Pro Hearthstone Player Suspended by Blizzard for Voicing Support for Hong Kong Protests - MMORPG.com

RedMachine72

They only did it to protect their distribution in China. Speaking out against human rights violations should be able to be done on any platform, regardless of who runs it. Basically it was a case of "We do not support what was said.....please do not shut our servers in China down."

Slapshot1188

Rhoklaw said:

In case anyone was curious if Blizzard themselves lean towards any political bias?

You can find the article here and don't forget to read the comments that follow because you may find just how ridiculous politics have become, yes, even in the gaming industry. Don't let these puppets dissuade you from thinking Blizzard is somehow not politically inclined to promote or oppose any particular agenda. It's completely and absolutely false.

I do not need to read the article because it is irrelevant.  The company gets to decide if it wants to weigh in on an issue, not each individual employee.

goozmania

Hey, Blizzard... F*CK YOU

Slapshot1188

DMKano said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Look at it this way: You (the reader) own a local pizzeria in a politically purple town.  That means 50/50 mix of whatever your local politics are.  You have uniform shirts that your employees wear.  Now imagine that one of your employees (without discussion with you prior) decided to wear a shirt that said local politician X was a criminal and should be arrested.   

Now weather or not you agree with your employee is not the question.  The question is whether an employee should be able to make such a statement while representing your pizzeria without prior permission.  

To me, the answer is self-evident.  Of course the employee has no such right to make such a statement while representing your pizzeria and potentially alienate many of your customers.  To argue that they do is ridiculous.   Now if that same employee wanted to wear that shirt at home on the weekend, more power to them, but that is quite different from what happened here.  

You got so much stuff wrong though in your setup trying to explain the situation 

1. This is not a 50/50 purple party political situation, there is a clear oppressor and a clear independence seeker
2. The person banned wasn't an employee of the company, but a consumer of the companies service


So let's redo your setup

One side is the ruling fascist party that is killing, beating and oppressing the opposition.

The opposition is fighting for independence from oppression and their freedom.

There is a company X that is benefiting financially from supporting the fascist regime.

Someone speaks in favor of freedom movement while using a service that company X provides - they get immediately banned due to Company X protecting their financial gains by supporting the fascist party.

That's what happened.



Blizzard didnt ban an employee - they banned a consumer of their service for speaking for pro Hong Kong movement which goest against Blizzards financial favors with China

No it’s not.  It’s obvious that you are passionate about the issue and it’s utterly clouded your judgement. 

Vexiusx

Well deserved ban! Keep politics, right or wrong, out of the games please!

Hope they never unban this guy for the drama he's causing.

IceAge

DMKano said:

Blizzard didnt ban an employee - they banned a consumer of their service for speaking for pro Hong Kong movement which goest against Blizzards TOURNAMENT RULES!

Fixed that for you! 

You welcome

ChildoftheShadows

Slapshot1188 said:

Say whatever you want on your own time but do not use a company or leagues platform as a mechanism for voicing your personal views.

I totally agree with what they guy said, but it was not appropriate to say during that stream.

I agree with what they said. I agree with it not being an appropriate platform to say it. I do not agree with how blizzard handled it. 

Slapshot1188

Torval said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Rhoklaw said:

In case anyone was curious if Blizzard themselves lean towards any political bias?

You can find the article here and don't forget to read the comments that follow because you may find just how ridiculous politics have become, yes, even in the gaming industry. Don't let these puppets dissuade you from thinking Blizzard is somehow not politically inclined to promote or oppose any particular agenda. It's completely and absolutely false.

I do not need to read the article because it is irrelevant.  The company gets to decide if it wants to weigh in on an issue, not each individual employee.

You don't seem to have that same perspective for indie companies. Why do they get held to a different standard? I mean they should be held to the standard you bring up in those threads, don't get me wrong. It's just that you shouldn't virtue signal mega corp bad behavior. It really takes the wind out of your message about the indies.

Please explain the inconsistency.  I am open to listening.  My suspicion is that you misunderstand my statement so potentially I have done a poor job articulating it but perhaps I am also inconsistent so please explain.

Slapshot1188

ChildoftheShadows said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Say whatever you want on your own time but do not use a company or leagues platform as a mechanism for voicing your personal views.

