{"id":166792,"date":"2019-10-09T00:03:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T16:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/featured\/-1806687\/"},"modified":"2019-10-09T00:03:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T16:03:17","slug":"blizzard-punishes-pro-hong-kong-hearthstone-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/2019\/10\/09\/blizzard-punishes-pro-hong-kong-hearthstone-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Blizzard Punishes Pro-Hong Kong \u2018Hearthstone\u2019 Player"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.geek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/hearthstone-650x366.jpg?resize=640%2C360&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s a shame that gamers more than most need this reminder, but censorship isn\u2019t when a developer decides that their playable characters should be more diverse. Censorship is when a repressive government crackdowns on free expression. So if you want to be mad at Blizzard, don\u2019t get upset about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/games\/no-matter-who-wins-we-lose-with-diablo-immortal-1759448\/\"  rel=\"noopener\"><em>Diablo<\/em> on mobile<\/a>\u00a0or whatever. Get upset when the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/games\/after-bungie-and-destiny-please-free-blizzard-from-activision-1769408\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">Activision<\/a>\u00a0conglomerate unfairly punishes a pro <em>Hearthstone<\/em> player for daring to voice his pro-democratic political opinion.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve been following non-gaming news, you might already know that waves of protest have sprung up all across Hong Kong lately. Citizens are demanding their freedom and challenging local cops and politicians as China attempts to tighten its grip on the region and its historically unique political circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>One supporter of the protests is pro Hearthstone player and masked Hong Kong native Chung \u201cBlitzchung\u201d Ng Wai. And at the end of a recent stream for the popular digital card game, as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/kotaku.com\/blizzard-suspends-hearthstone-player-for-hong-kong-supp-1838864961\"  rel=\"noopener\">Kotaku<\/a>, he voiced that protest by saying \u201cLiberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age!\u201d Inspiring stuff.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">[BREAKING] Hong Kong Hearthstone player <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/blitzchungHS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@blitzchungHS<\/a> calls for liberation of his country in post-game interview:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3AgQAaPioj\">https:\/\/t.co\/3AgQAaPioj<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Matthieist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Matthieist<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Hearthstone?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Hearthstone<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DnaMSEaM4g\">pic.twitter.com\/DnaMSEaM4g<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ? Inven Global ? (@InvenGlobal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/InvenGlobal\/status\/1180954142396710912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 6, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Blizzard didn\u2019t feel so revolutionary. They rescinded Blitzchung\u2019s Grandmasters prize money and banned him from <em>Hearthstone<\/em> competition for a year. Even the casters, who made sure to leave the frame during this moment, were also still excommunicated by Blizzard.<\/p>\n<p>Blizzard\u2019s official explanation is that Blitzchung violated a rule and that\u2019s it. Of course this wonderful company supports free expression. But come on. China is a huge esports market, and publishers need to maintain a good relationship with the Chinese government to maintain their foothold. Shareholders unfortunately care way more about money than a free Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p>For more on China\u2019s authoritarianism (we didn\u2019t even get into their impact on movies and sports) learn why this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/games\/international-incident-takes-down-taiwanese-horror-game-devotion-1776163\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">Taiwanese horror game<\/a>\u00a0got taken down and check out this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/television\/south-park-creators-issue-mock-apology-after-china-bans-episode-band-in-china-1806664\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">fake apology to China from the <em>South Park<\/em> creators<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/hearthstone-650x366.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\"><\/figure>\n<p>It&rsquo;s a shame that gamers more than most need this reminder, but censorship isn&rsquo;t when a developer decides that their playable characters should be more diverse. Censorship is when a repressive government crackdowns [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/games\/blizzard-punishes-pro-hong-kong-hearthstone-player-1806687\/\">Blizzard Punishes Pro-Hong Kong &lsquo;Hearthstone&rsquo; Player<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/\">Geek.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/2019\/10\/09\/blizzard-punishes-pro-hong-kong-hearthstone-player\/\">\u95b1\u8b80\u5168\u6587 <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"slim_seo":[],"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2932,3376,2100,2054,2,2047,16,7],"tags":[398,402,397,414,413,410,409,407,478,481,482,480,479,408,406,399,400,394,10,401,396,403,412,411,395,405,404,477],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7prtj-Hoc","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166793,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166792\/revisions\/166793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}