I know this won’t be popular among my friend base (especially with WoW Classic in full swing), but if you play WoW, I implore you to cancel your subscription, if you play OW, stop buying loot boxes. Don’t support Hearthstone, Diablo, Starcraft, Candy Crush, or any other Blizz-Activision games, either.
Since Blizzard apparently places money above ethical behavior, I guess the only way to let them know that this is not ok is to punish their pocketbooks.
If you play one of their games, you’re likely already trying to think up excuses for why you can still buy their products while washing your hands of their support of evil.
Those are just that, excuses. I don’t want to hear your “what about...”s either. We live in an age where millions are willing to lend their voice to a cause but very few are willing to accept even the smallest inconvenience to back up their declared beliefs.
I’ve been a WoW addict, so I know how hard it can be, but you can cancel your WoW subscription. Their are other games to play. I was looking forward to the Halloween loot boxes in OW but now I won’t be giving Blizz a red cent for them. PLEASE stop giving Blizz money. If you value your entertainment more than human rights, then shame on you.
welp, guess I'm never playing that free Starcraft I got once upon a time. it's connected to an account which is already gross for a free game that's like twenty years old :T
even if it doesn't make a difference to blizzard's bottom line, HK NEEDS solidarity from the international community, even if businesses and world leaders won't do shit
Both my wife and I have spent a lot on OW lootboxes and merchandise in the past. I’m very very disappointed and I hope Blizz will make some sort of effort to go back on this but it most likely will be too little too late if anything.
I am pretty sure they only care about the money right now... their stuff is being watched in china and china is a really big market, they don't want to get kicked by chinese authorities. That's why they so quickly removed like all trace about the incident.
...ivision as a whole instead of just its blizzard part, thanks plurk in between the deluge of licensed shovelware on there I'm seeing call of duty, destiny, crash bandicoot, sekiro, spyro reignited
Yeah. And even if you fall out of the newbie network for whatever reason, just say "Hey, I've never done this before." when you get into a dungeon and most groups will immediately fall over themselves to talk you through it.
Blizzcon is Nov 1-2 in Anaheim, CA, that is not a long drive for me if there are genuine interests in protesting. any ideas for how to get word around for something like that?
I checked the "personal reasons" checkboxes twice and then just said that their treatment of this player (Chung Ng Wai) was unacceptable in the reason box
can also confirm that ffxiv is amazing o/ i'm on the primal data center if anyone chooses that. got a bunch of friends who'd be happy to help newbies \o/ we've been getting a lot of WoW refugees this year.
Passed this on to a friend who doesn't follow these things, who was planning to play SC2 on their stream. It looks like they're doing plan B of Divinity 2.
Another from FFXIV (Balmung, Mateus, Siren), more than willing to lend a hand. As a long time player of WoW this is just beyond disappointing, and that's an understatement.
However, I will say: it will be a more effective protest if we can pressure advertisers and publishers and the likes. These individual consumer boycotts aren't the most effective thing on their own.
Like I have heard that the most effective pushes to get TV show pundits to retract comments has been to put public pressure on their advertisers until they pull advertisements from the show. We need the equivalent of that here.
Another here from Aether-Adamantoise. I left WoW with great reluctance to abandon all the time and effort I sank into it, but I haven't looked back since
I am... deeply glad I never got into WoW, holy hell. Like I knew Blizzard was doing Some Shit, but fuck. (Also another Crystal-Brynhildr player willing to help out new folks who decide to migrate)
not that I'm playing WoW right now because BfA pissed me off to high hell and back, but I also vaguely wish I could properly switch to XIV but the mandatory dungeons kill that possibility for me.
I feel like I recall something a while back about how game companies wanted to stop the resale of used games because they didn't get money for it, but I could be misremembering.
and that's right, there was a huge stink about that when the xbone came out specifically, which led to the sony power move during their e3 with the ps4
I would like to add that Humble Monthly’s November offerings are Activision titles. With normal Humble Bundles you can dictate where the entirety of your proceeds go, be it charity or Humble itself instead of publisher.
Not the case with the flat rate subscription of their Monthly service.
time to make an "alternative games" suggestions plurk I don't play Hearthstone, but Gods Unchained are covering BlitzChung's winnings and giving him free admission to their tournament.
maybe an alternative to Hearthstone: Eternal, which hews a little closer to MtG but not that close, still has a bunch of mechanics that would be impossible in a physical card game, also now out on Switch
The only thing Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision Blizzard) cares about is $$$ and he doesn't want to lose the huge Chinese gaming market. Capitalism at its finest.
