Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/08/world-of-warcraft-publisher-su.html
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Money or Freedom? What do you think Blizzard had supported? US is learning back after teaching China on how to use hard power (guns/money) to cache soft power (legitimacy)
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Blizzard is part of Activision who sells people patriotism in the form of Call of Duty every year. As far as I’m concerned I’m done supporting this company. If you run a company in a democracy you shouldn’t be supporting an authoritarian government in order to make more money.
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Blizzard also fired the two casters. A friend posted this on our group’s Discord server this morning:
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I WISH this was the biggest reason for me boycotting Blizzard. But like most game companies, they persist in treating their customers very poorly.
Ridiculously overpriced
Games that do little to nothing without dlc at addl cost
Terrible support when games don’t work properly
Pulling the plug on games that you don’t update because you never really “own” the game you paid for
Obnoxious customer service
Etc
Etc
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ActiBlizz has set r/blizzard to private https://www.reddit.com/r/Blizzard/
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Any of their players that don’t stand up for democracy and civil rights offend me and likely others, will Blizzard ban them also?
This is such a stupidly worded rule, I don’t think it’s possible at this point for any one to not offend some part of the public.
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Perhap by “the public” they mean “their core target audience,” as in, incels who sit in momma’s basement grinding their character all day to level up between posting on /r/the_donald.
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This is as much South Park as I have consumed in 20 years, but good for those guys:
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Well, I was enjoying WoW Classic, and interested in the new furry Vulpera playable in WoW during next patch…
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i’ve been playing WoW for 12 years. i logged in last night. i love that game, and the friends i’ve made through it. i’m saddened and angered that they took this stance, particularly because it’s so contrary to EVERYTHING they have stood for as a company in the past. the thing is, i’m not sure canceling my sub is going to make a bit of difference, honestly. i do think that as long as everyone voices their anger at them in every social media outlet possible, the pressure is on for them to do what is right. i hope they will back down. come on, Blizz – be the people you always have been …until now.
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offends a portion or group of the public
They made some mealy-mouthed statement in support of free speech while doing all this, which is pretty funny because that term in their rules pretty much destroys the ability of any competitors to speak freely. One literally can’t say anything without offending a “portion” of the public. Of course they meant you can’t offend someone who is financially important to them, which is very much China. So meanwhile China is probably committing some Nazi-level atrocities, putting Uighurs in concentration camps and murdering them for their organs, but it would be “offensive” to talk about it, so…
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What? A gaming company doesn’t value human rights and the dignity of personhood? I’ll have to blog about this in a few months after we wrap uo the 18 hour crunch days.
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My MMO of choice is already seeing theorizing of a “WoW refugee” bump, to which I say… this game has servers in China, too? What, exactly, makes you think its overlords would react differently?
(Also: vastly overestimating how much the average player cares about a) esports, and b) principles, when they get in the way of their entertainment fix.)
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This. The power of corporations and governments working together against people.
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Looks like it was one moderator who decided to quit any Blizzard stuff in protest, the other mods brought it back and are trying to allow discussion while keeping the trolling to a minimum. They’ve been letting people post about the issue.
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And now, my thoughts in general. This is not surprising at all. Over the last forty years, since the Reagan era, we’ve watched corporations and governments move in alignment as the wealthy bought up politicians and made “profits over all” the mantra of the world. The United States is in no way immune to this problem, although we do have a sizeable portion of the population willing to go out and do something about it that has kept it in check. But our currently crippled political system directly stems from the issue of an economic and human rights policy that is driven entirely by profit motives. Whether its a true Republic or an authoritarian government, no one is immune to this.
Letting 500 wealthy families and 500 super rich corporations guide your country has not made us better. When your quest for profits leads to you abusing workers, consumers, families, children, refugees, protestors, ANYONE who dares suggest those profits could be better distributed through the tax system into social services that help everyone live healthier, happier, freer lives, you are no longer living the dream as a society.
China is one of the most rapidly growing economies in the world. They have become so despite human rights abuses, from the Tienanmen Square massacre, to the current suppression and forced arresting of religious minorities. They have done so because our corporations prefer profits over anything else. “Don’t discuss politics” they say, as if that makes the politics go away. Aiding human rights abusers by turning a blind eye is no different than the sum history of humanity, and is a blight on the very ideals we set as our standard.
So we’ll claw and fight for those ideals again, this time in the form of supporting Hong Kong. I will have zero to do with Blizzards products. If they make it, I will boycott it. Not hard to do frankly for me, I’m an old guy who prefers No Man’s Sky to games like Hearthstone. But I hope you folks who play Blizzard games currently will show them that our ideals are more important than their profit motives, and turning a blind eye to authoritarianism means we’ll turn an empty wallet to them. Because hitting them in their own wallets is literally the only way we can win these days. Our governments are bought and paid for by these people, our voices are muted by the billions they spend to capture politicians. So hit the bastards where it hurts most, in the bank account.
EDIT: oh, and I’m loving that gamers are rising up in revolt. Like, it seems like for years now the predominant vocal minority has been screaming about “we just want to play our games, don’t inject politics into them!” (ala gamergate). It’s nice to see that it really is a minority, and the majority of gamers are coming out swinging in favor of “your damn right I’m going to get my politics on for Hong Kong and human rights!”
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I can only hope this succeeds, i kind of doubt it but that doesn’t stop me from being hopeful. If it does succeed maybe this will only be the start for other things to come:
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