably very spicy and angry.

[raogrimm]

I cant tell if you are serious.

Every fiction have aspects of humanity in them.
I dont see in any fantasy world blizzard created, that represent any particular faction, religion or political from the real world. Much less taking sides.

There are proper ways and places to change the world. And first one I can remember is in election days.

Yeah... People in China don't have that option... That is why people are protesting in Hong Kong as they don't want to end up like that.

Just saying.

[glowpipe]

Imagine comparing talking about a human rights issue to talking about the Klan and Nazis, dude get out of the gene pool.

He isn't comparing the two. Its a extreme example, but he does have a point. Its not blizzards job to decide what politics should be allowed to be talked about and what politics that should be banned. If they allow politics to be shared, they need to allow everything. Even all the shit you don't like and don't agree on. Or should blizzard just cater to and allow the politics you agree with and censoring other views ?

[Lilija]

I think Bellular had a really nice comment on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U0_FMDyIo0

[Eapoe]

I continue to wonder if Blitz showed support for China and not Hong Kong if people would have as much of an issue if Blizzard did what they did.

[prwraith]

I love how blizzard directly contradicts their statement with their weibo statement.

Literally nobody would care if you just admitted money > all. But trying to pretend it's not true is pissing people off.