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Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

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Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#531

Post by shadowgovt »

kryogen1c wrote: post #383
hombre_fatal wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which makes me believe we need some kind of trusted "morality authority", which would process information similar to this and make informed decisions who to boycott Just sounds like cancel culture to me. And it has horrible results.

Cancel culture is about _using_ censorship to limit free speech, which blizzard purposefully participated in on behalf of China, so we want to stop that limiting and encourage free speech, or at least not immediately ban someone for a year and 0 their prize money. One fights for censorship, the other fights for freedom. I uninstalled hearthstone, which is the last activision blizzard product I used.

Right, you cancelled Hearthstone from your life because you don't care for the actions of its creators. Not unlike, say, ceasing to watch a comedian because you don't like how they punch down, or ceasing to book rms for speaking engagements because he's too stressful to deal with.

Don't shy away from it; that's "cancel culture."

(Or, more accurately, "cancel culture" doesn't exist; it's just freedom of association in action ;) ).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szybEhqUmVI

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#532

Post by mbesto »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #353

Absolutely agree, it's time for American video games to stop publishing in China. It's not worth the Chinese influence on our society.

> It's not worth the Chinese influence on our society.

US shareholders probably disagree.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#533

Post by CathedralBorrow »

mrkstu wrote: post #521
CathedralBorrow wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, can we say that people have their feelings hurt by Blizzard's opinion here, and try to make it normal that everyone should boycott them for it?

No, very simply they are protesting censorship, which is the opposite of what you're implying. You are saying that boycotting is itself censorship- no, it is a tool, that can be used by many people, with many POVs, and like most tools it can be used as a weapon either in defense of liberty or against it.

I'm not saying that, I was just wondering out loud where people draw the line. Please don't put words in my mouth.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#534

Post by ourlordcaffeine »

donpott wrote: post #365
ourlordcaffeine wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To that end, I've started a list on github https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina

Would "having links to the chinese government" make the cut for this list? because if so, you can add Tencent, and by extension Epic games, Reddit and Riot games.

I think perhaps it be best to limit the list to instances of actual action being taken, rather than just ownership, but I don't know for sure

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#535

Post by shadowgovt »

alimbada wrote: post #158

It's a shame but I feel like the majority of gamers won't care. They'll either be ignorant of this or they'll just shrug and continue playing. I boycotted Activision and by proxy Blizzard when Activision acquired them a long time ago but their continuing success shows I'm part of an extremely tiny minority.

Nothing about the behavior of the average gamer, to date, should make any of us think they're going to lead the charge for much of any social change that involves distancing themselves from their favorite addic^Wgames.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#536

Post by alkonaut »

deadbunny wrote: post #251
enriquto wrote: post #23

People should start boycotting western companies that perform this kind of humiliating bowing to China, Saudi Arabia, etc. Yet of course, most companies are doing that...

I thought Western companies had to pursue profits at all costs? China is a big juicy market.

I expect companies to do what’s morally right not merely maximize profits while doing anything that is legally acceptable. I expect leaders of companies to do what’s morally right while explaining to shareholders that if they disagree they can sell their shares or replace them. I have zero respect for a manager at Blizzard or the NBA who decides to try to pull what they did this week.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#537

Post by shadowgovt »

mcny wrote: post #265
squarefoot wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a game publisher can (whether directly or not) nuke the job of a journalist for a review and get away with it, I'm not surprised at all when a government does something along these lines. https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/03/21/gaming-the-...

It happened with a journalist on a gun magazine as well. Lifelong second amendment supporter blacklisted for not spewing exactly the party line. This makes me wonder whether the whole right to bear arms things is AstroTurf at this point.

Do you have more information on this?

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#538

Post by kerkeslager »

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…

Not just Hearthstone, but all Blizzard products.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#539

Post by Grue3 »

tomp wrote: post #142

China is very smart. They saw what was happening in the West - oppression of freedom of speech on account of "hurt feelings" - and applied the same principles for their own nefarious purposes ("hurt Chinese feelings" a.k.a. political censorship). Literally noone could have seen this coming. /s edit: XCabbage better explains what I was trying to say. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21191253

Yep. All the "it's a private company, they can ban whoever they want" arguments have perfectly primed us to the current state of affairs. Just another reminder that speech you don't like should be protected before it will inevitably result in speech you do like being suppressed.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#540

Post by SkyBelow »

monocasa wrote: post #308
whatshisface wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think back to before gay marriage was accepted as a culturally obvious fact, some of the arguments against it involved hating gays, but others didn't. Without the ability to tell which beliefs actually motivated his donation, it is not possible to discern if he was against gays or not. (I'll refrain from giving any specific examples in order to avoid starting that debate again, but I think most of us can remem…

There weren't good arguments though, it was a rehash of the same 'debate' forty years prior on whether people of different races should be allowed to get married.

And expect it to be rehashed again.

You know, 40+ years ago, if you brought up legalizing gay marriage many would have seen it as attacking interracial marriage. Even 5 to 10 years ago I met many people who held the view that it was an insult and attack on interracial marriage to bring up gay marriage.

Today, if I bring up possible future rehashings, I think people would react the same, thinking instead I was attacking and insulting gay marriage. I wonder how long in the future before we see history repeat again.

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