Blizzard was hoping this Hong Kong issue would blow over. That it would be just another social media controversy, and gamers would forget and go back to playing their games.
That isn’t happening. In fact, it’s getting worse. So Blizzard finally decided to say something about it. Blizzard’s president, J. Allen Brack, issued an official statement about the incident and their harsh punishment of Ng Wai Chung at the Hearthstone Grandmasters Tournament. It would be too much of a stretch to call this an apology, but it is Blizzard admitting they may have overreacted. Here is the statement:
Most of it is okay, until we come to the parts:
“Over the weekend, blitzchung used his segment to make a statement about the situation in Hong Kong—in violation of rules he acknowledged and understood, and this is why we took action.”
“Moving forward, we will continue to apply tournament rules to ensure our official broadcasts remain focused on the game and are not a platform for divisive social or political views.”
Blizzard fans know this is a lie. Here is why:
If Blizzard was just impartially enforcing their rules in punishing Chung at the Grandmasters Tournament, then why didn’t they dole out the same punishment to the American University students at their tournament, who held up a ‘free Hong Kong’ sign during a match? Blizzard was completely silent about it.
Blizzard calling Hong Kong’s fight for freedom from an oppressive, authoritarian Communist government a “divisive social or political view” says all you need to know about their compromised position. Unless you’re a Chinese Communist, how is Hong Kong’s struggle for freedom and human rights divisive? Who in America is anti-Hong Kong? Blizzard is an American company, so these are relevant questions. When this is considered and put into context, any punishment of Chung can’t be ignored, and must be fought and protested, and Blizzard should be boycotted.
Protests for BlizzCon 2019 are actively underway. I don’t know how disruptive they’ll be, but I hope they’re disruptive enough for Blizzard to wake up and start living up to the ideals they claim to espouse.
Make this right, Blizz. It’s only going to get worse the longer you let this play out.
The Gamer's Standard 