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from the big-brother-is-morally-judging-you dept.
On December 7, a Magic: The Gathering player with a YouTube channel called "UnSleevedMedia" ( https://www.youtube.com/user/mtgheadquarters ) was banned for life from the game by the Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast for allegedly harassing others in the MtG community on social media. As a consequence, he immediately lost access to all the virtual items he's previously purchased while receiving no refund, and he may no longer play online, partake in tournaments, or cover events on his YouTube channel (details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIh3ykLBzOM ).
The ban was issued after articles appeared on gaming news sites Polygon ( https://www.polygon.com/2017/11/29/16709796/magic-the-gathering-cosplayer-harassment-youtube ) and Kotaku ( https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/11/magic-subreddit-on-lockdown-after-cosplayer-quit-due-to-alleged-harassment/ ), where a cosplayer accused UnsleevedMedia operator Jeremy Hambly of persistent harassment. (Note: While the articles report on the controversy, neither present any actual evidence for either side.)
While Mr Hambly claims that the allegations of threats and harassment are demonstrably false, and that the evidence against him is based on excerpts from Twitter/Facebook posts taken out of context, he now says he's uncovered something quite chilling while investigating the case: evidence that employees at Wizards of the Coast are trawling the Internet looking for social media activities going back years in search of conduct they might find "objectionable".
In at least one instance they've allegedly requested and gained access to a closed Facebook group only tangentially related to the MtG community, and then issued bans and warnings based on the contents of conversations therein. This includes a one-year ban against professional player Travis Woo, who has now effectively lost his job. Mr Hambly presented the evidence for these claims in a YouTube video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGFcLvDRJNQ ) on his other channel, "The Quartering" ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfwE_ODI1YTbdjkzuSi1Nag ).
In response to this, he has started a change.org petition ( https://www.change.org/p/hasbro-wizards-of-the-coast-must-reinstate-travis-woo-jeremy-hambly ) asking people to boycott all Hasbro products until such time as the bans are reversed. His main argument is that corporations should not be allowed enforce End User License Agreements that dictate what a person may or may not say or do in their spare time on social media.
(Disclaimer: I've signed the petition, as I wouldn't like to see a future where a Twitter spat could cost someone their Steam games.)
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Tuesday December 12 2017, @06:22PM (1 child)
Not exactly. I'm saying seeking to maximize shareholder value should be the prime mission of Hasbro, as a joint stock corporation. Pure neutral profit maximization is the least destructive goal for a corporation. Personally I think their government charters should be reopened for debate and severely curtailed to only be granted in cases where only a joint stock corporation can accomplish a publicly useful function. I'm currently in the minority on that though. I do hope a majority can at least be convinced that allowing SJWs to seize huge corporate assets and wield them as hammers against their political foes is dangerous and should be 'discouraged' by the shareholders.
Or do YOU want to risk living in a world where your ability to shop at Walmart depends on your expressing the 'correct' political views? Are you certain you can chase $current_year politics at every mega corp your daily survival depends on? Do you really want to find out? The holiness spiral is spinning ever faster ya know. Barack Obama of 2012 is a horrible h8er homophobe now, sure you are holier than The Won? And now the Pervnado demands we judge you not on what you say or do now, but up to forty years back. Sure you will measure up?
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday December 12 2017, @07:40PM
I (possibly?) disagree. People don't usually create companies primarily as a profit mechanism. Soylent for example is incorporated (...right? I think we did that...) but the goal isn't to maximize profit, it's to maximize utility. Maximizing profit is why our economy is such a mess in the first place, with companies being created purely to play shell games with money and siphon off a percentage in the process. Hasbro's primary goal should be the production of enjoyable toys and games, and turning a profit should only be a necessary condition for continuing that mission.
And I don't think being publicly traded should influence this at all. Invest in goals, not in profits. If you're just blindly investing in any company that's been giving good returns, then you have no idea what your money is actually financing. Might as well invest in some wannabe gangsters ripping off corner stores, because for all you know *that's exactly what you're doing anyway*. You share responsibility for any actions by any company you invest in, because you gave them the money to do it.
Yup, that's more or less what I'm getting at...return on investment is not, by itself, a useful mission. So if that's the primary goal of a company, then that company has no reason to exist.
We've already got club stores where you can only shop there if you pay certain fees and abide by certain terms...so this exists, it's just that "seeking profit" is generally the behavior you must adhere to. So if someone wants to make an SJW club store I don't really see the problem. Not sure I'd want to shop there, but I see no reason why they should be prevented from trying it. And hell, if it meant the store actually had a reasonable code of ethics and held to it, I probably *would* shop there. If it's implemented in a way that sacrifices profits in order to boost social utility, then I'd absolutely prefer that store. If on the other hand it exploits empty virtue signalling in order to boost profit margins, then it's no different from any existing major corporation. That is, in many cases, exactly what big advertising budgets are for. That's why Starbucks sells "Vente" instead of whatever fuckin size that is, and it's also why the Ford dealership blankets their shop in flags and holds a big sale every Memorial Day. It's all the same bullshit.