13th October 2019, 11:15 PM
Call of Duty would be their biggest franchise. I'm sure everybody has heard of it quite a lot, it's one of the biggest in gaming.
Anyway, Blizzard decided to fix the problem with half-measure.s. So, the ban for the player BlitzChung and the commentators (who did nothing at all!) have been cut from a year to six months, and his previously won winnings will now be paid, instead of rescinded. They also issued a lie-filled statement about how this was "not about Hong Kong", but instead was just a part of their ban on any political speech during official tournaments. I, like many, would call this a blatant lie because I think the chances of anyone in this country who did something similar -- say someone says some MAGA thing at the end of a tournament, or an extreme anti-Trump thing, or whatever -- the chances of them being given a punishment even REMOTELY resembling this one are pretty much zero! No, they'd get a warning, maybe a short suspension at most, but never a full year and more. No, this was solely done because Blizzard is more scared of losing business in China than they are of supporting any kind of democratic values, which is sad and awful, but can't be considered surprising for a corporation; they do make a lot of money there after all, and capitalism is all about making money...
So yeah, they backed down slightly but not nearly enough. But the problem is, if they actually back down enough, they probably DO lose a lot of business in China -- look at the NBA, suspended now there because the NBA commissioner decided that making a statement supporting free speech was worthwhile, regardless of the business impact. Activision-Blizzard clearly cares more about the money than principle or values, sadly. Unsurprising but awful.
Anyway, Blizzard decided to fix the problem with half-measure.s. So, the ban for the player BlitzChung and the commentators (who did nothing at all!) have been cut from a year to six months, and his previously won winnings will now be paid, instead of rescinded. They also issued a lie-filled statement about how this was "not about Hong Kong", but instead was just a part of their ban on any political speech during official tournaments. I, like many, would call this a blatant lie because I think the chances of anyone in this country who did something similar -- say someone says some MAGA thing at the end of a tournament, or an extreme anti-Trump thing, or whatever -- the chances of them being given a punishment even REMOTELY resembling this one are pretty much zero! No, they'd get a warning, maybe a short suspension at most, but never a full year and more. No, this was solely done because Blizzard is more scared of losing business in China than they are of supporting any kind of democratic values, which is sad and awful, but can't be considered surprising for a corporation; they do make a lot of money there after all, and capitalism is all about making money...
So yeah, they backed down slightly but not nearly enough. But the problem is, if they actually back down enough, they probably DO lose a lot of business in China -- look at the NBA, suspended now there because the NBA commissioner decided that making a statement supporting free speech was worthwhile, regardless of the business impact. Activision-Blizzard clearly cares more about the money than principle or values, sadly. Unsurprising but awful.
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