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

Phry · October 2019

Utinni said:

Phry said:

Utinni said:

Phry said:

BizkitNL said:

Phry said:

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.

I don't understand. Politically motivated how? The rules were set way, WAY before any of this was happening.

I would understand political motivation if they made this decision with nothing to back it up up to that point. But it was already written down, set in stone. The rules wre set to prevent a gaming tournament from turning into political, religious (and whetever else) platforms. And rightfully so.

Anyone claiming any kind of political affiliation or motivation based on the market etc is basically just guessing. If a player would have been pro-china in the interview, would he have NOT been banned? I think he would have been, because the rules are there to keep it neutral.

And that's where this is all going to hell: "If you're not with us, you are against us", which is a trend that can be seen in all sorts of topics (I'm looking at you, genders), and it's getting out of hand.

Of course it was political, do you think for one moment that if the guy had said instead 'Women are the equals of Men' that he would have been banned?
The rules are vague enough that Blizzard can interpret them in any way they want, have you read those 'rules' that he has supposed to have broken? the rules he broke were specifically the ones where 'in Blizzards opinion the Chinese government was offended' thats it, the rules specifically state that it is if in Blizzards opinion you caused people to be offended then you broke the rules. And no, i seriously doubt if the guy had made some kind of Pro-China statement he would have been banned, because you know what, that would have offended the Chinese Government, and thats a huge problem with Blizzard who constantly bend over backwards to appease them.

You're still guessing though, as Bizkit said. The only situation you accept is "blizzard bad".

"the rules specifically state that it is if in Blizzards opinion you caused people to be offended then you broke the rules."

You said it yourself, they offended people so they broke the rules. Chinese people are allowed to disagree with you.

What Chinese people are allowed to disagree with is debateable, and it wasn't the Chinese people who were 'offended' it was the Chinese goverment, you know, the Chinese Communist Dictatorship, i am fairly sure that privately the Chinese people probably agree with the guys statement, though i doubt they would dare to state that openly.

You're guessing again though. Not sure where your "fairly sure" info is from but you've probably never been to China. Stop pushing your facebook assumptions as fact.

Yes, i am sure that people in a strict communist regime that heavily censors what its people are allowed to see, that uses social credits to restrict who can and cannot use various forms of public transport among other things, would have absolutely no problem stating their views publicly. Stop pushing your naive observations as facts.

[Deleted User] · October 2019

The user and all related content has been deleted.

IceAge · October 2019

Phry said:

Utinni said:

Phry said:

Utinni said:

Phry said:

BizkitNL said:

Phry said:

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.

I don't understand. Politically motivated how? The rules were set way, WAY before any of this was happening.

I would understand political motivation if they made this decision with nothing to back it up up to that point. But it was already written down, set in stone. The rules wre set to prevent a gaming tournament from turning into political, religious (and whetever else) platforms. And rightfully so.

Anyone claiming any kind of political affiliation or motivation based on the market etc is basically just guessing. If a player would have been pro-china in the interview, would he have NOT been banned? I think he would have been, because the rules are there to keep it neutral.

And that's where this is all going to hell: "If you're not with us, you are against us", which is a trend that can be seen in all sorts of topics (I'm looking at you, genders), and it's getting out of hand.

Of course it was political, do you think for one moment that if the guy had said instead 'Women are the equals of Men' that he would have been banned?
The rules are vague enough that Blizzard can interpret them in any way they want, have you read those 'rules' that he has supposed to have broken? the rules he broke were specifically the ones where 'in Blizzards opinion the Chinese government was offended' thats it, the rules specifically state that it is if in Blizzards opinion you caused people to be offended then you broke the rules. And no, i seriously doubt if the guy had made some kind of Pro-China statement he would have been banned, because you know what, that would have offended the Chinese Government, and thats a huge problem with Blizzard who constantly bend over backwards to appease them.

You're still guessing though, as Bizkit said. The only situation you accept is "blizzard bad".

"the rules specifically state that it is if in Blizzards opinion you caused people to be offended then you broke the rules."

You said it yourself, they offended people so they broke the rules. Chinese people are allowed to disagree with you.

What Chinese people are allowed to disagree with is debateable, and it wasn't the Chinese people who were 'offended' it was the Chinese goverment, you know, the Chinese Communist Dictatorship, i am fairly sure that privately the Chinese people probably agree with the guys statement, though i doubt they would dare to state that openly.

You're guessing again though. Not sure where your "fairly sure" info is from but you've probably never been to China. Stop pushing your facebook assumptions as fact.

Yes, i am sure that people in a strict communist regime that heavily censors what its people are allowed to see, that uses social credits to restrict who can and cannot use various forms of public transport among other things, would have absolutely no problem stating their views publicly. Stop pushing your naive observations as facts.

Love how you assume, yet again, that you know the Chinese people!

