6 ms·
Overwatch's Mei Is Becoming a Symbol of the Hong Kong Resistance
- elil17 7y agoThis is a really smart strategy, and probably much more effective than a simple boycott. If the HK supporters do manage to get Overwatch banned by Chinese censors that will send an incredibly strong message to companies that they risk losing their entire China market if they oppose Hong Kong. However, I worry that the censors are smart enough to understand that this is a ploy.
- bart_spoon 7y agoI was just wondering about this yesterday. People were noting the reticence by ESPN (owned by Disney) in commenting on the China-NBA drama and assumed it was due to embedded financial interests. Seems like it would be relatively easy to create an association between, say Mickey, and the unrest in Hong Kong, or Taiwan, or something of that nature. And then China is forced to either allow the messaging to exist, or they crackdown and now Disney's interests are less aligned with China's. I'm very curious to see if this kind of strategy is effective or starts to become commonplace.
- tapoxi 7y agoI mean, Disney owns Winnie the Pooh.
- me_me_me 7y agoWho has no resemblance to living or fictitious person, especially not Chinese.
- mc32 7y agoIt’s not the resemblance. It acted as a stand in given that censors censored the premiers name. They could have used “lightning” or whatever to act as a stand in for the target person. It’s like if Twitter were to ban the poop emoji, so people use an alternative emoji with no connection except the understanding that it represents the poop emoji and then Twitter banned this emoji and then people come up with another alternative...
- airstrike 7y agoNot sure if you're being sarcastic, but https://www.google.com/search?q=winnie+pooh+xi+jinping&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=winnie+pooh+xi+jinping&tbm=i...
- andrei_says_ 7y agoSemi-related: China completely erased all South Park mentions and media from its internet properties because of their “Band in China” episode. Which of course made me watch it. Highly recommended.
- elil17 7y agoI think it might be harder to do with Disney because they’re so diversified. Banning any one franchise is a tiny drop in the bucket for them. Blizzard, though, relies on just a handful of IPs for all its income. Losing one would be a massive hit to its China market.
- cptskippy 7y agoDoes ESPN have a stake in China? Was it's reticence to comment on the NBA controversy because of a potential direct retaliation or was it an indirect threat? China potentially coming down on other Disney companies?
- lapnitnelav 7y agoGuerilla appropriation. Leveraging the heavy handed approach of China to pit them against the western companies. As a second order effect, by getting Overwatch and the likes banned (if that were to happen), maybe create some dissent within China itself, though that's a bit far fetched.
- josefx 7y agoIts bread and games to keep the people happy. So what would be a widely cherished food item in china that could be hijacked for a political message?
- khuey 7y agoThe censors aren't smart enough to realize that this whole thing with the NBA makes China look like a bunch of five year olds to the rest of the world so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
- drdeadringer 7y agoHow many five-year-olds in power can the world handle and//or survive?
- Angostura 7y agoDo the censors actually have any interest in what he rest of the world thinks? Presumably this is mainly for internal consumption.
- whatshisface 7y ago>I worry that the censors are smart enough to understand that this is a ploy. If they decide not to ban Overwatch, thinking that this Mei thing is a ploy, HK gets to use a symbol that won't be banned. If they ban Overwatch, they send a message to US companies that complying won't protect them. HK wins either way. The best solution for China would be to instruct Blizzard to release a version of Overwatch that didn't have this character, and if you want my prediction that's what they're going to do.
- nexuist 7y agoWouldn't the protesters simply pick another character to march behind? The funny part is, if you go by the lore and backstories assigned to each character, the majority of them would support Hong Kong. None of them are (written to be) particularly fond of authoritarianism. Which is just hilarious that Blizzard's own IP would oppose their decision if they were real people.
- luckylion 7y ago> Which is just hilarious that Blizzard's own IP would oppose their decision if they were real people. That is probably the case for 99.9% of all IP worldwide, isn't it? The only exception I can think of is Scrooge McDuck, but very few IP characters are pro-corporatism.
- narrator 7y agoRichie Rich is also pro-corporatism.
- blibble 7y ago> None of them are (written to be) particularly fond of authoritarianism. I don't think any of the half a dozen or so characters that are part of Talon (the terrorist organisation trying to take over the world) would bat an eyelid
- foota 7y ago
- jerf 7y agoThey can know that it's a ploy, and still be forced to censor it to maintain their web of official lies, aka "censorship".
- nexuist 7y ago>However, I worry that the censors are smart enough to understand that this is a ploy. They don't care. Blizzard's well being is none of their concern, their only job is to prop up the party, even if it means genera disdain from the West. All of these Western companies kowtowing to the Chinese market could pack up and go away and the CCP wouldn't care. They have enough domestic industry to not be bothered.
- MuffinFlavored 7y agoWhat about Mei is grounds for banning Overwatch in China?
- reificator 7y ago> What about Mei is grounds for banning Overwatch in China? The title of the article is: > Overwatch's Mei Is Becoming a Symbol of the Hong Kong Resistance
- SubiculumCode 7y agoWhat if they just ban that character in the game?
