What is your opinion on Blizzard's ban of Blitzchung?

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41

This twitter user had this to say. It actually doesn’t seem like that statement was from Brack. I seperated each tweet into quotes for easier reading.

https://twitter.com/SGBluebell/status/1182817588147052544?s=20

i have been keeping quiet out of fear but as an english major and chinese speaker i feel like i really need to point this out since i don’t know how many ppl will know enough to explain

the blizzard post really seems like it was written by a chinese (non-native EN) speaker.

before i go into this, i want to point out that the tone & language is all over the place– some are more native EN phrasings, others seem like typical CN, which makes me think there’s some cobbling together here

in CN it is very common to use ellipses & space them out like this. this just doesn’t happen in EN

unusually this starts in the first person and uses casual contractions (“what’s happening”). contractions don’t exist in CN, so using them in formal situations is a common error

the structuring:

in chinese writing it’s typical to add what an english teacher might call “topic sentences” at the beginning and end of paragraphs. this isn’t conventional and sounds very heavy-handed in english.

in the same vein, headers containing incomplete clauses or rhetorical questions before paragraphs are common in chinese, but clunky in english. for an OW example look at the HZS krystal callout. also, why are the blizz parts indented? doesn’t it look like it was copy & pasted?

this header (“OK”) makes it obvious that there are two voices here (minimum): whoever wrote this and whoever wrote the indented statement

“copy and pasting official blizz statements” is even weirder– if there IS an official blizz statement why are we getting it in this wrapper??

we then get into this long section where the grammatical indicators become apparent

using “When we think about…” instead of the present participle (“thinking”, or something else bc “think” isn’t really the best word here– it’s too personal for a statement) is another CN sign

in chinese, verbs don’t take on diff conjugations– e.g. “think” is just “think”, to indicate time it looks like “when i think”, “i think back”, “i once think” (NOT thought), “think [word serving the purpose of ing]” bc words like “thought” and “thinking” just don’t exist

so using “When we think about” (maybe 當我們… in CN), which is kind of awkward and unfitting in EN, instead of “Looking back on”, “Considering our”, etc. is a red flag

in the same vein, why “with regard to” instead of “regarding”? it’s not wrong just weird

also, in CN there are no plurals (no dogs or cats, only dog or cat)

see: “there is a consequence” (instead of the native EN phrasing “there are consequences”)

that’s everything that pops out to me immediately, i’ll add if i find anything weird

so why is this statement… like this? it’s not a vocal recording of j. allen brack. here’s what j. allen brack sounds like. https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/22887360/message-from-j-allen-brack if it’s not him then who is it? why a non-native EN speaker? why didn’t PR edit this? what’s going on here?

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Well…

Analyze the language in my longer comments using his metrics. Hehheh. Guess I’m Chinese…

:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

43

The two letters from brack don’t sound anything alike.

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Everywhere I ever worked, everything for release was written, reviewed and edited by different people…

Plus, I’ve no doubt at all the ‘body’ and the “FAQ” stuff were probably written by different people . Maybe BECAUSE of their different backgrounds/specialties. And formatted the way they are because they that’s the way announcements and FAQs are formatted in the industry. Also, frankly, I’d be stunned if some of Blizzard’s writers are NOT foreigners. ESPECIALLY in a programming industry, and one that IS an international game with country localizations. Good writers would have been promoted. LOTS of people in other countries have a much better command of English than many native speakers, so I don’t see how it would be ‘nefarious’ IF there were some non-American-English speakers helping, I see it as a natural probability.

Most of the things he cites supporting conspiracy have much more likely reasons.

Unusual to add topic sentences? Really? “Thesis statement/paragraph, support, conclusion.” “Say what you are going to say, say it, say what you said.” He says he is an English major… If it is an American university and they are NOT teaching that, then I have to wonder what they think they are teaching. lol.

Grammatical inconsistencies? Well, there I could argue it points TO an American writer. :slight_smile: Just ask Splutty. (heheh) English is not his first language yet has a better command of English AND American than most Brits OR Americans I’ve worked with.

