blizzard has never been a political. They constantly virtue signal and push âwokeâ politics to gain favor in the world, but as soon as it came time to stand up for those principles, they abandoned them for money.
Weâll get right on it as soon as we get back from Area 51.
If a company wishes to take a political stance on a topic then theyâre free to do that and assume the associated risks (e.g., Chik-Fil-A donating to anti-gay organizations and facing public backlash). If they donât wish to and would rather to remain neutral on certain subjects, theyâre also free to do that, like the great majority of video game publishers who havenât taken an official public stance on Hong Kong.
But thatâs a completely different situation than what we have here with Blitzchung. Blizzard was, up until Blitzchung made his statement, decisively apolitical on the subject of China and Hong Kongâs conflict, a fact nobody had a problem with for years and a stance which makes sense considering they service and employ people from across China whether itâs the mainland communist Shanghai or the democratic republic of Taiwan. Blitzchung, however, literally dragged the company into the crosshairs of this conversation without their consent and against their will.
Even Blitzchung himself said after the fact that you canât force people to make a political statement, as remaining neutral is also a freedom that is essential to democracy:
"Also I really want to say one thing. Iâm seeing a lot of people pushing streamers, players, casters, Blizzard employees etc to make a statement (regarding me). I want to make it clear that whether you play Blizzard games or not and whether you make a statement or not are completely your personal freedom . I donât think we should push people into anything. I also hope those who stayed neutral or silent wonât be targeted by the crowd. Not that I donât appreciate your support but itâs their freedom. I am against this âpushing others to speak upâ thing . Even if one disagrees with you we have to respect each other. This is the fundamantal line of democracy.â
For a company trying to reach as broad an audience as possible, you canât really blame them for navigating the restrictions of other countries rules. Otherwise millions of Chinese like Blitzchung wouldnât be able to enjoy and make livelihoods from their games in the first place.
Well, Iâve never once in my entire life played a Riot game, so I am perfectly happy directing my hate and anger towards Blizzard.
So the statements âevery voice should be heardâ and âthink globallyâ just exempt china right? Or the fact that they pride themselves on the diversity in their cast and games, but censor it in china is them being âapoliticalâ right?
Youâre intentionally misinterpreting those statements in order to justify animosity towards Blizzard, like most of the bandwagon haters.
âEvery voice should be heardâ is in a team context when people are working towards a common goal, it doesnât mean they should open their platforms up for players to go on stage loudly proclaiming âTrump 2020! Build that wall!â.
And âthink globallyâ means precisely that they should be sensitive to their audiences around the world, not that they should allow their platforms to be used as a tool to stoke division and conflict.
As for âcensoringâ diversity in their cast and games, itâs already been noted by actual Chinese that those comics were translated and are in fact known in China to be gay:
Hate is such a seductive emotion, geez, people will twist anything to justify this kind of self-righteous self-aggrandizing irrational angry mob reaction, instead of looking at things objectively and dispassionately.
And how does one misinterpret âevery voice should be heardâ? please explain that one, ill give you that think globally could be a misinterpretation.
but you cant misinterpret âevery voice should be heardâ
mmmm except blizzard themselves have said this is a statement about people in the world, not a âwe are making a gameâ statement.
Itâs almost as if itâs in the best interest of companies to try to avoid getting involved in potentially volatile political situations
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To level up faster to lv 25, play arcade and dont forget to endorse players.
Fun fact that story is not actually true. Nintendo is only offering the same digital refund policy it does for ALL its games and whoever wrote that article does not understand that.
Also if Nintendo is not promoting the game then how come if you go to NIntendoâs website right now its the bloody cover art?
A hack writer invented drama that did not exist and got some people who did not do any research to bite on it.
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Wrong thread I think?
OĂche Shamhna Shona Duit ~WildPants
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Gaming journalism has devolved so much over the past 10 years.
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Before the fiasco I would say maybe, but now I feel like it will never happen.
Ha. Journalism. Does that word even have meaning anymore?
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Wouldnât happen before the fiasco either. Maybe a mii costume but not a full fledged fighter. Sans and shovel Knight couldnât even get their own fighters so I doubt an Overwatch hero would even be considered.
It absolutely is going to happen and a fake story about Nintendo not marketing the game and lying about Nintendoâs refund policy does not change that. I get it that people want this to be a story but its not; its a lie concocted by a hack writer who did not do his proper research because he is a clearly a PC writer writing about a console he does not understand.
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Sans barely got into smash, no OW hero is getting a fighter.
Its a clear connection and its obvious why they would want to. Also how do you know the difference between âbarely got a characterâ and âgot a characterâ because unless you are in the meeting room you do not know the distinction?
Huge release for a console that could help secure many more online players is going to get marketed hard as it has been and the best marketing they can do to people outside of the OW bubble is to put a character in Smash. For that reason alone its going to happen and thats ignoring the obvious ease of transition from OW to Smash.
Or its more likely in the best interest of companies not to have stupid policies for its esports players and slam them out of their own greed.
Blizzard screwed up, deal with it.
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No, it wonât happen.
Overwatch is a 3 years old game and is not even a franchise, not mentioning that Blizzard released only 3 games on Nintendo plataforms since ever: OW, Diablo 3 and Lost VikingsâŚ
Overwatch doesnât fill any requirement to have a Smash hero, just face itâŚ