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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

#71

Post by sysashi »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #20

This is probably not going to be a popular opinion here, but I wonder if any folks have considered what it looks like on the China side? Specifically, you are in China, and the HK protestors want what to happen to China? You have HK protesters waving American and British flags. These are the countries that have started wars all over, in the last 70 years since the end of WWII, ostensibly to promote democracy, and eve…

I don't think they want "something" happen to China, if you take a look at any of these protests and hear what they are saying - they just want basic freedom, democracy and not living in fear. Basically what everyone else wants and fights for.

sorry..

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

#72

Post by tossAfterUsing »

dvt wrote: post #2

> “Doing business in China, it’s been easier to ignore the authoritarianism of the government because they were asking us to do things like remove a skeleton [from a game],” he said. It looks like China learned nothing from the USSR (or from their own Great Leap Forward, for that matter). Escalation is not going to go their way. Hawkish members of the CCP are going to blow the whole thing up. This is much bigger than…

> Is anyone worried about the HKD/USD peg falling?

I just hope it fails before China fully takes over HK's banks

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

#73

Post by kop316 »

jasonlotito wrote: post #53
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.

I'm sad to see you downvoted. Its frustrating to me too when a company like Apple champions human rights in the USA then hands over the management of iCloud to China.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208351

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

#74

Post by harshreality »

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…

Hong Kong's entire value, as far as I can see [and I'm referring to the value of Hong Kong as a community including people and businesses, not just their geographic value], either as a place to live or to do business or to visit, comes from it being a SAR with its own government, culture, historical legacy, and lack of interference from its mother country. If it becomes a homogenized satellite of Shenzhen with sky high real estate, which seems to be what China wants, what's left of Hong Kong?

I thought China was smarter than this. I thought they would realize the value of Hong Kong. Apparently China doesn't want Hong Kong. They want to remove the perennial thorn in their side, that democratic city-state of Chinese heritage right on their border. They want to grind it into dust, slowly if possible, but immediately if Hong Kong makes too much fuss about the pestle. They want to remove the painful reminder of [their losses during] the Opium Wars and British influence in the Sinosphere. They want to do that at any cost, including destroying Hong Kong's culture and attractiveness as a business location.

This is the height of tragedy. There will never be another place like it, and China is destroying it out of spite and ideological inflexibility.

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

#75

Post by anon1m0us »

I figured it out!

Why are we so up in arms about this? Why not before this?

Well, because we were insulated from China's behavior. Their heavy handed approach only affected their own citizens. They jailed their own citizens, but not Americans, not other people.

We got our supply chain from them and they gave us what we wanted, so we're good.

However! Now China's tyranny is leaking out of China. It's getting into arenas where we are. You could have been playing that game. You could have said something that offended China -- maybe without even knowing it.

Plus, they are in our IoT devices, our iphones, our cameras. China is watching and controlling us now. They are restricting our access to games -- not just their own people.

The culture and rules of countries don't exist solely within the borders of that country.

This is new for Americans. It's not new for the rest of the world. What USA wanted, USA got.

Now, what China wants, China gets -- even if it's not what we want.

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

#76

Post by jdashg »

jorblumesea wrote: post #40
dvt wrote: post #2

> “Doing business in China, it’s been easier to ignore the authoritarianism of the government because they were asking us to do things like remove a skeleton [from a game],” he said. It looks like China learned nothing from the USSR (or from their own Great Leap Forward, for that matter). Escalation is not going to go their way. Hawkish members of the CCP are going to blow the whole thing up. This is much bigger than…

> China learned nothing from the USSR On the contrary, they learned that USSR's self imposed isolation was fundamentally flawed and largely stagnated the Soviet economy. It also put them behind the Western world in terms of R&D. China is attempting to put those lessons to use and attempting to have an "Western opened" totalitarian regime. So far, it seems to be working. Accepting Western capital and tech, stealing ev…

I believe it's also a play similar to Embrace Extend Extinguish:

- Embrace investment globally

- Extend markets and improve industries

- Exert political pressure in exchange for access to now-crucial markets/industries

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

#77

Post by Noos »

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…

Keep in mind its Activision-Blizzard, not just Blizzard.

Even if you boycotted all Blizzard products, the call of duty series and candy crush would take the hit. Also, I don't think it would work period; if Blizzard made this a hill to die on, it's because the Chinese market must be growing and higher profit than the west.

The people who pay set the rules.

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

#78

Post by tossAfterUsing »

_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

> China in 2019 is a simple fascist dictatorship.

Maybe the community could help me to understand whether this is accurate?

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

#79

Post by dvtrn »

chrisweekly wrote: post #57
dvtrn wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"Staging a walkout" seems like a phrase that, unless one is an ESL speaker or otherwise don’t speak the language you'd have to be actively and conscientiously misinterpreting when reading the title in whole.

But point taken...I suppose.

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

#80

Post by reaperducer »

jbang5 wrote: post #65
jasonlotito wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Citation needed.

Are you under the impression that China can't break encryption?
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