
Blizzard's Weibo Account Just Posted an Apology To China - fasthandle
https://reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dfkmp1/blizzards_official_weibo_account_just_posted_an/
======
WilTimSon
Gaming companies have messed up and lost gamers' trust in so many different
ways: predatory microtransactions, oodles of crappy DLC, half-finished
products being shipped with huge Day 1 patches, etc. But all those were
directly related to the industry and could at least be bounced back from if
the company removed transactions/made meaningful DLC/improved the state of
their games in the future.

How the hell do you bounce back from this? "Oh, sorry, player base, we didn't
mean to support a totalitarian regime that slaughtered innocents and
suppresses free speech. Have a cool skin!" ... That's exactly how they're
going to bounce back, isn't it?

~~~
jdoliner
That's exactly how they're going to bounce back from it, it's going to be easy
for the game companies, and it's going to work great. Or, more likely, they
won't have to bounce back from it at all. The people cancelling their accounts
will be back within a month. Gamers will tolerate anything, unless there's a
better game that they'd rather play they're not going anywhere.

~~~
slenk
Disagree - we hurt the sales of Battlefront 2.

And I think there are gamers, like me, who haven't paid money to Blizzard in a
while because I don't subscribe to anything Blizzard, but I already own a
bunch of games.

What should I do?

~~~
hnick
I guess you could vote with your wallet by buying from a leading competitor
instead. It won't hurt them directly, but market position matters to them.
They will probably notice it about as much as one lost sale :(

~~~
joelx
Boycott Blizzard and tell all your friends to do the same.

~~~
hnick
I think we both have been, for a while, simply because their games were not
for us anymore. The post I responded to was asking what to do when we already
don't buy, a boycott won't be felt.

Though anyone planning to boycott would best keep in mind not to forget about
anything labelled Activision too.

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Someone1234
If that's real, that's a surprisingly bad PR move from Blizzard. I understand
this was targeted at a Chinese audience (since Weibo) but they must have known
this would get back to their English speaking audience almost immediately.

There has to be a better balance then "We will always respect and defend the
pride of our country" (even if that is a slight mistranslation).

~~~
opportune
There is a good chance it was not authorized by HQ and might be some China-
specific PR division acting autonomously.

I have a feeling blizzard just wants this problem to go away, otherwise people
are going to turn blizzcon 2019 into a shitshow

~~~
rubinelli
Redditors are already talking about going in Rockets gear and Winnie the Pooh
shirts.

~~~
apotheon
It would probably be more meaningful to cancel registration, and maybe even
picket the place wearing that stuff (or at least post photos of wearing that
gear on social media announcing they cancelled their registrations for the
convention).

~~~
snagglegaggle
The tickets and accommodations are nonrefundable.

~~~
nordsieck
Not sure about accommodations, but the tickets are definitely not refundable.

> Tickets to BlizzCon, once purchased, cannot be refunded by the purchaser or
> exchanged;

[https://blizzcon.com/en-us/event-info/attendees/ticket-
agree...](https://blizzcon.com/en-us/event-info/attendees/ticket-agreement)

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kyrra
Original post on Hearthstone weibo account:
[https://www.weibo.com/3229779100/Iax22g4xQ](https://www.weibo.com/3229779100/Iax22g4xQ)

similar post on the Blizzard account:
[https://www.weibo.com/5883095259/Iax1avYRU](https://www.weibo.com/5883095259/Iax1avYRU)

Which links here: [https://playhearthstone.com/en-
us/blog/23179289](https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/23179289)

EDITED: to add hearthstone account link.

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cwyers
I would feel a lot better about companies talking out of both sides of their
mouths here if what they said in English wasn't already so compromised. Firing
the broadcasters and banning the player shows which side of their mouth
Blizzard is speaking truth out of, I think.

~~~
jobigoud
I might be missing what you are saying but they are not talking out of both
sides of their mouth, they apologized _to China_ , not to the public.

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jonathanlydall
When I did customer service at Blizzard Europe back around 2010 one of my
immediate colleagues who could speak Chinese and English was involved in the
re-launch of WoW in China.

They explained that non-Chinese companies were not allowed to operate in
China. What Blizzard had done was essentially a partnership, but legally they
gave rights to a Chinese company to operate/use their IP in China.

I suspect this is the same here, this is a Chinese company with a right from
Blizzard to use their IP, but isn’t actually Blizzard itself.

Blizzard probably can’t control what this Chinese company does in China except
probably for terminating their license to use their Hearthstone IP, and even
then I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s legally challenging.

~~~
deogeo
> They explained that non-Chinese companies were not allowed to operate in
> China.

I still find it fascinating how no-one was screaming "trade war!" at such
terms. Yet respond to them with a few tariffs..

~~~
apotheon
In China, nobody's allowed to complain about mercantilist policies.

In the US, nobody noticed until the US government started employing stronger
mercantilist policies, then started complaining about it at home because they
don't like that their own government is employing such policies.

That's probably why.

It's worth noting that punitive tariffs, in the end, are taxes on businesses
in your own country, because it just raises the price of US businesses doing
business (and often gets passed on to consumers, when demand for the product
is strong enough to pass the cost on to consumers; otherwise, businesses just
suffer and have to start cutting costs in other areas, such as by laying off
workers).

Mercantilist policies hurt the local economy as much as they hurt foreign
economies. Every act escalating a trade war hurts both sides.

