I’ve made a better PR statement than this in a few minutes on the forums.
Do they really think people are going to be crawling back now that they’ve just said “We stand by the decision and had absolutely zero involvement with the Chinese goverment we promise. Now let us stop standing by that decision to back peddle while claiming our decision was totally not unjust.”
It contradicts itself entirely. Honestly all their recent PR has completely contradicted itself. It’s like a schizophrenic was making their PR moves lately.
That’s exactly why they reduced the punishment. They were losing marketed players. A large portion of the population doesn’t believe J. Allen Brack. Their actions made their intentions clear, their words devalued/deflated. They wouldn’t of had an Esports at the rate it was going.
To add They had so many people Deleting their accounts (Not canceling) the system was failing. The Scope of the issue their actions caused, was going to, and will still affect all their future products. This is nothing more than damage control.
They only value money; They are a Corporation. This should be expected, however The human condition, (Which they knowingly use/abuse), leads to people believing them at their word, until irrefutable proof the contrary arise. This was EXACTLY that proof to many.
The thing is we don’t have to look into the actual situation to understand the issue with Blizzard. It doesn’t even matter where you stand on the issue either.
In the past, Blizzard distanced themselves from politics. Recently, the have engaged in politics. Now, in this case, they want to remain neutral.
The problem started once Blizzard threw their political hat in the ring. They can’t simultaneously participate in politics and want to be apolitical.
The “They followed their ToS/contract” is a bull argument anyway.
Saying they had to ban someone for saying “we support Hong Kong!” because it puts their company in “disrepute” just shows that they believe the message of “support for Hong Kong” isn’t representative of their company and that implicitly do NOT agree with that statement.
That pisses me off. Not this “free speech” strawman everyone keeps pulling out of their ***.
This isn’t true in the slightest. If there’s a clause in your TOS that forbids political statements, enforcing that clause doesn’t mean (or even imply) that you disagree with the statement that violated the rules.
The “disrepute” in this case was probably politicizing something that they didn’t want politicized in the first place. Or, if you want maximum cynicism, that’s how they can portray it.
Thats the hearthstone tournament contract, not a specific contest. Blizzard has also made it known through previous posts that their no politics rule is a company policy that covers everything they do
By inviting a Hong Kong player who plays for “team Hong Kong” to a tournament in Taiwan it becomes “politicized”.
Everything is inherently political. If it isn’t, then saying “I support my home country” isn’t political either.
AND THERE WAS NO POLITICAL CLAUSE IN THEIR TOS.
And “disrepute” doesn’t mean “make something political”. Stop spouting random arguments to play devil’s advocate for. I’m not here to argue with someone who doesn’t believe in a word they’re saying.
That was quite possibly one of the worst apologies I’ve ever read.
It was just ~800 words of “we’re sorry you got mad” and another ~100 words of “we have values, but we’ll never actually uphold those values”.
The specific views expressed by blitzchung were NOT a factor in the decision we made. I want to be clear: our relationships in China had no influence on our decision.
The sad truth is that from what I’ve researched, Hong Kong is not a country in its own right, for all intents and purposes it is very much a part of China. In all honesty I think China benefits from the arrangement because Hong Kong itself is a special region that’s a capitalist region, whereas the rest of China is socialist etc.
So if China was to conquer Hong Kong by military force they could really hurt themselves.
Convenient. I guess since you’ve defined your position as unassailable, we should all bow down to your cleverness.
The irony is, the section they cited him as violating mentions actions that “bring him or her into public disrepute.” Which, since “everything is political” someone in a Chinese tournament making statements in support of Hong Kong will certainly do. Hey! Guess you were right after all, and punishing him was the right call. Congratulations!
Cough Taiwan Tournament. Taiwan is infamously enemies of the PRC, otherwise known as China. If anything a Hong Kong player supporting a movement that is against China’s Human Right’s Violations in a Taiwan tournament would garner more reputable image to Blizzard.
Chinese =/= PRC/China. In fact many “Chinese” countries are against the PRC/China. Nice try though.
You’re not very smart are you?
Still wrong.
Edit: INB4 wigglytuff changes their argument again or moves goalposts because they were proven wrong.
Or just ignores me because they can’t win an argument against facts lmao.
So you would believe that a team would risk getting themselves banned for supporting HK, not because they actually support HK, but because they want their 15 minutes of fame?
They were already playing in official Hearthstone matches, what do they actually stand to gain by risking a ban and then forfeiting future matches?
Seems unrealistically cynical, and I’m a pretty cynical person.
