Comment on After Years of Struggle, Blizzard Has Found Itself in Uncharted Territory: Overwatch Players Are Having Fun Again

SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• who@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  For the uninformed:

  That was when Blitzchung, in his post-tournament win interview, uttered a brief sentence in support of Hong Kong (and implicitly in support of human rights). Blizzard responded by revoking his prize money, banning him from tournaments, and firing the interviewers who happened to be on camera with him at the time.

  This action took place late at night (well outside of US business hours) and was accompanied by a letter that some analysts pointed out had peculiar phrasing patterns that one might expect from native-Chinese speakers writing in English. The excuse given was a tournament rule prohibiting any act that “brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image.”

  To answer your question:

  In his subsequent BlizzCon speech, Blizzard president Allen Brack gave a speech in which he “apologized” for the vague act of failing to live up to their high standards for themselves. This was a typical, predictable, corporate non-apology, allowing them to say “I’m sorry” for something other than the harm they inflicted. Neither Brack nor Blizzard apologized for the actions taken against Blitzchung or the interview hosts. The punishments were not reversed. (I think Blizzard eventually responded to massive public pressure by somewhat reducing the duration of Blitzchung’s ban, but never lifted it entirely or restored the interview hosts’ contracts.)

  A few years later, Activision Blizzard was bought by Microsoft. Bobby Kotick, the CEO at the time of the Blitzchung decision, is no longer there. We don’t know who else participated in that decision, so we don’t know if they are are still making decisions at Blizzard.

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  • SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Ah, I see my decision to delete my account and stop playing is still justified. Thank you for the information and the answer.

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  • t3rmit3@beehaw.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This is the incident that made me cancel my WoW sub, and close my Battle.net account. Never again trusting them, even under Microsoft (or rather, especially now under MS).

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