Censorship Issues

Community Discussion
21

You can choose to ignore reality, but the game is 1/5 as popular as 5 years ago and you can’t deny it.
And it’s not like I’m uninstalling “because it’s dying”. I’m uninstalling because of the reasons that are killing it.

22

What the heck happened to the old art???

This gotta be to sell the game on the chinese market.
Ive spent money on this game… why change the art?

Have they given an official statement? Are they so embarrassed by the original Hearthstone artists?

Is there a way to change to the old art?

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23

I feel you.

I didn’t spent money but I feel your pain.

Even if it’s virtual, you paid for content that has intellectual value.

For me, it is the same as if some guy come to my house and take my MTG cards away and replace them with some censored defecation.

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24

China already has their own censored version of the game they are not doing it cuz of China…

25

can you show me a statistic? or you just talking like that to spend your time and make falls statements

26

Can’t show anything in this stupid forum because it doesn’t let you post links or images or anything.

So if you are really interested, go to google and search it for yourself, I’m sorry.

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27

“to gain access to China” ???

My friend, they already have access to China. For many years already. With a separate client. That uses censored art, because China has regulations on what is and what is not allowed in video games, and those laws and restrictions are different from the regulations in other major markets (such as USA, the one that probably determines most of the limits of what we see in the non-Chinese markets).

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28

But what if it (gasp!!) actually is not China but a visual update for age rating, and to adjust to shifted moral standards in the USA?

29

huh…
I thought this game was T for teen
in this case tiny bit of blood should be ok
WHY THEY ARE REMOVING BLOOD FROM CARDS? :slight_smile:
that was a nice try I admire you

2 Likes
30

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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31

@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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32

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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33

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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34

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

35

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

36

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!!!

37

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.

38

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

39

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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40

@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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