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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 08 2019, @07:59PM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08 2019, @09:55PM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08 2019, @09:55PM (#904356)

    Corporations are not people and do not have morals.

    Corporations might not be people, but they tend to be run by people who are very much on the "evil" side of the spectrum.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday October 08 2019, @10:20PM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 08 2019, @10:20PM (#904368) Journal

    There is no evil in doing business, there're only profits and bonuses.
    Why do you hate capitalism?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:12AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:12AM (#904419)

      There is no evil in doing business, there're only profits and bonuses.

      Then there's no evil in anything, there's only profits and bonuses. You can frame any evil as merely 'amoral.' Yet, many seem to only want to do that with corporations, and I wonder why that is.

      Why do you hate capitalism?

      Because I'm a progressive and I don't trust mega-corporations to have ordinary people's best interests at heart, in any situation. Their actions can't be justified by just saying, 'Oh, they thought they could make money by doing that!' I mean, if you want to try to justify a corporation's action using another argument, then go ahead, but that one isn't it.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:24AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:24AM (#904428) Journal

        (note to myself: grin more often, many still don't get it)

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08 2019, @10:54PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08 2019, @10:54PM (#904377)

    That's juvenile. The justification for Nixon opening trade with China was the idea it would foster liberalization, instead we're seeing the inverse happening. If the cost of doing business with China is accepting CCP censorship, most private companies will stop trading. For publicly traded companies, the executives are putting themselves at legal risk from shareholders.

    Unscrupulous, ruthless and malevolent people exist. The latter characteristic is more likely found in the CCP than Blizzard's executive team.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:02AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:02AM (#904412)

      That's juvenile.

      That's reality.

      Unscrupulous, ruthless and malevolent people exist. The latter characteristic is more likely found in the CCP than Blizzard's executive team.

      They're likely to be found on both. They just have different levels of power and influence, and wield it in different ways. I have no doubt that, if given such a massive amount of power, most CEOs would commit atrocities in a heartbeat if it would benefit them.

      If you can dismiss all of the evil actions of corporations as merely 'amoral,' then you can do the same with governments, or with anything, really.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday October 09 2019, @01:06AM (4 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 09 2019, @01:06AM (#904452) Journal

      If the cost of doing business with China is accepting CCP censorship, most private companies will stop trading.

      LOL

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @09:08AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @09:08AM (#904592)

        For Realz [twitter.com]

        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 09 2019, @10:37AM (1 child)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 09 2019, @10:37AM (#904614) Journal

          Yeah, well, I hope I'll live to see the flood of companies stopping from doing business with China because the CCP splashes them with cash in exchange for obedience.
          But until that happens, the cruel reality that I see is: those "most private companies" is just one and a hypothetical one come to that (iff what the linked twitterer speaks the truth).

          To be honest, I won't keep my breath until I see those "most private companies" even if I wish them all the luck they need.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @11:27AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @11:27AM (#904635)

            those "most private companies" is just one and a hypothetical one come to that

            It's a common sentiment although the left have gone from "Free Tibet" to supporting chicom oppression of Pepe touting, pro-democracy (and pro-Western) HK protesters. They ignore Uyghurs in concentration camps and it'll take another Tienanmen for these folks to wake up.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 10 2019, @07:11AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 10 2019, @07:11AM (#905099)

          That guy, while a cool dude, is small potatoes compared to the behemoths.

          This scandal may hurt Blizzard but it can be difficult to judge the impact so early. A lot of people do not pay attention to this stuff.

          Plenty of developers are taking the Epic Tencent cash. They will do that because it has nice features like the ability to have no user reviews on your game. And if you can get guaranteed funds to cover the cost of 100% refunds of your game, it's hard to refuse.