Blizzard / Hong Kong controversy

PostWoke

pixelburp wrote: »

So at what point are we not allowed ... you know, discuss the news on a discussion thread? Blizzard-China-Hearthstone is news, and opens up larger topic cos that's the nature of the headline item. If you think it should be branched off, then report the posts and let the mods decide. Otherwise we just rename the thread as "headlines only" and save this cycle of "stop talking about the news!!" at whatever arbitrary point selective users get tired of a subject. Or just ubsub from the thread.

Exactly. If you want the news only there are literally outlets like Rock Paper Shotgun, PC Gamer, Giant Bomb etc. It's on a message board to be discussed, Blizzcon is barely over.

Dohnjoe

PostWoke wrote: »

Plenty of people have the spine out there to say 'no thanks'.

But they aren't saying "no thanks". They are clicking an upvote or writing a negative comment, but when it comes down to it they are opening their wallet to that company.

It's this

johnny_ultimate

It's extremely hard to be an ethical consumer in so many ways, given average incomes and situations. Most of the clothes we buy are produced in ways that depend on massive inequality. Most of the food we eat is produced in unsustainable ways. The holidays we take feed the destruction of the planet. But with modern living you have to go out of your way - often at significant expense or inconvenience - to fight against all that, and that's not realistic for a lot of people.

With games, it's easy enough to be as ethical as you want to be (once you get past the need for physical hardware). A game is an optional luxury, so it's easy to skip over a game for whatever reason. Equally, it's easier to just give in and buy a game because it's such a simple and largely inconsequential thing to do. Especially when it feels like your individual boycott won't make any difference.

I guess it's just up to every individual to make up their own mind where they draw the line, even if it would be nice to see organised and mass action in cases where it's justified (still laugh at the Modern Warfare 2 boycott group back in the day). I have ethical lines that feed into determining what games I buy / won't buy, and I'm sure they're radically different to others' lines.

Even if there aren't any long-lasting commercial consequences, I would strongly push back against any suggestion that issues like the Blizzard / Hong Kong situation are unimportant. It's massively important to be aware of what corporations are up to, especially when it comes to their dealings with an authoritarian state power. They've deserved and invited the scrutiny and criticism they've gotten over the past few weeks. If the announcement of Diablo 4 was more important for you than the HK controversy, that's fine - that's your line! But a lot of people do care about this stuff, and I for one have been very appreciative of the company being held to account over it (even if their ultimate response to the criticism was IMO woefully, shamefully inadequate).

Calhoun

Initial reaction to Jay Allen Brack's keynot apology were luke warm. Blizzard were very smart from then on in how they handled it and went as far as getting a charasmatic streaming partnership to host the Q&A, they managed to turn around a protest incident and make it look like Blizz were supportive.

As someone who plays the games and is involved within the community i can tell you that for the most part the core players will keep playing and i have even see posts online asking how people can recover accounts.

EoinHef

Gaming is not unique,capitalism is the system that we have all adopted.

Depending on individuals to have morals is just to hopeful imo.

That system needs to change or we are where we are. I wonder what people 200 years from now will think of how things currently work.

I mean theres impoverished/disadvantaged people all over the world but theres others who have more money than multiple generations of their family could spend.

People work for comapnies,companies dont work for people.

If I'm being honest, I've ignored this controversy to the degree that I'm not sure what blizzard has done. I clocked it as "e-sports/YouTube" drama and my brain said ignore. As of boycotting... I've seen gamers lose their **** time and time again that I've become jaded.

Shiminay

And therein lies the rub... Apathy instead of empathy.

Gbear

Diablo 2 is one of my favorite games, so I'm generally positively inclined towards the series, and even found D3 to be decent for a short while.

That said, I don't have much trust in Blizzard's ability to deliver anymore. I don't think poor business practices and poor quality products are necessarily unrelated.

Someone mentioned EA still having pretty consistent performance despite its reputation, but while you could grant that their version of the big mac is still doing well in FIFA, you can see other projects like Anthem and Mass Effect that have withered and died.

Blizzard could well be able to milk existing IPs for a while longer, but I think it would be a mistake to assume they can run the company in such a way that largely holds its customers in contempt and still continue to thrive.

It's too big to expect a dramatic collapse, but I'll be surprised if D4 sells as well as D3.

Calhoun

Gbear wrote: »

It's too big to expect a dramatic collapse, but I'll be surprised if D4 sells as well as D3.

We shall see, the one thing with blizzard is they really dial into the fandom. For the most part blizzard fans have shown that they are super devoted to the brand.

It has to do allot more than the current controversies to be anyway damaged.

K.O.Kiki

Overshadowing all the Overwatch 2 hype is that the game probably won't be out for another year or 2.

Calhoun

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Overshadowing all the Overwatch 2 hype is that the game probably won't be out for another year or 2.

Indeed however its interesting to see that they have had a plan all along to pull it all together.

Hopefully they put the polish on it and release it in a right manner. The right beta testing will build up hype.

Canis Lupus

Calhoun wrote: »

Indeed however its interesting to see that they have had a plan all along to pull it all together.

Hopefully they put the polish on it and release it in a right manner. The right beta testing will build up hype.

Can't be that hard to reskin Dr Junkenstein.

Calhoun

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Can't be that hard to reskin Dr Junkenstein.

If you look at the character models there doesn't look to have been a huge change in them but what do i know. I would say that they have had allot of the dev teams on mobile ports up until recently.

I'd say blizzard are re-evaluating the china play now with the new gaming rules in place spend if going to be allot more limited than they first thought.

Canis Lupus

Calhoun wrote: »

If you look at the character models there doesn't look to have been a huge change in them but what do i know. I would say that they have had allot of the dev teams on mobile ports up until recently.

I'd say blizzard are re-evaluating the china play now with the new gaming rules in place spend if going to be allot more limited than they first thought.

I was just being sarcastic over what I think the single player experience will be like :P

Calhoun

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I was just being sarcastic over what I think the single player experience will be like :P

Lol i know but i think you make a valid question on why its taking so long. I don't have any idea how complicated what they are doing is. I do know they always go for super polish so that will come into play but i also think the other stuff has been distracting them.

Apologies reading back it looks like i was being dismissive.