I totally agree with what they guy said, but it was not appropriate to say during that stream.

I agree with what they said. I agree with it not being an appropriate platform to say it. I do not agree with how blizzard handled it. 

Totally within your rights, and I may or may not agree

Kyleran

Ginaz said:

Utinni said:

I wonder how many people upset about this still own/use chinese products. I'd guess all of them.

Difference is, we have to use some of those products in our everyday lives and there aren't real alternatives, esp. if those products are deemed essential.  Nothing about video games is essential.  Kind of like being an environmentalist but still traveling by gas/diesel powered transportation because there isn't a real viable alternative yet. 

Ahh yes, the PETA defense.  Eating animals is cruel but I still wear leather shoes because, you know.

Probably very few products you could not buy which there are no alternatives to being made in China.

Well, except it might be more expensive.

Slapshot1188

Torval said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Torval said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Rhoklaw said:

In case anyone was curious if Blizzard themselves lean towards any political bias?

You can find the article here and don't forget to read the comments that follow because you may find just how ridiculous politics have become, yes, even in the gaming industry. Don't let these puppets dissuade you from thinking Blizzard is somehow not politically inclined to promote or oppose any particular agenda. It's completely and absolutely false.

I do not need to read the article because it is irrelevant.  The company gets to decide if it wants to weigh in on an issue, not each individual employee.

You don't seem to have that same perspective for indie companies. Why do they get held to a different standard? I mean they should be held to the standard you bring up in those threads, don't get me wrong. It's just that you shouldn't virtue signal mega corp bad behavior. It really takes the wind out of your message about the indies.

Please explain the inconsistency.  I am open to listening.  My suspicion is that you misunderstand my statement so potentially I have done a poor job articulating it but perhaps I am also inconsistent so please explain.

Just look beyond the surface of a business having the right to enforce a dress code. It's deeper than that. I agree attire should be appropriate and businesses have a right to set that.

By the way in the situation you explained about t-shirts and pizza, this is how it goes down in a cool place. "Hey Johnny, that shirt is going to piss people off. Go home and change and then come back to work." But then again if I worked at a place that allowed writing on t-shirts then it probably wouldn't matter.

But these people aren't pizza employees. They were gamers and users in a tournament. If my pizza parlour customers want to wear political gear to eat pizza then I'm okay with that if it's not oppressing others. The users Blizzard banned were their customers, not employees. The pizza analogy doesn't go very far in that context.

But I do not see the inconsistency you alluded to.  I thought you were tying it in to my stance about Crowdfunding companies.  Maybe I misunderstood.

As for the analogy, they did have to sign certain documents.  It is correct that the guys was not a direct employee but he signed documents that gave Blizzard certain rights.  This included the right to ban him. The guy was not simply a customer, he was a participant in a company sponsored and run tournament and actually had to sign certain legal documents to do so.

If a participant at Nathan’s Hotdog eating contest started spouting political statements, Nathan’s could obviously ban him/her.

IceAge

DMKano said:

IceAge said:

DMKano said:

Blizzard didnt ban an employee - they banned a consumer of their service for speaking for pro Hong Kong movement which goest against Blizzards TOURNAMENT RULES!

Fixed that for you! 

You welcome

Blizzard tournament rules are literal horseshit.

Well, if you sign them, you obey them. Else, you are the one to blame for agreeing with them. Hold to your decisions man! 

Panzerbeorne39 said:

Human rights, people, liberty, freedom of speech over profits. Fuck #chinazi. Fuck Xi Jinping. Fuck Blizzard. #BoycottBlizz
I just canceled my WoW Classic sub and am boycotting all Blizzard Activision content.

..and this is why I will always support banning political shit on games. 

Slapshot1188

DMKano said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Torval said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Torval said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Rhoklaw said:

In case anyone was curious if Blizzard themselves lean towards any political bias?

You can find the article here and don't forget to read the comments that follow because you may find just how ridiculous politics have become, yes, even in the gaming industry. Don't let these puppets dissuade you from thinking Blizzard is somehow not politically inclined to promote or oppose any particular agenda. It's completely and absolutely false.

