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Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

(playhearthstone.com)
2525 points hownottowrite | 6 comments | 08 Oct 19 09:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.961s | source | bottom
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throwaway2048 ◴[08 Oct 19 10:12 UTC] No.21190531[source]▶
Blizzard is 100% fine with their games having a political message when they think it gives them free brownie points (announcing various characters as being explicitly gay), but are complete total cowards when it might cost them something.
replies(1): >>21190552 #
hug ◴[08 Oct 19 10:16 UTC] No.21190552[source]▶
Being gay isn’t political.
replies(6): >>21190556 #>>21190569 #>>21190572 #>>21190573 #>>21190584 #>>21190976 #
throwaway2048 ◴[08 Oct 19 10:16 UTC] No.21190556[source]▶
No, being gay itself is not a political decision, but making a big deal about how progressive you are as a company because your game has gay characters is very much a political statement.
replies(2): >>21190606 #>>21190627 #
hug ◴[08 Oct 19 10:22 UTC] No.21190606[source]▶
I am completely unaware of blizzard tooting their own horn for being progressive about having a gay character.

Undoubtedly they’ve used gay and lesbian characters in marketing, but marketing towards gay and lesbian people is, again, not a political statement in and of itself.

replies(1): >>21190629 #
kkarakk ◴[08 Oct 19 10:25 UTC] No.21190629[source]▶
What exactly are you trying to say? Blizzard has indeed used pride flag in marketing materials and that is a VERY political statement
replies(1): >>21190733 #
1. hug ◴[08 Oct 19 10:40 UTC] No.21190733[source]▶
Do not mistake a giant faceless corporation’s product marketing decisions for anything other than the soulless money grubbing than they are.

If Blizzard actually were so politically progressive, perhaps they might not be in this situation of backlash.

replies(2): >>21190763 #>>21190792 #
2. Dylan16807 ◴[08 Oct 19 10:45 UTC] No.21190763[source]▶
This comment sounds like you agree that they're doing fake political progressiveness for marketing purposes. So do you rescind your previous comment?
replies(1): >>21191204 #
3. remon ◴[08 Oct 19 10:48 UTC] No.21190792[source]▶
That's...exactly his point. You just 180-ed.
4. hug ◴[08 Oct 19 11:53 UTC] No.21191204[source]▶
I don’t believe that they’re “doing politics”.

Think of them as widget-collecting aliens who understand nothing about humans but are told that by putting a rainbow on a trinket they can collect more widgets.

There is nothing political about it, it’s just a function of maximised self interest.

replies(2): >>21195027 #>>21197463 #
5. Dylan16807 ◴[08 Oct 19 17:55 UTC] No.21195027{3}[source]▶
Huh. You have a very different definition of politics than I do. I'd even say that insincerely aligning yourself with a political group is even more of a "doing politics" move than sincerely doing so.
6. throwaway2048 ◴[08 Oct 19 21:28 UTC] No.21197463{3}[source]▶
That excuses utter amorality way too easily, Blizzard is run by people, not robots or aliens.