His examples are valid, his conclusions are a stretch. Then again, he did say he is an English Major not an analyst. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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45

The Brack letter made it worse. Regardless of editing or who wrote it or whatever, it is a slap in the face to those who are objecting to how Blizzard is handling it. Basically he said, we went too far, made so many people angry so we are going to back up and give him the prize.

Nothing about china and nothing about them putting profits before human rights.

But regardless you know what it means:

It means the boycott is working and we have their attention. That IS what it means and now it will only get worse. I think Blizzcon will be a firestorm of protest and I can’t wait.

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NBA, Blizzard, Hollywood, Universities, big businesses and congress are all whores to the revenue of China.

Oppressing free speech and censoring anything said about China’s brutal dictatorship is communism at its best.

Sadly, President Trump is the only one in Washington trying to do something about it. The rest of Washington is just helping keep us divided, weak and exploitable.

MHO

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Trump started the trade war with China and the rest of the world by going tariff happy. He woke the Chinese Dragon and then proceeded to piss it off with all the twitter insults.

I’m Canadian and so not invested in your choice in President and can look at his actions and his twitter statements objectively.

Regardless, Trump has nothing to do with blizzards’ disproportionate response. Expulsion from the tournament would have been sufficient punishment.

Sid Alpha has some good points in his newest video.

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My personal opinion on the whole issue is that Activision (Blizzard) is just following the money, like every corporation that’s beholden to their shareholders. China, and specifically the Chinese mobile market, is a LOT more money than the entire western gaming market combined.

Of course Activision (Blizzard) will side with the money. There were a few videos about this, where they showed the official statement from the western side of Activision (Blizzard), which tried to make it sound like this was just situation normal, and use vague and patronizing terms to soothe the ruffled feathers of folks over here. By contrast, several different translations of the official statement released by the eastern side of Activision (Blizzard) made it very clear that they wanted China to know they were angry at such an affront, and would always do everything to “protect the honor of China.”

The only problem is, many people remember Blizzard from the days before they sold out and became another belt notch for a mega corporation. The Blizzard that created the games we grew to love cared more about the games, and the people that played them. I think many folks simply haven’t come to grips with the fact that THAT company is dead, and what remains is a profit engine which is just a piece of Activision’s machine. The recent departure of the last remaining “old guard” people should have made that quite clear.

So, you know, if you look at things in context, it’s not surprising. China is the new breadbasket of the internet, and every company that cares about profit (every publicly traded company), will probably at least try to keep them happy. The more business you intend to have there, the more you MUST keep them happy so you’re allowed into their market. China requires anyone non-Chinese to go through a Chinese company to be in their market at all, and angering them will just see that door closed.

My belief is that the super harsh reaction was to instantly show China where their loyalty lay, and that they then negotiated with them to ALLOW the back-pedaling and softening of the punishment, after China’s face had been saved and it was deemed acceptable to them.

2 Likes
49

Here is the truth…

Enjoy

50

Blizzard went too far and their back-pedal didn’t do enough.
If he had said he is against gay marriage or hates Uyghurs (both Pro-China positions) he would not have been banned for a year or 6 months and we all know it.

Blizzard’s policy is they can do whatever they want against whatever you say. Or not do anything at all. It’s bullshit. There’s 1000s of hours of available video with that there are countless examples of casters and players saying questionable/controversial stuff (mostly misogynistic and anti-LBGT) and they didn’t have any consequences.

I’m looking forward to watching Blizzcon. I’ll be eating popcorn and slurping a big gulp because it’s going to be amazing watching these jackasses getting trolled by their ‘own’. I hope it’s bad enough that China bans them anyway.

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51

The only thing that would make this Blizzcon better is if they announced a mobile Diablo game.

Oh wait…

Okay the only thing would make it better is if they did the above and then insulted their players with a snide comment about not having phones.

