Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

gamespot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 194 posts

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

#141

Post by teknologist »

Beltiras wrote: post #90

My son-in-law has lived in China and confronted me about my boycott. His position is that the content in Blizz games is kinda subversive to the authoritarianism practiced by the CCP. No other gaming company has the breadth of socially reformative messaging contained in WoW, Overwatch et.al. Should Blizz perform corporate harakiri by appeasing the angry SJW (not spoken derisively) in the West, the CCP would have no pr…

I'm not buying this. China still looks up to Western culture and brands in many ways and any subversive messaging is simply considered part of the entertainment. Limiting access to these would send a clear message that "the way you're doing things just isn't right".

The e-terrorism that they've carried out using the "Great Cannon" should be internationally understood as a criminal act and get them cut off from the internet, too. That might eventually convey the message that the way they're running a country simply isn't acceptable in 2019.

Many Chinese still use VPNs to access Western media and plenty of movies, TV shows and games are hosted internally on the national network. Blizzard games require a persistent connection to the company's servers to play, so if access to these were revoked a rather thought provoking message would be sent.

Whether Blizzard or the CCP themselves enact that ban, I don't think it particularly matters.

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

#142

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

jpetrucc wrote: post #108

Blizzard used to be my favorite gaming company. I remember when I was much younger dreaming of being able to work there on World of Warcraft. I played a ridiculous amount of WoW/Warcraft 3/Starcraft as a kid, and more recently a decent amount of WoW/Hearthstone/Overwatch. I had been a WoW subscriber for over a decade. WoW's quality has been in decline (IMO) recently in BFA, and I stayed because I still occasionally e…

>Their actions in the past month (and year) are very telling - they are no longer the company I used to admire.

"Never meet your heroes".

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

#143

Post by seemack »

chii wrote: post #10
me_me_me wrote: post #3

This will be truly interesting to see. I wonder what can Blizzard possibly do for this not to spiral out of control and please West and China at the same time. I do not envy their PR department right now. But then again its all their own doing, so ready up the popcorn...

they cannot please both. They will have to ride out the bad PR in the west, because they cannot afford to ride out the chinese market's dominance and profits.

I'm personally curious if the amount of profit is being overstated. My guess is that video game publishers in China grow to similar quality of western publishers and Chinese nationalism means the gamers from which Blizzard is hoping to glean their "profits" turn to supporting China's home-grown games.

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

#144

Post by [deleted] »

teknologist wrote: post #127
ericol wrote: post #116

I think that's the ruling party way of things: They usually try to obliterate into particles whoever dares to oppose them. Or whoever crosses their path; or whoever they don't like for whatever reason. Just take a look at the Uyghurs situation. * edited because it seems people where taking offence on I miss using the word Chinese instead of "ruling party", that is actually what I meant.

That's very much a CCP thing. Chinese people are actually rather nice.

[deleted]

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

#145

Post by CharlesColeman »

moksly wrote: post #104
Beltiras wrote: post #90

My son-in-law has lived in China and confronted me about my boycott. His position is that the content in Blizz games is kinda subversive to the authoritarianism practiced by the CCP. No other gaming company has the breadth of socially reformative messaging contained in WoW, Overwatch et.al. Should Blizz perform corporate harakiri by appeasing the angry SJW (not spoken derisively) in the West, the CCP would have no pr…

I think Blizzard is certainly catching a lot of the consumer rage that could be directed at a lot of international companies. In the same week as Blizzards censorship, the NBA and Nike has their own protest censorship and both Google and Apple removed the Hong Kong protest apps as well as the Taiwanese emoji flags. Nike and Apple both lead more progressive PR campaigns than Blizzard but they have catches less heat ov…

> And there are just so many things related to China that are worse than Blizzard. I know this is whataboutism and I know you can boycott more things than one, but I just can’t help feeling silly boycotting Blizzard while I’m using an iPhone.

I don't think it's stilly. It seems like we've reached a bit of a tipping point on CCP appeasement with the NBA and Blizzard, and there's nothing wrong with hitting while the iron's hot. Hopefully the heat will spread to other areas.

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

#146

Post by metalliqaz »

hermitdev wrote: post #113
metalliqaz wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blizzard could have kicked him out of the tournament and said "don't use our platform for controversy" and probably nothing would have happened. Instead they stripped him of his winnings, banned him for a year, and then release two public statements one in English that was bad enough, and another in Chinese that absolutely prostrated themselves before the Mainland government. It was pathetic.

