
Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this year's Blizzcon - partingshots
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P6VXEB-0ICNuBGWQInj_QaFaD2t62ACWPeYVG9ujpTQ
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grawprog
>Game publishers and developers certainly have a right to moderate the content
that appears on their platforms. And in many cases, moderation is essential to
ensure that gamers are safe from harassment, threats of violence, and other
dangerous behavior. But silencing gamers from speaking about their identities
and experiences puts us all at risk of personal attacks and widespread
oppression.

I don't agree with blizzard but this statement really appears contradictory to
me. It still advocates censorship and doesn't get at the root of the problem
that the censorship was occurring at the behest and pressure of a foreign
government. Personally, I think clearly written rules about what is and isn't
allowable in a platform, that's enforced equally seems pretty reasonable to
me. Enforcing speech selectively, with no clear guidelines will still lead to
problems.

~~~
unethical_ban
Moderation != censorship.

~~~
grawprog
No, but selective moderation based on unclear inconsistent guidelines is. Look
at hn, I'd say it's heavily moderated, but the guidelines are clear and the
moderation is mostly consistent. When accounts and comments get banned or
killed here, it's usually obvious how the guidelines were broken, most of the
time.

~~~
empath75
censorship isn't just bad moderation.

~~~
grawprog
I never said it was. Censorship comes in many forms. I was just pointing out I
don't believe all moderation is censorship, but selective, inconsistent
moderation can become a form of censorship.

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gatherhunterer
Blizzard is motivated by money, that seems to be the chief complaint: Blizzard
behaves on the basis of profitability rather than morality. So why would a
moral appeal have any effect?

A boycott would get results, this just gets clicks.

~~~
stale2002
A moral appeal is the method of getting more people on board, to support
whatever actions against blizzard that they are trying to achieve.

~~~
gatherhunterer
> whatever actions against blizzard that they are trying to achieve

That is what seems so hackneyed about this. This is like doing marketing for
“whatever product we decide to sell”. The goal should be defined first.

What would be too little from Blizzard? What would be a “good” response? When
would it be too late? What exactly do these people actually want Blizzard to
do?

This Google doc is an attention-seeker’s manifesto; it is highly inflammatory
and uses emotionally provocative language about rights and freedom and doing
the right thing, yet it avoids being too specific so that Blizzard cannot win
because they cannot discern what response the protesters want.

~~~
stale2002
> The goal should be defined first.

> What would be too little from Blizzard? What would be a “good” response?
> When would it be too late? What exactly do these people actually want
> Blizzard to do?

I'll give a solution. They should completely reverse every punishment that
they made, against everyone, get rid of any "rules" they had that caused these
punishments, and do not enforce this in the future.

And if they received any communications from the Chinese government, then they
should publish it all, and they should say that they will never give in to any
explicit or implicit pressure from them.

And they get bonus points, if they do stuff like create Mei Li, pro Hong Kong
skins for overwatch.

Doing this stuff would absolutely make all the protesters happy.

~~~
belltaco
>get rid of any "rules" they had that caused these punishments, and do not
enforce this in the future.

Great, I cannot wait to see all the political speeches while trying to catch
some esports or sports. If you're an (e-)athlete, what better time and place
to let the world know about your feelings on MAGA, ICE camps other than
broadcasts of your gameplay?

~~~
vkou
I am eagerly awaiting participant advocacy for a free
Ireland/Palestine/Kashmir/weev at the next annual StarCraft tournament.

~~~
stale2002
Awesome! Me too.

I love knowing more specific details and storylines, related to an individual
person.

This is true for real sports. People have lots of details about them that
aren't directly related to the game.

And I am glad that you are also as excited as I am to see these personal
storylines play out!

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Debugreality
I love they can just use google docs and publish a "site" like this so easily
to share. No html required. I hope Google doesn't start getting political and
pulling these kinds of docs.

~~~
freeflight
Their website [0] was registered and online 4 days after it happened.

As such I don't think they have to rely solely on google docs to publish their
stuff.

[0] [https://www.gamersforfreedom.com/](https://www.gamersforfreedom.com/)

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helpPeople
Anyone know why Blizzard is under fire but Apple isn't?

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teej
Before this event, Blizzard was a Reddit darling, whereas Apple was not.

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ukyrgf
BLIZZARD?? "Do you guys not have phones?" Blizzard?

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NeoBasilisk
It's going to be entertaining this year if nothing else.

