Compared to most Blizzard character design, old Jaina’s was positively monastic. Which, to be honest, makes the outrage over the change even weirder.
There was a well documented report in December 2018 from the Chinese Morals Office (or whatever those commies call it) pointing out several games that would not be approved within China or that had to change “deficiencies” in order to be approved because of a series of “deficiencies” the games had.
Reasons given were the usual gore, skeletons, blood, etc. that the rest of the world always (rightfully) makes fun about the Chinese but also “immoral” avatars and “unmoderated chat”.
Blizzard games were specifically pointed out in that report - although HS wasn’t (if I remember, Overwatch and WoW were mentioned).
A month later or so, the Jaina in game portrait was censored by Blizz without comment, hint, or anything in patch notes. It was the community that noticed the pixels.
We talked about it in the old forums even mentioning that at least our forum avatars were still the pre-censored one. In hind-sight, how convenient the oft delayed timing of the change to these new crappy forums thus wiping post histories.
Now Blizz completed the censorship by having changed the avatars here as well.
Connect the dots.
I’ll bet my trust-fund that within ATVI, a series of memos were issued to effect these changes in order to bend over for the Chinese - especially after the investors conference call that announced the lay-offs and specifically mentioned that ATVI is pivoting to the mobile market. Specifically, the Asian one (read China). Add the Blizzcon Diablo ‘reveal’: What? You don’t have phones?
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See, this is the quote function. Try it some time. Also, some of your points weren’t worth addressing, or were addressed and you didn’t care for the answers…
Nice dodge. But you’re the one attempting to say they have to have some moral reason attached before it can be censorship:
Intent is irrelevant. The fact that someone painted over her “offensive” cleavage is an act of censorship. Full stop.
You can play all the mental gymnastics in the universe to say otherwise, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s censorship. Same as if someone covered up the “offensive” parts of any female form.
Again, the reasons are irrelevant to the act of censorship itself. You want to posit it was a different group of people who called for it, fine. Make your case. You haven’t. In fact, you haven’t made much of a case about anything you want to argue for the sake of arguing…but as you pointed out:
You can’t even answer the simple question of whether or not you are against body shaming, misogyny, and censorship. Those are fairly simple questions. The fact you can’t answer them speaks volumes. The fact you have to resort to ad hominem rather than facts under discussion shows you can’t even stay civil in this discussion.
I didn’t make the claim that it was censorship, so I don’t see why I have to prove anything. I didn’t make the claim it wasn’t censorship either. I’m just not on board with your anger because it hasn’t been proven one way or the other to me.
And the OP only linked things that never actually had Blizzard or the receiving entity saying they did it to censor. Or that they did it for something else.
If they did, let me know, I’ll be on board.
Would you have been okay if Jaina had lost her coat instead? Or is any change to her portrait after the initial creation offensive?
I get so tired of people being offended all the time.
Did you actually read, or watch any of the material? How companies, trying to create one universal release, will censor their product in order to cater to the country in questions censorship board. This has been done for other games in the past, very recently, and consumers have rightly pointed out the having one market (especially one of the worst human rights violators out there) dictate what everyone gets to play is holding the entire market hostage to their whims.
This is purely speculative.
Why don’t we ask a more definitive and pertinent question that others have been unable to answer:
Are you for or against censorship?
Are you for or against misogyny?
Are you for or against body shaming of women?
Are you for or against sexism?
These are not morally neutral issues.
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I’m not sure why anyone would be for those things. Although I must admit I’m not sure about the body shaming one (applied to both genders, why would it only be women?). But it’s pretty messed up you won’t answer ppls questions but want yours answered.
Mine was pretty simple. Would you be offended if they changed Jaina to shirtless?
As for watching the material, was Blizzard or China in the material saying anything about changing art?
Jayyzz: By threatening other franchises with limitation to the Chinese market if those games didn’t change their ways, yes, it is China. ATVI took those threats and preemptively changed HS in order for HS not to appear on a possible future list.
By doing this, ATVI has shown that it will apply Chinese “morals” across its world platforms.