Blizzard has since reinstated his winnings and reduced the ban to 6 months. > Blizzard originally banned the Hong Kong-based player for a year and withheld his prize money after he said "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" in Chinese during the livestreamed event. That penalty was later reduced to a six-month suspension, and Chung's prize money was reinstated Second paragraph in https://arstechnica.com/gaming…

Yeah, after they were raked over the coals by everyone from their own fans to the US Congress. Perhaps a bit too late.

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

#147

Post by lovehashbrowns »

Beltiras wrote: post #90

My son-in-law has lived in China and confronted me about my boycott. His position is that the content in Blizz games is kinda subversive to the authoritarianism practiced by the CCP. No other gaming company has the breadth of socially reformative messaging contained in WoW, Overwatch et.al. Should Blizz perform corporate harakiri by appeasing the angry SJW (not spoken derisively) in the West, the CCP would have no pr…

I would be on board with this, except that Blizzard is directly making money off of that "subversive" message. It's not a greater good situation at all, it's just Blizzard making money with the aid of an authoritarian government.

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

#148

Post by falcolas »

cyc116 wrote: post #138
falcolas wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a racial comment when the leader of a country uses that exact quote to describe how they will deal with anyone who threatens the harmony of China, including the situations that the grandparent was referring to? https://supchina.com/2019/10/15/well-grind-you-up-and-crush-...

Reply to comment from Falcolas: > Is it a racial comment when the leader of a country uses that exact quote to describe how they will deal with anyone who threatens the harmony of China, including the situations that the grandparent was referring to? It is, when your message is an explicit commented on "I think that's the Chinese way of thing:[...]". Please understand that Xi does not speak for all Chinese (hence the…

[flagged]

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

#149

Post by CharlesColeman »

seemack wrote: post #143
chii wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they cannot please both. They will have to ride out the bad PR in the west, because they cannot afford to ride out the chinese market's dominance and profits.

I'm personally curious if the amount of profit is being overstated. My guess is that video game publishers in China grow to similar quality of western publishers and Chinese nationalism means the gamers from which Blizzard is hoping to glean their "profits" turn to supporting China's home-grown games.

> I'm personally curious if the amount of profit is being overstated. My guess is that video game publishers in China grow to similar quality of western publishers and Chinese nationalism means the gamers from which Blizzard is hoping to glean their "profits" turn to supporting China's home-grown games.

China is not turning out to be a land of milk and honey for western corporations. The best business decision for a Western business with regard to China may be to give up on it, because the PRC wants your local competitor to succeed, not you.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-is-losing-the-chinese-s...

> The shift signals a possible end of an era. For years, it was customary for Western executives to tout their plans for dominating China—a market they felt they had to win as markets elsewhere matured. But foreign consumer brands now hold a smaller market share in the categories tracked by McKinsey & Co. than at any time since the global financial crisis, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of research from the U.S. consulting firm, incorporating data from Euromonitor and IHS Markit. Market share losses were particularly evident in categories such as pet food, passenger cars, videogames, smartphones and appliances.

> ...

> Some Western companies, including Carrefour SA, Amazon Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc., have decided China is too complex or costly to win for some of their major businesses, and have closed or sold them off after facing powerful local rivals who were able to largely control the market. Ford Motor Co. , Apple Inc. and others remain committed, but are struggling to meet expectations. Amazon said it continues to serve Chinese consumers through its cross-border e-commerce business and remains committed to China. Uber didn’t respond to requests to comment. Ford didn’t comment. Carrefour provided no further comment beyond its press release detailing the transaction.

I made this same comment elsewhere, but it's relevant here, too.

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

#150

Post by bsder »

cyc116 wrote: post #138
falcolas wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a racial comment when the leader of a country uses that exact quote to describe how they will deal with anyone who threatens the harmony of China, including the situations that the grandparent was referring to? https://supchina.com/2019/10/15/well-grind-you-up-and-crush-...

Reply to comment from Falcolas: > Is it a racial comment when the leader of a country uses that exact quote to describe how they will deal with anyone who threatens the harmony of China, including the situations that the grandparent was referring to? It is, when your message is an explicit commented on "I think that's the Chinese way of thing:[...]". Please understand that Xi does not speak for all Chinese (hence the…

> Please understand that Xi does not speak for all Chinese

That may be. But, unfortunately, the vast majority of mainland Chinese are perfectly fine with what the Chinese leadership are doing.

Yes, it may be due to propaganda. Yes, they may not know any better. Yes, they may be being blackmailed.

Tough.

Justification doesn't help much when you are the one receiving pointy end of the stick.

Post reply on HN