Q

Anonymous asked:

Any thoughts on the Hong Kong Blizzard situation?

A

I have a lot of thoughts on the matter. Those who participate on our [Discord] server have probably seen my comments and thoughts on the Hong Kong Blizzard (and greater China) situation in real time over the past few weeks. It is a very complicated topic to cover (as geopolitics tends to be), but I will attempt to distill it down for you. Fair warning, this is a long post.

Before we begin, for those who don’t understand what’s happening in Hong Kong, here’s a [quick link to a BBC summary of what the Hong Kong protests are about].

Now… a little more background about doing business in China. You have to realize that all Chinese companies operate in China at the whims of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). All companies above a certain size must have a CCP representative on their board, and all companies above that size just happen to be run by people who have deep ties to the CCP. There are no exceptions to this. To compound this, all foreign companies must partner with a Chinese company in order to do business in China. This gives the CCP unprecedented control and leverage over all major businesses in China. Blizzard’s Chinese partner company is NetEase.

The CCP is very sensitive about certain things. They tolerate no dissidents and have built massive internal systems of social and economic engineering to maintain that level of control - things like individual [social credit scores] that determine a citizen’s ability to travel or buy a home, [massive facial recognition software] to pair with the literal [hundreds of millions of cameras everywhere], and the [”Golden Shield”] - China’s special “walled garden” internet with rigidly controlled access to the outside world.

Let’s go back to the Hong Kong and Blizzard thing directly. One of the competitors in the Hearthstone Grandmaster tournament was blitzchung, a Hong Kong native who, during a post-match interview, put on a gas mask like those the protesters are using and said “Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times” - the HK protester slogan. In response to this, [Blizzard banned blitzchung from competing for a year, took back his prize money, and removed him from Grandmasters]. The day after, the official Hearthstone Weibo (essentially China’s version of Facebook) account posted this:

For those who can’t read it, the text roughly translates to this:

We are very angered and disappointed at what happened at the event and do not condone it in any way. We also highly object to the spreading of personal political beliefs in this manner. Effective immediately, we’ve banned the contestant from events and terminated work with the broadcasters. We will always respect and defend the pride of our country.

Now that you’re all caught up, let’s talk about Blizzard and their business situation in China in general. China represents an enormous portion of Blizzard’s market. One of the designers I know at Blizzard said “I was once told that Warcraft is to China what Star Wars is to the US” and I believe it. China has gone so far as to build a Warcraft-inspired (but not licensed) [theme park]. You’d think this might give them some clout, but you’d be wrong. The CCP has no qualms about completely banning any company that steps out of line.

It’s also important to note a few other relevant details you might not be aware of:

[Several of Blizzard’s own employees staged a walkout in protest of the company decision]
[Blizzard is far from alone in this behavior]. The CCP has their foot on the necks of many foreign companies.
The Hong Kong Blizzard issue has also garnered [mainstream] [media] [coverage]
[Both Republican and Democrat lawmakers have criticized Blizzard’s response in this incident]

Here’s the thing - a lot of Blizzard’s critics in this situation are saying that it’s greed motivating their decision… but I don’t think it’s just greed. If Blizzard gets cut off from China, it would be disastrous for their bottom line, as well as Activision-Blizzard’s valuation. That would not only mean they lose a lot of money, but the entire company (and many of their employees’ jobs) is potentially in jeopardy. Given just how much of their business is done in China, I would not be surprised if being banned from China would be an existential crisis for Blizzard as we know it. For anybody within Blizzard, that should be terrifying.

Now that we’ve been through all that, here are my own thoughts on the matter: Blizzard is stuck between two awful choices. This has become a full-blown international incident, which puts it in a different class entirely than the usual kinds of gamer recreational outrage. It’s a public relations shitstorm of the highest degree and one that will likely take years to recover from. However, their only other option is potential ruin with many, many lost jobs and irreparable harm done to the company at the pleasure of an authoritarian government. If I were in their position, I would say that (some of) the players could possibly be won back by making good games and keeping a low profile while a ban by the CCP is not something they can appeal. My view is that Blizzard as a company is essentially a CCP hostage at this point. Maybe it wasn’t when they first launched WoW in China back in 2005, but a lot has changed in the 14 years since then. It certainly doesn’t excuse what they did, but I don’t believe it is as simple as “they want China money so they compromise their ideals”. I believe the CCP has them by the neck and will not hesitate to squeeze.

PS Edit:

I wanted to paraphrase something that Brian Kibler, former Hearthstone caster, said today. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to step back from this. Do not take your anger out on the other casters, or streamers, or employees of Blizzard. This is not the kind of decision that comes from the rank and file. Most likely they’re just as angry as you are.

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