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Topic: Why is NintendoLife censoring comments on Hong Kong and Blizzard?

Posts 41 to 59 of 59

Jeronan

Tasuki wrote:

I don't let politics ruin a game I enjoy. I will still buy Overwatch on Switch and support Blizzard cause I enjoy their games. To be honest if you let something like this dicate what games you play and enjoy then quite honestly you are just stupid. Why let something not even connected to gaming ruin something you like?

So you are perfectly fine with the Chinese government having the power to influence and sensor Western companies now?

This is the very definition of bullying! He said something not nice about me and if you don't shut him up, you are not allowed to do business here anymore!

Or how Erdogan is threatening the EU with unleashing millions of refugues on them, if they try to impose sanctions on Turkey for the Syrian invasion and ethnic cleansing of the Kurds!

It's all the same thing. China is using the power of their market share to impose their Comunistic views and sensorship on Western Companies and if they don't comply they get threatened by locking them out their market!

And Blizzard is extremely hypocritical in this case, since they give a the so called "leave politics" out of this excuse for their actions, but then post a heavily "political bias" post on the Chinese weibo at the same time, bending backwards to the Chinese government in a plea not facing repercussions.

How Blizzard ever thought they could get away with this and not being caught in this Hypocrisy is beyond me!

I have been a long time Blizzard fan, but this whole scandal has left me with a huge bad taste in my mouth and disgust for this company I no longer willing to support.

In my view, Blizzard cares more about the Chinese market and their bottom line, then their own core values they suppose to have, but clearly no longer!
So if the Chinese market is more important to them than and their bottom line, than Human Rights. They can have it, but they won't get a cent from me anymore!

I have uninstalled everything Blizzard. Since this goes beyond simple enjoyment for games. I have a consciousness and there are plenty other games to play.

Edited on by Jeronan

Jeronan

Zuljaras

@Jeronan It is not only Blizzard.

I bet that EVERY company will cave to China. Nintendo, Sony … everyone. Because the power of the Chinese market is giving them money.
All those companies value money more than anything else.

That is why I don't know why is everyone so crazy about it.

If it means the downfall of your business even you will consider banning people they do not like.
It is bad and some might consider it evil but it is inevitable.
As long as companies rely on the slave market power of China they will do as they are told.

NotTelevision

@Jeronan Companies will always want to remain politically neutral (not endorse particular parties/candidates or fringe movements) since they don’t want to ostracize customers from their brand. You can think the enforcement of such a policy as severe, but it’s not surprising they weren’t happy about it. Mainland China has millions of Hearthstone and Overwatch players, so what do you want them to do?

If you are upset at Blizzard for getting friendlier with China, then I guess you’re mad at every international company because this has been happening for decades.

NotTelevision

BruceCM

His point is their actions are actually political, too, @NotTelevision .... Since Blizzard did alienate plenty of their current customers with it & I'm pretty sure they haven't got any new ones as a result, it definitely didn't work for that

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NotTelevision

@BruceCM Yeah it backfired because it brought more attention to the livestream and the protester, putting Blizzard in the crosshairs. I think in hindsight Blizzard realized they messed up.

@Zujaras It’s also important to note that if it wasn’t China, it would be some other developing country. China just has the largest population and infrastructure that supports these companies means to an end. It’s becoming absurd for people not connect the dots at this point, and see this is just part of a greater growing economic expansion to the developing world. To expect companies to cut their losses, when there is so much money to made is a bit naive.

NotTelevision

Octane

@Jeronan Of course they care more about the Chinese market, why do you think Diablo Immortal exists?

Octane

Jeronan

NotTelevision wrote:

@Jeronan Companies will always want to remain politically neutral (not endorse particular parties/candidates or fringe movements) since they don’t want to ostracize customers from their brand. You can think the enforcement of such a policy as severe, but it’s not surprising they weren’t happy about it. Mainland China has millions of Hearthstone and Overwatch players, so what do you want them to do?

If you are upset at Blizzard for getting friendlier with China, then I guess you’re mad at every international company because this has been happening for decades.

But that is the crux here! Blizzard is incredibly hypocritical and that's why it backfired so spectacularly!

So far in the past, in other cases they just gave minor infractions or warnings, but now went completely overboard with a huge ban and stripping away prize money!
All because this time, it involved China and them dead scared of repercussions!

Everyone and their old grandmother knows the "Real" reasons behind this gross overreaction, but Blizzard tried to desperately spin it in the worst kind of excuse they could come up with!
All about keeping "politics" out of gaming, them being Political neutral (which is bull *hit, since they never where to begin with. Even with their own games), while at the exact same time making a strong "political" biased statement on Weibo in China to appease the Chinese Government.

That was the issue and why it so spectacularly backfired on them! Blizzard was caught with their pants down in spectacular fashion of their Hypocrisy!

But, since I forgot to mention it in my previous post, this whole ordeal wasn't even Political to begin with, but a Human Rights issue!
It's Blizzard who spun it and made it a Political issue and used that as an excuse to ban him, as they feared the Chinese Government might have taken issue with it.

The bottom line is, they could have done a much more sensible approach, like they always did before and just give him an infraction/warning and be done with it.
And to keep the Chinese government happy, they could then have made an as* kissing statement on Weibo, if they are so scared of them, for all anyone cares and no one would have known or bothered.

Edited on by Jeronan

Jeronan

HobbitGamer

Galenmereth wrote:

At what point do we stop chasing profits at any cost, be they ethical, moral, or environmental?

