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Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by gatherhunterer on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:53PM (#21339436)
Blizzard is motivated by money, that seems to be the chief complaint: Blizzard behaves on the basis of profitability rather than morality. So why would a moral appeal have any effect?

A boycott would get results, this just gets clicks.

Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by stale2002 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:55PM (#21339463)
A moral appeal is the method of getting more people on board, to support whatever actions against blizzard that they are trying to achieve.
Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by gatherhunterer on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @06:09PM (#21339584)
> whatever actions against blizzard that they are trying to achieve

That is what seems so hackneyed about this. This is like doing marketing for “whatever product we decide to sell”. The goal should be defined first.

What would be too little from Blizzard? What would be a “good” response? When would it be too late? What exactly do these people actually want Blizzard to do?

This Google doc is an attention-seeker’s manifesto; it is highly inflammatory and uses emotionally provocative language about rights and freedom and doing the right thing, yet it avoids being too specific so that Blizzard cannot win because they cannot discern what response the protesters want.

Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by stale2002 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @06:18PM (#21339663)
> The goal should be defined first.

> What would be too little from Blizzard? What would be a “good” response? When would it be too late? What exactly do these people actually want Blizzard to do?

I'll give a solution. They should completely reverse every punishment that they made, against everyone, get rid of any "rules" they had that caused these punishments, and do not enforce this in the future.

And if they received any communications from the Chinese government, then they should publish it all, and they should say that they will never give in to any explicit or implicit pressure from them.

And they get bonus points, if they do stuff like create Mei Li, pro Hong Kong skins for overwatch.

Doing this stuff would absolutely make all the protesters happy.

Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by belltaco on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:14PM (#21340062)
>get rid of any "rules" they had that caused these punishments, and do not enforce this in the future.

Great, I cannot wait to see all the political speeches while trying to catch some esports or sports. If you're an (e-)athlete, what better time and place to let the world know about your feelings on MAGA, ICE camps other than broadcasts of your gameplay?

Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by stale2002 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:00PM (#21340991)
Go ahead! That is great that you agree on this!

Also, people are more than just their gameplay in a specific game. There are storylines, and personal developments, and lots and lots of things related to players that do not have anything to do with who won or lost in a game.

If someone has politics as a big part of their identity, I don't see why it would be wierd to talk about it. Just like any other big part of someone's identity that has nothing to do with the game.

Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by vkou on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:20PM (#21340094)
I am eagerly awaiting participant advocacy for a free Ireland/Palestine/Kashmir/weev at the next annual StarCraft tournament.
Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by stale2002 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:11PM (#21341047)
Awesome! Me too.

I love knowing more specific details and storylines, related to an individual person.

This is true for real sports. People have lots of details about them that aren't directly related to the game.

And I am glad that you are also as excited as I am to see these personal storylines play out!

Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by bafflingworld on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @06:10PM (#21339594)
Multinational Corporations like Bayer, IBM, and Mercedes-Benz collaborated with the Nazis. This is nothing new. The real question is: What are we gonna do about it?

>This Google doc is an attention-seeker’s manifesto; it is highly inflammatory and uses emotionally provocative language about rights and freedom and doing the right thing, yet it avoids being too specific so that Blizzard cannot win because they cannot discern what response the protesters want.

This reminds me of the critiques of Occupy Wall Street. "It's not specific enough! We don't know what they want." 9 years later and we sure do now. The goal is not to "win" with Blizzard. The goal is public humiliation and economic punishment for those who enable genocide.

Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by zipwitch on Thursday October 24, 2019 @01:11AM (#21341807)
Open protests at Blizzcon will do an immense amount of financial damage to Blizzard-Activision. At an absolute minimum, they will reduce the return from a massive publicity exercise.

Likely outcomes include damaging future sales of anything that gets revealed/promoted at Blizzcon, increasing awareness of the boycott and the reasons for it, and forcing Blizzard to anger both Blizzard fans (from Blizzard's own probably over-reaction to protesters) and the Chinese government (who are going to be unhappy about any level of protest).

Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by r00fus on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:43PM (#21340214)
Perhaps the protest is a prelude of a potential future boycott.
Re:Gamers for Freedom: A handbook for protesting at this yea... by Iv on Thursday October 24, 2019 @03:23AM (#21342430)
It is our role to align morality and profits.

Censoring speech should make them lose more money than disobeying China.

Starcraft 1 was the first game I bought. I love their games. I think this will make me boycott there for at least 5 or 10 years even if they correct their course now.