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The huge question here is what's going to happen at BlizzCon in two weeks. There'll be 40,000+ attendees, cameras everywhere, there are usually Q&A panels, ho

The huge question here is what's going to happen at BlizzCon in two weeks. There'll be 40,000+ attendees, cameras everywhere, there are usually Q&A panels, homemade signs for player support, cosplay, everything. How can you host BlizzCon when you're terrified of political speech?

Fellshard 7y ago
There's no way they'll be able to prevent the amount of pro-HK messaging attendees will almost certainly bring, now.
musicale 7y ago
It's going to be pretty interesting.
paulddraper 7y ago
They are between a rock and hard place. It's a total no-win for them now. (Queue morbid curiosity.)
- microcolonel 7y ago
  Well, let's hope the kowtow to genocidal fascist dictatorship option is clearly the more painful of two painful paths.
  - vkou 7y ago
    How did this sort of thing work out for the NFL, in terms of kneeling players? Pretty well, all things considered.
    - SolaceQuantum 7y ago
      The NFL never took Colin's entire NFL earnings away from him on top of firing anyone commenting on the initial sitting. I'm pretty sure if they did this, there would be much more uproar than letting him do it and quietly not signing him onto any more teams.
      - belltaco 7y ago
        He also didn't start talking about police brutality against African Americans in post game interviews to the media, IIRC.
        stale2002 7y ago
        He absolutely did lots of interviews on the matter.
        paulddraper 7y ago
        1. Kaepernick kneeled during game ceremonies. 2. He talked to the media about this as much as possible. 18 minute interview with ESPN: https://www.espn.com/blog/san-francisco-49ers/post/_/id/18957/transcript-of-colin-kaepernicks-comments-about-sitting-during-national-anthem https://www.espn.com/blog/san-francisco-49ers/post/_/id/1895... 3. And he launched an entire campaign around it https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/ https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/
  - phy6 7y ago
    Have you seen Blizzard's official Weibo account apology to China? It seems like kowtowing still seems to be their plan to get into that sweet sweet mobile game market.
- barry-cotter 7y ago
  Cue, as in it’s your cue to speak rather than queue as in line up to wait for something. Truly English spelling is a delight for historical linguists.
  - nordsieck 7y ago
    > Truly English spelling is a delight for historical linguists. The worst part to me is that many (often older) loan words have anglicized pronunciation, while other loan words keep their original pronunciation.
    - Dylan16807 7y ago
      Sometimes we borrow a word multiple times!
      - barry-cotter 7y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublet_(linguistics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublet_(linguistics) e.g. > chief, chef, cape, capo, caput and head (French (twice), Latin via French, Italian, Latin, and Germanic, all from the same Indo-European word *ka(u)put "head")
  - paulddraper 7y ago
    Ah, I thought it was "queue" as in "put in line to do next"
- irq 7y ago
  It's definitely not no-win. They can completely exit the Chinese market. The company will still survive if they do so. Earlier in this thread it was pointed out China generates only 10% of their revenue.
  - gpm 7y ago
    This. Fire some people, make hongkong-protestor-Mei a skin [0], declare "we screwed up" in big letters, at that point the press this has generated for them would probably be a net win in the non-PRC market. [0] end of this video https://old.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/dibrb0/overwatch_patch_141_rundown/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/dibrb0/overwatch...
  - esoterica 7y ago
    You’re correct that there’s a clear winning move, but you’re wrong about what that move is. Blizzard’s stock price hasn’t budged much since the scandal unfolded. Clearly the market doesn’t think there are going to be any long term repercussions from this. Every few week the gaming internet gets really mad about something or the (loot boxes, micro transactions, DRM, etc) and kicks up a huge fuss and then everyone immediately forgets about it and keeps buying games. Why on earth would Blizzard feel compelled to exit the Chinese market right now (which would definitely tank the stock price)?
    - paulddraper 7y ago
      Agreed. This is Facebook-level outrage and Facebook-level market consequences (little to none).
- mantap 7y ago
  I actually see it the other way around. This action to appease China is extremely cynical and they only reason they are emboldened to take it is because Blizzard have immense financial security. Most normal corporations would be way too scared of exactly this kind of backlash to so brazenly crack down on behalf of a totalitarian state.
datapunk 7y ago
How do you respond when a character from your top grossing game is turned into a political meme? This is what Blizzard has been learning this week. How do you handle potentially thousands of attendees, at your organization's biggest annual event, turning it into a platform for political protest agaisnt your biggest growing market? There's three possible events: BlizzCon is canceled. Extremely unlikely but possible. Blizzard attempts to control the narrative during the con by policing the floors to extinguish any mention of china or Hong Kong. Stripping those who do of their con membership. Leading to more negative reactions from domestic users. Blizzard does nothing. Thousands of videos and photos flood the web of blizzcon of what looks like a sanctioned public protests by the company. China responds by blocking all Blizzard products in their country. This is a very awkward situation for blizzard, one they have ultimately created, no real way they will win.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  This is a very awkward situation for blizzard, one they have ultimately created How do you figure they created it?
