Especially since 8chan has been shut down, and the issues with western companies and the relationship between CCP and Hong Kong isn't going anywhere, any time soon.
BTW I seriously thought THQN stuff happened last year. Man, time feels warped.
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Blizzard has removed Hong Kong Hearthstone player blitzchung from Hearthstone Grand Masters and rescinded all his prize money
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Especially since 8chan has been shut down, and the issues with western companies and the relationship between CCP and Hong Kong isn't going anywhere, any time soon.
BTW I seriously thought THQN stuff happened last year. Man, time feels warped.
No sorry :(
I should have been more clear! I mean as soon as he made a statement to the employees.
Do you know that the US tries to prohibit the BDS movement on Israel over the Palestine conflict? This isn't just China. Is every capitalistic/geopolitical interest of a major power that causes this kind of stuff
Brian Kibler has made his statement on the issue:
I won't post any excerpts since I think you should just go read his full statement, but he has removed himself from his position as a caster for the upcoming Hearthstone Grandmasters finals that will be at BlizzCon.
I won't post any excerpts since I think you should just go read his full statement, but he has removed himself from his position as a caster for the upcoming Hearthstone Grandmasters finals that will be at BlizzCon.
I'm not wading into a whataboutism discussion. All I know is that here in the west we have freedom of speech and anything that tries to erode that is a serious threat. Also a high tech dystopia is in general very scary and when you factor in organ harvesting and things of that nature we are entering a unique brand of horror imo.
Yeah they clearly don't dare bite the hand that feeds them. Disappointing.
Kibler on the other hand ❤️
It's not whataboutism when it would be hypocritical to look to the other side when freedom of speech is also being eroded. If as forum we are going to support self determination and being against state violence on protesters, it's only fair. There are a BDS movement on Israel on this very forum too, and the US, unlike with their direct rival with whom is in a current interest conflict, has always ignored the problem.
Why wave only one flag when we can wave them all?
Because a focused initiative is more effective than a broad stroke theme. This is a very hot topic right now and when moments like this come up you strike when the iron is hot to be the most effective. You don't water it down with multiple causes and such. Most people can only really care about one thing at a time so trying to piggyback everything that concerns you is not effective imo.
This is the hot issue. I never even heard of the Hong Kong reddit until this and now that sub is poppin. The people protesting now have a lightning rod to their cause and that is Blizzard. All of your other passions and concerns matter but if this one issue matters to you also I think you can focus your ire on it temporarily and not turn it into fight against something like hypocrisy.
Just argue on the right side of what we are discussing at the moment and not start the "but what about this place and that place," discussion. We know there are problems elsewhere but atm there is opportunity to attack this specific issue with strong widespread support and that should be seized upon if these things actually matter to you.
Well, I understand then. I'll have to wait until it's #trending
Unfortunately yes. This is the world we live in and we have to use the tools and ride the waves given to us.
Even then, I'm sure folks will find some other excuse to hand wave these issues away. As always, there's never a right time to talk about them.
There is a right time. When the hype over an incident boosts the signal of a cause. You can lament that nothing will change regardless and everyone will forget in a week and all that crap but you still try and you still express yourself in the vast web of social reach we are all given these days.
Like jeez this was a rare confluence of events. South Park, NBA, Blizzard all happening at the same time. This was a gift to the Hong Kong cause we can't just turn it into a defeatist whine session about how nothing changes.
Let's not be naive either: the world is in the middle of a US - China conflict. Even when Trump's government will trade stuff for better deals, there is a lot at stake in geopolitical and economic dominance. China's horrible stuff will be getting way more attention than other countrie's horrible stuff
No one is being naive. Just practical. This discussion has derailed the matter at hand though, so that's it for me. I'm currently focused on this particular issue. You can just complain that we aren't talking about every issue on a global scale if you like but I'm not having that discussion here anymore.
What I'm pointing out in that post is that adding to the confluence of situations that is happening, it's not just that, there is a bigger picture to everything that is happening. It's not just that the people is "waking up" in the midst of the events. I would be surprised if this wasn't happening.
Kibler's statement is probably a good gauge for the max we can expect out of prominent members of the Hearthstone community. He's well-off, widely respected, politically outspoken and not dependent on any one game or gig as his source of income or relevance.
And the most he does is stepping away from his job as a caster for, so far, one specific event, while being just a tad too charitable to Blizzard for writing supposedly clear rules against political statements, mixing up the different roles and responsibilities of athletes and announcers and continuing to promote Hearthstone via streams and YouTube content.
To be clear, because it'll read like I'm personally bad-mouthing him: Kibler's stance is good judged by its own merits. Althought I quibble with small aspects of the statement, Kibler has done a good thing here which he didn't need to do. It's only in the context of it being the realistic best in terms of push-back Blizzard will receive from Hearthstone personalities, most of whom's financial situation is as closely tied to Blizzard as Blizzard's is to China, that it becomes underwhelming news.
I'm glad he did something. Like you said, this is something he certainly didn't need to do, but he did. I guess we'll see if other prominent voices follow suit.
Kibler is also well-connected in the industry and has quite a few personal contacts at Blizzard, so when he writes the rank and file employees are "most likely" as angry as he is, I take it as more than a well-educated guess. So that's something positive to take away from his message.
Should have happened months ago when the protests were first starting, but I agree better late than never.
Me too. I think it's a mix of a) the deafening silence surrounding it (media outlets lost interest in like two days, which make it feel like its older news than it is), and b) all the stuff since then (multiple mass shootings, then 8chan going down) which feels crazy to have all happened within months.
