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Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

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Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#51

Post by chronic71819 »

ahbyb wrote: post #21
mantap wrote: post #19

If Hong Kong becomes a Palestine-style cause celebre it will be bad for China. China is trapped. They are stuck with this democratic appendix attached to a communist body. China can't keep Hong Kong under a democratic system as they have zero understanding of democracy. But if they try to repress it they risk endangering China's relationships with the rest of the world. They made a mistake thinking they could transfo…

>If Hong Kong becomes a Palestine-style cause celebre it will be bad for China. Will it? Because nobody gives a fuck about Palestine, and Israel is not suffering much (or at all) because of what they did and do.

> Will it? Because nobody gives a fuck about Palestine, and Israel is not suffering much (or at all) because of what they did and do.

Unfortunately I agree with you. Very few people in the US even care about Israel/Palestine.

I don't know how the sentiment is in Europe, though.

Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#52

Post by seph-reed »

ddtaylor wrote: post #15

As much as I want to think change will happen, it's much more likely this will be a few weeks of PR and ultimately nothing will change. For something to change people have to vote with their wallets. In this context that means cancelling subscriptions or dropping games they are already playing in favor for ones by competitors with better integrity, and I don't see that happening. Diablo players could go to Path of Ex…

Alternatively, this could be a good time to pick up a new hobby.

Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#53

Post by jasonlotito »

jrockway wrote: post #14

The Internet's reaction to this has warmed my heart a little. Overwatch and Hearthstone are among my favorite computer games. I've certainly played more Overwatch than any other game. I have made real-world and online friends in Overwatch. I met my girlfriend in Overwatch. It made me sad to have to throw all that away yesterday. But the conversations we're having as a result of this is great. The mainstream media is…

It's interesting to see people give up Blizzard games, but still continue supporting companies like Apple that do far worse, like effectively giving the keys to iCloud to China. I think the conversation is great, and maybe now we'll actually reconsider what the TPP's goal was. But in the end, the people picked money first, so it shouldn't be a surprise when businesses do this as well.

Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#54

Post by tyri_kai_psomi »

tomnipotent wrote: post #25
CamperBob2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you see companies that aren't partially owned by Chinese interests doing things like this? Admittedly I'm not fully up to speed on the situation, but I doubt Blizzard would have taken this action without considering Tencent's influence.

> without considering Tencent's influence At 5% ownership, Tencent doesn't have the muscle to force Blizzard to do anything it wouldn't have already done of its own volition.

What is going to be more interesting to me is to see what Riot Games, who is wholly owned by Tencent, does when the inevitable Hong Kong protests come in during this years Worlds. There's even a Hong Kong team in the mix, and there's already reports surfacing that Tencent has directed casters not bring up Hong Kong.

Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#55

Post by pvg »

_bxg1 wrote: post #34
mantap wrote: post #19

If Hong Kong becomes a Palestine-style cause celebre it will be bad for China. China is trapped. They are stuck with this democratic appendix attached to a communist body. China can't keep Hong Kong under a democratic system as they have zero understanding of democracy. But if they try to repress it they risk endangering China's relationships with the rest of the world. They made a mistake thinking they could transfo…

It's worth pointing out that today's China is communist in name only. They literally arrested the president of Peking University's Marxist society on ideological grounds: https://news.yahoo.com/china-arrests-marxist-student-leader-... China in 2019 is a simple fascist dictatorship. Edit: Fixed a broken link

Communists have been arresting each other on ideological grounds for about as long as they've had the power to arrest people.

Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#56

Post by _bxg1 »

newfangle wrote: post #50
_bxg1 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth pointing out that today's China is communist in name only. They literally arrested the president of Peking University's Marxist society on ideological grounds: https://news.yahoo.com/china-arrests-marxist-student-leader-... China in 2019 is a simple fascist dictatorship. Edit: Fixed a broken link

Communists killing and imprisoning other communists has happened since the ideology was first conceived so you will need a better argument than that to say they are not communist. I really dont understand why so many people feel the need to post comments online distinguishing that China is not communist. Its a disgusting authoritarian regime just like every other self proclaimed communist country in history.

Historically communist countries have been pretty fascist, but communism itself (in theory) is about workers' rights and the elevation of the little people. I don't know how genuine Mao was about those ideals, but Xi is dropping all pretense by intentionally targeting labor movements. So he shouldn't even get to hide behind a flawed idealism. He has no idealism except power.

Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#57

Post by chrisweekly »

dvtrn wrote: post #42
jcims wrote: post #32

I know it's the original but this title is turrible. 'Staged' - usually means faked 'Protest Banned Pro-Hong King Gamer' reads like they are protesting the gamer

Synonyms and context clues exist, you know.

(replying on behalf of gp) Of course such clues exist; it's unlikely s/he was personally confused. Which has zero bearing on the quality of the title. The fact that it _requires_ parsing and reliance on clues indicates poor word choice. Synonyms abound, and better ones would have made for a much better title.

Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#58

Post by bduerst »

_bxg1 wrote: post #44
shadowgovt wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... or is currently being held in check by management, who has absolutely no idea how to spin this yet. Can't march with no marching orders.

Generally it's the PR department that figures out how to spin things

True, but Execs will gatekeep the final review and approval for larger responses and campaigns.

Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#59

Post by atarian »

>The demonstration’s numbers fluctuated throughout the day, the two employees said, ranging from a dozen to 30, and the protesters departed sometime in the late afternoon.

So less than 1% of the company? Not trying to minimize the issue here but let's also not make events sound bigger than they really are.

Re: Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer

#60

Post by maximente »

dmix wrote: post #26
dvt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theoretically, at least, I think that the two are inextricably linked. I don't think you can have neo-liberalism (an actually free free market) unless your markets live in a democratic law-abiding state.

Yep, almost all of the economically free countries are liberal democracies with strong independent courts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom There's a strong correlation between economic and social liberty, as well as with the average wealth, quality of life, and happiness of the general population. The fact Taiwan and HK are right next to China with ethnically and culturally similar people and…

one of the reasons Japan/Taiwan/SK's economies are so strong is because - you guessed it - China is a major importer of their produced goods.

without disposable income they have gained from something over the last few decades, they aren't importing massive amounts of goods from their neighbors.

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