Blizzard go full Neville Chamberlain

Moggy wrote:I would deliberately make myself immortal, wait 1000 years and then post “strawberry float you” just out of spite.

Isn’t that what Crisp’s signature is?

To be fair I was right and people are using VR now.

Just not me due to my eye's being strawberry floating rubbish :cry:

.

Not actually Blizzard's statement, but it is their official partner's statement. By not saying anything, they tacitly agree.

Mafro wrote:

Took me a second to read it but that's bloody good.

Blizzard: Chinese interests "had no influence" on Blitzchung ban
Hearthstone developer reduces punishments for pro player's support of Hong Kong protesters as president J. Allen Brack insists response would have been the same to pro-China views

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ ... zchung-ban

I'm struggling to think of how Blizzard could have handled this whole thing worse. Like, literally no one is going to believe the gooseberry fool above. Would they have banned him and stolen his prize money if he'd shouted "trans rights"? Do they expect anyone to believe this isn't about China, given what's happened with the NBA on the same week?

It's going to be fascinating to see the reaction at BlizzCon.

EDIT: The full horror of the statement is here

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzar ... tournament

They actually coildn't have made it sound more sinister if they'd tried. "Every voice matters, except when we say so."

Mafro wrote:

Missed the first L for ages and I thought this said ‘I BERATE HONG KONG’. Rude!

Tafdolphin wrote:
Blizzard: Chinese interests "had no influence" on Blitzchung ban
Hearthstone developer reduces punishments for pro player's support of Hong Kong protesters as president J. Allen Brack insists response would have been the same to pro-China views

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ ... zchung-ban

I'm struggling to think of how Blizzard could have handled this whole thing worse. Like, literally no one is going to believe the gooseberry fool above. Would they have banned him and stolen his prize money if he'd shouted "trans rights"? Do they expect anyone to believe this isn't about China, given what's happened with the NBA on the same week?

It's going to be fascinating to see the reaction at BlizzCon.

EDIT: The full horror of the statement is here

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzar ... tournament

They actually coildn't have made it sound more sinister if they'd tried. "Every voice matters, except when we say so."

"This is nothing to do with China because we are scared if we say it was anything to do with China or our fear of China that they would stop those sweet sweet dollars coming in"

People also pointing out that the timing of their statement, 5.30pm on a Friday, can't really be read any other way than "Let's try and strawberry floating bury this"

Mafro wrote:

Nice.

Waypoint had a super interesting, if rather academic, chat about this on their latest podcast:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3a5 ... st-profits

Balladeer wrote:
Mafro wrote:

Missed the first L for ages and I thought this said ‘I BERATE HONG KONG’. Rude!

They’ve changed it back now.

Blizzard have cancelled their launch party at Nintendo New York less than 48 hours before it.

Tomous wrote:Blizzard have cancelled their launch party at Nintendo New York less than 48 hours before it.

Who knew Blizzard were just a bunch of snowflakes?

BlizzCon is going to be a massacre.

^^^ He means figuratively. GRcade advocates non-violent protest.

BlizzCon is too big to cancel, would cost them a fortune in refunds and their whole marketing calendar revolves round it.

So I imagine they’re scrambling right now to re-consider every aspect of it. Do they do live Q and As? They’ll be prerecorded now for sure.

Tomous wrote:BlizzCon is too big to cancel, would cost them a fortune in refunds and their whole marketing calendar revolves round it.

So I imagine they’re scrambling right now to re-consider every aspect of it. Do they do live Q and As? They’ll be prerecorded now for sure.

Yeah, I can't imagine them taking questions from the crowd. Last year's "Is this an early April Fools?" was a disaster for them and they'd be opening themselves up to a hail of questions far, far worse than that this time. Then again, by using pre-recorded or at least pre-chosen questions they're going to get a shitload of complaints too. I suppose the visuals of a crowd booing is better than one of people lining up to shout pro-Hong Kong rallying cries. For Blizzard I mean.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they cancelled it and gave ticket refunds but refused to refund any costs for travel/accommodation. I bet there's some clause in the terms and conditions that allows them to do so.

Either that or they'll have some policy where if anyone is suspected of protesting they'll be kicked out with no refund.

Blizzard go full Neville Chamberlain

Who is online

Affiliates