Blizzard, speech, and Capitalism

[Pacomia]

Then why would they say "We will protect the dignity of China", as if they are going to protect China throughout? They could have just went with "We will be apolitical on the matter and have no further comments," and bam, evaded all kinds of PR. And no, I can bet that if someone are to say "Pro-China, glory to PRC!" in the chat, they would not bat an eye. I'm working on a hypothetical, but I'm sure they will not do anything if someone said something pro-PRC.

The saddest thing is, it's not the higher-ups that are in most trouble; it's the employees and those that are just making and developing games and don't give two shit about politics.

You can get warned/banned in League and on their forums if you bring up China whether its pro or against.

Same for pushing Trump or Sanders.

The company’s moderators enforce a No Politics rule.

That’s unfortunate.

[Infected Mushroom]

You can get warned/banned in League and on their forums if you bring up China whether its pro or against.

Same for pushing Trump or Sanders.

The company’s moderators enforce a No Politics rule.

That’s unfortunate.

And quite honestly it’s a good thing.

I get into the games to practice a craft and enjoy some combat

It should be a safe space

What those who criticize a Blizzard and the NBA don’t see is that it goes both ways

If the tournament winner had instead said: “May China take over Taiwan.” I’m sure he’d be sanctioned too.

NBA wouldn’t be cool with it either.

The point is to keep politics out of a safe space.

[Necroghastia]

Then why would they say "We will protect the dignity of China", as if they are going to protect China throughout? They could have just went with "We will be apolitical on the matter and have no further comments," and bam, evaded all kinds of PR. And no, I can bet that if someone are to say "Pro-China, glory to PRC!" in the chat, they would not bat an eye. I'm working on a hypothetical, but I'm sure they will not do anything if someone said something pro-PRC.

The saddest thing is, it's not the higher-ups that are in most trouble; it's the employees and those that are just making and developing games and don't give two shit about politics.

You can get warned/banned in League and on their forums if you bring up China whether its pro or against.

Same for pushing Trump or Sanders.

The company’s moderators enforce a No Politics rule.

I don't think you can get banned in game for saying #FreeHongKong.
Either way, even though I also like LoL, I can't justify giving Riot money at this point in time.

[Necroghastia]

That’s unfortunate.

And quite honestly it’s a good thing.

I get into the games to practice a craft and enjoy some combat

It should be a safe space

What those who criticize a Blizzard and the NBA don’t see is that it ties both ways

If the tournament runner had instead said: “May China take over Taiwan.” I’m sure he’d be sanctioned too.

NBA wouldn’t be cool with it either.

The point is to keep politics out of a safe space.

Blizzard acted wisely.

We need to keep politics out of video games.

This will definitely discourage such statements in the future from players.

Blizzard and Tancent run many of my favorite games like League, Hearthstone and Warcraft. I want to keep supporting them.

My cousin plays lots of Hearthstone and he’s nearly at the highest tier too.

If politics were separate from gaming that would mean no Metal Gear, Mass Effect, Persona, Fallout, and many more masterpieces.

[Infected Mushroom]

You can get warned/banned in League and on their forums if you bring up China whether its pro or against.

Same for pushing Trump or Sanders.

The company’s moderators enforce a No Politics rule.

I don't think you can get banned in game for saying #FreeHongKong.
Either way, even though I also like LoL, I can't justify giving Riot money at this point in time.

If someone reports you and it’s a repeated pattern then you’ll get riot warning message followed by chat restrictions (if continued) escalating to bans

[Necroghastia]

I don't think you can get banned in game for saying #FreeHongKong.
Either way, even though I also like LoL, I can't justify giving Riot money at this point in time.

If someone reports you and it’s a repeated pattern then you’ll get riot warning message followed by chat restrictions (if continued) escalating to bans

You got a source on that?

[Infected Mushroom]

If someone reports you and it’s a repeated pattern then you’ll get riot warning message followed by chat restrictions (if continued) escalating to bans

You got a source on that?

