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BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

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Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#51

Post by jacobush »

golergka wrote: post #48
seanalltogether wrote: post #33

The fact that Blizzard is in a position to throw a 'Con' each year shows that their games and lore are way more highly valued then most games companies. Could you imagine fans paying $230 to visit to an EA exclusive convention each year? Not gonna happen with their reputation. Blizzard is at real risk of losing this community they've fostered for the last 20+ years

Hardly a unique thing. Last WG fest got 200k attendees, for example. https://eng.belta.by/society/view/wargaming-fest-tanker-day-...

Not very common though.

Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#52

Post by falcolas »

bovermyer wrote: post #41
raxxorrax wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the experience that I paid for I would feel sorry for you, but you would have to pay me for that too. I ask myself what facts are there to be weighted. I doubt playing along and suddenly China liberalizes is a realistic outlook. But since China wasn't content with keeping their content rules within their own borders, that option quickly became less interesting. And I do believe that warrants a very strong answer. O…

Did you read my last sentence? China needs to be dealt with. The world has ignored its crimes against humanity for too long. But that doesn't change my position on Blizzard's actions.

So long as US companies (like Blizzard) have strong financial and supply chain ties to China, the US has no incentive to move against China.

If we want the US to move against China, those ties must be cut, not ignored or grown. As such, Blizzard’s actions only helps to prolong China’s dominance.

If you really want China to be challenged, supporting Blizzard doesn’t further that goal.

Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#53

Post by minimaxir »

entropea wrote: post #44
seanalltogether wrote: post #33

The fact that Blizzard is in a position to throw a 'Con' each year shows that their games and lore are way more highly valued then most games companies. Could you imagine fans paying $230 to visit to an EA exclusive convention each year? Not gonna happen with their reputation. Blizzard is at real risk of losing this community they've fostered for the last 20+ years

> Blizzard is at real risk of losing this community they've fostered for the last 20+ years I'm reminded of that image of people in a Call of Duty boycott on Steam, playing Call of Duty. Blizzard will lose some money over the next couple of weeks, but aren't at a real risk of anything. https://kotaku.com/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-play...

That Call of Duty meme has long since been discredited. https://www.resetera.com/threads/so-you-posted-the-boycott-m...

Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#54

Post by joshstrange »

FDSGSG wrote: post #36
CreepGin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a statement written for Chinese Authorities. This twitter thread analyzes it pretty well. https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1183215204525412352

>See the date. As others have noted, even thought this post was on Friday, which was the 11th, the date on the post is the 12th, indicating that it was posted from overseas, possibly China. That's not a big deal in and of itself, but let's me talk about how these things are done. Ah yes, UTC == China. Very reasonable logic here! This post was almost certainly made on Fri Oct 11 2019 17:18:58 PDT from Irvine, CA. Ever…

> Either Mark Kern is misleading on purpose or he's a complete moron.

Out of 33 tweets he makes a single mistake/overreach and you want to brand the whole thing as a "ridiculous conspiracy theory"? That seems to be a rather hasty generalization based on the 2nd of 33 tweets...

Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#55

Post by javerikr »

CivBase wrote: post #50

IMO, Blizzards actions have been borderline incompetent. I completely understand them not wanting their platform to be used to make political statements. This isn't like the NBA situation where Morey used a private social media account to show support for his private political opiniona. This was a platform owned by Blizzard with a very specific content focus. But banning Blitzchung for any amount of time was just dum…

> incompetent

Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#56

Post by prepend »

chii wrote: post #35
tyri_kai_psomi wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “ keep the focus on the game and on the tournament." I just can't help myself but draw the parallels to the NBA and their current situation as well with China and the utter hypocrisy shown by everyone from GMs to Coaches all the way down to players and media staff. When it came to social issues and black incarceration and inequality in America they spoke up bravely, and stated they wouldn't just "shut up and dribbl…

> social issues and black incarceration and inequality in America they spoke up bravely people reveal their true values when they have to actually make a sacrifice.

