Hong Kong
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I'm sure there have been other incidents but I've been following a couple of instances of people supporting the HK protesters and the repercussions.
First guy was the GM of the Rockets tweeting, and the Chinese not reacting well at all. The NBA commissioner is involved now and treading that line between free speech but not wanting to foul all the coverage and $$ the NBA gets via China. Interesting that the company Tencent is coming up - they have their finger in sport, gaming, and also dropped a fat investment in Reddit a year or so ago.
Second one is a Hearthstone gamer who won a comp in Taiwan. During his interview with the casters he made a statement about supporting the HK crew. Blizzard (Activision) who are massive with games like WoW, Starcraft 2, Hearthstone, cut the guys winnings and banned him for 12 months, then they fired the casters even though they had nothing to do with the guys comments. Blizzard has been going HAM with mobile games full of micro-transactions aimed at the Chinese market - so $$ talk very loudly.
oh and have been keen to watch the latest South Park episode 'Band in China' - have been laughing at their mock apology and ability to skewer the actions of China who apparently have now scrubbed South Park off their internet!
Unfortunately it seems the stuff happening in HK is getting increasingly grim.
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Well Blizzard's approach has blown up in their faces. Memes galore, heaps of people cancelling their subscriptions, more prominent players and casters opting out of Blizzard events, and protests by Blizzards own staff - not to mention some political commentary from Senators Rubio and Wyden. They have Blizzcon coming up and after the last one was a shambles with Diablo for mobile being released (ie for a Chinese market) they must be nervous about things. I hear a lot of pooh bear costumes are being hired
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Not to go too far down the gaming rabbit hole but Epic is 40% owned by Tencent. But the CEO has come out to support HK and say that they won't be influenced by Tencent or flip to pro-China to protect revenue.
Note: Epic own Fortnite 😁
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This is getting next level ridiculous. Blizzard has apparently blocked people deleting their accounts....Yeah that'll calm them down.
That's the thing with would-be authoritarians it takes them a while to work out the only way to force someone into their utopian ideals is through violence.
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@Rembrandt it's insanity, from info I've seen China is still the much smaller market compared to Western audiences. So they must have some compelling predictions about market growth. Especially since their Diablo knock-off hasn't gone overly well (anywhere).
Loving the European folks using their data laws to force Blizzard to delete their accounts and get their data sent to them. In other countries Blizzard are making changes to how you can delete an account. Somehow they think they'll lose fewer customers this way?? wtffffffff
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It's a good way to play into China's hands; create an ongoing state of lawlessness to ensure they send in troops. You have to wonder at the intellect of some people.
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@antipodean what alternatives do they have? peaceful protest? wasn't that met with force as well?
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@Paekakboyz said in Hong Kong:
@antipodean what alternatives do they have? peaceful protest? wasn't that met with force as well?
Are they allowed to protest in China? If not, then stay within the confines of the law and you won't be met with a violent govt reaction.
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@Paekakboyz said in Hong Kong:
@antipodean what alternatives do they have? peaceful protest? wasn't that met with force as well?
The extradition bill has been withdrawn. Objective met. Stop poking the bear.
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@antipodean said in Hong Kong:
@Paekakboyz said in Hong Kong:
@antipodean what alternatives do they have? peaceful protest? wasn't that met with force as well?
The extradition bill has been withdrawn. Objective met. Stop poking the bear.
Protestors have crossed a few lines now and are starting to lose a fair bit of support.
I'm not sticking up for the police or anything, as undoubtedly alot of their responses / behaviour has been completely unacceptable. However, all I see is very very one sided. As an example, a protestor has shot a police officer with an arrow, and its' barely reported on.
Petrol bombs, bow and arrows etc etc. Thats just nuts.
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@antipodean said in Hong Kong:
@Paekakboyz said in Hong Kong:
@antipodean what alternatives do they have? peaceful protest? wasn't that met with force as well?
The extradition bill has been withdrawn. Objective met. Stop poking the bear.
That was the original aim. However, the view is that the police response was very "China", in that they could do what they want and face zero repurcussions. The rule / law of state makes them untouchable.
Hence, the aim has now gotten much wider.
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@antipodean said in Hong Kong:
It's a good way to play into China's hands; create an ongoing state of lawlessness to ensure they send in troops.
Have heard a conspiracy theory from some HK folk that some of the "protesters" are mainland plants and or triads sent in to cause civil unrest - hence playing in to China's hands.
Not out of the realms of possibility. Some of this is well out of character for HK people.