By Adam Gellert
Since June of this year, there have been mass protests in Hong Kong against a Chinese extradition law that could be abused to violate Hong Kong citizen’s rights. As the protests continue, more people across the world are voicing support for the protestors. While support for protestors is being seen globally, China’s influence on corporations is also being highlighted.
With its large population, China is a lucrative market for many industries. Hollywood movies can see a huge boost in profits in their market. Many clothing companies like Nike and many other products rely on Chinese production to drive their costs down. Chinese companies have begun investing in American organizations, like the NBA as well. Another large industry increasingly leaning into the Chinese market is the video game industry. One game company made the spotlight recently, but not necessarily in a good way.
Blizzard, makers of many franchises popular among gamers such as World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and Hearthstone, made headlines when they banned Hong Kong based player Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai. Ng Wai is a professional Hearthstone player, who was doing an interview after winning a match of the strategic card game on a Taiwanese stream when he made a statement about the protests in Hong Kong. As he made his short statement, translated to “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our Age!” the two casters for the tournament put their heads down to hide their faces, fearing repercussion. The stream was immediately cut after the statement.
Afterwards, Ng Wai told Polygon that “there would definitely be negative consequences” for his actions. He was absolutely right.
Three days after the incident, Blizzard issued a statement that Ng Wai had violated tournament rules, and that he would be banned from competitive play for a year. All the prize money he had earned that season would be withheld as well. In addition to Ng Wai’s ban, the two tournament casters had their contracts terminated. The rule cited for the ban is against “doing anything that brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard’s image.” The company assured the public that the decision to ban him and fire the casters was strictly for violating this rule, and not motivated by China at all.
The rule may seem fair enough for a corporation, but this instance of enforcing it has given Blizzard a bad look to some. Steven Simonson, a game development student at Iowa Lakes and longtime Hearthstone player, explained his thoughts on the matter.
“I get why they have the rule, they don’t want to cause controversy, but by doing this they kind of brought it on themselves,” Simonson said. “They might not actually support China, but they’re sending the message that they value profit over doing the right thing.”
Meanwhile, the Blizzard community wasn’t convinced that this wasn’t a case of Chinese-influenced censorship, and staged their own protests online. Fans used editing and animating skills to turn one of Blizzard’s characters from popular first-person shooter Overwatch into a mascot for the protestors in Hong Kong. Another popular image was the Blizzard logo emblazoned on the Chinese flag. In addition to these images, fans were calling for a mass boycott of Blizzard games and merchandise.
Fans weren’t the only ones upset with the company however. Employees within Blizzard staged a walkout in protest of the company’s policies on political speech.
In the wake of this controversy, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack issued a statement on the ban. With this statement he announced that he felt they “could have done better” with the punishment, and said that Ng Wai’s ban would be reduced from a year to six months, and that he would be receiving the money he had earned. The two fired casters also had their punishment reduced to a six month suspension as well. Brack re-iterated that the decision wasn’t due to their personal views or business relationships.
“I want to be clear: our relationships in China had no influence on our decision,” he wrote. “If this had been the opposing viewpoint delivered in the same divisive and deliberate way, we would have felt and acted the same.”
Blizzard’s statement didn’t do much to quiet the outrage online, especially when a statement was issued by them in China which gave a different impression of their stance.
For some the boycotts continue. Simonson, who says he has spent “an embarrassing amount” of money playing Hearthstone, says this incident has soured Blizzard as a company for him.
“I can’t see myself giving them any more money,” he said. “They’ve shown what they really value and I won’t contribute to that.”
Some fans are still a little more sympathetic with Blizzard. Longtime fan Austin Wedebrand understands why they handled the situation the way they did.
“They just wanted to stay out of any controversy, which makes sense,” Wedebrand said. “I don’t know if they actually support China, but I do know the way they handled it makes them look bad.”
He still plans to attend Blizzard’s annual convention, Blizzcon, which runs from Nov. 1-Nov. 3.
“I mean, I already spent the money and bought the tickets,” he said with a chuckle.
With fan ire at Blizzard’s actions, boycotts continuing, and Blizzard cancelling events, many are anticipating the convention. There has already been talk online of organizing protests and grilling employees at Q&As.
One thing is for sure, this year could very well be the most eventful Blizzcon in the company’s history.
Call of the Lake 
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