All I read from this whole mess of the story are just assumptions from X, Y and Z.

Oh, and my favorite, the conspiracy theories.

synn said:

IceAge said:

Listen, if you are going to have a decent discussion, do so. Replying back to me with a line which has nothing to do with what we discuss, is pathetic.

All it has to do for US people who are against this, is the fact that we are talking about China here. The main subject is just another subject for which you now have a "right" to throw your frustration at them. No common sense, nothing. Breaking the rules? Doesn't matter !! We talk about China here right? So everything can be ..broken.

But if something similar happened in US, then you'll all be mad and angry and say "HOW COULD YOU BREAK THE RULES?!"

If a Chinese player, would show up in the said tournament, bashing US for their actions against China...I don't want to know how would you guys will react to that. But..we have an idea as how, right!?

The rule that was broken is more opinion based. So the punishment happened at Blizzards discretion. On top of that, punishment based on the rule that Blizzard referenced was just being removed from grandmasters and having prize money taken away. It didn't mention anything about a 12 month ban from hearthstone competition even though that was added to the punishment handed to Blitzchun.

In regards to the whole Chinese bashing US...I think you give too much credit about how much people actually would care if a Chinese person in a gaming tournament bashed US for their actions against China. In fact if the accusations were true, there probably a good chance people would side with this person

Sure, many will go "we don't care", "who cares?" type of mentality, but suddenly, everyone cares now, speaking about this..story, right?!

But no! People, at least the ones commenting in here, would not side with that person if he made such .. remarks, even if the accusations were somehow true, because we are talking about China here, and for most, common sense is non-existent.

NorseGod · October 2019

Didn't MMORPG.com post an article not too long ago about Blizzard wanting Twitch to link their BattleNet accounts so that Blizzard can ban "toxic behavior" on Twitch streams?

See the pattern?

IceAge · October 2019

NorseGod said:

Didn't MMORPG.com post an article not too long ago about Blizzard wanting Twitch to link their BattleNet accounts so that Blizzard can ban "toxic behavior" on Twitch streams?

See the pattern?

Nope, I don't. Elaborate please..

PS: You do know that it was meant for Blizzard twitch channels, right? Good

[Deleted User] · October 2019

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Nixeska · October 2019

This is the kind of trouble you invite when you have your rules all be "At the company's discretion" instead of concrete rules. Because of how they decided to word their rules to give themselves more control they left themselves open to people interpreting their actions. While you can say that his statement about Hong Kong is against their rules, they are free to do absolutely nothing in response or hand out extra punishments based on the wording. That causes people to view the punishment as Blizzard's choice instead of enforcing their rules.

Asm0deus · October 2019

While Blizzard is free to do this we are also free to call them out on it, we are free to boycott them, and are free to question their ethics and morality and last but not least we are free to question or find their integrity lacking because thankfully unlike some places we are free to do so and talk about it online etc etc since our internet is not censored by the government so to speak...

Hatefull · October 2019

DMKano said:

Hatefull said:

DMKano said:

Go visit blizzard subreddit or Blizzard forums to see the epic backlash

Also there is a huge dissention over this inside Blizzard offices by employees who feel disgusted by Blizzards actions in support of Chinese oppression government

https://twitter.com/lackofrealism/status/1181639970332659712

Also - this made national news - even US Senators are speaking on it

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/8/20905181/blizzard-hearthstone-player-ban-marco-rubio-ron-wyden-china-hong-kong-protests-blitzchung

Not surprised a politician would turn this around as something to do with the U.S. A publicly-traded company with international interests does not speak for the U.S. government and the U.S. government should not be trying to use this in the trade dispute we are currently having with China. But of course, the professional criminals will take every opportunity to attempt to forward their agendas.

It's not, it is in Blizzards rules. if you don't like it Don't compete, if you don't like the decisions your government makes? You have multiple avenues, you can leave, you can take a political stance in the proper forums, hell you can even participate in an armed revolt if you feel that passionately about it.

I actually support free Hong Kong, I have been there, love the place, but this professional competitor could have done much more for his cause had he complied with the rules and then used another forum to voice his political agenda.

At any rate, I doubt very much Blizzard will feel much from this at all.

lol - go look at Blizzard forums - go look at blizzard news.

Google Blizzard today -

Oh they are going to feel this - they are feeling it already.

Also why didn't they issue a warning? Why did they ban immediately? Why did they ban the 2 interview guys who said "say the eight words" - that's a bannabale offense?

So maybe ban the blitzchung - but warn the other 2

Why do such a hard line - like what other country does a really hard line immediately? hmm....

Hmm - do you think Blizzard was impartial here - they just followed their own rules (which are complete bullshit as basically they say "we can do whatever we want" - which has been proven before when there were pro-china things said on Blizz stream and nothing was done.

