News Blizzard Releases Statement about Blitzchung.

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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"We love free speech, every opinion is important to us, we are a good, open minded and great company but shut the fuck up during our tournaments. #NotBecauseChina"

In other words, they have the same stance as the Olympic Committee.

I hope people don't let this go. It's time for companies and event makers to stop associating themselves with regimes. Doesn't matter if it's FIFA, the Olympic Games or Blizzard.
 
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ISee

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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BlizzCon is in few weeks. It will be the worst BlizzCon ever
I really hope people will disturb the Q&A with freeHK statements. Just like the redshirt guy did with his "is this an out of season April's Fool joke".
 
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Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
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"We love free speech, every opinion is important to us, we are a good, open minded and great company but shut the fuck up during our tournaments. #NotBecauseChina"

In other words, they have the same stance as the Olympic Committee.

I hope people don't let this go. It's time for companies and event makers to stop associating themselves with regimes. Doesn't matter if it's FIFA, the Olympic Games or Blizzard.
The general public response to Blizzard's statment:

 

TubaZef

MetaMember
Dec 19, 2018
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Staying silent would've been better, this is just coward, at least admit your reasons for the thing.

I'm a big Blizzard fan and I'm usually looking forward to BlizzCon for the announcements. This year I'm looking forward to it again but for a whole different reason.
 

Arsene

On a break
Apr 17, 2019
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Staying silent would've been better, this is just coward, at least admit your reasons for the thing.

I'm a big Blizzard fan and I'm usually looking forward to BlizzCon for the announcements. This year I'm looking forward to it again but for a whole different reason.
Honestly same, Literally the day before all this shit happened I was telling my friend how excited I was for Blizzcon because of the new overwatch game, but now im looking forward to it because its going to be an absolute shitshow.
 
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ISee

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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There was a time when Blizzard was my favourite game company. One of the rare ones where every game could be bought blindly.
It was a good run, but in the last couple of years they've been going down hill. They are currently at a new low and on my ignore list.
 
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ISee

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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Blizzard was promoting Gay Rights in the past, and don't get me wrong: That's a good thing. But it's also a sensitive and misused topic in the inner-state politics of many countries like Russia for example. Still, Blizzard was fine with it.
Speaking out against Chinese oppression is suddenly forbidden though and Taiwan is Chinese Taipei?
It is obvious that Chinese Money is a factor here, not necessarily because of the Chinese regime... sorry Chinese government... but also because people don't like being portrait as the bad guys and Blizzard doesn't want to be boycotted over there.
So yes, it makes sense from a company point of view, but let's be clear here: There is a difference between a political opinion and state oppression.

I understand that there is no ultimative, ethical truth. Something despicable in one culture can be totally fine in another: For example entering the living room with street shoes. But there are also some things that come close to being ultimately true, in the vast majority of current cultures: Murder is bad, Stealing is bad, Rape is bad, Abuse is bad, Oppression is bad. Those ethical believes have a certain, unquestionable steadfastness.
I agree political issues during a sports event would be annoying: Issues like taxation, the question if it's better to build a new bridge or to build a tunnel or a health care debate. An e-sports even is certainly not the right place for that kind of talk. But a statement against state oppression, against racism or against police brutality? Those things are not debatable, we all can agree upon that. In the end some things are good enough to be promoted all of the time and please don't ask me where the line is. I don't know either. Oppression is certainly not a controversial topic though, unless you are the oppressor and in that case you deserve all the shit in the world and anybody standing up for you is terrible. Especially if it's because of money. Blizzard can go fuck itself imo. They were afraid of Chinese backlash, now they got us.
 

rybrad

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Apr 22, 2019
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These companies that pander to China are fucking gross. Tolerance and social progression only last at companies until they think it might affect their bottom line. Having the government oppressing citizens isn't a political issue, it is a human rights issue and framing it as "political" is just an easy way to wash their hands of it.
 