I do not need to read the article because it is irrelevant.  The company gets to decide if it wants to weigh in on an issue, not each individual employee.

You don't seem to have that same perspective for indie companies. Why do they get held to a different standard? I mean they should be held to the standard you bring up in those threads, don't get me wrong. It's just that you shouldn't virtue signal mega corp bad behavior. It really takes the wind out of your message about the indies.

Please explain the inconsistency.  I am open to listening.  My suspicion is that you misunderstand my statement so potentially I have done a poor job articulating it but perhaps I am also inconsistent so please explain.

Just look beyond the surface of a business having the right to enforce a dress code. It's deeper than that. I agree attire should be appropriate and businesses have a right to set that.

By the way in the situation you explained about t-shirts and pizza, this is how it goes down in a cool place. "Hey Johnny, that shirt is going to piss people off. Go home and change and then come back to work." But then again if I worked at a place that allowed writing on t-shirts then it probably wouldn't matter.

But these people aren't pizza employees. They were gamers and users in a tournament. If my pizza parlour customers want to wear political gear to eat pizza then I'm okay with that if it's not oppressing others. The users Blizzard banned were their customers, not employees. The pizza analogy doesn't go very far in that context.

But I do not see the inconsistency you alluded to.  I thought you were tying it in to my stance about Crowdfunding companies.  Maybe I misunderstood.

As for the analogy, they did have to sign certain documents.  It is correct that the guys was not a direct employee but he signed documents that gave Blizzard certain rights.  This included the right to ban him. The guy was not simply a customer, he was a participant in a company sponsored and run tournament and actually had to sign certain legal documents to do so.

If a participant at Nathan’s Hotdog eating contest started spouting political statements, Nathan’s could obviously ban him/her.

I am not disputing whether Blizzard has the right to ban tournament players. 

I am disputing the reason behind the bans.

Some are simply stating that its just simple rule violation and nothing more.

I call bullshit on that.

The real reason behind bans instead of warnings, is Blizzards financial ties to China and they took a side with China against the pro-Hong Kong player. 

That is the real issue.

Just saying that Blizzard has the right to ban for rule violations and then ignoring everything else - that's a damn shame

There are clear implications of Blizzard being so harsh and quick with bans that go way beyond simple tournament rule violations 

Again... it is up to the company to determine what side, if any, the want to be on.

Since you agree that Blizzard has the right to ban the guy, we are in agreement.  You are free to boycott Blizzard. I think China is one of the most dangerous and yes evil countries on earth.   Their internment camps, re-education camps, social credit scores, etc... are horrible.  If Blizzard wanted to make a statement and halt all business in China I would applaud it, but it is their decision to make. 

IceAge

DMKano said:

Some are simply stating that its just simple rule violation and nothing more.

I call bullshit on that.

The real reason behind bans instead of warnings, is Blizzards financial ties to China and they took a side with China against the pro-Hong Kong player. 

That is the real issue.

If that was the case, then we should of seen Diablo Immortal launched by now, right?

Well , I still call your theory, a conspiracy theory at best! Sorry, but .. right now, statements like yours, for me at least, are an excuse to support your anger towards this issue. 

Ginaz

IceAge said:

Arterius said:

IceAge said:

Torval said:

We can't separate politics and entertainment anymore. We haven't been able to for a long time, but we've been willing to stick our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't matter. Governments and pundits have shoved their capitalist conks right in the middle of everything and won't let us ignore it anymore.

That means you, Kano and others like you will start showing your political views more often on this site? Great, let me know when you guys will start, so I can ignore you one by one. Also reporting since its against the rules. I mean this thread right here is against the rules, but hey! Freedom of speech right?!

I can care less about your or others political views when I come to mmorpg.com . I have my own websites where I go and "feed" my political shit. I don't want to see that here.

But it seems you guys are already grabbing the forks and knifes and going on a crusade on an gaming website. 

I wish you good luck with that. 

Reporting because its against the rules? You know where I am from in CA that wouldn't fly. Seriously though who cares. This thread was always going to be political. 

I wonder, if I didn't added "reporting" , would you still reply to my post? So you took something out of the context, and voila, you have now replyed to me.

Congrats!