  - CocaKoala 7y ago
    If they had just not done anything when blitzchung made his statement in support of Hong Kong, it likely would have gotten essentially zero media play.
    - belltaco 7y ago
      Wrong, it would have got huge media play in China as Blizzard not enforcing its rules in opposition to China. Just like the NBA issue.
      - Lazare 7y ago
        Highly debatable. It's by no means clear the rules should have been applied to this case; they were very vague "we can ban anyone for anything that makes us look bad", but what has made Blizzard look bad here has primarily been the enforcement of the rules. If they had just played it off as the players speech, and nothing to do with them at all, it is by no means clear any significant blowback would have stuck to Blizzard. The NBA issue is very different because the original tweet was from the general manager of a team with close Chinese ties. It's like if a Blizzard exec had expressed pro-human rights sentiments in an interview. Obviously we'll never know now, but Blizzard did so much to increase the perceived importance of the event beyond where it would naturally have been (eg, their statement on an official account saying they would always "resolutely safeguard [China's] national dignity"). Once you've framed it in those terns, it's hard to back down. Were there really no alternatives though?
alasdair_ 7y ago
I, and several friends, all have tickets. We're still deciding what form of protest will be most effective (too overt and the message gets quickly lost when security kicks you out).
- DFectuoso 7y ago
  Broadcast a good wifi hotspot name of course.
  - alasdair_ 7y ago
    Fantastic idea!
  - kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
    xi_pooh_5g
- 14 7y ago
  Since we are on HN you should make it some what technical in nature. Blinking lights on your costume but if someone was to look at the lights it would be blinking in Morse Code "Free Hong Kong!". Or discrete QR codes you put on your costumes and try and put them if front of as many cameras as possible. The QR code of course leading to your website of choosing. I am sure there are lots of neat ideas smarter people then me can come up with. Good luck.
- soraki_soladead 7y ago
  It might be too subtle and difficult to organize but it would be pretty funny and effective if _everyone_ showed up as Mei. It would be really hard for Blizzard to penalize anyone for it but the message would be pretty clear if enough people did it.
  - tutiospose 7y ago
    The problem is the Chinese fans are also using Mei for patriotic messages now, especially after the voice actress sided with China.
jayd16 7y ago
They don't need to stream live but even if they do it seems trivial to add 8 seconds of delay and cut to commercial like most live TV.
not_a_cop75 7y ago
Let's hope they cancel that too.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Let’s hope they’re forced to cancel it and eat the financial cost of doing so. Organizing public protests on public property near the venue is likely sufficient to encourage this outcome.
major505 7y ago
Lets all hope the red shirt guy comes back this year.
afranchuk 7y ago
Yeah that is really going to be interesting. My friend linked [0] to me. I'm not sure if it's getting around to a lot of people, but some of the speech/plans in the document are likely concerning to the organizers. I hope they don't overreact in anticipation. [0]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lgo0jxM5jYcPYvce-muR0JNUv-mGU6oQu27xNxN-tk/mobilebasic#heading=h.rc6beccupm9u https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lgo0jxM5jYcPYvce-muR0JN...
- belltaco 7y ago
  Doesn't sitting down and refusing to leave when asked to, violate trespass laws?
daemin 7y ago
They will search all persons and bags on entry and confiscate any material that is deemed "political". They will do this on the grounds of safety and security so "people won't throw dangerous objects at competitors" and "nudity and hate speech will not be on signs" as it's an all ages event.
- jug 7y ago
  It's still not enough if attendees start chanting. Heck some may go only to do that.
  - daemin 7y ago
    Then they will be "removed from the premises" for "causing a disturbance", with their further entry forfeited. I'm sure there's some language in the legalese of the ticket already where they can do this "at their discretion".
jug 7y ago
It's also, importantly, broadcast live to those who have bought access. Anything happening live will leak instantly if it's drama, like it did last year during the Diablo Immortal debacle. sigh... I'm sure Blizzard will spend some extra time and resources on the entrance visitations this year so that no one brings anything dangerous with them (or rotten tomatoes), but they will never be able to stop speech or 20 people getting in just to chant Hong Kong. That will be heard until they're carried away and it will dampen the mood over the entire Blizzcon. They have no way to win other than to forcefully remove them, which looks bad too. So there's no way to win for Blizzard on this one IF anything happens, but they brought it onto themselves and I have a hard time feeling sympathy towards anyone who have such a heavy handed approach to protests for democratic rights and an upheld juridical system. Yes, politics don't belong in a gaming stream but a reprimand towards everyone involved and a cut stream ought to have been enough here.

