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2525 points hownottowrite | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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freeflight ◴[] No.21191318[source]
I really don't like how this is made out as "China clamping down on Blizzard", just like it was framed when Ubisoft tried to get a lower age-rating for Rainbow Six Siege and claimed that was what China demanded for their market.

Blizzard has been suspending plenty of pro players in plenty of their games for all kinds of questionable, and not so questionable reasons.

And because Blizzard is a private company, offering a service they maintain, they have the house right, they have the final say about who can partake and who can't.

To that end, they don't need the Chinese government to pressure them because they will already do it themselves to make their product as uncontroversial as possible. In that context politics is just not something that Blizzard, or any of the big publishers, want to be as a part of their "e-sport scene".

What they want is the least controversy possible and the lowest ages ratings possible, so they can sell their products to as many people as possible. That's their main and only motivation here, not "pleasing the CCP!".

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1. idlewords ◴[] No.21191682[source]
You accurately describe the dynamic of self-censorship, but miss the point that China gets to set the threshold of what is "uncontroversial" by choosing how strongly to react in cases like this.

Either way you end up embroiled in politics; the only difference is whether you let a foreign country dictate your behavior, or make your own decisions.