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Blizzard’s Actionless Non-Apology Is Complete Bullshit
- Thread starter Deleted member 18944
- Start date
I think there has to be some kind of disincentive for people not to co-opt a postgame interview with their own personal message, so I am not entirely against the idea of some kind of punitive action against Blitzchung (preferably something less harsh than a complete ban though).
After all these apologies though, it seems absolutely absurd for them to still have a ban in place against the two people who were interviewing Blitzchung and had no idea what he was going to say. I have no idea what their justification for that would be -- I doubt even the Chinese government would really care if they continued to do their job.
After all these apologies though, it seems absolutely absurd for them to still have a ban in place against the two people who were interviewing Blitzchung and had no idea what he was going to say. I have no idea what their justification for that would be -- I doubt even the Chinese government would really care if they continued to do their job.
The moment they banned Blitzchung was the moment they made a political decision. Maybe you should ask this to actblizz, not us.
The casters were Taiwanese so it wouldn't surprise me if the Chinese government wanted to stick it to them.
This just reminds me the next time Blizzard does something for a marginalized group, it will ring hollow, as it's clear they don't give a damn about human rights.
Drop the bans. Don't ban any other player for speaking up of their own free will. Blizzard doesn't have a responsibility to Hong Kong. They do have a civic responsibility to protect the same civil liberties they enjoy as an American based corporation.
Change their terms of service that gives them any reason to take away money from participants in their events for any action they commit. Their contract is very onerous.
This stopped being about China long ago. When the bans happened it was due to Chinese citizens enforcing their own moral standards. Once Blizzard Headquarters replied with that letter on Friday in support of their Chinese partners they moved from a bystander to Chinese politics into an active role of suppressing civil liberties of their own free will.
Blizzard themselves are now actively suppressing the civil liberties of other people of their own free will.
You don't give a shit about your rights and thus your advice is meaningless. Contacting our representatives is the least we can do for active participation. It is no where close to the best thing that can be done to engender change.
Then they should say Fuck the Chinese government.
If people say Fuck America you don't think people are going to be defensive thinking people have something against the country and not just the government?
Except people do say fuck the US or Russia all the time?
I don't see why China should get better treatment.
Why, though? Tons of professional athletes use post-game interviews or other public platforms provided by their sport to make personal or political statements. If an NBA player said "black lives matter" in a post-game interview, should they be banned from competition for 6 months? Of course not. As long as their speech isn't hateful or damaging, people shouldn't be punished for speaking out when they're given the opportunity to do so. They didn't even give blitzchung a warning, just a swift kick in the ass after a first "offense."
Might have something to do with the history of racism experienced by Chinese and other Asians from the west.
Some kind of fear perhaps
If I want to criticize the people, I will say Fuck Americans. The country is directed toward the government (which in some cases implies the people if it was rightfully elected)
Do better how? Do better about what? Show me what they say they're sorry about. Are they sorry about banning? Because they never apologized for that - Blitzchung is still banned, and that suggests he still did "something wrong" according to them.
He apologized that Blizzard acted to quickly (instituting a 12 month ban and taking the prize money instead of a 6-month ban he ended with) and that Blizzard took too long to respond.
Blizzard's response remains the same. They're betting this will blow over and they'll probably get their wish, so don't worry, your precious clicky monster game isn't going anywhere
While it is fair to have fear that this will affect asians in the west and different places in the world, I don't think we should forget about China with all the atrocities their are doing as of this minute. They have a lot of defenders and now we even have western companies defending them even though they shouldn't be defended.
I would say people being angry for what is going on to the minorities in china and the small countries around it that China is bullying warrants insulting it or boycotting the country, without generalizing the people living there because the government and their supporters are usually the ones representing it.
honestly if the rules were to keep the conversation on gaming and the tournament than he broke the rules. plain and simple. Now, if there were no rules specifying this then you may have something.
I was angry at first, I really was. But then I realized that there are rules for a reason.
They did go too far however, and they apologized for that and said they would strive to do better.
Yep, said in another thread and I'll say it again here, maybe a bit more elaborately:
What Blizzard said today was "We're sorry that this situation sucks but that's just the way it is. We're sorry it's offensive and off-brand."
What I personally want to see, and I'm sure everyone else wants to see, is "We're sorry about the action taken against Blitzchung and realize that our actions not only directly could have impacted his livelihood but that our actions reflected politics that are already detrimental to his livelihood, and that's completely off-brand for us."
Again, completely didn't even acknowledge any of the elements involved with the issue or the impact of the issue at all, just "sorry that was offensive, but that's what it's gonna be," and not even with direct acknowledgment of what the issue is, lol. It is completely a non-apology that contains the word "sorry," as the thread title says.
What Blizzard said today was "We're sorry that this situation sucks but that's just the way it is. We're sorry it's offensive and off-brand."
What I personally want to see, and I'm sure everyone else wants to see, is "We're sorry about the action taken against Blitzchung and realize that our actions not only directly could have impacted his livelihood but that our actions reflected politics that are already detrimental to his livelihood, and that's completely off-brand for us."