When society ceases to desire things.

#MudStrongs

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Heavyarms55

My question remains, why do people think Blizzard, not even a Chinese company, could have any meaningful impact on the situation in China/Hong Kong? The only times I have seen these boycotts do anything is when other companies have refused to purchase ad time on controversial talk shows. And even then all that has happened has been to cause the worst of the worst talk show hosts to lose their positions. I've never heard of boycotting a company having any real, meaningful impact on anything beyond that.

All Blizzard could do is to get themselves banned in China and lose billions of dollars in profit, probably lose a bunch of people their jobs, deny many Chinese people the opportunity to play Blizzard games and ultimately accomplish nothing of merit.

If you really care about the situation in Hong Kong, you should be pressuring your governments to condemn China. If Europe, America, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and others all came out and condemned China's actions, that might (big emphasis on "might") make a difference. But that's all any outsiders, any non-Chinese people, can reasonably do.

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HobbitGamer

@Heavyarms55 But that sounds like so much more work than just posting on the internet about not buying a video game.

I agree though, obviously.

#MudStrongs

Switch Friend Code: SW-7842-2075-5515 | My Nintendo: HobbitGamr | Nintendo Network ID: HobbitGamr

Octane

@Heavyarms55 TBH, I don't think people boycott Blizzard because they think Blizzard can do anything about the situation over there, they boycott Blizzard because their decision and heavy-handedness was influenced by China, and Blizzard's majority stakeholder; Tencent. Not just the Overwatch player, but also the broadcasters. The removal from the tournament, withdrawal of prize money and the year long ban are quite drastic and barbaric IMO; all for saying ''free Hong Kong'' on a livestream. And of course the BS excuse they came up with; and I can safely say that, because it is quite contradictory. On one hand they said on western media that China had nothing to do with their decision, but over on Chinese media, they posted this:

Untitled

Octane

Heavyarms55

@Octane Well I don't think Blizzard's choice is correct and I understand why people dislike it. And if people don't want to buy from them anymore that's entirely their choice.

I just don't think it will make any difference whatsoever. Though is does prove my point that Tenncent buying stakes in non-Chinese gaming companies is not a good thing.

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Toy_Link

On a completely unrelated note, the launch event for Overwatch at Nintendo NY on the 16th has been canceled. I wonder why.

Legal threats that have gone nowhere: 1

Octane

@Heavyarms55 I'm not entirely sure about that. Battlefront II caused a lot of controversy, and although it didn't improve the game itself, you could argue that it led to the ban of loot boxes in a few countries, along with many developers reconsidering their stance on loot boxes and MTX. It sends a message, and I think that's the most important thing. It will be interesting to see how upcoming events like BlizzCon are going to turn out.

Octane

NotTelevision

It’s quite interesting to look at a company like Blizzard, because they are not really making video games in the classic sense. Ever since WoW blew up, their focus has been on growing the user base for these “live service” types of games that they create. In that way, it makes perfect sense for them to grow the user base in a markets where other publishers don’t traditionally cater to. The games they make don’t make revenue from “one and done” purchases, but subscription services, loot boxes, and various other micro transactions. If you want growth in revenue each quarter, it’s only logical to move to foreign markets. That and the games require players always to be online and connected to servers, so piracy isn’t as big of a concern.

Point being, Activision/Blizzard are in deep and have their sight set on where the market is showing the most growth. If you accept that as a natural fact, then still enjoying their games shouldn’t be an issue. If not, as others have noted, there are plenty of other games that are there for the taking.

Edited on by NotTelevision

NotTelevision

Heavyarms55

@Octane The Battlefront 2 and loot box issue managed to gain some traction because of the association with gambling and that is a thing countries already like to ban. But even then children being taught to gamble and having any affect on the Chinese communist party are about as similar as potatoes and nuclear physics.

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Octane

@Heavyarms55 They're not going to change China, that's not the goal. But maybe companies will think twice before bending the knee to China. Because the root of it all is money. They want more larger profits, and are looking at China. That is not unlike loot boxes actually, it's all about increasing their annual profits to appeal to their shareholders. Sooner or later it's all going to collapse, because the system clearly doesn't work.

Octane

Heavyarms55

@Octane Not likely. No company that wants to do business in China with its billion potential customers is going to actively speak out against China. It's just not gonna happen. China has banned much larger foreign companies for lesser reasons.

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Dezzy

skywake wrote:

One of my points was that the people who have these platforms should have the ability to moderate. If they were unable to do so that would be a limit on THEIR freedom of speech. Personally the only time I see internet moderation as a violation of the freedom of speech that matters is when it's governments putting down filters and taking down sites.....

How would moderation count as someone's speech? It's almost the exact opposite.

If you mean just having those opinions on their site, well that's already been dealt with in the law. What's written on an "internet service" platform is not legally considered to be their speech, so a forum never has a LEGAL need to moderate. Here's the relevant legislation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communicatio...

I would say your freedom of speech has been violated whenever a monopoly platform silences an opinion. A privately owned monopoly is no different than the public monopoly of the government, in terms of its effects. Should Nintendolife be allowed to ban people it dislikes? Yes, because it's not a monopoly. Should Amazon be allowed to ban the book of an American politican? No, I think if they did that, we should bring in anti-trust laws in order to break up the corporation (which would require updating the laws, because they're currently useless).

Edited on by Dezzy

It's dangerous to go alone! Stay at home.

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