I doubt all of those upvotes are even from real people. They're likely bots.
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Blizzard has removed Hong Kong Hearthstone player blitzchung from Hearthstone Grand Masters and rescinded all his prize money
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I doubt all of those upvotes are even from real people. They're likely bots.
You guys are heroes. As long as one person stands up to fascism, it cannot truly win.
Fight the power.
Same. Not big on online multiplayer, but was planning on giving OW a chance. Absolutely not happening now. Blizzivision can shove their game where the sun don't shine.
Thank you very much, I am preparing to attend another protest tonight because yet another private property security guard was prosecuted, simply because he didn't open the gate when the police (with no shoulder identity number, obviously) wants to enter the property for search... without proper warrent from the court.
In case we fail at the end, please remember us for what we have done to resist oppression from PRC.
Only now I understand that freedom, has a price.
Hey, not op but I would like you to know that your message... Brought tears to my eyes. Really. Heck, the other day I saw someone cosplaying as Doraemon cheering people up and I started crying like a baby. Never knew I was that emotional, huh.
The last 4 months had been rough, and no one knows how things will end. There's been many anger, hopelessness, fear, sadness, and many tiring days and sleepless nights. So messages like this really mean a lot to us.
Again, thank you and everyone who has been supporting the Hong Kong protesters.
Edit : Found the Doraemon I was talking about!
https://m.facebook.com/standnewshk/photos/a.720050934747196/2501842839901321/?
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Chinese wow revenue is significantly smaller than the western world. They have more players, but they do not generate the same value. China isn't even 20% of Blizzard's cash.
Man, I expect better from someone like Thijs.
Still waiting for Kibler to actually say something other than "I have things to say", though the fact he's still streaming and promoting Hearthstone is not a good look.
to be fair for Thijs he already said he wont talk, so bothering him more than that is just worthless spam (which is what his chat mainly spamming for tbh)
Northern America+Europe own ~60% of total global wealth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_wealth
~3.5 times the amount of wealth in China (~16%). If this is a game where biggest money wins, then only reason China money exists is because western money allows it. However world economics is not that simple of an equation.
Now I'm not a professional economist so please correct me if I'm wrong here somewhere:
Is extra value generated by Chinese higher than money siphoned out by western companies? Maybe, if this was a question of selling raw resources where you can refine the thing you bought to make an even higher profit. However this is making money from entertainment. You can't easily refine a digital game further for extra revenue.
So when a western company invests in China, who is the winner? In terms of western entertainment companies, as long as western company revenue out of China is higher than the money they pour in, I can't see China winning in the transaction as you can't generate extra value from what western company brought in.
What China is really trying to do here is buy influence. However that influence is only worth something if it works. And that is why our actions matter. Protest, voice your problems, spread the message. This way, whatever action China is trying to do with their "bought influence" only turns into a net negative. For example by trying to silence Hong Kong protests, they are only making the message more known. I didn't know about the HearthStone interview until it was banned. I also can't see how this "bought influence" is a net revenue generator for China in the case of Blizzard.
What we the westerner customers and citizens can do is make sure all this bought influence is money wasted.
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"Who cares about anything else I get money!"
That's how they live with themselves.
Hey, not op but I would like you to know that your message... Brought tears to my eyes. Really. Heck, the other day I saw someone cosplaying as Doraemon cheering people up and I started crying like a baby. Never knew I was that emotional, huh.
The last 4 months had been rough, and no one knows how things will end. There's been many anger, hopelessness, fear, sadness, and many tiring days and sleepless nights. So messages like this really mean a lot to us.
Again, thank you and everyone who has been supporting the Hong Kong protesters.
Edit : Found the Doraemon I was talking about!
https://m.facebook.com/standnewshk/photos/a.720050934747196/2501842839901321/?
Love and respect to you all. We've been following your situation closely for many weeks now from across the world and we hear you loud and clear about everything suspicious that has been going on, whether it's the "suicides" or the arrests of children or that night at the Prince Edward MTR. Right now Hong Kongers are better at living up to the values of democracy and liberty than we are here in the west, and you have been setting a shining example for us all, a reminder of how precious our own countries really are even when everything here seems to be going wrong. 香港加油!
As I've been saying with all the talk of boycotts and individual consumer action: no, we can't win on money, but we can win on norms, and on sending a clear collective message to companies like Blizzard that they can't sit on the fence, and that kowtowing to China is a choice with consequences. I was astonished yet emboldened to see this make some movement with the NBA. They need to know that it's us or them: civilized values or Chinese money. The idea isn't to hurt their balance sheet, because we obviously can't make much more than a dent, but to expose them for having poisoned their own brand and sacrificed the decades-long community loyalty that not only makes everything from BlizzCon to e-sports possible, but got them here in the first place. The idea is to portray them, as many of their own employees already feel, as an uncomfortable and unethical place to work until such time as they change course.
And it is, of course, not just about Blizzard or this particular entertainment industry we cherish. It's about sending a message to western multinationals that sacrificing the endlessly lucrative Chinese market is a viable choice, an ethical choice, for which they will be noticed and rewarded. To transform it from a choice that is never worth making (because of all the money left on the table) to one that has intrinsic, unquantifiable value. If we can do it with something as relatively trivial as Epic Games Store exclusivity—where, whatever your views on the matter, developers have come to understand that leaving tons of money on the table might not be such a terrible idea after all—one can only hope that in the face of the PRC juggernaut we can also set those norms here, over stakes that are far more crucial.