PS: This "who cares" says everything about you and your CA exemple is ... childish. Reporting to mmorpg.com obviously.

ROFL You planned to report the "OP" of this thread?  Tell us all how that goes since it was staff of this site that wrote it as an article.  Ni Hao.

IceAge

Ginaz said:

IceAge said:

Arterius said:

IceAge said:

Torval said:

We can't separate politics and entertainment anymore. We haven't been able to for a long time, but we've been willing to stick our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't matter. Governments and pundits have shoved their capitalist conks right in the middle of everything and won't let us ignore it anymore.

That means you, Kano and others like you will start showing your political views more often on this site? Great, let me know when you guys will start, so I can ignore you one by one. Also reporting since its against the rules. I mean this thread right here is against the rules, but hey! Freedom of speech right?!

I can care less about your or others political views when I come to mmorpg.com . I have my own websites where I go and "feed" my political shit. I don't want to see that here.

But it seems you guys are already grabbing the forks and knifes and going on a crusade on an gaming website. 

I wish you good luck with that. 

Reporting because its against the rules? You know where I am from in CA that wouldn't fly. Seriously though who cares. This thread was always going to be political. 

I wonder, if I didn't added "reporting" , would you still reply to my post? So you took something out of the context, and voila, you have now replyed to me.

Congrats!

PS: This "who cares" says everything about you and your CA exemple is ... childish. Reporting to mmorpg.com obviously.

ROFL You planned to report the "OP" of this thread?  Tell us all how that goes since it was staff of this site that wrote it as an article.  Ni Hao.

ROFL ....... for taking things out of context, just like the other guy.

That means you, Kano and others like you will start showing your political views more often on this site? Great, let me know when you guys will start, so I can ignore you one by one. Also reporting since its against the rules.

Aka ignoring the above AND reporting them IF they will start with the political shit on this site from now on. Of course, dis-regarding this exact thread!

There you! Congrats! You now know things..  

Mykell

DMKano said:

Blizzard clearly chose a side here - their China market aka money over morals 

This is a dangerous decision they made - one that we dont know the full repercussions yet

They are trying to juggle 2 different worlds and profit from both and finding out there may be more balls than hands to it than they thought.

All they understand is money which is why they didn't realise how tone deaf their Diablo mobile game was going to be when it was announced how it was or that looking like they are doing the bidding of China would play out badly to their player-base in the west.

They could suddenly find themselves between China and Trump if this blows up and hits the mainstream press and they sure as hell ain't ready for that rodeo lol.

IceAge

Arterius said:

IceAge said:

Ginaz said:

IceAge said:

Arterius said:

IceAge said:

Torval said:

We can't separate politics and entertainment anymore. We haven't been able to for a long time, but we've been willing to stick our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't matter. Governments and pundits have shoved their capitalist conks right in the middle of everything and won't let us ignore it anymore.

That means you, Kano and others like you will start showing your political views more often on this site? Great, let me know when you guys will start, so I can ignore you one by one. Also reporting since its against the rules. I mean this thread right here is against the rules, but hey! Freedom of speech right?!

I can care less about your or others political views when I come to mmorpg.com . I have my own websites where I go and "feed" my political shit. I don't want to see that here.

But it seems you guys are already grabbing the forks and knifes and going on a crusade on an gaming website. 

I wish you good luck with that. 

Reporting because its against the rules? You know where I am from in CA that wouldn't fly. Seriously though who cares. This thread was always going to be political. 

I wonder, if I didn't added "reporting" , would you still reply to my post? So you took something out of the context, and voila, you have now replyed to me.

Congrats!

PS: This "who cares" says everything about you and your CA exemple is ... childish. Reporting to mmorpg.com obviously.

ROFL You planned to report the "OP" of this thread?  Tell us all how that goes since it was staff of this site that wrote it as an article.  Ni Hao.

ROFL ....... for taking things out of context, just like the other guy.

That means you, Kano and others like you will start showing your political views more often on this site? Great, let me know when you guys will start, so I can ignore you one by one. Also reporting since its against the rules.

Aka ignoring the above AND reporting them IF they will start with the political shit on this site from now on. Of course, dis-regarding this exact thread!

There you! Congrats! You now know things..  