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Aelphaeis Mangarae

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Apr 21, 2019
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I'm always reminded of that one time France committed terrorism in New Zealand because they were pissy about the Rainbow Warrior interfering with their nuclear testing. When the agents responsible were caught by New Zealand police, France threw a tantrum and threatened to ban New Zealand dairy imports. So New Zealand capitulated. That's the way of things. France is more powerful than New Zealand. France gets what it wants. Even getting away with literal terrorism and murder.

Eventually China is gonna blow up something in the US or UK or Australia or whatever and kill a bunch of people. Maybe they'll blow up a newspaper that printed stuff about their concentration camps. And guess what? Nothing will be done about it. Because China is more powerful than the other countries. They will passive aggressively threaten consequences unless the matter is dropped, and it will be dropped. There's no way around this fact. China says, "Jump," and the rest of the world asks, "How high?" in Mandarin. They can bluster about how super displeased they are with China, just as New Zealand was super frowny faced about state sponsored terrorism.

The population thing is a huge factor. Western democracies often exploit the mentality that having a majority on your side gives you the moral mandate. No matter how many people you have on your side, China has more. No matter how loud your protests are, no matter how many people you get marching in the streets, China has more. And I agree with the sentiment I've seen that if the mainland Chinese population were in charge of political decision making, the Hong Kong protesters would be paste by now. The world hasn't seen modern China truly pissed about something.

Look at how much damage a few thousand determined internet angry people can accomplish. People get fired over that stuff. The language and culture barrier (plus the great firewall) has been keeping China at bay. But you can you imagine a tiny fraction of China's population. You know, maybe 5 million people. Imagine 5 million people screaming their outrage at the social media accounts of major corporations. Imagine 5 million Chinese people marching in front of Blizzcon.

I don't think a lot of people in the Anglosphere quite appreciate how outnumbered they are. This is not a fight you can win. It's a fight you should fight because fighting tyranny is a good thing. But the power dynamics here are absurd.
 

Aelphaeis Mangarae

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Apr 21, 2019
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The weird thing that's a little different here is that the current struggle with China is largely surrounding non-government actors. All of the groups that have gotten in hot water over Hong Kong/China over the past week or two are gigantic private profit-seeking corporations (NBA, Acti-Blizz, Apple, Google, etc). And while China has power over their profit growth, this isn't like NZ vs France where the "victimized" country is so small that being shut out of their market could hurt industries, or where their force projection is so tiny that the other country can whip them around militarily.

And I kind of disagree about the reactions to a violent incident. I think politicians, both far-left and far-right would love to see China do something brazenly stupid so that they can kill their market access and build a coalition against them. China would actually be insanely stupid to do anything like that because it would easily set in motion some terrifyingly unifying populism that could lead to war.
Firstly, I think that's reflective of the fact that the modern world is largely run by corporations instead of traditional governing bodies. The real decision making is often made by corporate interests and their puppets in government do what they ask. China is an interesting case where corporate interests and government interests are 100% aligned. In other countries it's a kinda coin toss thing.

Also, it depends on the country, I think. China's control over international governments varies. China has specifically targeted Australia and Canada since 2004-ish. They are the two countries definitely know to be under China's control politically and economically. There have been a few books written on the subject.


This article lays out some of the problems with China and Australia.

If China wants something from Australia or Canada, they won't necessarily automatically get it, but the system is rigged in their favor. This also taints any prospective anti-China coalition if we're gonna try to snowball WW3. If it comes down to it, will Canada side for or against China? It really depends on how successful China's infiltration of the highest echelons of Canada's government has been.

The other problem is war. Nobody wants a war with China. Millions will die. Billions, even. Government are terrified of the prospect. If China decides to steamroll Hong Kong, international governments will do NOTHING. The UK might want to protect Hong Kong since they secretly still consider it theirs, but they aren't willing to risk outright war. If China throws a tantrum they can tank the entire global economy. They have spies in every major government, in every intelligence agency. Their incredibly powerful intelligence agency would also logically mean they have a shitload of blackmail material.
 
