I’ve been a lifelong fan of Blizzard’s games. I was a serious StarCraft player, even participated and placed in the very first ladder championships in the 90s. Loved WoW for years, really enjoyed StarCraft II, Diablo 3, Put hundreds of hours into Overwatch, even liked HOTS and Hearthstone. But the last couple of years especially, they have absolutely lost their way.
Based on reporting, it sounds like it’s the outside influence of Activision (among other things) poisoning the well slowly over time. The departure of longtime cultural heads like Mike Morhaime, Chris Metzen, and Ben Brode seem to have led up to this as well.
It’s fucking sad to see, and I feel for longtime employees at Blizzard who are watching their home go to shit in real time.
It’s hopefully obvious that I think this decision to ban Blitzchung AND the two casters who were on at the time is bullshit. As someone in an international industry (biotech) I do understand why companies want to do business in China, but American companies seem to forget their roots when they pull shit like this.
I, for one, am boycotting their products from here on until they respond to this. Just as they’re free to punish Blitzchung, I’m free to express my discontent with their decision and to not buy their products to protest them.
I was just about to resub to WoW. I was excited for Warcraft III Reforged. I very likely would have tried Modern Warfare (despite being turned off by the white phosphorous shit in it) And Overwatch on Switch. Forget it now. They can correct this and win me and people like me back but at this point, they need a wake up call.
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