~~~
deogeo
> That's probably why.

Pretty much the entire media participated in the narrative that it was Trump
that started the trade war - both in the US, and here in Europe. That's what I
was referring to, not Chinese media.

> Mercantilist policies hurt the local economy as much as they hurt foreign
> economies.

So economists keep repeating. Yet China doesn't seem to have been hurt by
their mercantilism. Because yes, in the short term, tariffs hurt, but they let
local industry develop without being crushed by foreign competition. In fact,
" ... none of the world's most successful trading regions, including Japan,
Korea, Taiwan, and now mainland China, reached their current status by
adopting neoliberal trading rules." [1]. But economic consensus remains
untainted by contact with reality.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage#Criticis...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage#Criticism)

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xvector
I cannot wait for the backlash at Blizzcon.

~~~
pojzon
You can wait and wait, their target consumer doesnt care about anything else
than slight injection of dopamine.

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stephc_int13
Big corporations doing big business in market too big to be ignored...

Still, I think they should grow some balls.

Acting like this now mean it will be worse in the future.

~~~
jonathanlydall
See my other comment, but my suspicion is that Blizzard itself is not making
these decisions, but rather it’s the Chinese company that has licensed
Blizzard’s IP for use in China.

However, even if my theory is correct, I suppose one could argue that Blizzard
is complicit by choosing profits over terminating the business arrangement,
but, maybe that’s legally challenging.

I don’t know the real story, but I think the situation is a lot more
complicated than it appears.

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ineedasername
I'm trying to think of ways to stop this, but I can't think of any good way.

1) I simply don't think it's feasible to expect that companies themselves will
band together and say "we won't accede to such demands."

2) Countries like the US that have better free speech protection could pass
laws requiring US companies to comply with the freedom granted in the US. So a
company could not impose punitive measures on a user, or self censor, for
something legal within the US. But then I think of all of the varieties of
harassment & hate speech that could get through.

~~~
gmueckl
If such a law would be made, US companies would be effectively required to
isolate their US user base from the rest of the world. Things that can legally
be said in the US can easily be illegal in other countries that value free
speech. EU countries tend to take a fimer stance on personal attacks, for
example.

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Simulacra
Absolutely shameful. Blizzard is chasing the dollars, or should I say the
yuan, and turning their backs on customers, players, and ultimately human
rights.

~~~
pojzon
Most of the world is doing the same unfortunately and I dont see anyone
screaming about that.

Yes, its that bad and people think mostly about themselves. If something does
not impact you directly it does not exist.

------
henry_bone
It might be time for democratic countries to consider not trading with China.
China is totalitarian and marxist and is therefore incompatible with
democratic values. But still democratic governments and corporations aim to
trade with China because it's a massive market and there's plenty of money to
be made.

The Australian Prime Minister is between a rock and a hard place. On the one
hand, China is our major trade partner. On the other hand, America is our ally
and also a major trade partner. So Morrison has to dance with each.

Blizzard, I read, have significant investment from China, and China are a
massive market for them. So they self-censor in order to stay in China's good
graces.

I don't see how corporations and countries can do business in China, without
compromising their values and possibly stepping on the values of
citizens/customers in democratic countries.

~~~
pojzon
Thing is China already got rich by trading with rest of the world. Their
middle class amounts to like 50% of total population.

The way China spends that money is very smart - they will be self sustained
soon by buying up Africa.

They dont care about rest of the world, they dont have to. Soon not USA but
China will be the biggest imperium on Earth.

Thats how more or less cards look like now.

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Bombthecat
I.. I'm not even sure.. Why? Do the employees just want to increase the fire
now?

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mr_khadaji
Blizzard you had a choice to make, you could of been the gaming company
leading the charge in freedom and human rights, (you have enough fucking oney
tbh) But no you decided to make just a little more money instead of becomeing
the coolest fucking gaming company to ever exist. Blizz if you supported
BlitzChung, i guarantee your sales would of went up waaaaaaaay more then the
entire chinese market is worth u shit for brains. There is more in the world
supporting democracy then not supporting it. Blizzard you guys suck i would
FIRE whoever made those decisions to ban him.

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mrbonner
Goodbye Diablos, Overwatch and WoW.

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secraetomani
NBA did the same thing.

Their Chinese statement was way more apologetic than the English one.

[https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2019/10/07/nba-
chin...](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2019/10/07/nba-china-
statements-different-english-chinese/3898513002/)

~~~
shkkmo
While the NBA's Chinese statement denounces what was said, it also affirms
their commitment to freedom of speech. The NBA stance and the Blizzard stance
are very different. Blizzard seems to show zero backbone and zero support for
free speech.

~~~
sieabahlpark
There are a lot of pandering people in the games industry. Take riot games for
example with the recent fiasco they've been involved with.

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AFascistWorld
The translation is soft, literally it should be:

>... are filled with indignation and strongly condemn it, also absolutely
object to ...

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zwieback
What's blizzard? Can't tell from the post.

~~~
favorited
The video game company who made WoW, Starcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, etc.

They recently banned a player and revoked his winnings for speaking out in
support of the Hong Kong protests.

[https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/hong-kong-
hearthstone-b...](https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/hong-kong-hearthstone-
blitzchung-blizzard-ban-protest-remarks.html)

~~~
zwieback
Ah, thanks for the context.

