Blizzard’s craven kowtow to Red China
Activision-Blizzard has banned professional Hearthstone player Ng “Blitzchung” Wai Chung… for supporting the Hong Kong protesters.
Blitzchung was being interviewed after a Grandmaster match on Sunday when he yelled out “liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age!” In response, Blizzard has banned him from competing in future matches for a year, and will lose any prize money earned during Grandmasters Tournament Season 2.
The gaming community was swift to condemn Activision-Blizzard for what’s being called a cowardly act. Groups of angry players have taken to social media, posting images of themselves cancelling their Battlenet and World of Warcraft accounts, and demanding refunds for upcoming games they had pre-ordered. Others are calling for a complete boycott.
Some of Blizzard’s own employees also seem to be in revolt. A photo posted to Twitter shows a plaque outside company headquarters, which reads “every voice matters”, had been covered up by disgruntled staff members. Blizzard has not commented on the matter as of the time of writing, but their social feeds appear to have gone into radio silence. The official Hearthstone subreddit was also locked as of Tuesday morning. Though it’s unclear who made that decision.
The gaming community has expressed concerns about the creep of Chinese influence in Western media. Large publishers are being accused of selling out peoples’ freedoms in exchange for profits, as they look to expand into the lucrative Asian market. Particularly as the authoritarian-socialist regime moves to further curtail citizen’s rights within its own borders. Something which Hong Kong citizens have been protesting for the past several months.
On Tuesday, US lawmakers commented on the issue, echoing these concerns. “Blizzard shows it is willing to humiliate itself to please the Chinese Communist Party,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). Sen. Marco (R-FL) took a more somber view on the situation, remarking that “China [is] using access to market as leverage to crush free speech globally. Implications of this will be felt long after everyone in U.S. politics today is gone.” However, it has not been announced what action Congress will take in regards to the matter, if any at all.
There is a minor silver lining to this whole disaster. Developers of competing digital card game Gods Unchained have invited Blitzchung to participate in their $500,000 tournament, as well as offered to pay for his lost winnings. ” No player should be punished for their beliefs,” the company stated on Twitter.
Now this is the part of the article when I offer up my commentary on the matter. What Activision-Blizzard have done here is absolutely despicable. There’s really no other way to put it. A lot of gaming companies have rightfully taken heat over anti-consumer practices, but this is a whole new level. This makes EA and Take Two’s loot box and gambling debacles look like the shenanigans of a naughty toddler in comparison. It goes far beyond greed.
Expanding to the broader issue at hand, this whole mess is why conservative and independent voices have been raising the alarm over censorship by private companies. The usual argument I hear, particularly from the SJW crowd, is that these private firms are under no legal obligation to protect your constitutional rights. Which is true, but is there an ethical obligation? How does one reconcile the fact that governments like China are using these private media firms as a weapon to curtail freedoms and silence critics? Everyone likes censorship until they become the target. Then again there are still plenty of useful idiots on the Twitter dumpster fire who still think this kowtowing to the Communist Party is perfectly justified. Those people scare the dickens out of me.
On the bright side, the fact that Activision-Blizzard has been so silent on the matter tells me that they know they cocked up big time. Yet the cynic in me says that they’re waiting for the perpetual ADHD of the 24-hour news cycle to kick in. In which case everyone forgets and they can go back to business as usual. However, this is something we cannot allow to be forgotten. This is an existential threat to not only the gaming community, but Western civilization as a whole. If we keep tolerating it, things will only get worse.
Now, I’m not calling for a boycott. Gamers are a notoriously stubborn bunch. We don’t like being told what to do. So even if I do, people aren’t going to listen. You should make up your own mind in regards to who deserves your hard earned cash. For me personally, it’s suddenly become very difficult to justify buying any Activision-Blizzard game.
Hopefully the company does the right thing by reinstating Blitzchung and developing an action plan to prevent this from ever happening again. But I’m not holding my breath.
Now, just for shits and giggles, here’s a photo of Xi Jinping.