Oh wait…

Okay got it now. The only thing that would make it better is if they acted for years like WOW Classic was a stupid and bad idea. But then they announce it and release and see the hundreds of thousands of players return and then profit and act like it was their idea all along.

Oh wait…

Damn this is tough.

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This board is really weird in that if you reply to people, it appends the post and it looks like you are spamming. I like Reddit much better. To avoid the appearance of spam, I am going to roll up a lot of responses into this single post.

I apologize if I created a duplicate thread. I did not really check.

Homestead, I share much of your views on this. I used to categorically reject tariffs as per Adam Smith, but I think they are justified as a temporary measure to compel bad actor trading partners to clean up their trading practice. My fear is they do not sunset. Clearly if you are using them as a negotiating tool, you can not put a sunset on them.

Interesting point on economic influence. I see sanctions as a measure short of war to achieve objectives. For instance in this recent Turkey/Kurd mess, we have a NATO ally Turkey who is pretty key for our regional support. I think they are sitting on a lot of ISIS prisoners. One of the other groups fighting in Syria is allied with Turkey now, and apparently there are different flavors of Kurds even though this one fought with us. They were going to go at it, and I think economic sanction is the proper move here since it will take forever to untangle the entire mess, and that just puts pressure on them to desist without injecting more violence into the region. Those economic sanctions are perhaps the only decent move to make with two warring allies.

And to others, I suppose there is now on the table a strategic decision- is it worth it going into business with an authoritarian power like China? They do indeed have a very large market and you can make a lot of money off of it, but at some point the government exerts control back upon you. The IP transfer and knockoff company price of admission into Chinese markets has resulted in many companies going under. And now we have entertainment, media, news, and gaming companies all feeling repression of speech pressure from China as a price of doing business.

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Ah. The poor Kurds. This is not the first time we have abandoned them. Multiple times over just the last 100 years we’ve followed the UK tradition and participated in messing them over. I guess that’s ‘faith.’ I have no idea why they keep hoping the US might give them (back?) independence. I predicted we would do it to them again way back when they first started helping in Iraq. I guess, on the world scale, the rest of the world has decided there isn’t enough benefit to an independent Kurdistan.

There are three pillars to national influence: Political, economic and military. Any action one nation takes against/in support of another falls within one of those three.

Politically, US influence has been declining since it peaked at the end of WWII. Political influence is transitory because the part that doesn’t depend on a strong economy and military is pure charm. As a pillar of influence it has become less important historically as more countries began replacing leaders regularly through elections. When central influential leader is not going to be around for long, what they promise matters little.

Economically, US power has also been declining since it peaked at the end of WWII. Then, we were the ONLY strong economy. As the world has recovered, the difference in economies has become smaller. And new stronger economies have emerged to challenge US dominance, i.e., China and India.

Military - self explanatory. The one with the most and best toys wins - but you have to be willing to use them. It doesn’t matter how big, how good, or how many you have if the world knows you won’t use them. (i.e., Nukes are not a negotiating tool. Everybody knows we won’t nuke them. So they know they can insult and even attack the US without fear of complete annihilation. It isn’t a threat.

So… well. Tariffs suck. Sure. Of course. But - there are a strong economic tool. If we say we aren’t going to use them, then we just needn’t bother, really.

Military influence: I’m pretty sure every knows we aren’t going to conquer China to make them change.

Political influence: Every outside observer can see US politicians promise no continuity in any policy. Doesn’t matter from which party any current president comes from when the politicians from both parties is focused on nothing other than winning the next election - and will change position with the wind. And with a history of 160+ years of the same two parties in power, taking turns at complete control with no real change, it shows the world there is not much possibility anything will be different going forward. The only ‘change’ in 4 or 8 years will be a new ‘new guy’ getting blamed for everything.