I was having a similar conversation about how interesting it is that celebrities are all for easy moral decisions like “you can pee next to me” but when it comes to moral decisions that might hit their pocket book, they are quiet and even suppressive.

Taleb’s Skin in the Game gets brought up a lot, but I think it’s safe for me to assume that unless someone can suffer a loss, they are just saying blargh.

I know there are a few people who might buy less because they really hate trans people (which is really terrible as people should not hate someone on how they express their gender), but it’s not the same hit as 400 million Chinese not buying my stuff.

Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#57

Post by dwoozle »

CivBase wrote: post #50

IMO, Blizzards actions have been borderline incompetent. I completely understand them not wanting their platform to be used to make political statements. This isn't like the NBA situation where Morey used a private social media account to show support for his private political opiniona. This was a platform owned by Blizzard with a very specific content focus. But banning Blitzchung for any amount of time was just dum…

No. The Chinese government is using this entire crisis as a way of testing the limits of its power. They wanted to test it in a 0-10 scale but found the needle zoomed up to the right stop, so they adjusted the scale to 0-100 by dialing up their actions to even more extreme. That’s why they’re forcing these companies to bend the knee in public rather than quietly. They didn’t want to just disable the HKLive app, they wanted to see whether they could force Apple’s CEO to write a public mea culpa for them, which he did. You can be certain that a person with a direct line of authority to Xi made it very clear that Blizzard would not be allowed to “tactfully” deal with the situation publicist-style.

What you will soon see is the Chinese outrage dialing down as the government gets a good read on the 0-100 number and retreats for the next 30 years to build strategic power while the rest of the world gets distracted by the next Thing.

Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#58

Post by entropea »

minimaxir wrote: post #53
entropea wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blizzard is at real risk of losing this community they've fostered for the last 20+ years I'm reminded of that image of people in a Call of Duty boycott on Steam, playing Call of Duty. Blizzard will lose some money over the next couple of weeks, but aren't at a real risk of anything. https://kotaku.com/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-play...

That Call of Duty meme has long since been discredited. https://www.resetera.com/threads/so-you-posted-the-boycott-m...

>Does that mean that only these 19 people of 833 were playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 at the time? Probably not. There are defnitly more people that played it despite being in the group. It could very well be possible that people in the group not in this picture all played Modern Warfare 2 at the time. However, this picture doesn't show it.

Not really.

Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#59

Post by maxsilver »

seanalltogether wrote: post #33

The fact that Blizzard is in a position to throw a 'Con' each year shows that their games and lore are way more highly valued then most games companies. Could you imagine fans paying $230 to visit to an EA exclusive convention each year? Not gonna happen with their reputation. Blizzard is at real risk of losing this community they've fostered for the last 20+ years

I agree that Blizzard is risking their community with their moves, but I don't think the financials of their games/IP are that important.

Lots of cons get thrown each year, with games / lore / ip that aren't particularly highly valued. All you really need is a strong community, and the con works. That's it. Great IP helps, but isn't necessary.

I follow Warframe, for example, which is just one game from one studio and their IP is is only worth like ~10% the financial value of Blizzard. Despite this, Warframe has their own convention every single year, that sells out every year. People pay $50 - $300 for tickets to that (plus lodging/airfare/etc). They invested in their community, and it paid off.

EA could easily throw a convention every year, even just with a single game, if they had invested in building a community around it. For example, "Anthem-con" could be a yearly event, if Anthem hadn't shipped incomplete and left to fade away.

Re: BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers

#60

Post by clSTophEjUdRanu »

CivBase wrote: post #50

IMO, Blizzards actions have been borderline incompetent. I completely understand them not wanting their platform to be used to make political statements. This isn't like the NBA situation where Morey used a private social media account to show support for his private political opiniona. This was a platform owned by Blizzard with a very specific content focus. But banning Blitzchung for any amount of time was just dum…

Meh. I'd say just allow all discussion or political discourse and let the community moderate? If people think that's stupid then players that do that will lose out. The community already decides what it will tolerate and what it will not.
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