So Blizzard is clearly looking like they are in bed with China (which they are - NetEase, tencent - and huge profits Blizzard makes from China) - that's what explains what happened here - it's not just Blizzard "following rules" - it's Blizzard sucking up to China because of money.

I don't need to look anything up...you do realize gamers make up a tiny percentage of humans right? Vocal gamers, much like you, that have an opinion on literally everything an even smaller percentage. So, all this "backlash" is irrelevant.

Government officials talking about it? No shit they are, this is just another way for them to try to set their hooks in a trade battle that is taking place.

It's plainly written in the rules, the two streamers urged the action, the player took the action and they got what they knew they could, a ban. You can cry, whine, bitch, and complain all you want, but it was a Blizzard event, and Blizz can write the rules and essentially do whatever they want. Wanna know why? Because you don't have to go. That is right nothing forced anyone to be there and because the competitors chose to be there they have to follow the rules.

Maybe Blizz just decided It is better to put a stop to it now, or before long we will see Taliban players making a stance on the international gaming stage, Venezuelan, plyers, Nigerian...it will turn into yet another political cesspool that won't be about gaming, it will be trying to influence politics. No, thanks.

So psin it however you want, I know you will fabricate some bullshit as you always do, but the fact of the matter is; the political crap needs to be kept out of gaming, we see enough of it already.

Also here is a tip, if you want to change the world, this isn't the place to try to do that. Just fyi.

NorseGod · October 2019

IceAge said:

NorseGod said:

PS: You do know that it was meant for Blizzard twitch channels, right? Good

Uuummmm, yes? lol

They said they want to be able to ban your BNet account if you say something naughty in Twitch. That's why they want your BNet account linked to your Twitch account.

Phry · October 2019

Gorwe said:

Fuck ActiBli$$!

With that said, I understand why they did what they did(they also had every right to do it). Doesn't make it any less of a lowborn move.

True, i totally understand why they did what they did, and why they had to be 'seen' to be taking action in the manner they did, even though i think it was the wrong thing to do.
It is a PR disaster that i suspect will have done permanent damage to the company, i only have to wonder if they think the sacrifice to their reputation is worth it, i think this will be yet another decision that Activision/Blizzard will come to regret if indeed they haven't already.

Xatsh · October 2019

In the end what we learned is companies only care about money.

China is a lot of money. And while this backlash will cost blizzard probably 100s of thousands that is nothing in comparison to say if China got mad and banned WoW and Heartstone in the whole country. Which I wish all the countries around the world would retaliate economically against china when they do that crap and force them to stop.

Therefor Blizzard did the correct thing for their shareholders (which is all that matters to any company). They ensured they would not lose what 30% of their yearly revenue by angering a communist government that is controlling what its people can do, say, and see.

It is honestly sickening to me but I understand fully why they did it.

But what bothers me more is some the support for the decision I am seeing everywhere.

People at sporting event push all kinds of things. Women's rights, Racial Equality, Animal Protection stuff, support for crime prevention, suicide prevention and metal health support. And those are almost all looked at kindly from everyone.

What I do not understand from some posters across the net is how is Human rights and the freedom to get uncensored information and question those in power not ok to promote.

IceAge · October 2019

NorseGod said:

IceAge said:

NorseGod said:

PS: You do know that it was meant for Blizzard twitch channels, right? Good

Uuummmm, yes? lol

They said they want to be able to ban your BNet account if you say something naughty in Twitch. That's why they want your BNet account linked to your Twitch account.

So, it's their Channels, their right to put whatever rules they want, yet .. you are still coming up with this?!

And naughty in Twitch, please clarify that Twitch = Only Blizzard Twitch Channels, because as you say it, it appears that on any channel on Twitch out there.

Every twitch channel , can ban whoever they want for different reasons, yet .. Blizzard can't. Nice logic there..

synn · October 2019

IceAge said:

Sure, many will go "we don't care", "who cares?" type of mentality, but suddenly, everyone cares now, speaking about this..story, right?!

But no! People, at least the ones commenting in here, would not side with that person if he made such .. remarks, even if the accusations were somehow true, because we are talking about China here, and for most, common sense is non-existent.

I don't care what country you are from. If you say something bad about the US and it is actually true of course people would agree with you regardless of where you are from. I wouldn't be surprised if people agreed with you even if you were lying because they want to believe its true.

Phry · October 2019

IceAge said:

NorseGod said:

IceAge said:

NorseGod said:

PS: You do know that it was meant for Blizzard twitch channels, right? Good

Uuummmm, yes? lol

They said they want to be able to ban your BNet account if you say something naughty in Twitch. That's why they want your BNet account linked to your Twitch account.

So, it's their Channels, their right to put whatever rules they want, yet .. you are still coming up with this?!