Capitalists talks big about being anti-communism and anti-censorship, but they sure eagerly bow to China's policies and stand for absolutely nothing if they're afraid of their bottom line being effected. Really a strong look
How far Blizz has fallen, damn. As someone who grew up on Warcraft and Diablo this makes me incredibly sad, but I've kinda already left them behind. Got tired of WoW's bullshit and jumped ship to FFXIV around the beginning of the year, and if it's possible to have negative regrets, I sure do
(FFXIV is imo so much better than wow in so many ways it's mind boggling. I'm on Jenova and always down to make friends/help out anyone new as well o/ )
Donno about "advertiser" support in this context, but one could start doing things like pressuring gaming marathons to no longer feature Blizzard/Activision games. Like Games Done Quick, a charity stream that frequently benefits Doctors Without Borders.
The money's been spent. It's not mulitplayer and you're not likely to spend any more on it. It's done with, if you enjoy it, keep it. If you don't, sell it knowing somebody else won't be giving money to them for it?
on the one hand, it's their sandbox, their rules. but on the other, imagine this world where saying "hey we don't want to see people literally murdered for their religious beliefs" is so offensive it's worth removal
it's cute for them to claim that there's a rule against "offending any group" when what they themselves are doing is super offensive to plenty of people
my sense just from the tone of voice they say it in is kinda 'well you showed up in a gas mask and respirator we're pretty sure you're gonna do this so just go ahead and we're gonna try to not associate ourselves too much'
I don't think trying to pressure humble is a good idea. They've got deals made and already signed contracts and stuff for the monthly bundle. It would be a major shake-up to their financial stability. If they do it that'll be a pleasant surprise, but they have legal obligations and revenues they need.
A Grinning DM
- I'd be happy to post/retweet something on Twitter. I don't have a lot of followers, but some mutuals have large followings of their own.
I GMed at Blizzard many many years ago. They had pretty strict rules against hate speech. There was one case where someone had a username that was something along the lines of “anti-n4z1” or something like that. Us GMs obviously agreed with the sentiment but leadership still said the account should be banned
They choose to ban completely than to pick sides politically. Which in most cases, I can understand why. But they have picked sides before (like LGBTQ representation in Overwatch -- which did piss off a potion of their player base) so it seems stupid not to pick a side now. At least lower the punishment, which does seem overly harsh
also like technically free speech (i.e. first amendment) doesn't apply to private companies but it's real cute that for all the bitching we as a nation do about ~free speech~ when it comes to, yanno, nazis, that they'd do this shit
I hope the boycott actually has results but I don’t have much hope. This is just another company joining the likes of Versace and Adidas being a bunch of “I love China” bootlickers because of a slight against “China’s sovereignty”
needlemancer
: even if it’s lip service it’s so weird that I’ve been seeing months of GOP condemning China on twitter wrt HK (I guess with the trade war, it makes sense) I feel really conflicted but a broken clock is right twice a day.
Right now I'm playing Overwatch flooding chat about it, some people hadn't heard the news yet, one of them just went "well, fuck this game" and quit haha... but yeah after today I may very well just say goodbye to this game, we
PLEASE stop giving Blizz money. If you value your entertainment more than human rights, then shame on you.
in between the deluge of licensed shovelware on there I'm seeing call of duty, destiny, crash bandicoot, sekiro, spyro reignited
Do they still hold VtM: Bloodlines? I know there was a sequel announced for that recently
As a long time player of WoW this is just beyond disappointing, and that's an understatement.
Not the case with the flat rate subscription of their Monthly service.
I don't play Hearthstone, but Gods Unchained are covering BlitzChung's winnings and giving him free admission to their tournament.
Also capitalism: "Money is worth abandoning any values or ethics. Even communist money, eyes yes."
'well you showed up in a gas mask and respirator we're pretty sure you're gonna do this so just go ahead and we're gonna try to not associate ourselves too much'
Doesn’t mean people shouldn’t voice their displeasure all the same
blizzard: fair enough
someone: fuck nazis
blizzard: banned
Google Translate
Blitzchung’s response: "I spent 4 years on Hearthstone so I only lost 4 years of my life, but if HK loses it will be forever."