It’s a bit like the Google engine once developed specifically for the Chinese market that filtered out content the Commies didn’t like. Imagine now that that engine had been rolled out world wide. That is the concern here.
It’s not about a few pixels. It’s the principle that is at stake here. Why should we be subject to China’s whims? If anything, we should fight them tooth and nail. We can’t let them get away with it.
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I notice you aren’t answering the question.
I’m not asking “anyone.” I’m asking you.
You’re asking silly hypotheticals that obviously aren’t pertinent to the issue under discussion. A shirtless Jaina is literally impossible because of the rating issues. That would turn this from an “E” game to an adult one.
Nice try at baiting.
Yeah, I understand the point. And that companies giving in one by one to a demand for censorship gives the one demanding it more power. And it can spread easily.
The problem I have is how anyone knows that’s the reason for this. Was it said somewhere?
Thanks for the nice reply, some in here are rubbing me the wrong way.
Anyway, I wish you all a good night. I have to sleep. Hopefully I’ll remember to check this.
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This vid explains it well. There’s an opening but 30 seconds in we get to the heart of the matter (edit: it should be noted that the creator has been very anti Blizz lately):
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I don’t know how to respond to you any more.
I answered your questions in a round a bout way.
I never asked if my question was possible. You could have said, no I wouldn’t be offended. And I would have said, huh cool.
You just come off as someone who’s either offended at everything or likes to argue. So it’s hard to take you seriously.
And I don’t have the time for that. Nor the blood pressure. I have happier things to do in life with my family. Take care and good night.
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Thanks again Wotan. I’ll watch it tomorrow.
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You could try directly. These are not questions that require a lot of deep thought or a lot of “I need to consider where I stand on the issue.”
Censorship, body shaming (it can be either gender), and sexism (also either gender, this one just happens to be a woman), and mysigyny are pretty straightforward issues, especially in cases like these. The country in question also has one of the worst human rights records out there. This is also a matter of historical fact, easily verifiable.
There’s no need for being so “roundabout,” unless you are the country in question and posting your opinion on those subjects will get you a visit from the police. There’s no reason not to answer them, and they are directly relevant to the discussion. Unlike yours.
If you don’t think that these issues impact your family, and the world they are living in, and the world their children will grow up in…I honestly don’t know what to tell you.
That’s how we got to a place where a great deal of our civil liberties (especially our privacy), and other rights slowly eroded. People said “no big deal, other stuff to do.” And here we are.
And now we find ourselves dealing with censorship, especially in online and gaming venues, and a great deal of people don’t realize the implications of decisions being made right now by corporations and government entities.
For a Artist is less pain to torture him that see their work changed.
now!!! the avatar in the forum has been censored too…
look at Jaina avatar in the new posts…
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Weird, I see my posts with both censored and uncensored avatars… So I guess Blizz is not only in bed with China but incompetent as well (as if we didn’t know that already: Diablo Immortal, WoW BfA, etc).
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I’m just looking at this again and can’t believe they did something so pointless and dumb.
Team 5, don’t forget to cover up everyone else too: Garrosh, Malfurion, etc.
edit: to add, I don’t get why China would have a problem with Jaina’s cleavage… they used to have the biggest population on Earth, clearly they are big fans of a little cleavage.
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I pointed it out before, but the average photo shoot by a number of their models shows off a lot more. So the double standard, in addition to the outright censorship, anti women, body shaming, and misogyny that went into this is pretty hard to miss. What’s sad that the message that it’s ok to treat women as “less than” in 2019 as long as the opportunity to make money is on the table, along with caving to one of the biggest human rights violators out there.
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Too much fuss over nothing
not properly nothing !!!
a lot of people didn’t like this choice to change Jaina Hero Portrait.
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Why is this still being talked about? It’s Blizzard’s own product and they can do whatever they want with it. You dont like it just leave. Getting tired of you keyboard warrior’s thinking you have the moral high ground. Most of us would of not noticed because we aint always focused on a 2d image. Grow up kids.
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