Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

playhearthstone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 1001 posts

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#281

Post by trentnix »

whoevercares wrote: post #273
trentnix wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is hard to tell, that is true. And that reality is exploited to silence opposition and control others. That’s why language policing, hate speech laws, Twitter mobs, and bully-the-bully efforts are abominations. So really, the answer is easy: everyone has the right to offend, and has no right not to be offended. Your simple rule doesn’t go far enough.

Humans are emotional animals and many can be dominated by feelings, your answer assume they are entirely logical

They?

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#283

Post by Fnoord »

beart wrote: post #206

As I recall, Blizzard decided to remove skeletons and some other things from World of Warcraft years ago in order to enter the Chinese market.

Not at all the same though. If I release software specifically for a national market, I adapt to the local law of that nation. In this case, the software is WoW, and the country is China. It could have been Wolfenstein and the country being Germany. It could have been a nipple in a game, and the country being USA. We don't notice such.

However, in this case, we're at an Asian (not Chinese) esports event where one should be free to express their opinion. It is not as if we don't see skeleton cosplay on esport events being banned, or that Germany demands Wolfenstein esports events (?) don't contain blood and Nazi paraphernalia. It is not as if the USA complains about a nipple on TwitchCon in Amsterdam. This is about a country applying censorship beyond their jurisdiction.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#284

Post by FillardMillmore »

So we are at the point where American video game developers are banning people from e-sports competitions for their comments over a domestic issue in a foreign country? Because the Chinese government probably didn't like his comments, that counts as 'public disrepute'? This is just wild to me.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#285

Post by UI_at_80x24 »

zwaps wrote: post #139

Then we have to boycott Hearthstone. While the current case is neither surprising nor substantially important, it is important because of principle. Blizzard is not responsible for what players say in interviews. In our society, it still matters that people can tolerate other opinions. The Chinese government tries to make it a new normal that entire people can have their "feelings hurt" (what?) by mere non-insulting…

    >boycott Hearthstone
Sure no problem! I'm still boycotting blizzard because of how they handled the bnetd situation.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#286

Post by pbhjpbhj »

cryptica wrote: post #271
nabla9 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about Chinese owners? Chinese Tencent owns 5 percent of Blizzard, if full owner of Riot Games, 48% of Epic Games, 11.5% of Bluehole (Fortnite and PUBG), 5% of Ubisoft. They are also investor in Discord. https://www.pcgamer.com/every-game-company-that-tencent-has-... AMC is fully owned by Chinese. The largest movie theater chain in the United States is fully owned by Chinese. Legendary Entertainment Group is owned…

The solution is very simple. The government should take possession of any company that grows beyond a maximum size and distribute the shares to the public.

Best the "commies" by being more communist than they are, love it.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#287

Post by IanSanders »

michannne wrote: post #278
IanSanders wrote: post #262

I agree 100% that we should boycott and sanction, however doubt there will be enough people who will, and enough people who care. And I don't blame most for not caring, there are more things to worry about than we have time available. Maybe 1% of hearthstone players will see your comment. Similarly, there are other entities which need to be sanctioned, which you and me won't find out about as it's outside of our area…

I'm concerned as to how you would justify such an institution

How were Labor Unions justified? I'm not saying they don't have issues, but the idea is similar.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#288

Post by soulofmischief »

lr4444lr wrote: post #143
SkyMarshal wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not clear what software has to do with this. It's happening across all industries, here's a good roundup of a bunch of other examples: https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/07/china-censorship-daryl-mo... Is software special in this case somehow?

Because software has this weird status where you increasingly don't own a perpetual use right to the copy of the code you bought, and can have it revoked for reasons that have nothing to do with the purchase agreement. What if one day in the not too distant the electrical system on your car stopped working because an auto software update from that vendor (not the company that sold you the car perhaps) detected your n…

For a tangible example, imagine saying something pro-HK on an online multiplayer and losing access to your entire library of Xbox games.

From Microsoft's community guidelines:

"Under permanent suspension, the owner of the suspended profile forfeits all licenses for games and other content, Gold membership time, and Microsoft account balances."

And in 2019, saying things as asinine as "haha I banged ur mom" are enough to trigger such a suspension, despite the embracement of such an immature, tongue-in-cheek culture being tantamount to Microsoft's early success in the gaming industry.

My Steam games aren't much better off.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#289

Post by dm3730 »

zwaps wrote: post #139

Then we have to boycott Hearthstone. While the current case is neither surprising nor substantially important, it is important because of principle. Blizzard is not responsible for what players say in interviews. In our society, it still matters that people can tolerate other opinions. The Chinese government tries to make it a new normal that entire people can have their "feelings hurt" (what?) by mere non-insulting…

> In our society, it still matters that people can tolerate other opinions.

Who is "our" in this? If you mean USA, then are you sure about your claim? Eg: "Guy chooses to kneel on the field because kids were getting shot, guy gets canned.". How is that significantly different than what is happening in this case?

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#290

Post by idlewords »

Some context that I think might help the discussion. Here's the clip in question:

https://twitter.com/InvenGlobal/status/1180954142396710912

Blitzchung is wearing a tear gas mask and laughingly says "reclaim Hong Kong, revolution of our time [光復香港 時代革命]" in Mandarin.

This slogan (which is also translated 'Liberate Hong Kong' or 'restore Hong Kong') is ubiquitous in the protests; you can read more about its meaning here: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3021518...

Blitzchung also issued this statement:

"As you know there are serious protests in my country now. My call on stream was just another form of participation of the protest that I wish to grab more attention. I put so much effort in that social movement in the past few months, that I sometimes couldn't focus on preparing my Grandmaster match. I know what my action on stream means. It could cause me lot of trouble, even my personal safety in real life. But I think it's my duty to say something about the issue."

Source of the statement: https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/9242/hong-kong-player-b...

Post reply on HN