And naughty in Twitch, please clarify that Twitch = Only Blizzard Twitch Channels, because as you say it, it appears that on any channel on Twitch out there.

Every twitch channel , can ban whoever they want for different reasons, yet .. Blizzard can't. Nice logic there..

Well that is the kicker isn't it, because Blizzard don't tell you what will get you banned, only that it is at their discretion and things that in Blizzards opinion might cause offense to people, and heaven help us all if we offend people because thats tantamount to actual murder these days.

NorseGod · October 2019

IceAge said:

NorseGod said:

IceAge said:

NorseGod said:

So, it's their Channels, their right to put whatever rules they want, yet .. you are still coming up with this?!

And naughty in Twitch, please clarify that Twitch = Only Blizzard Twitch Channels, because as you say it, it appears that on any channel on Twitch out there.

Every twitch channel , can ban whoever they want for different reasons, yet .. Blizzard can't. Nice logic there..

Except, they don't want to just ban you from their Twitch channels, they also ban your BNet account. They are trying to police Wrong Think on separate platforms.

foxgirl · October 2019

"You're endangering our money! You're banned!" Also they bowed to Chinese censorship pressure because they wanted that sweet-sweet Yuan. So I am not at all surprised they would side with the Chinese after they gave lip-service to Hong Kong.

hardicon1 · October 2019

Im good with what they did, they had rules in place for people to follow and the rules were broken so punishment was meted out. Just wish the NFL would follow suit with all their asshat protestors then maybe I could watch football again. Freedom of Speech in America only means you cant be jailed by the government for that speech, does not mean you can cant face other consequences from your employers or whatever. For the record I totally hate China and want the government to be overthrown but that guy saying that at a Blizzard event while being in effect a Blizzard employee for that event was just something you cant do. Dont care why Blizzard took the action they did, they should have and every company should do the same when you interject politics into their brand.

Asch126 · October 2019

The best part of this thread is seeing people like IceAge continue to dig the hole deeper by siding with China-controlled Acti-Blizz. I always love when people end up revealing themselves to be utter garbage IRL by thinking shit rules on a stream and money are more important than basic human rights.

alkarionlog · October 2019

Asch126 said:

The best part of this thread is seeing people like IceAge continue to dig the hole deeper by siding with China-controlled Acti-Blizz. I always love when people end up revealing themselves to be utter garbage IRL by thinking shit rules on a stream and money are more important than basic human rights.

but the diference is when we still let him say it, if was blizzard he would be banned by now, this kind of irony is the best, but he sure can't get this, plus his whole argument is fail

sure blizz is free to ban the player, ok its they rule, it still don't make it right, and sure as hell don't prevent then to get flak for such, but for some reason he belive if its a rule they can't get flak for it, don't matter if the rule is bad

NorseGod · October 2019

hardicon1 said:

Im good with what they did, they had rules in place for people to follow and the rules were broken so punishment was meted out. Just wish the NFL would follow suit with all their asshat protestors then maybe I could watch football again. Freedom of Speech in America only means you cant be jailed by the government for that speech, does not mean you can cant face other consequences from your employers or whatever. For the record I totally hate China and want the government to be overthrown but that guy saying that at a Blizzard event while being in effect a Blizzard employee for that event was just something you cant do. Dont care why Blizzard took the action they did, they should have and every company should do the same when you interject politics into their brand.

While I agree with "Their House, Their Rules", the flip side to that is, I don't have to go to their house.

You see, if that kid shouted "We need to ban people from eating meat to save the planet!" Something tells me Blizzard would have taken no action. None.

This has less to do with "no politics" and more to do with "who's politics". In this case, offending China, which is a no-no, if you're Blizzard.

In doing so, Blizzard themselves become political.

Hashbrick · October 2019

Sometimes there is a time to say what you want to say and a time when not to say what you want to say. This time was not the time to say what you want to say. Hard lesson learned.

foxgirl · October 2019

Also I would like to note that this was solely Activision's decision, and they shitty company is just letting Blizz taking all the blame and bad rep.

synn · October 2019

Hashbrick said:

Sometimes there is a time to say what you want to say and a time when not to say what you want to say. This time was not the time to say what you want to say. Hard lesson learned.

I actually think its the opposite. Granted Blitzchung did get punished and its still unclear whether Blizzard will ease up on the punishment after all the backlash. The truth of the matter is the drama that was created as a result of Blizzard punishing Blitzchung would have never reached as many people or garnered as much attention if Blitzchung played it safe. Its like a perfect storm with the inclusion of the recent NBA controversy and ban of southpark.

Asm0deus · October 2019

Hashbrick said:

Sometimes there is a time to say what you want to say and a time when not to say what you want to say. This time was not the time to say what you want to say. Hard lesson learned.

Indeed.

Likewise it only takes good people to remain silent for atrocities and things we know are wrong to flourish.

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

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

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