You understand that this ONE line dictates that they can ban you at anytime for ANYTHING.
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Thatâs not unclear at all. Itâs Blizzardâs platform that they invest in for gaming, not as a soapbox for other peopleâs politics.
I mean, youâd have to be pretty dense to not realize that getting up on Blizzardâs live broadcast streaming to millions of Chinese viewers to make a political statement about China would somehow be okay and not âoffend a portion or group of the publicâ, obviously such a statement would rile feathers in the viewing audience. I mean thatâs like saying somebody in the OWLS finals interview chanting into a microphone as itâs telecasting to millions of Americans and people worldwide âMake America Great Again! Make America Great Again! Build that wall!â is only ambiguously offensive to a group of the public, I mean itâs political, obviously some groups would get offended and that doesnât require Blizzardâs discretion to arrive at that conclusion, it would be met with exactly the same kind of penalties.
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even if you argue itâs obvious that a player cannot openly support HK according to blizz tos (lol), you absolutely cannot argue that the casters interviewing deserved being fired forâŚinterviewing the player liveâŚwhich wasâŚtheir job.
Itâs their platform that they pay for. You donât pay for it. Neither do the players. They can ban anyone they want, thatâs their business, just as much as you can throw anyone out of your own house they can throw anyone out of their hosted tournaments. Obviously theyâll try to be fair as possible if they want people to feel confident in playing and being treated fairly, and the penalty here heavy-handed as it may be was spelled out clearly in the rules.
Their platform is dedicated for Blizzardâs gaming business, not political soapboxing. That you think theyâre somehow suddenly obligated to take a political stance, when they have been consistently apolitical for years of business serving the Chinese public, smells more of reactionary virtue signaling than actual consistent principle. I donât remember anybody complaining when the Shanghai Dragons were rooted for as the underdog in OWL, are you going to boo them whenever they get onstage now because you disagree with the Chinese governmentâs policies toward Hong Kong? Chinese are people too, you know.
As I understand it the casters encouraged the player to make his statement, thatâs why they were fired. Given the considerable damage to Blizzardâs branding in both the eastern and western markets as a result, it seems pretty justified to me, they should have known better.
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Iâm not even going to get political with it. You cannot know what is in the mind of Blizzard (IE know by their discretion will bring you into public disrepute, etc) unless they explicitly state in the contract that so and so things are off limits. That makes it categorically unclear because you have no window into Blizzardâs mind or thought process other than your senses and I have no idea whether Blitzchung expected these repercussions or not and that doesnât even matter. The contract is just plainly unfair and written in Blizzardâs favor and they force literal nobodies to sign them for a chance at something big.
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They just allowed him to say it.
The damage was done by Blizzard. It was because they sided with the chinese government that it went viral and now people are boycotting.
Youâre kidding, right? You honestly think that Blitzchung wouldnât have realized that using Blizzardâs live broadcast to millions of Chinese viewers to make a political statement against Chinese policy wasnât going to cause offense to a portion of the public? You donât need to know Blizzardâs interpretation to come to that conclusion at all, heâs dragging a politically sensitive and charged topic into whatâs a gaming platform obviously it would be controversial, thatâs just common sense, donât be intellectually disingenuous here.
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Like I said, it doesnât matter what Blitzchung knew or didnât know, because the contract is poorly written and he shouldnât have signed it without asking for greater clarity or Blizzard should just write a better contract. He probably well knew it might land him in some hot water, but perhaps not to the max extent of the contract, because itâs so poorly written. Or honestly masterfully written to take advantage of unsuspecting kids.
Itâs not poorly written, itâs not vague, itâs written broadly in order to catch any variety of scenarios that could be damaging to Blizzardâs brand. Running across the stage naked, shouting expletives, throwing up sig heils, or of course making politically charged statements, obviously thereâs a wide gamut of things people can do that Blizzard canât possibly cover them all.
I know you want to support Blitzchung in any way you can, the movement heâs supporting is a noble cause. But he abused someone elseâs platform in a way that does direct damage to their company and by extension the livelihoods of its employees. It was lose-lose for Blizzard, whether they support or donât support his statement they would be hurt, which is why they have heavy-handed penalties like this written into their ruleset to prevent people from abusing their platforms in the first place.
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exactly. backlash in the west against a bad political decision by blizz (because yes this decision blizz made is inherently political) isnât backlash against what the player said.
You mean endless illogical complaining? Hong Kong posts are the best thing thatâs ever happened on these forums. Some people actually care about real world lives more than a video game. Some people like yourself will gladly support a corporation who supports a tyrannical government thatâs committing acts of terrorism against their citizens. We are seeing history in the making. These discussions will be archived and put in the digital history books of the future, and you will go down in history as a pos. Congrats
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The interviewers encouraged and litterally told him to say the hong kong protests words (âthose 8 wordsâ) as they said. That is, why they are ducking in the interview, they are just as much a part of the problem that Blizzard does not wan´t. If they wanted to protest, do it somewhere else than on Blizzards property, it isn´t so freaking hard to understand jesus christâŚ
âOK, so after youâve said your eight words, weâll end our conversation with that. We wonât discuss anything more after that. You can start whenever. First, letâs bow our heads.â
Thatâs what they said. They allowed him to say the words he wanted to say, they didnât force him to.
Where did i say they forced him ? they were in on the whole thing, they were aware, of what was gonna be said and went a long with it ? Did they apologize on Blizzards part like they should have as Blizzard representatives, on a Blizzard broadcast either ?
Call the punishments hard and i would agree, but saying they were wrong and or not deserved, is just ignoring facts, because your bias towards Hong Kong is showing.
Edit, the guy is wearing goggles and a gas mask, stop pretending.
Itâs a cover up.
Sure, he may have broke the rules, but what about the 2 announcers that ALSO got fired? What about 2 of their core values they went back on? Do you not have phones?
From the first millisecond of this controversy Blizzard has ONLY had their intentions in appeasing China as to not fool up their plans of expanding their market there. THATS why Diablo Immortal was built the way that it was.
Blizzard only cares about tapping into the Chinese market and milking it for $$$, and nothing else. Them DESTROYING 2 core values of their is more than enough proof.
This. Sly. Shi7. Needs. To. Stop. Now.
Iâm done and fed up with Blizzard.
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And the 2 announcers that ALSO got banned?
Thatâs where I draw the line. That showâs Blizzards bottom line more than anything. Punishment via association. Jeez, that really does scream freedom, aka what the HK movement is for and China is against.
Except they DID take a political stance with their tweet following the whole incident. âloyalty to the nationâ? Currently the one they reside in is royally pissed at them for what they did. So what nation is this being declared to?
They also censored a few months back in WoW words related to the protests. If you look at the list of words itâs clear theyâre not profanity.
Their stance isnât new, but this time it went viral.