As Blizzard boycott spreads, World of Warcraft game designer says 'Communist money is dictating American values'

If you haven’t heard about any of this before now, you can read the full backstory here. The shortened version is this: Blizzard Entertainment, an American gaming company, punished a player from Hong Kong after he yelled out “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” during a post-game live stream. The player, who goes by the handle Blitzchung, was suspended for a year and had his prize money seized. Blizzard did this because, just like the NBA, it is in business with China.

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But the reaction from many players has been swift and furious. Vox’s Zack Beauchamp, who is apparently a daily player of one of the company’s games, suggested a boycott yesterday. He was not alone as similar suggestions were being made in various subreddits and on social media sites like Twitter.

Tuesday evening, game designer Mark Kern who worked on World of Warcraft for Blizzard announced he was joining the boycott because China’s money was dictating “American values.” Kern says he once received an offer for a $2 million dollar bribe if he would accept an investment from a Chinese company.

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In addition to Kern, at least two Senators have weighed in:

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But there are lots of regular people who are mocking the company with memes like this one featuring Blizzard’s logo superimposed on the Chinese flag:

This mock game card reads, “Silence any minions who oppose you and take their prize money.”

Others are just posting screenshots showing they’ve removed Blizzard’s games from their computers:

https://twitter.com/brittadal/status/1181982684383514625

Finally, some American University students held up a sign saying “Free Hong Kong/Boycott Blizz” at the end of a live stream yesterday. Watch the camera in the bottom left:

https://youtu.be/u_mmWMN6K40?t=3094

Given all of the polling that shows younger people increasingly support socialism, it’s refreshing to see some young people who still get that appeasement of communist China should not be tolerated. The pushback is getting a lot of coverage, including at major papers like the NY Times, but so far Blizzard has not offered a comment about any of it. Maybe they’re hoping this will blow over? I sincerely hope they’re wrong.

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