Last week
must have been the worst for Activision-Blizzard, particularly the
Blizzard part.
Chances
are you've already heard about this as international media has
reported on it but here is the Blitzchung drama.
On
Monday the 7th
of October, Chung
“Blitzchung” Ng Wai, won a Hearthstone grandmasters tournament
and in the interview that followed he said: ”Liberate Hong Kong,
revolution of our age”. The livestream was immediately shut down.
In very short order
Blitzchung was stripped of all his winnings and slapped with a one
year ban from Blizzard e-sports. The two shoutcasters (commentators)
were also suspended by Blizzard for a year.
So,
an American
corporation punishes a Hong Kong citizen for showing solidarity with
his people in their fight for human
rights and democracy?
Hang on now... A press statement in the west calmly stated that
Blitzchung had violated the rules of the tournament by talking about
something besides the game... and that's why they took everything
away from him? Well read on.
In
the East, Blizzards message was a bit different. There are a couple
of different translations of the Mandarin Chinese message but the
content is essentially the same: We are very angry and we will always
uphold and defend the dignity of China. I'm paraphrasing but that's
essentially what it said.
So
now the American
corporation is punishing a Hong Kong player on behalf of Communist
China?
Not good...
This
blew up in an incredible storm of fury all over the world. A
Norwegian member of Parliament wrote to Activision CEO Robert Kotick,
asking him to do the right thing. U.S. politicians on both sides have
condemned Activision-Blizzard. Human Rights watch groups are furious
and fans are boycotting, canceling their subscriptions and even
deleting their Blizzard accounts in protest. The amount of
cancellations got so bad that Blizzard either tried to stop it by
shutting down the pages where you delete your account or the system
crashed under the load.
The
fury continued to grow and all Activision-Blizzard said was: We're
evaluating our situation. Then on Friday the 11th
just before the closing of business, Blizzard president J. Allen
Brack issued a statement.
Not
only is this a weak non statement, but the language is so
grammatically weird that some are suspecting that is was written in
Chinese and not in English. I have no evidence either way. However,
phrases like:
“We
now believe he should receive his prizing” is not really how an
American normally writes.
So
now Blitzchung gets his prize money and is “only” suspended for
six months as are the casters.
To
make the whole mess messier, a U.S. Hearthstone team in another
league held up a sign during a tournament stating “Free Hong Kong,
Boycott Blizzard”. The camera was pulled away from them but they
received no punishment whatsoever, even though their message was
harsher than Blitzchungs.
In
protest, the American University team forfeited the match and dropped
out of the tournament. This does illustrate that Blizzards actions
had nothing to do with the rules and everything to do with appeasing
China.
Some
Blizzard employees have protested via a walkout and even covered up
the parts of the statue outside Blizzard HQ that says “Every voice
matters”.
Now
with Blizzcon only a couple of weeks away, peaceful protests are
being organized so it might be an interesting convention.
That's
the story in a nutshell, if you want more, Youtube has dozens of
videos on the subject. But, what's the bottom line here?
China
is an enormous market for both mobile and PC games, and
Activision-Blizzard is obviously very keen on not offending the
Chinese government, because those who do, are not welcome to do
business there. The CCP can, have and will throw out any and all
companies that they deem unsuitable.
It
is sad that Activision-Blizzard is so keen on nothing but money that
this event has taken place but perhaps it's a good thing that we know
the truth.
That's
it for me, join me again next time and until then, have a great week!
No comments:
Post a Comment