just shows what people have long suspected for years Blizzard wont do anything to risk their business standings in and around China even as they cut ties with other countries for the same kind of actions
Blizz has finally shown what their true loyalties are in this regard and its appaling to say the least
Wow, I think regular Russians have a lot more to worry about than not having Blizzard games to play.
The thing about that is time after time western companies that do business in China get the short end of the stick. Theyâre chasing a Will-oâ-the-Wisp ever deeper into the swamp. The Corruption of the CCP is beyond belief.
well things just got a bit worse for Blizzard although it might be a bit indirectly
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3184166/neteases-william-ding-and-xiaomis-lei-jun-relinquish-corporate-roles
this could mean more issues on their end
Dear Google, why do I not turn to the Diablo 3 Forums for complex foreign policy discussions more often? OHHHHHâŚyeahâŚ
I count the small blessings in voting statisticsâŚ
All Blizzards attempts on politics and making a better world is just laughable. Save it.
Dnno but, unique⌠thatâs me!
I decided I donât care thanks for the laughs
Using that logic, every country in North and South America has no right to exist. It wasnât until the 16th century when huge influx of Europeans took land from the natives (and exterminated a huge % of them), that US, Mexico, Brazil, et. al. came into being. The only people who should get to determine who belongs here are the Inca, Maya, Aztec, Comanche, Sioux, Ojibwe, Cheyenne, Naragansett, Iriquois, etcâŚ
Seems fair to me.
Its completely opposite what I am trying to say. The argument they claim is Taiwan used to belonged to China as justification for China retake Taiwan. I pointed out Taiwan had change hands multiple times. Who âusedâ to âownedâ the land is irrevalance & not a justification to retake it.
Also you are ârightâ. Europeans (from Europe) has NO right over US, Mexico etc. The same way Chinese (from China) has no right over Taiwan.
ONLY Americans, Mexicans, which include natives, decentants of immigrants (or immigrants that gotten citizenship) from Europe, Asia, Africa etc which called themselves Mexicans, Americans have the right.
I hope that clear up my position.
You are not getting his point. What he referring to is sovereignty of a region should be decided by its population. Taiwan is not as straight forward as Hong Kong which its sovereignty is clearly stated in treaties. Taiwan sovereignty has multiple treaties contradicting each other. Its actually legal for both PRC and RoC to claim its sovereignty. A logical person whether Chinese ethnic or not (which I am) will support its sovereignty decided by its people. After all, its them who live their entire life there, not you or me or anyone else.
Now North / South Korea war has Korean Armistice Agreement. PRC and RoC has no armistice of any form, only implied truce from no actions. Technically speaking, both parties are still at an ongoing civil war since 1945. Military actions (unlikely in foreseeable future) from PRC against RoC technically wont be regarded as âinvasionâ, threatening the accuracy of any kind of referendum âlegallyâ.
America (continent) is another issue. Should lands be returned to Indigenous people? Itâs the root cause of conflicts everywhere in Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland/UK even Ukraine/Russia.
If weâre going to be returning land to the indigenous population, russia should be returning all land east of Ural mountains to native peoples. Too bad they killed 90%+ of them during russian conquest of Siberia.
No, there are no good wars.
All wars are the old and rich sending the poor and young to kill each other and innocents. No exceptions. There is absolutely no justifiable reason for that.
So which is it? The population that was in America first sure didnât get a voice in the decision making.
That was mainly due to religion.
Nothing. Blizzard has no offices in Russia and never has. I donât know if the same can be said about Activision or King though.
Activision-Blizzard (ATVI) as a whole stopped selling games and services in Russia and Belarus. This decision was made at the corporate level above Blizzard, Actvision, and King games who are all subsidiaries of ATVI. You want to accurately pin things on someone - Bobby Kotick would be the one to make that level of a decision as the CEO.
ALOT of other companies also made the same type of decision. Active military invasion with cities destroyed, thousands dead, kidnapping and forced removal of Ukranian citizens, bombing, etc⌠is pretty darn bad.
Correct. No game company can even do business in China on their own. They HAVE to let a Chinese company run the game and I am sure take a huge cut that goes, in part, into the Govtâs pocket. Add in that the games all have to be modified to meet the cultural laws, I donât know if it is financially even worth it. I guess a lot of companies think so though.
