Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments • Hacker News Board

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#691

Post by bdowling » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:38 PM UTC

groby_b wrote: post #366

taytus wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is wild, but it's also part of their own rules: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGVTuRlXkAA0ovF?format=png Honest question: Can we call this unfair if it was already laid out as part of their rules?

Yes. You presuppose that all rules - via their nature of being rules - are automatically fair. They aren't. Especially not if they're not arrived at by consensus, but unilaterally laid out.

Creating rules by consensus is actually a terrible way to ensure that those with views counter to the majority are treated fairly.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#692

Post by brazzledazzle » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:38 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #465

donpott wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Who can't you add to that list, though? According to the Financial Times, Tencent alone has board seats on more than 400 companies.

Seems kind of nuts that a country with such a drastically different governance and economic model is allowed to exert (effectively direct) control over so many companies. Seems like a glaring weakness.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#693

Post by phtrivier » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:39 PM UTC

benj111 wrote: post #176

oh_sigh wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only problem is China is too big to care. Streisand effect only affects those people where a spotlight from a small percent of the internet heavily affects them

I interpreted it as in relation to Blizzard.

I was also mostly referring to potential bad effect on Blizzard.

However, I would find it funny if the whole episode made some of your "average" Blizzard-gamer care about China and HK.

(Emphasis on the "average" here: I obviously have no data, but I suspect that the average Blizzard-game player is a young teenage boy who's spending too much time playing with friends to be passionate about international Asian politics. Again, using an hyperbole here. I know you exist, DoTA-geopolitics-nerds.)

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#694

Post by iamsb » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:40 PM UTC

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…

Would you oppose firing of James Damore as well?

Look I understand that we need to have free expression and free speech. Absolutely. But a business wants to protect itself from negative political reputation. If the gamer was talking about say LGBT rights, and his opinions were considered against the current acceptable position on the matter, and then he was banned, I am sure everyone would have applauded blizzard.

Let us not put burden of being politically correct on free market corporations.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#695

Post by treis » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:41 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #470

echelon wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're going to repeat the same cycle with Vietnam and India, we'd do well to encourage democracy this go-around. If we elevate authoritarian countries to our level, democracy may be in for a rough future. We should be learning a lot from the China situation. Modern China proves that authoritarian capitalism works and that you don't need freedom or liberty for your citizens. And that's incredibly scary. Imagine if…

India actually has a functioning democracy. Many Indian intellectuals are unhappy with their current PM, but plenty of American intellectuals are unhappy with their president, and America will still have an election next year (the point being, the system still works even if your favorite person doesn't get elected, which is stronger evidence of systemic health than the system working when your favorite person does ge…

>India actually has a functioning democracy.

Democracy or not what they're doing in Kashmir is worse that what China is doing in Hong Kong.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#696

Post by shadowgovt » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:43 PM UTC

tremon wrote: post #686

shadowgovt wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, there's little the US government can do here without dragging things back towards the McCarthy era. What would we have them do? Apply pressure to Activision/Blizzard to reverse the company's own internal policy on "keep politics out of the game stuff?" That's a pretty clear violation of freedom of speech, the press, and / or association, to tell a private company who they must endorse. It's not unpreceden…

What would we have them do? Amend the constitution to provide first-amendment rights to all individuals instead of just citizens, for example. Then you can go back to claiming the moral high ground.

I believe the First Amendment already protects the free speech of non-citizens. Do you have a specific case in mind that broke differently?

https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/t-he-constitutional-rights...

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#697

Post by goblin89 » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:44 PM UTC

GooglyMoogly wrote: post #602

Shivetya wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American video games? What about American companies that have factories there or other presence there? Hello Apple! Hello Tesla! Hello Google. Blizzard has been bending over backwards for some time with regards to China but this is the first time I remember them taking action against someone who does not work for them. the simple matter is, you cannot pick and choose, all the companies must be shamed into not bending…

Google is blocked in China for refusing to censor what China wants. Bing works in China.

Google Translate, Maps work in China, for example. Google Maps in particular, when viewed within the country, follows ruling party line on where to draw the borders[0], though it is not a practice they apply to China exclusively.

[0] https://qz.com/224821/see-how-borders-change-on-google-maps-...

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#698

Post by shaneprrlt » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:44 PM UTC

dm3730 wrote: post #289

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?

Honestly, you've changed my mind right here about the NFL issue by putting it into this perspective.

I always thought Kaepernick had the right to kneel, but that the NFL had the right to bench the player as well.

I thought the President, being a US citizen, also had the right to be raucous about the issue as many politicians were, as long as it didn't extend into actual executive action.

The reason people in the US might find this action offensive (the reason I do) is because it supports a communist government and I'm sick of US-based MNCs cow-tailing to China instead of taking a principled stand for Western values, but that should include the NFL supporting Kaepernick's right to free expression as well.

Perhaps the same reasoning can extend to so-called "cancel culture" of people getting fired for expressing their private opinions online.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#699

Post by iamaelephant » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:44 PM UTC

Timpy wrote: post #491

a_c wrote: post #477

Interesting how an incidence in gaming garner more eye balls on the topic of Hong Kong politics than whole month combined. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Good for the people of Hong Kong. The topic of Hong Kong didn't struck me as sensational/desperate as it deserves until a Hong Kong friend send me this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yXTHODE24Q Am moved by the clip, especial…

The Taiwan Flag Emoji topic got a lot of attention too. I think that's a fair spread. Censorship, Unicode standards, and Blizzard is kind of the expected overlap of interest topics for Hacker News.

The emoji topic has nothing to do with Unicode standards and everything to do with Apple capitulating to China.

Re: Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

#700

Post by vineyardmike » Tue, Oct 08, 2019, 4:45 PM UTC

dm3730 wrote: post #289

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?

I suspect that few people who dislike Blizzard's response like the NFL's response. They are similar cases, but the first one was punishing an American, only seen by Americans to applease an American audience. The HK issue is punishing someone, seen globally, to appease a foreign audience.