Don’t kid yourself. As soon as the next virtue singling event crops up everyone will forget about this the same way they forgot about the last thing they got all outraged over.
Hey bring it on, I can fight! Netherwind alliance i’ll be in STV
Saying “Gay people deserve to live” is certainly political, even though I agree with it, since there are plenty of people even in the US where people aren’t exactly on board with that idea. Saying that on my twitter feed is fine. Saying it on a game tournament broadcast live from Russia is not.
It is the time and place that is the issue. If he had been on Facebook or Youtube, it wouldn’t have been a problem, and Blizzard wouldn’t have banned him. But he did it on Blizzard’s time, and in such a way that you would have to be a mental patient to not realize it was a blatant political message.
And if they ignore such a blatantly political message on their stream? Well, they’ve now set a precedent, which can be used against them if they act against other political messages in the future, some of which you might like less than the Hong Kong stuff. Someone comes on and chants “Blood and Soil”, and they can then take Blizz to court if they get banned, because Blizzard is being discriminatory, and not enforcing their rules equally.
Remember, all these things apply just as much to the agendas you hate as much as they do the ones that you like.
What is there to kid about? They could have avoided this entire episode. I find it interesting that you think because someone has authority they are right in action, and that people are generally stupid and forgetful (so why do the right thing, right?).
It isn’t the first issue, and no, players haven’t forgotten about:
“Don’t you guys have phones”
And
“You think you do, but you don’t”
Of course, if you keep your head buried in the ground or pasted to the TV you wouldn’t understand why people don’t like China. Just a clue, it’s not just the cat food with lead in it.
Oh, I didn’t forget that one either. How about that?
And there’s this President Somebody that takes issue with their slave labor and trade practices as well, and is active in doing something about it.
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No it isn’t. It’s not inherently political.
Watch this logic closely.
Idiots assert “gay people don’t deserve to live.”
This contradicts the reason and common sense of the opposite.
The two ideas conflict; the government gets involved.
Now a statement grounded in reason and common sense “gay people deserve to live” is “political,” on the basis of there being a disagreement and the government becoming involved.
The root cause is an incorrect view.
The basic human rights of Hong Kong citizens is “political” to China.
And like I said, it is also now “political” at the sole discretion of Blizzard Entertainment.
The term trolling is fairly broad as it saying anything upsetting… inappropriate can be the same flag in some cases… sometimes even spam because numerous people post about it when the conversation could’ve continued on someone else’s initial forum post. People just disagree with others and flag it. The stuff people get a temporary silence for on these forums is ridiculous to say the least. Just don’t talk about stuff that has a lot of opinions on it or there will be a lot of people disagreeing and flagging it… idk just what i see anyways.
The only reason I can see forum mods closing threads on this topic is because most forum sites prohibit threads about real-world politics (and religion, and other touchy subjects). Now, people reporting people for what they believe in, that’s another story. But I’m pretty sure the threads go against universal forum rules.
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Takes us back to WWII when economy outweighed ethics. How many Germans with a conscience failed to speak up or protest against the concentration camps? Hardly any, because a) they benefited economically and b) their lives were dependent upon absolute support. Same old story.
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It’s pretty simple actually. There are plenty of outlets for political discourse, a VIDEO GAME is not one of them. Where there IS an outlet, they are usually moderated to maintain civil discourse, its beyond blizzards scope to do that and rightly so. Use another outlet.
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Except Blizzard is a video game platform providing absolutely zero services to any government and is only funneling Chinese money into the US economy. They have no real voice, power, etc to do anything regarding that situation other than siding with the HK player and getting a pat on the back by a single Kotaku article and seeing their entire company collapse.
Zero services to a government? Providing jobs and surging money into an economy isn’t a service to said government? Blizzard is highly influential in China; and the money is also funneling into the Chinese economy. So, I’m not quite sure what your point is. No, Blizzard doesn’t have the power to free Hong Kong or end authoritarian rule, but as a major corporation, their actions reflect their ethics. Ethics, in turn, reinforce positive or negative behaviors. In this case, Blizzard’s severe punishment on this player reinforced Beijing’s authority to clamp down on free speech and reign in the “loyalty or bust” mindset that’s affecting more and more businesses.
China accounts for roughly 14% of Blizzard’s profits. It’s a big chunk, but it’s not going to result in “their entire company collapse”.
Here’s the thing you youngins’ don’t understand. There’s something going on over in China. You as a person have no clue what’s actually happening or have ANY understanding on it. These are peoples livelyhood in the world, and you guys are following political propaganda because you think it’s a good thing, when in reality, if you don’t live in China, and are at least age 25 you have no idea what’s going on there.
Its not a life of convienence thing at all. What a ridiculously superior thing to say. Its not that most of us don’t care, its that it isnt our problem or fault.
I know this may hurt your feelings, but not everyone bursts into tears everytime they see a commercial on tv asking for donations for whatever the current country in crisis is.
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Where did you get that 14% numbers? You guys keep bringing in acti-blizzard profits and not blizzard profits by themselves. Quit doing this. Huge titles under Activision, that make more money than all of Blizzard, aren’t even allowed in China.
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They have a single office with a small percentage of the overall Acti-Blizzard percentage working there. Extremely small. Sure, the workers there are generally Chinese and are paid and put that money back into the economy. But guess what? Who is benefiting more? Is it the Chinese government with Blizzard engineers making 50,000 USD and renting an apartment in China? Or is it the US-based Acti-Blizzard funneling in millions upon millions of dollars of profit from sales in the Chinese region? Do you think profit money sits in China? lmfaooooooooooooooooo, no.
Also, no ethics were involved. The player agreed to not discuss something like that on their platform. He did so and was punished for it. End of story. At this point I honestly think they should ban him for life because what he did is abuse their platform and held them hostage. Either they literally go bankrupt or ruin their image in the west. He put them in that position when all Blizzard did was provide him a cool platform to make money and play a video game.
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Oh man im looking forward to next Blizzcon I hope they give us some more of those juicy memes
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First you criticize data then implement false data yourself? Huh.
The ethics is in the punishment. No one is arguing that he didn’t violate the policy. But a one year ban? Many view that as a huge bow towards China. It was excessive.
Is it though? – 'cause I’m pretty sure he’d do it again in a heartbeat.
You can’t even think that stuff like… who would imagine that they would say something like « don’t you guys have phones??? »
And coming from blizzard that’s like… u for real mate?
Not referring to the player; referring to Blizz.
Right. A punishment should at least deter someone from doing something you don’t want them to do.
– but we both know he’d do it again, so the question is “is the punishment excessive?”