Again, completely didn't even acknowledge any of the elements involved with the issue or the impact of the issue at all, just "sorry that was offensive, but that's what it's gonna be," and not even with direct acknowledgment of what the issue is, lol. It is completely a non-apology that contains the word "sorry," as the thread title says.
"Fuck America" is said all over the place, including this site. It's ok, the country fucking sucks.
As far as I know, this is the rule Blizzard sighted when they banned blitzchung:
It doesn't say anything about "keeping the conversation on gaming and the tournament", it's just an intentionally vague rule that exists so they can arbitrarily ban people who say or do things Blizzard doesn't approve of.
Then those are the rules. Honestly that's what it comes down too. You may not like it but those were the rules.
if someone else does something not related to hong kong and blizz responds the same way then thats just the way it is. HOWEVER. if they dont respond the same way then yeah it was all about china to begin with.
That I have no idea about. They have yet to explain that. However they were reinstated.
I am Chinese, and I have not once confused myself and got offended when people say "Fuck China", I understand fully that they are talking about the abhorrent(understatement, but I don't know a better word) things my government has done and is doing. Don't confuse the rest of us with the pathetic crybabies defending Eternal Emperor Xi's honour at every turn, not all of us are fragile morons confusing our own identity with the party's.
Likewise with all the "gamers are idiots" talks, I know they aren't talking about me because I know who I am, I don't go around associating myself with various groups so I can get offended by people criticising horrible people.
That just shows that their rules were vaguely defined and interpreted however they wanted. How is that fair for anyone but Blizzard?
Still banned for 6 months, but nice try.
Lol. So essentially you are saying "The law might be unjust, but its the law so no use criticizing it."
Most folk never truly cared. They jumped onto the outrage at the time it was ripe but as soon as they spot a product they wanted, their consumerism kicked into gear and they looked for any excuse to justify their purchase. The non-apology where they spout having done some vague wrong without directly acknowledging their issues was exactly the excuse many needed. Just enough. They only desired the normalcy of just playing their games again.
You either feigned your compassion to begin with or you're an easy mark.
You either feigned your compassion to begin with or you're an easy mark.
I have nothing against the Chinese people. It's the government in China. I've very wary of the 100 Year Plan that the Chinese government has been implementing for the last 70 years. What's crazy is that you can see how tightly woven they are in the fabric of everyday society now. It is crazy. In Southern California you have subsidiaries of Chinese companies constantly buying crazy amounts of real estate. They are getting a tighter and tighter hold on not only America, but the entire world.
Never mind their governments use of concentration camps and their prison system to harvest people's organs to sell off into the medical industry.
Get ready for some Ultra Authoritarian Capitalism in the decades to come.
Never mind their governments use of concentration camps and their prison system to harvest people's organs to sell off into the medical industry.
Get ready for some Ultra Authoritarian Capitalism in the decades to come.
Fully agree with OP. Unfortunately we seems to be the minority. Blizzard had a lot of amazing trailers and that's enough to convince most people. That's how businesses and the world run around. It's sad, but Blizzard is just a symptom on the real disease. This is a larger conflict between values that will only become more transparent in the future. Blizzard had the chance of showing the world how to handle this value conflict, but the money won.
You're little too preoccupied with rules, lol. You were defending a non-existent rule about keeping the conversation about the game, and then once I posted the actual (completely different) rule you immediately seized onto that one as completely justified. Rules =/= morality, they're just words, and you don't gain anything by evangelizing the concept of rules - especially when it's a rule that basically just says "We can ban you whenever we feel like it for no reason".
How about when the American University team did the same thing and didn't get banned until nine days later, after everyone pointed out Blizzard's hypocrisy and American University themselves already dropped out of the Collegiate Championship in protest?
It wouldn't be "just the way it is". It's the way Blizzard chose it to be, it's bullshit and they should choose something else.
Are you saying they've exhausted their goodwill "positive chits" the ESA was talking about?
OP is totally right. You can already see it in this thread that people are lapping up their bullshit. Not to mention the announcement threads where a sudden case of amnesia and selective hearing has seemed to occur.
You are not wrong OP. This was their try to appease the western market without angering the Chinese market. They are obviously trying to play both sides.
Blizzard is sorry for taking long to write a public statement, sorry for banning before a public statement was made and sorry for not living up to their own standard of what exactly?
I also hope people don't let this go.
Blizzard is sorry for taking long to write a public statement, sorry for banning before a public statement was made and sorry for not living up to their own standard of what exactly?
I also hope people don't let this go.
Even on this forum people don't give a shit.
As long as they have their Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 to shovel into their faces.
As long as they have their Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 to shovel into their faces.
They were not. They're still banned. Even if you want to weirdly justify Blitzchung's ban (and you really shouldn't), there is absolutely 0 justification for their bans. Minimum Blizzard could do is reverse that action. But they didn't do that. They can't even bring themselves to mention Hong Kong or the incident in any way in their "apology" -- that is why it's completely empty and meaningless.
Do you live in the real world or just in some fantasy in your head??
Do you think all 5000 or so employees can just up and walk over to another and hope for a job elsewhere.
You're delusional