Censorship Issues

Community Discussion
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You can post links by using the Preformatted text tags (the </> button in your formatting bar). That way the game won’t flag your post for trying to post links.

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@imterrible I am not whining, just stating my views on censorship. I do hate to see games pandering to groups that barely even support them at all. I am certainly not a victim nor am I pretending to be- I am a consumer who votes with his wallet. And until Blizzard restores my confidence that they actually care what their fans want, I will not be buying or even playing their game.

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Thanks

https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/b59695/superdata_hearthstone_revenue_down_52_year_over/

There you go HealBot, that’s a graph that shows HS popularity on youtube over the last years

Also in April 2016 Hearthstone had a peak of 280.000 viewers on twitch simultaneously, and next month it registered a total of 50 million views in Twitch, but last month it only had 20 million and a peak of 100k viewers simultaneously.

The number of accounts has doubled since 2016 then but players abandon the game very quickly.
Hearthstone doesn’t have more active players than it had before.
Blizzard reports that Hearthstone gains millions of players every month, but doesn’t report how many stop playing.
Blizzard doesn’t want to report how many active players the game has.

However, if youtube and twitch statistics aren’t enough for you mr Healbot, you can check this out:
https://mmos.com/news/superdata-releases-digital-games-market-for-february-2019

Superdata Releases Digital Games Report for February, 2019: Hearthstone Revenue down 52% Year over Year

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I don’t know how this forum works

I couldn’t put the graph showing Hearthstone’s popularity on Youtube, which is below 25% of what it once was (in 2015-2016)

Whatever…

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Chiners are keeping the game alive. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it.

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You can find more information about forum permissions here: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/hearthstone/t/new-forum-guide-syntax-and-features/

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as i said 3rd party websites means nothing … for example if some famouse streamer start streaming HS its gonna be rank 1 that doesnt mean HS population is gonna increase , same as Youtube. i’m playing HS but neither watch youtubers or streamers that play HS. give me a official blizzard statistic that shows the population. because every1 can make a fake statistic!!!

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So…you think several statistic sites whose popularity indexes had clear correlations with the playerbase in the past are all lying, yet Activision Blizzard is perfectly honest about their censoring reasons? Wake up.

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but how those sites are getting their information? based on what? have you ever asked yourself that?

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a) From Tools that record games directly.
b) From the found correlations of Twitch-Viewers to Players in Games that for example run via Steam, thus Player numbers are known.
c) From website statistics, how many visits they have, how often which article is clicked, how often Hearthstone is searched and, again, correlations to playerbase.
d) Educated guesses based on all those things along with general experience about (CCG-)games.

And now tell me why Blizzard chooses to change things that all correlate to chinese laws, at a time where china introduces stricter enforcement of the rules, and why they and “the artists” exactly NOW felt the sudden urge to change those things because they were unhappy about it.
Their arguments don’t even make sense, removing a tiny bloodsplatter makes the card more bland, and not even a bit more kid friendly, so what gives?
And “we want to distance us from WoW”…yeah, right. But no need to change…oh basically EVERY other classic card in existence, that ALL are DIRECTLY from WoW. What a strange coincidence that they chose to start with exactly those that are a problem in china.

There can never be any proof because it’s about the intention, but for me those are WAY too many pieces of circumstantial evidence to paint a VERY clear picture for anyone who can think straight.

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@Elgareth It could be China, it could also be their own ‘feminist’/‘progressive’ ideals, or even some other misguided reasoning. The big problem is that it changes previously acquired artwork. So when opening a pack, you have to ask yourself, will this card I just paid money for exist in any capacity in the future? And the answer is, potentially, no.

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Assuming motives is a dangerous game… They most likely changed the cards to better fit their PG ratings… And they are correct to do so. Sex and violence isnt suitable for a 7 year old… How is that a “feminist/progressive” ideal??

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That’s why it’s rated T for Teen… if parents choose to ignore that suggestion, it’s not Activision Blizzard’s fault.
And if you want to tell me that Sex and Blood isn’t for boys in puberty… … well… :smiley:

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It has a age 7+ rating in Europe., And ESRB T in America… Meaning 13+

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@Cleng No need to assume motive, I am discussing the end result. A card game based on Warcraft doesn’t need to be rated for seven year olds anyways. You can’t sell trading cards to adults with nostalgia for WoW, and then bait and switch when they exhaust and frustrate their existing market.

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It doesnt need to be rated for anyone to be fair., But it is… And its a stand alone game, based upon the Worldcraft lore. They make it how they want it. And to me Hearthstone has a light, playful, positive theme to it. Why the blood and nudity? I simply dont get it. I dont mind it, dont get me wrong, but i understand why they cater to a younger audience, if thats what they want to do. Blood and nudity doest fit in with the overall theme of Hearthstone in my opinion.

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@Cleng There is no nudity. But again, they sold something and are now changing what people paid for. I’m sure they covered themselves in their terms of service, but it is still disappointing to see this sort of thing, and I won’t be supporting any games as a service that pulls this kind of garbage.

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Why are you nitpicking? Didnt you understand what i mean when i asked why the blood and nudity? Is your argument that bad?

And every game you buy, changes… Did you get upset when Blizzard changed D3 aswell? Because surely its not the same game you bought right? This isnt rocket science.

To me it looks like Blizzard made a cheerful PEGI 7 and ESRB T card game. They made cards that was a bit “to dark themed”, and decided to change them to fit better into the intitial cheerful theme the game allready has… Thats it…

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TS you are absolutely right! Censorship is awful

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@Cleng I just want to make sure details don’t get glossed over or misrepresented. Patches are different than censorship. ESRB has nothing to do with it, as the game has not changed it’s rating from when it first produced all these cards. This is willful erasure of content already paid for.