I would not though, with the exception of Immortal, say that Blizzard prioritizes the China market. Almost everything they make is for Western/EU markets and only sold years later in China if at all. D3 was released in 2012. The China version did not release until 2015.
yeah they did it as a effort to show support for human decency since they could NOT in good conscious continue to operate in such a country that shows no regard for human rights but lets not forget China isnt exactly setting the standards for fair treatment of people either Activision-Blizzard is showing a double standard here they turn a blind eye since it would impact their profit margins in this case yet they didnt allow money to be a deciding factor in pulling official services from Russia for their actions
Look, there is no sense in beating Blizzard over the head about this. They are no more hypocritical than every other multinational corporation, and quite a bit less so than most of them and the many governments of the world as well.
China owns 1.06 trillion of the US national debt. Itâs only a little over 3.5% of the total national debt, but itâs still more than any other single nation owns, other than Japan, who is a strategic ally. Itâs also the worldâs largest producer of consumer goods, and for good reason. The world has grown drunk on the cheap products, and we are unlikely to break that addiction any time soon. The fault lies as much with the consumer as the companies, as a quick glance at public opinion will demonstrate what happens when prices rise.
Most of the world was willing to allow Russia to annex the Crimea and wage a proxy war in the Donbas region for the last 8 years because no one wants to poke a nuclear power too much, and also Europe was overly dependent on Russian oil and gas (particularly the latter), and had grown quite fond of their investments as well. If not for the utterly brazen nature of the invasion by Russia, and the fact that Zelensky managed to hit a nerve in the worldwide zeitgeist, itâs questionable whether the West wouldâve really shed their collective inertia regarding Russian aggression. Putin was actually counting on that to happen, and it wasnât a foolish assumption, given that itâs been reliable up to this point. Zelensky managing that media magic is one of those X factors in history that could not have been predicted. He made the Ukraine issue one NATO politicians could not ignore because their own populations suddenly very much cared.
The fact the invasion was such a colossally fumbled, poorly planned disaster, has only made that decision easier to make by most governments and companies. If they HAD managed to take Kyiv in 3 days, as they thought they would, it might have happened too fast for reactions to keep up. As it is, months later, mired in a quagmire with their own casualties, as well as atrocities and war crimes piling up, the decision becomes easier for everyone. Russia is a major supplier of oil and gas, and that has been its primary leverage, other than rumbling nuclear threats. Find new supplies, and that leverage disappears. That has been what the west has spent the last months doing. And given the apparently sorry state of their military (A few very expensive, high-tech, new pieces of military hardware are great show pieces to, apparently, convince most intelligence agencies your military is strong, but unsurprisingly, they are no substitute for the basics and consistent maintenance-theyâve been using unsecured cellphones for ****'s sake, food for only a few days, and their supply lines were non-existent), supplying the underdog, now carries even less risk than it did at the outset. As at the end of the Cold War, itâs questionable how much of Russiaâs nuclear arsenal even works. Most military experts believe that many of the Russian strikes on civilian targets are as likely the result of piss poor command and control systems as they are deliberate acts of terror. Aside from all their assassinated officers (due to giving away their positions using unsecured communications), theyâre working with crap munitions and targeting systems at this point. They spent all their good, high-tech munitions early on, and are now working with the bottom-of-the-barrel materiel they have left. Given the conflict has revealed how poorly maintained their equipment and personnel are, it wouldnât be surprising if this has infected their nuclear forces. Even in the US, our growing complacency has led to our own horrific lapses in nuclear readiness and security (for an amusing summary, see John Oliverâs episode on that one).
China produces its own tech, is inextricably tangled in the global economy, and is rapidly becoming one of the biggest consumers of goods, as well as producers. Not to mention it could, if it was willing to commit economic murder-suicide, detonate the U.S. economy and by extension, the global economy, by simply dumping its U.S. Treasury bonds. Is our economic entanglement with China morally problematic? Sure. But it is not a 1:1 issue comparison with Russia, vis-a-vis Ukraine, and the problem hardly even starts with Blizzard of all companies. Want to talk about a morally problematic consumer issue that relates to China? To quote/paraphrase Wyatt, âDonât you all have phones?â
At any rate, for a host of complicated reasons, the conflict in Ukraine and the decisions by most major corporations to pull their business from Russia are a very different problem from that presented by China.
well standing back being silent and smiling even as they allow the products they turn out are crap isnt working so hey lets try something different like oh i dont know expressing our displeasure at them acting like this
i know its a crazy idea but weve tried silent acceptance and it isnt accomplishing anything so lets see how well trying a new approach works for a change
Of all the windmills to tilt at, this one might just be the most Quixotic.