I’m surprised that you can deliver money to anonymous participants.
Not seeing an issue with it. Yes, it is a PR nightmare, but they did nothing wrong. It is allowed within the confines of the contract. Hell, they didn’t even go half as far as they could have.
They dropped the hammer on him to make sure that people in the future didn’t try and do the same thing, thinking they could make their political statement and force Blizzard to be their platform. This is all on him. He chose the wrong platform to make his statement on.
The hammer should have been dropped, and dropped as hard as it was. It should have been dropped if it was Free Hong Kong. It should have been dropped if it was Bernie Sanders. It should have been dropped if it was Trump. It should have been dropped if it was white supremacists. It should have been dropped if it was ISIS. It should have been dropped if it was the Westboro Baptist Church. It should have been dropped if it was Planned Parenthood. It should have been dropped if it was Black Lives Matter. It should have been dropped if it was Blue Lives Matter. It should have been dropped if it was Women’s Rights. It should have been dropped if it was Men’s Rights.
The content of the political statement is irrelevant, save for the optics. Political statement on a nonpolitical platform = Hammer gets dropped. End of story.
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Just because their names are not recorded in the published study data does not mean it isn’t collected so that they have identifying material or contact information. Clinical trials are often anonymous, for instance, in that they don’t publish the names of people involved, especially without consent, but the companies involved do keep contact information, so they can do followup studies to see if there are long term effects.
Likewise, just because whoever commissioned the survey doesn’t get your information, doesn’t mean that those conducting the survey can’t grease the wheels a bit.
Blizzard prominently displays their politics when they think their virtue signaling will make them money. Just look at the nonsense they keep releasing for their overwatch characters or the pride events they have in games. Of course, these things are compeletely absent in countries like China. This company is the definition of hypocrisy.
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Every Voice Matters
Great ideas can come from anywhere. Blizzard Entertainment is what it is today because of the voices of our players and of each member of the company. Every employee is encouraged to speak up, listen, be respectful of other opinions, and embrace criticism as just another avenue for great ideas.
https://www.blizzard.com/en-sg/company/about/mission.html
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And where in that does it say, “Use our gaming platform for your political talk”?
There is a difference between allowing people to speak up and criticize them, either internally or in public, and using an official platform to try and make a political statement, which could damage the company in a market that makes up almost 1/5 of the human race.
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Well, our businesses are supporting Tyranny, so we have to counteract that somehow.
^This is what no one seems to get.
Like it or not that player was representing blizzard and was on their time, he was at work for all intents and purposes. That was NOT the time nor the place for that kind of political grandstanding.
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Nice red herring.
Almost no one in the various threads have stated he shouldn’t have been punished.
We can read through the thread you know. So I’m not really sure why you’d try to present the issue in such a fallacious way.
Blizzard casts it as a political statement, at their sole discretion by the way, to make money.
You swallow that it is a political statement because your lack of education in Chinese history has perfectly unionized with your white knighthood for a video game company.
Hope you enjoy playing your video games!
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It isn’t though. Most are indeed saying he shouldn’t have been punished. They agree with his political rhetoric so they see no issue with it and are saying blizz censored him. No. He was at work and representing blizzard. Whatever they deemed appropriate to punish what he did is fine, it’s their business and their decision.
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And therefore he shouldn’t be punished?
Dude, just stop. More than one thing can be true at the same time.
Many think that his punishment, as well as punishing the interviewers, went too far, not that he shouldn’t have been punished.
The interviewers dove under a table! Banned! Seriously. They made no statement at all, whether they were in the know or not.
Spot on
Found one like two post bellow lmao.
A low level rogue too, glad I’ve been killing all rogues on sight since yesterday.
Sneaky bounty hunters they will now be my bounty 
How is saying the slogan of a political movement not political? That would be like saying, “America First” or “Make America Great Again” isn’t political. The guy knew what he was doing, the penalties were in the contract he signed, so he deserves the ban.
Take several seats.
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Dude, just stop. What you or anyone else thinks is an appropriate punishment is irrelevant. It only matters what blizz thinks is an appropriate punishment. It isn’t your decision, my decision, or anyone else’s decision. It’s blizz decision and they made it.
I suggest reading up on Chinese history and taking a break from video games, since video game companies clearly impact your entire life outlook, your philosophy, and your perception of other human beings.
I can’t think of anything more sad.
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For a lot of people video games and related materials are their one place to find peace. Its their one place to find shelter from the real world. When real world issues intrude into their last bastion of escapism, they do what they can to push it back out.
I am neither condemning nor supporting that, but I believe that is why you get mass reports. People just want the real world stuff to go somewhere else.
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Pro tip: Ad hominem attacks don’t make you look good.
I actually like Chinese history. A good part of my personal philosophy comes from Sun Tzu.
Just because a topic is addressed in a political climate does not make it political in nature, the fact that it is being addressed means that it is important enough to discuss at a government level.
Saying “gay people deserve to live” could similarly be cast as political simply on the basis that Russia disagrees with that basic statement.
Just because a topic happens to belong to a category of political discussion at the current time doesn’t mean that its being political is an inherent property.
On top of this, Blizzard stated that it is at their sole discretion what they deem to be political or not. Therefore they have chosen to make a statement political in order for it to break their own rules which results in their own financial gain.
But I know that you already understand this.
Thanks captain obvious, I’ll make sure to file that under “shrill shill responses to literally anything”.
Apparently not even those at blizzard agrees with the decision. How about those apples?
You know why the punishment was dumb? Because instead of the statement being a passing moment in a competition that most of the world didn’t even know about, blizzard let loose the ban hammer and made international news and headlines across the world.
If you think that’s what they were aiming for that’s fine, but they got called on bowing to China, figuratively speaking, and everyone can see it.
Their stock value fell, they lost subs, they got caught scrubbing out videos and any other record of the event, and so on.
It was a stupid knee jerk reaction about a hotbed controversy right after the NBA just had a moment with it.
Oh yeah, THATS GOING TO GO WELL.