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from the what-if-all-players-added-the-same-.sig? dept.
Bloomberg, Endadget and the rest of the digital news world are reporting on Blizzard suspending a Hearthstone Pro for adding a pro-Hong Kong message at the end of his stream.
From Bloomberg
A unit of Activision Blizzard Inc. has punished a player for expressing support for Hong Kong's protest movement, the latest example of a U.S. company attempting to rein in speech that might displease the Chinese communist party.
Blizzard's official release says that he violated competition rules, namely
Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard's sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player's prize total to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard's Website Terms.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Tuesday October 08 2019, @08:04PM (5 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday October 08 2019, @08:29PM
The power of an authoritarian government to control the behavior of a corporation by total regional ban is greater than any individualistic boycott for one's ideals. It's just math, there's going to be a fraction of people who will buy in spite of your collaboration, but there's never a fraction who buy when you can't sell.
(irrelevant aside, but Kotick is a Lolita Express flyer and a Little Saint James visitor)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday October 08 2019, @09:31PM (2 children)
While it may seem to be an "own goal" from the players' perspective, from the management side of things allowing their top champions to openly criticize China jeopardizes their ability to do business in China - where do you think all the Gold farmers are? Comparing the relative populations of China and Hong Kong, HK is a super-minority.
Should people stand up for minorities' rights? Absolutely. As has been frequently pointed out: corporations are not people.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday October 10 2019, @04:09PM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 10 2019, @05:57PM
Governments may be slow, and appear stupid, but they generally don't "fall for" shell games like that... they may turn a blind eye to shell games and claim they know nothing or can legally do nothing, but if it's something they really care about all the shell corporations in the world won't stop them from pressuring the actual decision makers any way they can, including penalizing associates.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Farkus888 on Wednesday October 09 2019, @03:05PM
To continue to sports connection, the NBA was just faced with the same dilemma and told China to pound sand.