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Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

(playhearthstone.com)
2525 points hownottowrite | 7 comments | 08 Oct 19 09:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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zwaps ◴[08 Oct 19 11:13 UTC] No.21190952[source]▶
Then we have to boycott Hearthstone. While the current case is neither surprising nor substantially important, it is important because of principle.

Blizzard is not responsible for what players say in interviews. In our society, it still matters that people can tolerate other opinions.

The Chinese government tries to make it a new normal that entire people can have their "feelings hurt" (what?) by mere non-insulting opinions, and it tries to make it a new normal that all actors should censor any undesirable or potentially undesirable opinion.

If that is indeed the way, then our society and the discourse therein is no longer free, and the CCP has won.

We need to keep these firms in our mind. We need to keep a list of when this happens, and we need to sanction this as best as we can. Similarly, anyone standing up to censorship should have our support.

I can be pro HK, or I can be pro China, and I can voice opinions because doing so either way is an equally valid form of free expression. But it can not be that one side gets pre-emptively censored to appease the CCP, or any actor with the power to DEFINE the bar of what is reasonable expression of opinions.

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1. treis ◴[08 Oct 19 16:05 UTC] No.21193748[source]▶
>Blizzard is not responsible for what players say in interviews. In our society, it still matters that people can tolerate other opinions.

I think Blizzard has a legitimate "time and place" argument here. They shouldn't regulate competitors speech across the board but I think it's reasonable to mandate that interviews associated with official events focus on Hearthstone and stay away from controversial topics.

Of course Blizzard really stepped into it by citing the "brings you into public disrepute" rule. That makes them look like their taking China's side. And this is a full on Streisand effect. The banning brought way more attention (at least in the West) than the initial interview did. Few of us would have even known it happened without hte banning.

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2. SpicyLemonZest ◴[08 Oct 19 16:27 UTC] No.21193997[source]▶
If they had just kicked him out of the tournament, I'd definitely be on that side of things. I don't want a world where all competitions are full of people yelling about hot-button issues. But banning him for a year is so obviously disproportionate, it's hard to see how it could have happened if not for fear of China.
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3. __s ◴[08 Oct 19 16:47 UTC] No.21194210[source]▶
Also firing the interviewers
4. hannasanarion ◴[08 Oct 19 16:49 UTC] No.21194242[source]▶
The tournament was already over, and he had won. They took back his prize money.
5. throwawaypolicy ◴[08 Oct 19 16:53 UTC] No.21194281[source]▶
It more than "looks like" Blizzard is taking China's side. They have outright said that they are in their chinese language statement

> We strongly condemn the player and the casters on what happened in the game last weekend ,and we firmly DISAPPROVE people to state their own political POV in any tournament. The player will be banned from the tournament,and the casters will never be granted the chance to cast any official tournament from now on. Besides,we will firmly PROTECT THE PRIDE OF THE COUNTRY just like what we always do.

(translation taken from another comment on HN, google finds lots of sources with similar translations, including news articles from reputable papers)

6. EpicEng ◴[08 Oct 19 17:04 UTC] No.21194402[source]▶
>I think Blizzard has a legitimate "time and place" argument here.

Blizzard pushed Pride hard when it suited them to do so. What is the proper time and place exactly?

It would seem that only certain political opinions are ok and those would be the type that won't hurt their bottom line.

7. the-pigeon ◴[08 Oct 19 17:07 UTC] No.21194442[source]▶
According to arstechnica translated he shouted "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/10/blizzard-bans-pr...

I'd agree with a slap on the wrist. Like $500 fine or something. But forfeiting all winners and 12 month ban is insane.

Seems like Blizzard is pandering to China because they don't want locked out of the market.

Shame on them for enjoying democracy in their own country (US) but assisting with suppressing it in other countries for their own profit.