My decade long boycott of Apple is looking better and better everyday. Add to that that I stopped playing WOW over a year ago, and Destiny 2 moved from Battle.net to Steam a week ago, and I can at least feel a little better about myself.

Wow. Never thought of it like that. Totally invalidates every single point. China is SO KEWL!

Has Blizzard seriously not said anything yet? Do they just think if they ignore the issue it’ll go away?

The heavy-handedness of it feels like someone insisted that Blizzard make an example of Blitzchung, not only to discourage others from similar acts in the future but also to appease those upset by the outburst itself.

“I will not be a smiling face on camera that tacitly endorses this decision.”

I really like the way he put this. 

A game that has global representation (specifically Overwatch) should remain neutral.

So why fire/disavow the two broadcasters who had nothing to do with what he said?

Talking about “neutrality” here proves two things:
1. You either didn’t read or didn’t understand the article;
2. You are way too naive to believe anything can be neutral. Even choosing to “be neutral” is a political choice.

Do we turn Zarya into a democratic character because Putin doesn’t match up to democratic ideals?

Ah, there’s nothing we can do so we should just let it happen argument. That’s my favorite argument. Why outlaw murder? People will get murdered anyway. Why get out of bed tomorrow, we’re all going to end up in the cold hard ground.

Counterpoint, this blowing up the way it has brings even more attention to it and is a worthwhile thing to discuss and examine. Was it predictable? Yes. Was it acceptable? Absolutely not.

It’s a misstep from a decent human being standpoint, not a business one (in the short term anyway).

Correct, yes, they should not be operating in China if China requires them to be complicit in totalitarianism.

Game companies shouldn’t be bending over backwards to support authoritarian regimes which are abusing people. I’m kind of bewildered that’s become a mildly controversial statement to make.

Neutrality is a political stance, even if they pretend it isn’t. 

Company values in general never mean much anyway. It’s the ultimate facade that people buy into. Beyond maybe a fair shake between employer and employee, mainly because of labor laws, if there is a threat to them making the almighty dollar and annual revenue growth, they will stomp it out of existence. Politically,…

Well I know I’ve found my line. It’s a shame because I was really excited for Blizcon and shit but the only way businesses are going to learn to not bow to China’s authoritarian whims is if the customer base punishes them greatly for it. Some mouthbreather is probably going to come in to the comments with the tiresome…

Man, this leftier-than-thou stuff is really toxic. Here are some people saying that a) a guy did a good thing and he shouldn’t be punished for it, and b) the company that’s doing the punishing should suffer. Those are both good things, and I really don’t see how it’s helpful to attack them. They’re on your side! But…

You apathy and cynicism is inspiring.  You’re so cool and rad.  

Reminder that Tencent (the Chinese state-controlled video game/media giant) owns 5% of Activision.