Sorry to comment on a meta-matter here, but: this was slapped with a two-week ban for "inflammatory generalizations surrounding race". I strongly disagree with this and will be appealing it, and I encourage others to do the same. In context, it's quite clearly referring to "Chinese" as the pro-PRC nationality and says absolutely nothing about ethnicity or race, and it makes a valid point about the situation in the west, where pro-China elements have been overtly bullying everyone from pro-HK protestors to history professors who mention Tiananmen.
Not to sound paranoid or conspiratorial, but we all know there are pro-China apologists around here that are likely filing reports to pick off low-hanging fruit that, out of context, could be read as offensive. Remember that the semantic confusion between "Chinese" as PRC nationality and "Chinese" as race/ethnicity is something that pro-China stooges exploit all the time. It's one of the most familiar tactics in their playbook to call you a racist for opposing modern China as a country, a propaganda machine, and an international bully.
Just saw the updated OP. Thanks for all your work in making it so informative and well maintained.
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Just came here to say thank you.
Just the same tired excuse people give when they keep buying games from dev that has shown support for horrible shits: my action means nothing, but I'd be missing out on the greatest game of all time!
Just the same tired excuse people give when they keep buying games from dev that has shown support for horrible shits: my action means nothing, but I'd be missing out on the greatest game of all time!
Money is an addiction for these people. Might as well ask how heroin addicts live with themselves doing crimes in order to buy drugs.
Wow, this pro-HK edit of Mei's cinematic short film is a must-see. Landmark piece of work.
I noted this already back when "Glory to Hong Kong" was blowing up a few weeks ago, but: golly, HK, you work fast.
I noted this already back when "Glory to Hong Kong" was blowing up a few weeks ago, but: golly, HK, you work fast.
More political response from Europe.
Norwegian MP (and Blizzard-fan) forwards a letter to Activision Blizzard stating that the ban is in itself a political action and reiterating the company's responsibility for promoting basic human rights.
More can be read below. The piece unfortunately in Norwegian, but the forwarded letter is included and written in English:
Norwegian MP (and Blizzard-fan) forwards a letter to Activision Blizzard stating that the ban is in itself a political action and reiterating the company's responsibility for promoting basic human rights.
More can be read below. The piece unfortunately in Norwegian, but the forwarded letter is included and written in English:
who is this? not in a "why should I care" way, I legit don't know who he is.
what?
You could literally just click on his name and see his bio and pinned tweet.
Is reading his profile really too much work? It states right there that he is an "Esports journalist. HS/TFT/DU/LOL and much more." Sounds like he knows his stuff about the esports scene.
Actually I can't because Twitter hasn't been loading on my phone for the past two days.
And in that case you would say " what does this say" not " who is this person."
No, I can see the tweet here. I click on it and Twitter does not load. So I know what it says AND I cannot read his pinned post/bio.
Thanks for the hostility tho?
Eerily reminiscent of when people get called antisemites when voicing legitimate critique against Israel. I guess this is something we should get used to in the coming years.
Stay safe Kubricks, we'll be thinking about you and everything you're doing for freedom.
I can quite believe police brutality is like that there. If that happens quite often in some "free democratic" countries, I can only imagine how "easy" is there to happen
Not a real thing, thanks for proving my point tho
You've got people accusing Chinese people of being fucking brainwashed, how is that not orientalist?
Just because you say two things are similar doesn't make it so. There's a difference between a US backed apartheid state and a country that's currently dealing with a US backed colour revolution because they can't let those scary reds challenge US hegemony
Have any of the Hearthstone pros and streamers said anything about this topic?
I know Amaz is from Hong Kong.
Oh you're being serious? I thought you were just joking. Wow. What a stupid take on this whole thing.
This is actually 'good' (insofar as its effective) policy for the CCP; it invalidates any outside criticism and undermines the idea that the diaspora is represented by their home governments in the West (thus leaving the CCP as the sole representative, protector, arbiter of ethno-national dignity for Chinese people worldwide). So yup, get used to it!
Also this person may have had a point, but who knows what the fuck they were talking about when they don't specify.
edit: this person did not have a point.
I just saw this now that it hit mainstream news. All of these game companies are going to have to choose who they serve now.
It is interesting how these large companies with significant PR departments always seem to fail hard when an actual crisis hit them.
It is a shame for people working at Blizzard, but Activision-Blizzard deserves to be hit by this stupid decision.
I kinda understand why companies don't want their platforms used explicitly politically. And if it had for example been a Trump supporter expressing some distasteful views I can even imagine lots of people being fine with Blizzard banning that person.
But Blizzards initial reaction was still completely too extreme for the "offense" committed. And their lack of reaction now only makes it worse.
It is a shame for people working at Blizzard, but Activision-Blizzard deserves to be hit by this stupid decision.
I kinda understand why companies don't want their platforms used explicitly politically. And if it had for example been a Trump supporter expressing some distasteful views I can even imagine lots of people being fine with Blizzard banning that person.
But Blizzards initial reaction was still completely too extreme for the "offense" committed. And their lack of reaction now only makes it worse.
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