You blame us for taking you out of context but you didn't type that out as well as you think you did. It sounds like you said you will be ignoring us and that you will report us. Sure though, its our fault. Like we don't know how to read or anything

Well, pardon my French then! This what happens when you are not a native English speaker. At least now you understand what I was trying to say!

DMKano said:

IceAge said:

DMKano said:

Some are simply stating that its just simple rule violation and nothing more.

I call bullshit on that.

The real reason behind bans instead of warnings, is Blizzards financial ties to China and they took a side with China against the pro-Hong Kong player. 

That is the real issue.

If that was the case, then we should of seen Diablo Immortal launched by now, right?

Well , I still call your theory, a conspiracy theory at best! Sorry, but .. right now, statements like yours, for me at least, are an excuse to support your anger towards this issue. 

Netease - a Chinese company is developing Disblo Immortal for Blizzard 

I have no idea what you are talking about "should be launched by now" ?

You make no sense at all

Blizzard literally hired a Chinese company to develop Diablo Immortal for them.

Activision Blizzard is 5% owned by Tencent - a chinese company.

Blizzard has clear financial gains based in Chinese market.

These are what we call facts - you cannot dismiss these by calling them conspiracy

It means exactly what it means. If Blizzard is financial ties to China ( which it is to some degree ), then Diablo Immortal should of been launched by now, as the game is already finished since months ago, yet..they didn't release it. So they are holding to that.."financial ties" you are talking about. Why? The answer we both know , but based on your conspiracy theory, they should give a fck and go ahead with the release because .. "financial ties", right?

Main reason, as they already stated, is that they banned the guy to not create similar ..things in the future, which I pretty much agree with. 

bcbully

Blizzard will end up on the wrong side of history in this one.

Kumapon

This is only the beginning of a larger conversation that’s been needing to take place for some time now. It’s becoming increasingly clear that western companies can’t just take advantage of the Chinese market and maintain the status quo at the same time.

Either they bend to the will of the communist party, affecting all of their customers around the world in the process, or they sacrifice profit and get out of China. In the beginning, people believed that opening up to China would lead to political reform. But if anything things have gotten worse, and the propaganda campaigns seem to have been remarkably successful, meaning things aren’t likely to change anytime soon.

PurplePepe

bcbully said:

Blizzard will end up on the wrong side of history in this one.

Yea I think that’s that meat of the debate. They may be right as far as their rules go but they have an ethics issue that will now plague them for a long, long time. 

synn

don't worry people, at the rate China is going we will always have freedom of speech as long as we don't say things or promote images that make the Chinese government upset.

BizkitNL

Blizzard was right. It's a gaming environment, which is no place for any politics, religion and whatnot. The rules were clear, they were signed off on and he broke them.

And now the internet is up in arms over things like freedom of speech and Blizzard is suddenly on China's side? That alone just proves how much of a cesspit the internet has become.

There are a million other places better suited to bring awareness about the horrific situation in China, but the Internet targets the one platform that tries to deliver a gaming tournament.

Not to mention that this is basically the extent to what people will do to help: upvoting and downvoting topics.

evolgrinz

You are not allowed to complain if you don't read the TOS, and then get banned for breaking the rules.

Phry

BizkitNL said:

Blizzard was right. It's a gaming environment, which is no place for any politics, religion and whatnot. The rules were clear, they were signed off on and he broke them.

And now the internet is up in arms over things like freedom of speech and Blizzard is suddenly on China's side? That alone just proves how much of a cesspit the internet has become.

There are a million other places better suited to bring awareness about the horrific situation in China, but the Internet targets the one platform that tries to deliver a gaming tournament.

Not to mention that this is basically the extent to what people will do to help: upvoting and downvoting topics.

Except the decision that Blizzard made was politically motivated. Morals are disposable when it comes to $$, its the Activision way apparently. How ironic that Blizzards motto being about all voices being important could be discarded so easily.
There is no way in which Activision/Blizzard comes out of this looking good, this will damage them for a long time and its highly likely that it will only get worse.
For me it annoys me no end that now i have to choose, and there is only one option i cannot support Activision/Blizzard, so even though i am really enjoying playing Classic, sub cancelled.