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Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

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Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#251

Post by gruez »

PeterisP wrote: post #166
belltaco wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>is pressuring said private company (among _many_ others) to abridge free speech It was a post-game interview on a Blizzard event in a Blizzard broadcast. How is that different from "a private company not wanting to host " ? The player had supported HK freedom on his Twitter in the past, yet was allowed to play in the tournament. Gaming events have not been places for sharing political ideas, like social media is.

I think that there would be no meaningful uproar if Blizzard would simply not host or broadcast that interview because they don't like it for whatever reason, and left it at that.

Exactly. It'd be like cloudflare kicking daily stormer off, but not before setting their DNS to resolve to 127.0.0.1 with a ttl of 1 year.

Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#252

Post by wbl »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #109
CocaKoala wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they had just not done anything when blitzchung made his statement in support of Hong Kong, it likely would have gotten essentially zero media play.

I haven't followed the situation closely, but we never get to A/B test such decisions. We make a decision and see the outcome for which one we chose. Saying they created this situation is a little like blaming a casualty of war for living in the country they were born in. China exists and it's a large country with growing power that has fundamental cultural differences with the West and always has. There may be bette…

This isn't a fundamental cultural difference. This is a tyranny that brokes no dissent and murders its people to stay in power.

Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#253

Post by apostacy »

omegaworks wrote: post #204
apostacy wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a horrible mischaracterization of free speech. The first telegraph network banned journalists who reported bad things against the telegraph company. They manipulated stock prices and influenced elections. That is why common carriage laws were made, which required communications platforms to provide neutral service to everyone. I'm sure that you would have been there, bravely defending the coal barons right to…

Reporting on union organizing is not the same thing as issuing death threats. You're working really hard to blur the clear line between these two things, why?

Um, from the point of view of the telegraph/coal company, they probably would have said that they were protecting people from dangerous agitators and keeping the peace.

But really, by your logic, they have no right to report on union organizing, because it's a private company and they should be allowed to cover up human rights abuses, because the first amendment does not protect it, or something.

Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#254

Post by major505 »

cjbprime wrote: post #10

The huge question here is what's going to happen at BlizzCon in two weeks. There'll be 40,000+ attendees, cameras everywhere, there are usually Q&A panels, homemade signs for player support, cosplay, everything. How can you host BlizzCon when you're terrified of political speech?

Lets all hope the red shirt guy comes back this year.

Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#255

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

mactrey wrote: post #85
cloakandswagger wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you completely, but this whole debacle has highlighted what seems to be hypocrisy in the general public's reaction to this. Remember when The Daily Stormer got kicked off CloudFlare and a whole host of other platforms, to the point that no one would take their business and they were effectively censored? The average take on that seemed to be a mix of "Free speech doesn't apply to private companies" and "…

CloudFlare banned a site that was far, far outside the American political mainstream. Blizzard banned a player for saying something that is completely within the American political mainstream, to the point that supporting Hong Kong is a rare bipartisan stance. When you go against the mainstream American stance to curry favor with an authoritarian regime that is also a current political enemy, well, that's kind of kic…

> CloudFlare banned a site that was far, far outside the American political mainstream.

Were this the 1950s during the Red Scare, people would have said the same thing, except the thing that would have been "far, far outside the American political mainstream" would've been Communists, leftists, pro-unionists, and other members of the political left. You know, the political wing you are a part of.

Want to reconsider your opinion? It's not as if a swing to the right couldn't happen again as the past few years of elections have shown.

Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#256

Post by afranchuk »

cjbprime wrote: post #10

The huge question here is what's going to happen at BlizzCon in two weeks. There'll be 40,000+ attendees, cameras everywhere, there are usually Q&A panels, homemade signs for player support, cosplay, everything. How can you host BlizzCon when you're terrified of political speech?

Yeah that is really going to be interesting. My friend linked [0] to me. I'm not sure if it's getting around to a lot of people, but some of the speech/plans in the document are likely concerning to the organizers. I hope they don't overreact in anticipation.

[0]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lgo0jxM5jYcPYvce-muR0JN...

Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#257

Post by wbl »

belltaco wrote: post #234
not_a_cop75 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could all wear "Winnie the Pooh China" shirts. If you get kicked out for those, that will really be the shit hitting the fan for them. That's not even protest. That's simple freedom of expression.

They will just refuse entry. Wearing a MAGA shirt or hat, or a tshirt with various profanities is also freedom of expression, but is routinely banned in many private events including airports. Edit: You can be banned from airlines since they are privately owned, but not airports since they are publicly owned.

In the US? I would be very surprised post Cohen v. California.

Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#258

Post by major505 »

datapunk wrote: post #55
cjbprime wrote: post #10

The huge question here is what's going to happen at BlizzCon in two weeks. There'll be 40,000+ attendees, cameras everywhere, there are usually Q&A panels, homemade signs for player support, cosplay, everything. How can you host BlizzCon when you're terrified of political speech?

How do you respond when a character from your top grossing game is turned into a political meme? This is what Blizzard has been learning this week. How do you handle potentially thousands of attendees, at your organization's biggest annual event, turning it into a platform for political protest agaisnt your biggest growing market? There's three possible events: BlizzCon is canceled. Extremely unlikely but possible. B…

I love that in reddit people are just taking all blizzard characters and using them in Hong Kong protests memes.

If they blocked Winnie the poo, imagine what they gonna do with Blizzard chars. Soon they will have no more original characters to release on China.

Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#259

Post by magashna »

belltaco wrote: post #230
magashna wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NetEase also partners with Blizzard Entertainment to operate local versions of Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, StarCraft II, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Overwatch in China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetEase

They aren't owned by Blizzard.

I'd imagine a licensee, hosting nearly all their games, has much more responsibility in their public statements compared to Blitzchung

Re: Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event

#260

Post by traderjane »

Dan_JiuJitsu wrote: post #58

I will never purchase another game from Activision or Blizzard unless they recant this backwards position. American art and media should not be subject to Chinese influence. I've been a loyal customer over the years, but I have a long memory. Refuse to delete my account if you will, it will never be used again.

The company you're loyal to has already been hollowed out. What would a little spiritual revision do?
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