Originally Posted by
exochaft
There's a sizable difference when it comes to how entrenched a company or service is into culture or people's everyday lives, and whether there's a viable alternative. It's the whole boycott conundrum: you can generally only boycott a service when there's a viable alternative. With Blizz and their games, there's a ton of viable alternatives, so it's easy to just move on from their practices if you don't like them. When it comes to Apple or Google, they're a bit more ingrained into many facets and industries to where it's harder to not use them (but not impossible). Gets insanely harder when said companies get in bed with governments... but that's another thread.
However, the main point is that you can still be quite upset at business practices, regardless of which company it is. Just because a big-name company like Google or Apple engages in blatant manipulation doesn't mean one should excuse it at a smaller-scale company like Blizz (or vice versa). As I mentioned in another post, it's all about intent as to whether the behavior is blatant manipulation or not. The way Blizz has been rolling out these perks indicates more of an attempt to manipulate people rather than reward loyal customers, based upon what you have to do to get rewards. Getting rewards for playing another free game is pretty tame, giving rewards to people who shell out a bunch of cash up front is heading towards questionable territory (especially if FOMO-centered tactics are used). Tons of game companies do it, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a good thing. However, giving the timing of all the events, I can guarantee this was a pre-planned event to boost MAU's... but not for the sake of hooking players with their great games, but manipulating players to make their numbers look good for their quarterly reports.
It can be viewed in a simple manner such as this: do these promotional deals likely have a chance to increased their long-term customers and playerbase for their games? No, not at all. If anything, these types of moves slow the hemorrhaging of MAUs, not add new ones. While one can understand from a business perspective as to why Blizz would do this, the morale aspect of these actions is exactly why Blizz is in this situation to begin with. One should keep in mind that the quest for wealth is actually benign, however the actions one implements to gain/obtain wealth are what really matter, and this is where a company's moral grounding as a whole will determine if their quest for wealth is moral or immoral.
In the case of Blizz, it's very obvious that the company has morally decayed from when they started as a whole. It doesn't just manifest itself in ways that end up with behaviors and actions that are found in the current lawsuit against Blizz; it also manifests itself in how Blizz treats its customers and players, whether in-game our out-of-game. Blizz is no longer the company who used to pro-rate game time to players when their servers got screwed up, shut down unexpectedly, or extended unplanned maintenance... instead, it's a company that will insult, berate, and manipulate its customers.