Fellshard 7y ago

There's no way they'll be able to prevent the amount of pro-HK messaging attendees will almost certainly bring, now.

musicale 7y ago

It's going to be pretty interesting.

paulddraper 7y ago

They are between a rock and hard place. It's a total no-win for them now. (Queue morbid curiosity.)

microcolonel 7y ago
Well, let's hope the kowtow to genocidal fascist dictatorship option is clearly the more painful of two painful paths.
- vkou 7y ago
  How did this sort of thing work out for the NFL, in terms of kneeling players? Pretty well, all things considered.
  - SolaceQuantum 7y ago
    The NFL never took Colin's entire NFL earnings away from him on top of firing anyone commenting on the initial sitting. I'm pretty sure if they did this, there would be much more uproar than letting him do it and quietly not signing him onto any more teams.
    - belltaco 7y ago
      He also didn't start talking about police brutality against African Americans in post game interviews to the media, IIRC.
      - stale2002 7y ago
        He absolutely did lots of interviews on the matter.
      - paulddraper 7y ago
        1. Kaepernick kneeled during game ceremonies. 2. He talked to the media about this as much as possible. 18 minute interview with ESPN: https://www.espn.com/blog/san-francisco-49ers/post/_/id/18957/transcript-of-colin-kaepernicks-comments-about-sitting-during-national-anthem https://www.espn.com/blog/san-francisco-49ers/post/_/id/1895... 3. And he launched an entire campaign around it https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/ https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/
- phy6 7y ago
  Have you seen Blizzard's official Weibo account apology to China? It seems like kowtowing still seems to be their plan to get into that sweet sweet mobile game market.
barry-cotter 7y ago
Cue, as in it’s your cue to speak rather than queue as in line up to wait for something. Truly English spelling is a delight for historical linguists.
- nordsieck 7y ago
  > Truly English spelling is a delight for historical linguists. The worst part to me is that many (often older) loan words have anglicized pronunciation, while other loan words keep their original pronunciation.
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    Sometimes we borrow a word multiple times!
    - barry-cotter 7y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublet_(linguistics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublet_(linguistics) e.g. > chief, chef, cape, capo, caput and head (French (twice), Latin via French, Italian, Latin, and Germanic, all from the same Indo-European word *ka(u)put "head")
- paulddraper 7y ago
  Ah, I thought it was "queue" as in "put in line to do next"
irq 7y ago
It's definitely not no-win. They can completely exit the Chinese market. The company will still survive if they do so. Earlier in this thread it was pointed out China generates only 10% of their revenue.
- gpm 7y ago
  This. Fire some people, make hongkong-protestor-Mei a skin [0], declare "we screwed up" in big letters, at that point the press this has generated for them would probably be a net win in the non-PRC market. [0] end of this video https://old.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/dibrb0/overwatch_patch_141_rundown/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/dibrb0/overwatch...
- esoterica 7y ago
  You’re correct that there’s a clear winning move, but you’re wrong about what that move is. Blizzard’s stock price hasn’t budged much since the scandal unfolded. Clearly the market doesn’t think there are going to be any long term repercussions from this. Every few week the gaming internet gets really mad about something or the (loot boxes, micro transactions, DRM, etc) and kicks up a huge fuss and then everyone immediately forgets about it and keeps buying games. Why on earth would Blizzard feel compelled to exit the Chinese market right now (which would definitely tank the stock price)?
  - paulddraper 7y ago
    Agreed. This is Facebook-level outrage and Facebook-level market consequences (little to none).
mantap 7y ago
I actually see it the other way around. This action to appease China is extremely cynical and they only reason they are emboldened to take it is because Blizzard have immense financial security. Most normal corporations would be way too scared of exactly this kind of backlash to so brazenly crack down on behalf of a totalitarian state.

datapunk 7y ago

How do you respond when a character from your top grossing game is turned into a political meme? This is what Blizzard has been learning this week. How do you handle potentially thousands of attendees, at your organization's biggest annual event, turning it into a platform for political protest agaisnt your biggest growing market? There's three possible events: BlizzCon is canceled. Extremely unlikely but possible. Blizzard attempts to control the narrative during the con by policing the floors to extinguish any mention of china or Hong Kong. Stripping those who do of their con membership. Leading to more negative reactions from domestic users. Blizzard does nothing. Thousands of videos and photos flood the web of blizzcon of what looks like a sanctioned public protests by the company. China responds by blocking all Blizzard products in their country. This is a very awkward situation for blizzard, one they have ultimately created, no real way they will win.

