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

[Xorzor]

What bullshit. They banned them because it pissed China off. There's really nothing else to it.
Disgusting is what it is.

+ infinity

How they responded: Oh no, China's feelings got hurt. Ban the player!
How they should've responded: Screw China's feelings! We're wealthy enough to take the hit!

[Dixa]

I agree with blizzard here. Their official channel was not the proper venue to express anything that was not specifically game related.

those bringing up the American college team have forgotten that key detail - that team did not do this on any of the official blizzard tournament channels or platforms. It's not the same.

Americans would be in a tizzy if someone from another country came here and on say an MDI tournament feed said americans and democracy are crap long live the USSR or some other such bs. It's not the place.

when you consider that legally such forums are private domain, the companies are under no requirement nor can they be compelled to allow such speech in the US.

the Hong Kong situation is bad and I hope they can help to reform their government.

[Misuteri]

I could care less if a Chinese, North Korean or Iranian came here and complained about the US. They do it all the time in the scope of the UN and if they did it under the auspices of an NBA exhibition, baseball or badminton I could give a flip.

Here’s the difference, no American or the American government is threatened by what a foreigner may come and say about our people or our government. Hell, MSNBC and Samantha Bee do it daily and weekly, we just turn the channel or don’t watch.

This whole thing with the NBA, Blizzard and South Park just goes to show you how petrified the Chinese are of anything that may even breathe a hint of dissent.

In the scheme of things.... f’ Blizzard.

[Ielenia]

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.

Except... it is the "present reality". The Chinese government has a tight grip on the internet in China, and they ban access to anything they don't like.

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.

Except I'm not doing that. I'm simply pointing out that, no matter which stance Blizzard took, they'd get flak for it directly or indirectly. While the initial punishment was very severe, in my opinion, what they did was right to enforce the rules stipulated in the contract.

Blizzard is not a social media group or a political platform.

[Nefarious Tea]

Coz there is nothing to apologize for.

"Location: Ukraine"

Were you bought out by Putin or China?

[Ellger]

It's astonishing how many sheep lurk around this world, it's pretty simple, rule was broken and the player got punished for it, ya it didn't help that the guy that did the offence also happened to "offend" china but you have to be seriously stupid to think that any sane person/company would do anything other then what Blizzard did.

Everyone's pretending like guy got banned not for breaking Blizzard rules (which he agreed to) but no, instead he got banned specifically for standing against China and nothing else. It's no different then as if Nazi guy spreading his shit over broadcast would be banned, yet no one would give a fuck because in that case his free speech doesn't matter since it's against popular opinion. Yah, it's 2 different extremes and i'm not comparing them, but point remains the same.

And before you scream - free speech - learn what the hell it means first.

People like to pretend like it's just about money, as if Blizzard getting out of china would only lead to Blizzard losing money, what about couple of millions of devoted players that would lose access to something they love and adore, who cares right, fight the system brooooo, who cares about collaterals brooo. Grow the hell up and turn on those brains of yours, pretending like writing "for hong kong" "we stand with you" and stuff actually does anything, if you're so against the system and are so appalled by what's happening over there why don't you pack your things, go there and make a difference, nah lets instead waste our time and boycote a company that can't do shit in the grand scheme of things, let's send death threats and belittle developers and employees that had nothing to with it, you fucking hypocrites.

And before you try to put me in like pro-China bin or whathever the hell, yeah China sucks, totalitarianism sucks,big time but this is not the point here.

[Eapoe]

I could care less if a Chinese, North Korean or Iranian came here and complained about the US. They do it all the time in the scope of the UN and if they did it under the auspices of an NBA exhibition, baseball or badminton I could give a flip.

Here’s the difference, no American or the American government is threatened by what a foreigner may come and say about our people or our government. Hell, MSNBC and Samantha Bee do it daily and weekly, we just turn the channel or don’t watch.

This whole thing with the NBA, Blizzard and South Park just goes to show you how petrified the Chinese are of anything that may even breathe a hint of dissent.

In the scheme of things.... f’ Blizzard.

“Couldn’t care less,” otherwise the way you put it means you do care.

[nyc81991]

The guy who is known for telling Classic fans "You think you do but you don't" has now stepped up his stupidity to essentially trying to say "Freedom is a divisive viewpoint"

[Sentactic]

It's astonishing how many sheep lurk around this world, it's pretty simple, rule was broken and the player got punished for it, ya it didn't help that the guy that did the offence also happened to "offend" china but you have to be seriously stupid to think that any sane person/company would do anything other then what Blizzard did.

Everyone's pretending like guy got banned not for breaking Blizzard rules (which he agreed to) but no, instead he got banned specifically for standing against China and nothing else. It's no different then as if Nazi guy spreading his shit over broadcast would be banned, yet no one would give a fuck because in that case his free speech doesn't matter since it's against popular opinion. Yah, it's 2 different extremes and i'm not comparing them, but point remains the same.

And before you scream - free speech - learn what the hell it means first.