Economic influence. Beyond declining general economic power, anyone paying attention can see the US commitment to economic sanctions using what they have left is bipolar. Public commitment and consistency dictates how far politicians will go. The same headlines say people think “Tariffs are bad, we shouldn’t use them,” but then “We need to punish China.” “Chinese goods are terrible” they tweet on their new iPhone… People are threatening to protest AT Blizzcon… They are PAYING to be there… some protest, heheh. “Take my money! hah! Take that! That’ll teach ya.” LoL. Won’t be surprised to see the viewing/streaming/coverage numbers hit records from the people who watch ‘just to see the protests.’ That is NOT “economic pressure.” smh

So, military not usable. (Arguably, it hasn’t been used effectively anyway, really, since WWII.) And no will to use economic punishment, with NO understanding of economics in the first place so even what is available can’t be used effectively… International political influence hasn’t meant much in a long time and is even less now without viable overlap from the other two.

It is all just lip service - on every level, from every quarter. The reciprocal of “where there is a will there is a way” is equally true; “where there is no will, there is no way.”

(Again, I’ll also point out, a clue as to how the world ‘really’ responds/works can be seen if one reads everything in current news/commentary/opinion/blogs/etc and substitutes “American imperialism” for “Chinese Authoritarianism.” Ive seen it all play out before. It is all great for rallying votes/bandwagon ‘causes’ that fade after their “15 minutes,” but nobody really wants to do without anything over it.

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55

Continued fallout?

56

Maybe… I mean, why would the actors voluntary present themselves for abuse? I wouldn’t.

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Yeah, I’m sure this is continued fallout.

I know many of you are really mad at Blizzard, but I kinda feel sorry for them. What a tough situation to be in. Yes, yes, I realize it was self-induced…but politics used to be left to the politicians. It’s a different world, now, for better or for worse.

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Well I do not think the Kurds will get a permanent US police force on that border. There is very little domestic support for decades long policing actions after Afghanistan and Iraq. My understanding is they are as well armed by the US as this tends to go, and that is probably the best they could ever expect.

I think China’s economy is artificially strong, benefitting from poor trade agreements with most of the world and skipping out on the requirements for developed nations via the WTO.

I disagree with the American imperialism label. We have not taken and held land for our own expansion in a very long time. If anything there are real debates against places like Puerto Rico being admitted to the union as a state. We did not establish a colony in Iraq or Afghanistan, and would withdraw if there was no consequence in doing so. Russia was imperialist in Crimea.

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Understood.

Note I’m not saying I agree or disagree with the imperialist label - simply saying others have and do and made the same arguments against the US as we are seeing against China now. Also not saying that the positions against China are not valid - simply saying that if history is an indication, that it is just posturing and nothing will come of it.

The Kurds want a country and independence. The region they have historical lived in falls partially in Turkey, partially in Iraq, partially in Syria and partially in Iran. So when they aren’t being killed off in one, they are being killed off in another. The Christian version of Palestinians, kind of, sort of … Again, historically, people have ‘supported’ them only when it is a criticism of one political position or another. And again, historically, the support wanes after 15 minutes when another headline hits. So yea, I’m afraid you are right and they are once again being used as a proxy. Seems to be their fate.

ummm… China’s economy is artificially strong because they aren’t limited by the government controls placed on others… The converse of that would be that other country’s economies are artificially weakened by poor trade agreements… There is a very unpopular person that keeps saying that and getting criticized for it. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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By artificially strong, I mean that when you use child, prison, or interment camp labor, and to that ignore almost every pollution standard or workplace safety standard in place in the western world, and to that you publically fund IP theft and compel by threat of denial to the Chinese market trade secret transfer, that you can offer an produced item at a much lower price and edge out the competition. If they are elevated to the same standards of workplace practice in the west, as well as those environmental standards, and if they honor IP and permit full market access without strings, we would see much of the manufacturing base leave China and go elsewhere.

The central problem here is we lack the backbone to stand up to humanitarian and environmental abuses of China, and have lacked that backbone since we got away from the annual MFN practice in the name of hoping opening our markets would lead China out of poverty and into liberty. All this posture has done is enrich an authoritarian regime and extend its influence.

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Yup. It would. We would. It has.