DoreenMichele 7y ago
This is a very awkward situation for blizzard, one they have ultimately created How do you figure they created it?
- CocaKoala 7y ago
  If they had just not done anything when blitzchung made his statement in support of Hong Kong, it likely would have gotten essentially zero media play.
  - belltaco 7y ago
    Wrong, it would have got huge media play in China as Blizzard not enforcing its rules in opposition to China. Just like the NBA issue.
    - Lazare 7y ago
      Highly debatable. It's by no means clear the rules should have been applied to this case; they were very vague "we can ban anyone for anything that makes us look bad", but what has made Blizzard look bad here has primarily been the enforcement of the rules. If they had just played it off as the players speech, and nothing to do with them at all, it is by no means clear any significant blowback would have stuck to Blizzard. The NBA issue is very different because the original tweet was from the general manager of a team with close Chinese ties. It's like if a Blizzard exec had expressed pro-human rights sentiments in an interview. Obviously we'll never know now, but Blizzard did so much to increase the perceived importance of the event beyond where it would naturally have been (eg, their statement on an official account saying they would always "resolutely safeguard [China's] national dignity"). Once you've framed it in those terns, it's hard to back down. Were there really no alternatives though?

alasdair_ 7y ago

I, and several friends, all have tickets. We're still deciding what form of protest will be most effective (too overt and the message gets quickly lost when security kicks you out).

DFectuoso 7y ago
Broadcast a good wifi hotspot name of course.
- alasdair_ 7y ago
  Fantastic idea!
- kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  xi_pooh_5g
14 7y ago
Since we are on HN you should make it some what technical in nature. Blinking lights on your costume but if someone was to look at the lights it would be blinking in Morse Code "Free Hong Kong!". Or discrete QR codes you put on your costumes and try and put them if front of as many cameras as possible. The QR code of course leading to your website of choosing. I am sure there are lots of neat ideas smarter people then me can come up with. Good luck.
soraki_soladead 7y ago
It might be too subtle and difficult to organize but it would be pretty funny and effective if _everyone_ showed up as Mei. It would be really hard for Blizzard to penalize anyone for it but the message would be pretty clear if enough people did it.
- tutiospose 7y ago
  The problem is the Chinese fans are also using Mei for patriotic messages now, especially after the voice actress sided with China.

jayd16 7y ago

They don't need to stream live but even if they do it seems trivial to add 8 seconds of delay and cut to commercial like most live TV.

not_a_cop75 7y ago

Let's hope they cancel that too.

toomuchtodo 7y ago
Let’s hope they’re forced to cancel it and eat the financial cost of doing so. Organizing public protests on public property near the venue is likely sufficient to encourage this outcome.

major505 7y ago

Lets all hope the red shirt guy comes back this year.

afranchuk 7y ago

Yeah that is really going to be interesting. My friend linked [0] to me. I'm not sure if it's getting around to a lot of people, but some of the speech/plans in the document are likely concerning to the organizers. I hope they don't overreact in anticipation. [0]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lgo0jxM5jYcPYvce-muR0JNUv-mGU6oQu27xNxN-tk/mobilebasic#heading=h.rc6beccupm9u https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lgo0jxM5jYcPYvce-muR0JN...

belltaco 7y ago
Doesn't sitting down and refusing to leave when asked to, violate trespass laws?

daemin 7y ago

They will search all persons and bags on entry and confiscate any material that is deemed "political". They will do this on the grounds of safety and security so "people won't throw dangerous objects at competitors" and "nudity and hate speech will not be on signs" as it's an all ages event.

jug 7y ago
It's still not enough if attendees start chanting. Heck some may go only to do that.
- daemin 7y ago
  Then they will be "removed from the premises" for "causing a disturbance", with their further entry forfeited. I'm sure there's some language in the legalese of the ticket already where they can do this "at their discretion".

jug 7y ago

It's also, importantly, broadcast live to those who have bought access. Anything happening live will leak instantly if it's drama, like it did last year during the Diablo Immortal debacle. sigh... I'm sure Blizzard will spend some extra time and resources on the entrance visitations this year so that no one brings anything dangerous with them (or rotten tomatoes), but they will never be able to stop speech or 20 people getting in just to chant Hong Kong. That will be heard until they're carried away and it will dampen the mood over the entire Blizzcon. They have no way to win other than to forcefully remove them, which looks bad too. So there's no way to win for Blizzard on this one IF anything happens, but they brought it onto themselves and I have a hard time feeling sympathy towards anyone who have such a heavy handed approach to protests for democratic rights and an upheld juridical system. Yes, politics don't belong in a gaming stream but a reprimand towards everyone involved and a cut stream ought to have been enough here.