It happened to my online friends

I don’t expect anyone would find it newsworthy or worthy of academic citation

I myself have received reminders to keep politics out when I responded in kind

[Pacomia]

That’s unfortunate.

And quite honestly it’s a good thing.

I get into the games to practice a craft and enjoy some combat

It should be a safe space

What those who criticize a Blizzard and the NBA don’t see is that it goes both ways

If the tournament winner had instead said: “May China take over Taiwan.” I’m sure he’d be sanctioned too.

NBA wouldn’t be cool with it either.

The point is to keep politics out of a safe space.

If you don’t want to talk about politics, then don’t go on the forums, or don’t go in those threads. Politics is a part of life. Safe spaces are irrelevant.

[Neo Kerala]

Then why would they say "We will protect the dignity of China", as if they are going to protect China throughout? They could have just went with "We will be apolitical on the matter and have no further comments," and bam, evaded all kinds of PR. And no, I can bet that if someone are to say "Pro-China, glory to PRC!" in the chat, they would not bat an eye. I'm working on a hypothetical, but I'm sure they will not do anything if someone said something pro-PRC.

The saddest thing is, it's not the higher-ups that are in most trouble; it's the employees and those that are just making and developing games and don't give two shit about politics.

You can get warned/banned in League and on their forums if you bring up China whether its pro or against.

Same for pushing Trump or Sanders.

The company’s moderators enforce a No Politics rule.

Interview not on game

[Infected Mushroom]

And quite honestly it’s a good thing.

I get into the games to practice a craft and enjoy some combat

It should be a safe space

What those who criticize a Blizzard and the NBA don’t see is that it goes both ways

If the tournament winner had instead said: “May China take over Taiwan.” I’m sure he’d be sanctioned too.

NBA wouldn’t be cool with it either.

The point is to keep politics out of a safe space.

If you don’t want to talk about politics, then don’t go on the forums, or don’t go in those threads. Politics is a part of life. Safe spaces are irrelevant.

It’s what’s currently enforced... in game and on the forums so it comes as no surprise to me that it’s enforced at tournaments too

And I think it’s a good idea

[Necroghastia]

You got a source on that?

It happened to my online friends

I don’t expect anyone would find it newsworthy or worthy of academic citation

I myself have received reminders to keep politics out when I responded in kind

I mean, I'd expect there to at least be a complaint on the boards or reddit. Maybe getting reported on by a gaming-specific news outlet like Polygon or something.

[Pacomia]

If you don’t want to talk about politics, then don’t go on the forums, or don’t go in those threads. Politics is a part of life. Safe spaces are irrelevant.

It’s what’s currently enforced... in game and on the forums so it comes as no surprise to me that it’s enforced at tournaments too

And I think it’s a good idea

And I don’t. I think it should be changed.

[Infected Mushroom]

It happened to my online friends

I don’t expect anyone would find it newsworthy or worthy of academic citation

I myself have received reminders to keep politics out when I responded in kind

I mean, I'd expect there to at least be a complaint on the boards or reddit. Maybe getting reported on by a gaming-specific news outlet like Polygon or something.

Everyone’s mostly fine with it

I saw 2 out of hundreds of active threads on NA board about this? With few replies?

Not everyone cares about politics

[Pacomia]

I mean, I'd expect there to at least be a complaint on the boards or reddit. Maybe getting reported on by a gaming-specific news outlet like Polygon or something.

Everyone’s mostly fine with it

I saw 2 out of hundreds of active threads on NA board about this? With few replies?

Not everyone cares about politics

That’s fine, but some people do, and it’s not fair to deny those some people the right to talk about it. Other celebrities spread political messages and even do straight up political funding with their power and influence, so why shouldn’t it be any different for gamer celebrities?

[Infected Mushroom]

Everyone’s mostly fine with it

I saw 2 out of hundreds of active threads on NA board about this? With few replies?

Not everyone cares about politics

That’s fine, but some people do, and it’s not fair to deny those some people the right to talk about it. Other celebrities spread political messages and even do straight up political funding with their power and influence, so why shouldn’t it be any different for gamer celebrities?

