{"id":167464,"date":"2019-10-12T03:34:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T19:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/featured\/-1807143\/"},"modified":"2019-10-12T08:45:29","modified_gmt":"2019-10-12T00:45:29","slug":"blizzard-faces-wide-backlash-over-hong-kong-hearthstone-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/2019\/10\/12\/blizzard-faces-wide-backlash-over-hong-kong-hearthstone-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Blizzard Faces Wide Backlash Over Hong Kong \u2018Hearthstone\u2019 Ban"},"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\/2019\/10\/hong-kong-mei-650x366.png?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><em>Update: In a hot piece of end of Friday news Blizzard officially responded to the controversy. You can read the lengthy attempt at spin on their <a href=\"https:\/\/news.blizzard.com\/en-us\/blizzard\/23185888\/regarding-last-weekend-s-hearthstone-grandmasters-tournament\"  rel=\"noopener\">blog<\/a>, but long story short Blitzchung is getting his money back and everyone&#8217;s bans are being reduced to six months. People don&#8217;t like that this still implies calling for Democracy in Hong Kong is somehow wrong. Blizzard also insists China had nothing to do with the decision. People are buying it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If Blizzard thought swiftly banning a professional <em>Hearthstone<\/em> player Blitzchung over his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/games\/blizzard-punishes-pro-hong-kong-hearthstone-player-1806687\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">pro-Hong Kong protest<\/a>\u00a0remarks would make the problem go away instead of amplifying it, someone should introduce them about Barbara Streisand. While trying to appease the authoritarian China\u2019s government and its lucrative markets, Activision wound up sparking an industry-wide backlash that\u2019s still ongoing.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Let\u2019s Unbox the World of Warcraft 15th Anniversary Collector\u2019s Edition! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EENTE5JygU\">pic.twitter.com\/EENTE5JygU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Greg Miller (@GameOverGreggy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GameOverGreggy\/status\/1182399181811417088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 10, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Tim Sweeney of Epic Games, the company behind <em>Fortnite<\/em>, said that despite the significant stake Chinese company Tencent has in the developer, he would use his final say as majority shareholder to ensure players aren\u2019t punished for this kind of expression. He then burned up a lot of that goodwill by offering to talk a hate site. However, Riot Games, the folks behind <em>League of Legends<\/em> who are straight-up owned by Tencent, is telling its esports partners to please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/2019\/10\/11\/league-of-legends-esports-players-asked-to-not-discuss-sensitive-topics-on-air\"  rel=\"noopener\">keep politics out of broadcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Epic supports the rights of Fortnite players and creators to speak about politics and human rights.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GWxDjKVjeJ\">https:\/\/t.co\/GWxDjKVjeJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TimSweeneyEpic\/status\/1181933071760789504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 9, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Blizzard didn\u2019t just ban the troublesome player. It also cut ties with the casters on air during the protest, despite them ducking from the frame. In solidarity, multiple <em>Hearthstone<\/em> casters and fans are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/2019\/10\/09\/activision-blizzard-hong-kong-china-boycott-blizzard-response\"  rel=\"noopener\">boycotting<\/a>\u00a0the company.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/2019\/10\/09\/fans-pledge-to-aboycott-blizzarda-over-hearthstone-proas-ban\"  rel=\"noopener\">Politicians<\/a>\u00a0have criticized Blizzard\u2019s decision. But these are mostly disingenuous Republicans looking to score points against communists, not protect Hong Kong democracy. The same goes for sleazy GamerGate types like Mark Kern also riding the boycott train.<\/p>\n<p><em>Overwatch<\/em> launches on the Nintendo Switch soon. And just in time anonymous artists have been turning Chinese character Mei into a mascot for Hong Kong democracy advocacy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flex-video widescreen embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xoeCRHP9AG0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>At Blizzard\u2019s headquarters, several employees expressed their displeasure by staging a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/blizzard-employees-staged-a-walkout-to-protest-banned-pro-hong-kong-gamer\"  rel=\"noopener\">walkout<\/a>. They covered up corporate signs that said \u201cevery voice matters\u201d and \u201cthink globally\u201d to criticize the company&#8217;s\u00a0hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p>And while it\u2019s not exactly related, we can\u2019t imagine staffers (who recently went through a brutal round of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/games\/after-bungie-and-destiny-please-free-blizzard-from-activision-1769408\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">layoffs<\/a>) will be pleased to learn that Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is the latest gross rich jerk potentially linked to assassinated billionaire pedophile human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n<p>This international incident over a digital card game isn\u2019t going away soon. And with BlizzCon coming up, last year\u2019s \u201ccontroversy\u201d of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/games\/no-matter-who-wins-we-lose-with-diablo-immortal-1759448\/\"  rel=\"noopener\"><em>Diablo Immortal<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is going to look positively quaint by comparison. It serves Blizzard right, though. Political freedom is more important than profits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/hong-kong-mei-650x366.png\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\"><\/figure>\n<p>Update: In a hot piece of end of Friday news Blizzard officially responded to the controversy. You can read the lengthy attempt at spin on their blog, but long story short Blitzchung is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/games\/blizzard-faces-wide-backlash-over-hong-kong-hearthstone-ban-1807143\/\">Blizzard Faces Wide Backlash Over Hong Kong &lsquo;Hearthstone&rsquo; Ban<\/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\/12\/blizzard-faces-wide-backlash-over-hong-kong-hearthstone-ban\/\">\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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2932,2100,2054,4187,2,2047,16,7],"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-Hz2","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167464"}],"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=167464"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169343,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167464\/revisions\/169343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}