BlizzCon 2019 Protest “Full-Steam Ahead,” Say Organizers • Hacker News Board

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

#101

Post by deminature » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:06 PM UTC

falcolas wrote: post #99

deminature wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The playerbase for some of their games is apparently as high as 70% China-based [1]. We can't verify this, because Blizzard doesn't release that information publicly, but if even remotely true, losing access to the Chinese market would be financially devastating. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSAlh9l-c7Q

Blizzard does not release player numbers, but as a public company, they do release their financials. Per Activision Blizzard's investor calls, approximately 10% of their total revenue is from China. So, with a profit margin of 25% and profits in the billions, Activision Blizzard is not going to go bankrupt even should they lose all their Chinese income.

Would you be impressed as a stockholder of a company that experiences a 10% reduction in revenue, voluntarily through an avoidable action?

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

#102

Post by Beltiras » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:08 PM UTC

diminoten wrote: post #94

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…

No he doesn't. Some good deeds don't erase your bad deeds, especially when those bad deeds were done in what now appears to be bad faith.

I'm still on the fence. I'm still boycotting. I've come around to the position thou that there are redeeming steps Blizz can take.

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

#103

Post by madez » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:12 PM UTC

stronglikedan wrote: post #65

madez wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protest is supposed to interrupt, to be there where it isn't wanted. It is supposed to be inconvenient and blocking.

If you stand on the side of the road with your signs, I may read your signs, and I might even be sympathetic to your cause. If you block the road with your signs, I definitely won't read your signs, and I definitely won't be sympathetic to your cause. Same for any type of violence.

That might be true. If 500.000 people block every big street in a city, you will read the signs and think about the cause. What a protest can afford depends on how many are protesting.

Going to the specific event in question, the convention of Activision Blizzard, if one person tries to blocks the event with protest, they will be removed, if necessary by physical force. If sufficiently many block the event with protest, the protest will be successful.

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

#104

Post by moksly » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:12 PM UTC

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 over the issue.

I’m a little split on this. I don’t like what Blizzard did and I think it was definitely influenced by China. So I’m kind of glad this is an issue for them. At the same time my national government helped Censor maps on behalf of China to make sure we were able to get Pandas in one of our Zoos. The censorship was very nicely handled, the issue was showing Taiwan and China as two countries on a map showing panda habitants, and instead of making them one country they simply zoomed in enough for Taiwan not to be part of the map. So no lie on behalf of Chin, but still censorship...

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 do hope this controversy sparks some legislative action, but it’s probably a really tricky area.

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

#105

Post by Iv » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

smbullet wrote: post #75

snapwich wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So turn all platforms into 4chan, is that what you're suggesting?

Yeah just like 4chan. Except instead of anonymous it's public and instead of a message board it's real life. But other than that exactly like 4chan.

And that you only get a 20 seconds message once you won a tournament.

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

#106

Post by Razengan » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:16 PM UTC

lovetocode wrote: post #45

Blizzard needs some OG leadership to come in and fix their situation. I hate seeing my childhood get ruined.

Like the Ship of Theseus, I don't think Blizzard is the same company you grew up with any longer.

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

#107

Post by diminoten » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:16 PM UTC

Beltiras wrote: post #102

diminoten wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No he doesn't. Some good deeds don't erase your bad deeds, especially when those bad deeds were done in what now appears to be bad faith.

I'm still on the fence. I'm still boycotting. I've come around to the position thou that there are redeeming steps Blizz can take.

You've "come around" to that position? Are you suggesting that the baseline isn't that position?

No one is suggesting Blizzard is irredeemable, it's just very unlikely, given Blizzard's past behavior, that they're going to take the necessary steps to fix this.

Honestly, what the heck are you even talking about? You sound like someone who is actively trying to misrepresent the situation...

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

#108

Post by jpetrucc » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:18 PM UTC

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 enjoyed it, but it no longer has the same magic that I remember. WoW Classic brought back some of that nostalgia, but it was short lived for me.

BlizzCon last year made it pretty clear that Blizzard has shifted their focus [0]. There is no way they were delusional enough to expect a happy reaction to the Diablo Immortal announcement. It's very clearly targeted at the Chinese market.

Their actions in the past month (and year) are very telling - they are no longer the company I used to admire. I've canceled my WoW subscription as of last week, and I've deleted all of their games from my devices. I know that my actions alone/individually don't really have an impact on them, but I can't go on supporting them after the things they've been doing recently. Bellular has a pretty good video breaking down some of this situation as well [1].

It'll be interesting to see how BlizzCon goes this year.

[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/9tsy49/blizzard_get...

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbPrbqE06Y4

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

#109

Post by Iv » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:18 PM UTC

Beltiras wrote: post #102

diminoten wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No he doesn't. Some good deeds don't erase your bad deeds, especially when those bad deeds were done in what now appears to be bad faith.

I'm still on the fence. I'm still boycotting. I've come around to the position thou that there are redeeming steps Blizz can take.

I play sc2, which is free to play. I changed my account name for "FreedomForHK". I play on Asian servers and responses have been very positive so far.

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

#110

Post by metalliqaz » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 4:18 PM UTC

ericol wrote: post #76

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…

I understand your point; but I don't think Blizzard actions would had been this strong on any other similar situation (Say, Blitzchung supporting the Catalonian separatists). All evidence seems to indicate Blizzard acted this way because China.

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.