People like to pretend like it's just about money, as if Blizzard getting out of china would only lead to Blizzard losing money, what about couple of millions of devoted players that would lose access to something they love and adore, who cares right, fight the system brooooo, who cares about collaterals brooo. Grow the hell up and turn on those brains of yours, pretending like writing "for hong kong" "we stand with you" and stuff actually does anything, if you're so against the system and are so appalled by what's happening over there why don't you pack your things, go there and make a difference, nah lets instead waste our time and boycote a company that can't do shit in the grand scheme of things, let's send death threats and belittle developers and employees that had nothing to with it, you fucking hypocrites.

And before you try to put me in like pro-China bin or whathever the hell, yeah China sucks, totalitarianism sucks,big time but this is not the point here.

everyone knows that blizzard is 'acting rationally' when it came to this situation, no one denies that it's primarily a money oriented decision not that they love China. People are angry because they are realizing that Chinese companies investing so heavily into gaming, and having a large market makes companies adopt rational policies that favor China.

" "for hong kong" "we stand with you does nothing"

Yeah, random comments on boards don't do anything, but spreading the message and propagating the meme has resulted in Mei being used by HK protesters, and possibly endangering Overwatch in that market. You're like living in the pre 2016 era where online hate mobs weren't as powerful.

[Ellger]

everyone knows that blizzard is 'acting rationally' when it came to this situation, no one denies that it's primarily a money oriented decision not that they love China. People are angry because they are realizing that Chinese companies investing so heavily into gaming, and having a large market makes companies adopt rational policies that favor China.

" "for hong kong" "we stand with you does nothing"

Yeah, random comments on boards don't do anything, but spreading the message and propagating the meme has resulted in Mei being used by HK protesters, and possibly endangering Overwatch in that market. You're like living in the pre 2016 era where online hate mobs weren't as powerful.

Sure they're powerful, no denying that , but this accomplishes nothing in the big picture, Overwatch getting banned does not hurt chinese system or help HK protestors, it hurts blizzard and all their chinese fans and customers.

Lets sum up who gets hurt:
totalitarianism - 0
Fans and customers - 1

But you know, no one seems to care, cause chinese people are apparently nothing, there is nothing except money in chinese market .

yep, seems great

[Smeller]

In a truly great community I'd expect Brack getting booed of stage at Blizzcon but I guess those neckbeards there won't care.

[Ellger]

The guy who is known for telling Classic fans "You think you do but you don't" has now stepped up his stupidity to essentially trying to say "Freedom is a divisive viewpoint"

No he said there's no place for politics on live broadcasts, it's pretty obvious. Rules also state that same exact thing. He never once mentioned anyones political viewpoint, nor did anyone in blizzard for that matter, because that's not the point nor does it matter.

[Fetus Rex]

I most definitely stand with China in this case. Its refreshing to see a nation exercising its power openly.

[shadowmatrix]

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

I've seen a president talking about serious politics and then turn around and insult a dead man. I son't trust strangers when politics and religion are involved.

[Sinraye]

What a bunch of BS, it took them this long to write this crap? What, did they send it to China first for a review? Seriously though, this is just a load of forced crap. I'm not usually into social justice stuff and protesting, but I am against bullying, hipocrisy and blatant lying of this kind. I will be looking forward to this years Blizzcon, though I expect a lot of censuring on the cameras.

[Metta World Peace]

What a bunch of BS, it took them this long to write this crap? What, did they send it to China first for a review? Seriously though, this is just a load of forced crap. I'm not usually into social justice stuff and protesting, but I am against bullying, hipocrisy and blatant lying of this kind. I will be looking forward to this years Blizzcon, though I expect a lot of censuring on the cameras.

Wouldn't be surprising.

https://twitter.com/SGBluebell/statu...17588147052544

However I'm more inclined they took the cowardly way out - as in waiting until 5:30pm PST when major media outlets and stock markets were done for the weekend.

A classic PR move when you're hoping to sweep this under the rug.....

[Queen of Hamsters]

The crowd with a raging hate boner for the company won't see reason.

How very surprising. Meanwhile, you all use Google products in some way or another. Hypocrisy is thy name.
The sooner the virtue signalists move on to their next target, the better. Blizzcon should be about the games, not politics.

[Eapoe]

How many of you came to Liu Yifei’s defense for freedom of speech?

[glowpipe]

When that political view calls for genocide then yes it should be censored.

Ofcourse. But that is a rather extreme example. Should blizzard freely host people talking for and against abortions ? gunlaws, gay marriage. religion, brexit etc etc ? where do they draw the line ? Allowing politics of any kind and taking it upon themselves to allow some and censor others basically means blizzard share those views. There will always be drama and thats why they along with a bunch of others, not only in gaming, but in sports and most other events. Simply ban all politics. Even if its a good cause like it was in this case.

[Rendark]

He was punished for willingly and premeditatively breaking competition rules on a blizzard forum. At least try to not lie.

No he wasn't. They did so china wouldn't get mad at them.