- alpaca128 7y agoThen the protesters could just switch to the next character, or even better: simply appropriate the Overwatch logo itself as a sign of their movement. Imagine trying to sell a brand in China that's completely associated as a symbol of the HK protests. Blizzard can't just change that logo either, as it's not only buried everywhere in the game but also used in countless places on the internet, not to mention merchandise, comics, official advertisements etc.
- FPGAhacker 7y agoAdmittedly I know nothing of overwatch, but I would expect blizzard or whoever makes it to change the game/character to accommodate China and avoid association with HK.
- yongjik 7y agoNah, the Chinese government is not a bunch of amateurs. They've been playing the game of censorship for decades, they know how to play it, and they hold more cards than any other player. Beijing can easily transform the whole lesson to "make sure your company never finds itself in a situation as stupid as Blizzard, or else." I don't like it any more than you do, but that's the reality as far as I can tell.
- pjc50 7y agoSaw a comment on Twitter (now lost) that said something along the lines of: remember that the censors are also individuals with a boss, operating in a highly ideological environment. As the paranoia ramps up expect over-censorship to ramp up too. Not because of official policy but because of individual decisions made by people who don't want to be fired for a too-liberal interpretation of the policy at the wrong time.
- ben_jones 7y agoIt gets smarter. Blizzard has dumped over $100M into Overwatch ESports. Of the 20 teams three are named after Chinese cities: Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. Now imagine if a symbol of Hong Kong freedom is played in any tournament against or for these teams?
- hos234 7y agoOr if they start using Star Wars/Marvel symbols is China going to ban the next Star Wars/Marvel movie or maybe bleep out "Rebel Alliance" or "Avengers Assemble"? Good strategy indeed.
- mrhappyunhappy 7y agoHold on, let me go test it.
- ETHisso2017 7y agoIn all likelihood, Blizzard will probably increase in game moderation to eliminate this kind of messaging.
- Simon_says 7y agoHow would that help? Winnie the Pooh could have had all the in-cartoon moderation it wanted and it's still mocking Xi.
- anilshanbhag 7y agoI have been reading r/hongkong on reddit for the past few months. The hong kong protest will likely go down as one of the smartest protests ever - use of lazers, memes, bluetooth based messaging, etc.
- himlion 7y agoDepends on how it ends, I just can't see any way for them to win. I fear China will just slowly escalate their heavy handedness until nobody is left.
- pariahHN 7y agoThat in itself may be considered a victory, depending on how far China is pushed and how they respond. If the rest of the world won't/can't do business with China anymore, that would be bad for China. HK's last ditch objective could end up as goading China into chopping off it's own feet to put down the protestors. A pyrrhic victory for sure, but still a victory in the long run.
- Loughla 7y agoThat's an optimistic world-view. If they put down the protesters violently, I'm not convinced it would really have an impact more than 6 months out. Maybe I'm too cynical, but honestly, there don't really seem to be any negative long-term repercussions for bad actors in today's world.
- alexghooper 7y agoLets hope she doesn't get banned from the game /s
- joe-collins 7y agoThis prompted a thought: did Blizzard take the action they did because China threatened to withdraw its players from the Overwatch League? That would kill entire teams in that esport, and be much more visible than merely losing ordinary players.
- ng12 7y agoThere's only one Chinese-majority team (which, oddly enough, also has the only Taiwanese player). In total it's probably less than a dozen players.
- jammygit 7y agoIt’s to sell their east-Asian inspired loot box games to Chinese users. Blizzard has been learning from Chinese and Korean gaming companies and how they skirt gambling laws and want into that market
- yumraj 7y agoHK should just do the same with Xi and make him a symbol of HK resistance, just like they're doing with Mei. Maybe Chinese censors will then ban Xi.
- finn319 7y agoHaha, clever. I have the same thought.
- testflight135 7y agoLot of people don’t understand is that it’s not Chinese government vs Hong Kong public but Chinese mainland public vs Hong Kong public. The easiest solution for Chinese mainland public would be also create fan art for Mei to claim Hong Kong will always be part of China and fighting against all the rioters in Hong Kong. Billizard wouldn’t need to do anything at this point and Mei will become a hero image in mainland China as well.
- 0b01 7y agoThis is in fact free publicity for Overwatch. Wouldn't be surprised if there's a boost in sales in the next quarter. I have no problem with it since it's one of the greatest games ever made.
- teilo 7y agoIgnorant westerner here. Is this a recognizable symbol to Hong Kong residents in general, or only to the much smaller gaming subculture (assuming that it is, in fact, much smaller)? I mean, I know e-Sports is much bigger in the east, but is it that much bigger relative to the populace as a whole?
- mutagen 7y agoIncoming subtle nerfs (or buffs to other characters) to shift the meta away from any usage so there's no controversy, no chance of anything Mei being used in a tournament.
- finn319 7y agoInternet can easily turn another character to the next symbol XD
- finn319 7y agoWow, then the internet just take whatever famous symbol in China and turns it to HongKong symbol, China have to ban it all. Haha. First is the Winnie the pool, then Mei, what's next?