How Blizzard managed to stumble into a global political conflict
The video game company’s annual convention brought big announcements, but it was also marred by a month-long scandal.
This week Blizzard Entertainment held its annual convention, BlizzCon, and announced several exciting upcoming launches: new games like Diablo 4 or Overwatch 2, a new expansion for World of Warcraft in its 15th anniversary, and a DLC for Hearthstone. They held the world finals for Hearthstone Grandmasters as well.
But the event was also tainted by a PR blunder that somehow involves several countries, two companies, a handful of US lawmakers and Winnie the Pooh costumes.
For those who still say wasting time on video games has no effect on the real world, here’s a brief account of what happened.
The events
On November 6th Ng Wai Chung, a young man from Hong Kong known as Blitzchung, won the Asia Pacific Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament. After his victory he spoke to the Taiwanese casters that were hosting the event. Blitzchung appeared on screen with goggles and a gas mask, and ended the interview by proclaiming “Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution of our time!” while the commenters hid nervously under the table. The transmission was swiftly ended.
Two days later Blizzard decided to disqualify the champion, void his prize of 10.000 dollars and ban him for a year. The commentators, known as Virtual and Mr. Yee, were also fired immediately with no explanation.
After months of mass protests in Hong Kong against Chinese control and police brutality, many attributed this punishment to the bonds Blizzard Entertainment has with the Asian country. Tencent owns 5% of the company, and China, the world’s second biggest video game market, accounts for 12% of its revenue.
After all, it’s not unusual for China to use its commercial relevance to control how companies talk about them. It seems every other day a brand is apologizing for accidentally recognizing de sovereignty of Taiwan, for example.
Meanwhile, NetEase, publisher for Blizzard’s games in China, condemned what happened in the tournament in a post on local social media Weibo, and assured: “We’ll always respect and defend the pride of our country”. A small detail: they did so on Blizzard’s official account, although allegedly without the brand’s authorization.
Gamers all over the world called to boicot Blizzard and support Blitzchung and the people of Hong Kong (and some were sanctioned in turn). Dozens of the company’s employees protested what they considered a betrayal of its core beliefs. A group of American congress members wrote a letter to voice their concern about this violation of free speech and submission to a foreign country.
Eight days after the tournament, Blizzard ended up giving Blitzchung his prize back and reducing his suspension, along with that of Virtual and Mr. Yee, to six months.
And now, BlizzCon
On November 1st the event began with an apology from Blizzard’s president, J. Allen Brack (who by the way looks exactly like Malfoy’s dad if he was a trucker).
“We moved too quickly in our decision-making, and then to make matters worse we were too slow to talk to all of you ‒he admitted‒. When I think about how most unhappy I am, I think about two things. We didn’t live up to the higher standards we set for ourselves, and we failed in our purpose. For that, I am sorry, and I accept accountability.”
The next day, though, Brack talked to PC Gamer and upheld the decision to ban the three young men. He assured it’s not about what Blitzchung said, but it’s against the rules to talk about anything that isn’t the tournament. He pointed out that the players and the rest of the team have their own personal social media accounts to express themselves as they wish.
“If we hadn’t taken action interviews would become times for people to make a statement about whatever they wanted to, on whatever issue. That’s just a path that we don’t want to go down. We really want the content of those official broadcasts to be focused on the games, and keep that focus,” he explained.
Someone more patient than us will check to see if in fact until now no one had ever spoken about something other than the games in an official Blizzard tournament, or if what you say does matter a little.
While Brack gave the opening speech, outside of the event a few dozen people protested the company’s actions. A few of them were dressed as Winnie the Pooh, a getup that can seem unusual but has an explanation: in China, the character has been banned since people started joking on the internet about how much he resembles president Xi Jinping.
A brand in trouble
Blizzard’s message seems to be that the huge community that inhabits its games can feel like a part of them as long as they don’t want to talk about what really matters to them.
Blitzchung explained: “As you know there are serious protests in my country now. I put so much effort in that social movement in the past few months, that I sometimes couldn’t focus on preparing my Grandmaster match. I know what my action on stream means. It could cause me lot of trouble, even my personal safety in real life. But I think it’s my duty to say something about the issue.”
One could say that it’s just a video game after all, and if you don’t agree with the rules you don’t have to play it. But for many, this company isn’t taking care of its most committed players and collaborators. If they want to turn this perception around, Blizzard will have to gain back their trust soon.