Because most gamers seem to find political chatter/advocacy unpleasant on some level

Gaming is a form of escapism and fantasy immersion... the real life goof ups/incompetence/disputes of world leaders and factions doesn’t blend well

[Infected Mushroom]

I’m sure you don’t go watch the NBA to hear about politics. You go there to watch and immerse yourself in the games and support the “craft” that is playing the ball at the highest levels.

The same goes for gaming. It’s a fine art.

[Samadhi]

I’m sure you don’t go watch the NBA to hear about politics. You go there to watch and immerse yourself in the games and support the “craft” that is playing the ball at the highest levels.

The same goes for gaming. It’s a fine art.

Yeah, you're getting something I'm not.
Gaming is a interactive entertainment.

[Necroghastia]

I’m sure you don’t go watch the NBA to hear about politics. You go there to watch and immerse yourself in the games and support the “craft” that is playing the ball at the highest levels.

The same goes for gaming. It’s a fine art.

If politics were separate from gaming that would mean no Metal Gear, Mass Effect, Persona, Fallout, and many more masterpieces.

You ever gonna acknowledge this post or are you going to continue to ignore it in favor of your narrative?

[Infected Mushroom]

I’m sure you don’t go watch the NBA to hear about politics. You go there to watch and immerse yourself in the games and support the “craft” that is playing the ball at the highest levels.

The same goes for gaming. It’s a fine art.

If politics were separate from gaming that would mean no Metal Gear, Mass Effect, Persona, Fallout, and many more masterpieces.

You ever gonna acknowledge this post or are you going to continue to ignore it in favor of your narrative?

The content of games subtly embodying the political vision of artists is fine

That’s different from turning the games and their actual community into political battlegrounds

[Vassenor]

You can get warned/banned in League and on their forums if you bring up China whether its pro or against.

Same for pushing Trump or Sanders.

The company’s moderators enforce a No Politics rule.

I don't think you can get banned in game for saying #FreeHongKong.
Either way, even though I also like LoL, I can't justify giving Riot money at this point in time.

Apparently it's bad enough that you can't even mention Hong Kong as a place that exists.

[Ifreann]

It's not just Activision Blizzard, all kinds of companies fall over themselves to prevent criticism of China. Wasn't it Marriot International that fired someone for liking a tweet about Taiwan? Capitalism gonna capitalism.

I will say that I'm very tickled by the idea of people adopting Mei as a symbol of support for the Honk Kong protests. It'd be funny if Blizzard's attempts to placate China backfired by getting Overwatch banned in China.

---

I feel that Blizzard is a company that should be boycotted, and they're owned by Activision (you know, the ones behind putting out CoD EVERY YEAR with NO changes whatsoever.). We should boycott Activision Blizzard, and instead support companies like CD Projekt Red and THQNordic.

It's only a matter of time before EA bends over for China's [CENSORED]ing of them, and they'll likely be even WORSE.

CDPR's still run by morons. So no.

THQNordic is also run by morons. Let us never forget the AMA they decided to do on 8chan.

---

You ever gonna acknowledge this post or are you going to continue to ignore it in favor of your narrative?

The content of games subtly embodying the political vision of artists is fine

That’s different from turning the games and their actual community into political battlegrounds

But Blizzard has taken a political position and the communities that play their games will now be divided on whether they support or opposer that decision. If Blizzard tries to suppress that disagreement, that's political too.

[Katganistan]

Personally i support Blizzard actions, gaming tournaments should not be used to promote politics as it can not only ruin the company but the diversion of millions of people for political problems.
Maybe they were very harsh suspending afull year the player but definitely he deserved a sanction.

Politics are politics and games and torunmanets should be kept off this
I know the chinese repression in Hong Kong is not good but a tournament is not the place to denounce it. He could have spoke againist China out of the tournament without involving the company and the players inside the tournament. But he had to use it for hisrj political end

TO(URNAMENTS AND GAMES SHOULD BE KEEP OUT OF POLITICS

Politics have been in games for a long time now, that ship sailed decades ago.

Wolfenstein, anyone? Like -- from its blocky beginnings?