Yes, they did. A competitor used their widely broadcasted event to spread their own political views. Any event in its right mind would make an apology, with some organizations going to crazy extremes at times.
For example, who here knows of GDQ (Games Done Quick)? Its a non-profit organization in partnership with Doctors Without Borders. A few years back a certain runner made some distasteful jokes about Air Canada, which prompted GDQ to make a public apology to Air Canada via Twitter.
Now, personally, they overreacted to the situation because it honestly was not necessary to go that far. However, anyone with any modicum of thinking ability can deduce why organizations publicly apologize for incidents like this. Its to make it clear, publicly, that the statements of people like this that attend their events are not the organization’s comments.
Any organization worth it’s salt wants to stay as neutral as possible thus to cast as wide a net as possible. (Yeah yeah, corrupt corperations, yada yada, banging the drum since the 60’s…)
That “apology” isn’t to kiss butt, its to make it clear that the person’s statement was not their own. End of story.
As others have already stated, the commentators did in fact take part in it.
Oh please, Blizzard Entertainment does far more for anyone through its charity causes than any one of these armchair warriors do and give far more than anyone here could ever hope to.
While I won’t argue that Bobby Kotic and a portion of Activision isn’t corrupt and disgusting, Blizzard Entertainment itself does quite a lot. The majority of these people are just fairweather protesters who just want a reason to be outraged at Blizzard. Not a single person here is actually going to do anything in aiding the cause of Hong Kong. Their “support” end with telling off Blizzard and harassing anyone who does not share their viewpoint blindly.
Seriously, that’s what the TC of this thread even brings up in their original post.
Its just people using this as an excuse to be terrible human beings while flying under the banner of “I care about the bigger issues!” just as it always is with every new outrage. Hatemongering, mob mentality, social justice just continues on the way it always does. Just like the people who go to protests and destroy property/loot. Its not about the cause, its an excuse to get away with being horrible.
Even the people who “Walked out” of Blizzard the other day, how many of them ACTUALLY care about the root of the plight? That root being the Hong Kong China issue. How many of them are going to do anything that actually matters? Are they going to take this to their congressman? Are they going to picket outside their capital? Of course not. They took the easiest path of least resistance, got their moment of glory, and that’s it. They won’t think of the issues across the sea anymore in a months time.
I honestly think the 1 year ban and loss of prize money is enough for his actions even if he knowingly did it expecting punishment. I do think that if he ever returns however and if he wins again he should not have interviewing privileges because of his previous stunts.
Which all of this shows just how lowly the outrage culture community is, focusing on Blizzard upholding their contract and attempting to maintain political neutrality instead of focusing on the actual issues of China and Hong Kong. Blizzard may be soulless, but they are a million times better than those who live this outrage culture.
I am a very noisy typer. I press each key with the intensity of the sun itself!
Actually its just a mechanical keyboard… Keys are pretty loud…
Whats funny is that literally last week South Park did an episode on China. China is just the new hot button topic. Not saying its not a valid topic, but people are using this banner as a way to do what they always do. Be horrible.