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ISee

ISee

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Mar 1, 2019
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Chinese Taipei ... worthwhile battles to fight,
It's an example , you are reading too much into it. I'm fully aware that other organisation do it as well. It's a symptom for the same problem: Don't anger the Chinese Government.

Opinions on what constitutes oppression (versus say, a legitimate use of state force) and especially on how to deal with said oppression are kind of by definition a type of political thought.

Trying to separate them otherwise is just messy, bad semantics. And trying to claim “Liberate Hong Kong” isn’t a political expression is probably going to lose us the argument right away.
Never said it's not political. I'm saying that there are some things that most of us understand to be bad, independent of our cultural background.
That naturally doesn't make all situations surrounding those examples less complex or easy though. But that's exactly why we have to separate and differentiate between issues and situations and not follow the lowest common denominator: silence.
I brought up that Blizzard is supporting Gay Rights, not because I wanted to show that they can do something good. I did so to demonstrate that they aren't following their own rules when it fits them and that they are hiding behind "no politics" whenever they need it as a shield. Them not supporting Gay Rights everywhere only emphasizes my example. Companies are able and willing to make case by case decisions. They have no standard procedure themselves for political issues and you shouldn't make up one for them either.
We also should make case by case decisions and weight in complex situations. Supporting HK doesn't automatically mean that somebody has to support all protests and all separatists in the world. It just means that you are supporting this one situation and you needed and encouraged to have a different opinion about something else.
As said: I don't know where the line or the standard is, because a clear line doesn't exist everywhere. There often is a multiplex of issues, a grey construct of positives and negatives.
What you have to understand is that organizations are fine with being political, as long as it makes them money. They are doing what suites them best and we shouldn't support their obvious cover ups. I understand if you say: I don't want politics in sports because I don't like it, or I don't want to be bothered by it. I don't understand if you say: I don't want politics to be in sports, because they are complex, people have contradicting opinions and companies want to make money without angering too many people. A sports body wants to avoid having to sort out all these thousands of multifaceted, complex issues that might bring them into conflict with their own players, sponsors and countries they operate in. There is no might in there. But do you think see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil is the correct approach?
Call me naive all you want, but I don't think it is, I think companies are part of our social structures and not above it or separate entities. They are influencing societies, forming public opinions and are important parts of our daily lives. They aren't above morals and above laws and shouldn't be excluded or given a free pass out of political issues, especially not if they only do so when it suits them.
 
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QFNS

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Nov 18, 2018
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I'm very interested in what will happen this year at Blizzcon for multiple reasons. Last year was terrible because they had nothing to show, and their big reveal was a fucking phone game.

Supposedly they have some big stuff this year to counter act that, but now it will all be overshadowed by this stuff. Like Warcraft 3 Reforged is a game I was legit excited for, but now... ugh. I'm nearly certain they will announce Diablo 4, but is anyone going to care when the big story is still going to be Blizzards response to this?
 
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JMTHEFOX

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Blizzcon 2019 opens with an "apology" from J Allen Brack

Sorry Brack, but proper actions speak way louder than words. You can keep your Diablo IV announcement. At least Ubisoft was somewhat upfront with their mistakes.
 
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ISee

ISee

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"We are sorry for not living up to our own standards, sorry for not communicating and sorry for banning too quickly."

No further actions. Not even naming Blitzchung. No ban removal.
They said a lot of meaningless PR stuff imo. They are hoping to be able to appease both markets with this.
 

m_dorian

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May 22, 2019
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That was the best they could do since they are not brave enough to risk their partnership with the chinese and take the hit from their stockholders.

It is till crap though and it should be used as a lesson that corporations will always put their revenue above all else, even basic human rights.
Corporations are not your friends, expect them to screw you at ant time.
 

Dandy

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Blizzcon 2019 opens with an "apology" from J Allen Brack

Sorry Brack, but proper actions speak way louder than words. You can keep your Diablo IV announcement. At least Ubisoft was somewhat upfront with their mistakes.
"I accept accountability. Now back to the trough and start consuming again!"

It's embarrassing that people clapped for that hollow, meaningless apology.