Why Hearthstone and Overwatch Players are Boycotting Blizzard

Channel:

Video Game Story Time

Subscribers:

159,000

Published on October 11, 2019 10:49:57 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3zg6-GLUc4

Game:

Hearthstone (2014)

Duration: 8:12

59,878 views

3,111

Overwatch releases on the Nintendo Switch next week. This launch has been hampered somewhat by some pretty negative press directed towards Activision Blizzard, with many people calling for a boycott of the company entirely.

Why? Because of tea.

And also democracy.

This video covers Hong Kong's ongoing protests, China's response to these demonstrations, and Blizzard's decision to self-censor its broadcasts to remove any reference to the controversy.

Hong Kong is a place that is near and dear to our hearts. Kotor lived there throughout his late teens and early twenties, and the only reason he doesn't live there now is because he dated Breton Stripes long distance before moving to be closer to her.

Nevertheless, we wanted to present the case as plainly as possible, without outward bias. We even chose not to include background music in case it swayed the way the video is interpreted. These issues need to be better understood by Western gamers, especially as talks of boycotts circulate. Hopefully the facts speak for themselves, and if you're unsure of what position to take on this front, this video will help to clarify things.

As for whether or not you should boycott? That's up to you. Historically, boycotts don't work particularly well, but making enough noise can sometimes convince a company to reconsider their stance.

Thank you for reading this far, and for watching this video. This is a subject that matters a lot to us, and we drafted and redrafted the script for this video five or six times so that it said exactly what we wanted it to. Even then, it's still imperfect, and we hope you'll forgive our flaws. We've done the best we can.

Also, please don't be too upset if we turn off comments for this video. Wading into politics on YouTube means opening up a big can of worms that we might not necessarily be ready to deal with.

Thanks, we love you,

BretonStripes and Kotor

Sources:

https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/esports/news/23179289/hearthstone-grandmasters-asia-pacific-ruling
https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/8/20904303/hearthstone-grandmasters-blizzard-hong-kong-protest-player-suspended
https://www.vox.com/world/2019/8/22/20804294/hong-kong-protests-9-questions
https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/11/20909581/hearthstone-caster-admirable-quits-grandmasters-hong-kong-protest-blitzchung
https://kotaku.com/overwatchs-mei-is-becoming-a-symbol-of-the-hong-kong-re-1838899963
https://yp.scmp.com/news/china/article/106802/chinese-president-xi-jinping-cant-bear-being-compared-winnie-pooh-anymore

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