Bellular doesnt give a fuck about no hand biting, which is cool to see because I always liked his videos. He's going in hard on them (while still making his wow content dont get me wrong)
I can't unsubscribe because I am not currently subscribed. But I was planning on getting back into WoW after I finished Borderlands and Iceborne.
I ve seen the Bellular video that goes against Blizz and i also have seen the Inside gaming and Pretty good gaming videos which more or less have the same stance.
Taliesin $ Evitel and SignsofKelani do not mention anything like the cowards they are.
As for some of the questionable Youtubers, Yong Yea seems against it while the pillar of intellect that is called Asmongold sides with Blizzard (for the moment).
So, there is that people.
Taliesin $ Evitel and SignsofKelani do not mention anything like the cowards they are.
As for some of the questionable Youtubers, Yong Yea seems against it while the pillar of intellect that is called Asmongold sides with Blizzard (for the moment).
So, there is that people.
Broken clocks and all that. Doesn't make some of these people (like TQ) any less terrible or reprehensible.
I'm more disappointed in Giantbomb.
On their podcast it felt like non of them really wanted to talk about it and all that was said was some middle of the road bullshit. Basically corporations gonna be corporations.
They didn't come down against Blizzard at all. It felt spineless and kind of pathetic to be honest.
On their podcast it felt like non of them really wanted to talk about it and all that was said was some middle of the road bullshit. Basically corporations gonna be corporations.
They didn't come down against Blizzard at all. It felt spineless and kind of pathetic to be honest.
Taliesin has been an Blizzard apologist/defender for a long time now, even when others turned against the current expansion he made excuse after excuse for everything and did so in a rather smarmy way. I went from enjoying their content to seeing him as some shill. Kinda like how Blizzard Watch won't allow any criticism, which I suppose paid off as the guy in charge there just got a job at.........Blizzard.
I like Taliesin. He can be overly enamored with Blizzard, but I don't consider him to be a shill. A shill to me is someone who supports someone or something even though they themselves know that they don't believe what they are saying either due to brand loyalty or self interest.
I think Taliesin is just someone who genuinely doesn't have as many issues with WoW as other people and is just being honest about it. That's different in my opinion. And it's not like he never complains aboit WoW. He has plenty of complaints. He just isn't as over the top and hyperbolic as some other people out there.
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Sounds like the backlash to the backlash has started. Giant bomb should be ashamed.
Rhykker will 100% be against Blizzard on this I think. I am just curious how critical he is willing to be on this given his close relationship with Blizzard.
I'm also curious what Bluddshed will say about this.
Deleted all my Blizz games. Sucks, because I was enjoying getting back into OW a little. Normally I don't care about (and occasionally openly mock) boycotts, but Blizzard is just so obviously against my interests and beliefs that I would feel like a damn fool if I was supporting their products. There's so many alternatives for video gaming - why pick the guys super happy about how awful they are?
They can keep my account active, or whatever. I don't care. It won't be used in any way. If they email me crying about this or that I'll block them there too.
They can keep my account active, or whatever. I don't care. It won't be used in any way. If they email me crying about this or that I'll block them there too.
I haven't paid any attention to this as I knew nothing about it, but I was wondering why heroes of the storm has been dead last few days.
I can't agree, not saying you are wrong but he always came up with a reason to justify Blizzards take on things. It didn't bother me at first but as time went on it became tedious with him never being able to admit that maybe they made mistakes. Nope. He had to not just disagree but list ways why. Maybe he is as you say, very enamoured with Blizzard but it became too much to watch.
Thats fine. Agree to disagree. Not everyone will like the same content.
But I will say this. At least Taliesin tells you his honest opinion and then proceeds to tell you his thought process behind it. He doesn't just tell you his opinion. He tells you WHY he has that opinion and that to me is important. Especially when he doesn't agree with Blizzard.
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I listen to both east and west coast podcasts and I really hope east coast at least gives it a fair shake... I got a feeling Alex Navarro will have strong opinion on this. West Coast can be really disappointing at times, almost like they do gaming for only for the sake of their livelihood compared to let's say EZA
Eh, when they record the podcast is basically right as this stuff was starting to REALLY gain traction. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't super up on it at the time. For example the Vice article from yesterday came out after it was recorded.
I expect the Beastcast will go in fairly hard. Jeff and Brad especially have no problem mentioning their politics, so I can't imagine they're trying to push it under the rug,.
I expect the Beastcast will go in fairly hard. Jeff and Brad especially have no problem mentioning their politics, so I can't imagine they're trying to push it under the rug,.
Yeah I have to agree to an extent. Though it should be noted a lot of the current story hadnt happened when they covered it. They've always been pretty weak with same day news.
I hope the Beastcast does better. I think it will be interesting to hear what Alex has to think.
Well that's disappointing.. I've only listened to Kinda funny's thoughts this week and they've been covering it pretty heavily and criticizing Blizzard for it.
Wonder if EZA will cover it in the podcast. Last night during the EZA community twitch stream they thanked blizzard at the beginning because they got sent a Warcraft figure or something from them and didn't say anything about this.
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I don't listen to the bombcast and don't really watch giantbomb west content since they don't make much in the way of long form series on the west anymore, but I do think its probably a bit early to judge giantbomb. They don't have a news guy anymore so I don't think they're always up on the current stories too much and they recorded the podcast that morning as things were coming out. I'd give them a chance to not be fuck ups next week.
Beastcast will hopefully be good for this too.
Beastcast will hopefully be good for this too.
That sounds more like an Andrea Rene reaction than a Giant Bomb one.
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