Hearthstone
Blizzard ’s late controversial posture comes from itsHearthstoneMasters Tour livestream on Twitch this weekend , which began today and has already seen viewers experience 24 - minute chat bans for typing " Free Hong Kong " into Old World chat during the program . Blizzard has come under fire for what many believe to be a well-defined prioritization of profit over player exemption , an issue that first halt from the caller ’s treatment ofHearthstonepro actor blitzchung .
In the case of blitzchung , the Formosan pro participant was intemperately punish for using the sentence allotted for his winner ’s audience during one of the Hearthstone Grandmasters hebdomadary matches to support the protests presently on-going in Hong Kong . The castor carry the audience notably ducked under their desks while blitzchung made his statement , clearly attempting to disengage from the sentiment , but that did n’t save them , as all three people on camera were gratingly penalize by Blizzard . Whileblitzchung ’s revoke prize money has since been awarded backto him and his one yr suspension system reduced to six months , the treatment trip scandalization across the gaming community , which mat thatBlizzard was set about to protect its investmentin the Chinese video secret plan marketplace at the expense of its players and fans .
Since then , the community has jar with Blizzard several times over the same subject , with Blizzard ’s late cancellation of a New York medium event meant to facilitate launchOverwatchon the Switch another example of the party ’s involuntariness to harbor the possibility of public protests . Now , a report fromDot Esportsindicates that it ’s spilled over into theHearthstoneMasters Tour Bucharest flow that begin today , with viewers who type " Free Hong Kong " into chat at once receive 24 - hour chat restriction from the PlayHearthstone Twitch channel . Many users have also reported that Blizzard is aggressively censoring any pro - China affirmation in general , with messages getting delete ofttimes .
It’sanother major public relations catastrophe for Blizzard , which has been on the face of it unable to generate anything other than public backlash over the last few weeks . Censoring Twitch viewers over expressing opinions on the situation in China is a bad looking at , but it ’s in product line with what the party has fundamentally been enjoin fans through its actions up until this point - that there ’s essentially a zero - tolerance policy for political saying on its public political program . It ’s worth take down that Blizzard employees have snitch a walkout and also expresseddiscontent over the company ’s stance at tumid , so there ’s still a opportunity for these policies to deepen thanks to internal and external pressures - but it seems like that wo n’t be happening given how much time Blizzard has had to turn its policy up to now .
Blizzard is swiftly approaching the point of no return for its policies , too - BlizzCon is fleetly approaching , and in just a few brusk hebdomad , the companionship will be host what amounts to one of the with child public forums for fans to express their feeling each class . BlizzCon has been the situation of resentment before , but that was mostly colligate to TV games likeDiablo Immortal . The controversy this year is much larger and broad than just one video game , and it ’s going to be an extremely intriguing build - up to what could be the defining moment for one of the manufacture ’s biggest developers .
Next : Blizzard Employees Staged Walkout Amid Massive Controversy
Source : Dot Esports
