BlizzCon is finally happening. And Blizzard president J. Allen Brack addressed the Hearthstone blitzchung controversy by addressing the convention attendees personally–and “apologizing”.
“We moved too quickly in our decision-making and then, to make matters worse, we were too slow to talk with all of you. When I think about what I’m most unhappy about, there’s really two things. The first one is, we didn’t live up to the high standards that we set for ourselves, and the second is, we failed in our purpose. And for that, I am sorry, and I accept accountability.”
“We will do better going forward. But our actions are going to matter more than any words. As you walk around this weekend, I hope it’s clear how committed we are to everyone’s right to express themselves in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of places. We’ve actually seen and heard many of you expressing yourself this morning.”
Of course, the issue of blitzchung’s ban was not addressed. So this makes Blizzard’s “apology” essentially a sorry/not sorry apology.
We’re sorry that we overreacted. We’re sorry we didn’t speak about this to the community sooner. But we’re not sorry that we punished blitzchung, and we’re not sorry that we did so to appease our Chinese overlords. In fact, we don’t even want to talk about it.
When you offer a generic apology and don’t do anything to correct your mistake, it rings empty.
Nice try, Blizzard.
And it’s unfortunate, because a certain video game was officially announced today at BlizzCon that I would love to talk about here on my blog, with a couple very snazzy trailers to go with it. But because of the recent deplorable behavior of Blizzard regarding issues of freedom of speech and general human rights, I can’t do it. Too bad. The game looks good.
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