La Ron S. Readus
patreon
What I Miss?? 10/12/19 (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2019-10-12 20:01:00 +0000 UTC
So Blizzard banned pro Hearthstone player Blitzchung from participating in its Grandmasters tournament for a year and completely took back the prize money he won, because during a livestream he showed support for the Hong Kong protesters against China.
(sighs) Okay.
So, for those who are unaware, China and Hong Kong have...a history
Right now Hong Kong is in the midst of a very shitty deal that started back in ‘97 that requires them to fall in their government for 50 years, and they rightfully so don’t believe that they’ll honor that arrangement when their time is up
Recently they’ve been protesting against an extradition bill that would force members of Hong Kong that are convicted of crimes to be tried in China and Taiwan, where their conviction rate is as strong as a can of Lysol
And protesting for a form of democracy that allows them to vote for their leaders, instead of the China government appointed Winnie The Pooh
Now if you’re thinking, “Why would Blizzard do that to someone who supports a group of people that want democracy,” then clearly you don’t know how shitty our capitalistic country works.
You see, China as stressful as they are, make up the majority of Blizzard and its parent company Activision’s player base. And like the reason why box office numbers for newly released American movies rely on China, they don’t want to mess around with their main source of income.
And China has proven to threaten multiple American companies trying to get a China market regarding ANY secondhand support to the Hong Kong protestors. Like forcing Apple to remove an app from their store that’ll help keep the identities of protestors safe from police.
Threaten to reconsider their ties to the NBA because a general Manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted out in support of the protestors
What Activision and Blizzard are doing is making sure that they don’t lose that marketbase, and I am both unsurprised and disappointed
While I understand -- and hate -- how impactful China’s significance is to the world’s economy, I’m a supporter of the Hong Kong protestors.
I’m pro democracy. I’m pro freedom of speech. I’m pro protest, even if it makes things inconvenient for people who don’t have to worry about their lives being threatened by what’s being protested (looks at color of skin on hand) for obvious reasons.
And I’m also not alone. Because there’ve been multiple boycotts of Blizzard’s actions since they did what they did to Blitzchung. From employee walkouts to customers deleting their Blizzard accounts...which resulted in Blizzard’s authentication systems to be disabled.
Now Blizzard since then informed that they weren’t disabled to keep anyone from deleting their accounts, and that it was just the amount of traffic causing it to crash. But then I’m immediately reminded of this scene from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
(“There is no Death Star” line)
So as a result of Blizzard’s actions against Blitzchung and for China, the Hong Kong protestors have pretty much turned Mei from Overwatch into their mascot and I LOVE IT.
Almost immediately following Blitzchung’s ban,
/This popped up on the Hong Kong subreddit with the caption “It would be such a shame if Mei from Overwatch became a pro-democracy symbol and got Blizzard’s games banned in China. Ever since then, images of Mei supporting Hong Kong have spread around the internet like WILDFIRE/
This... I can get behind this.
And if you think it wouldn’t work, take into consideration that Winnie the Pooh joke I made earlier
Because ever since there were comparisons made between the character to the “President” of China, pretty much any and all references to Winnie the Pooh from what they could control in China was banned.
Even Disney’s Christopher Robin film was banned in China, because of the Winnie The Pooh comparisons
So do I think it could work? Yes
Because the Chinese government have clearly proven themselves to be some triggered-ass snowflakes, associating Mei with the revolution might actually GET Activision banned from having their products sold in China. Or at least just Overwatch, because Mei is associated with Overwatch.
And just the steps they took against the NBA and Apple alone in order to get them to comply is proof enough in of itself; I honestly don’t know how much more proof you need!
China Bans South Park after running an episode criticizing its impact in Hollywood box office sales, and South Park fires back in its 300th episode.
I think I...I think I made my point.
Man. I guess this is just a “Fuck China” episode of What I Miss, then
Now, I don’t really watch South Park anymore because that part of my life is over.
But apparently the topic of the episode was what I was talking about in the first news story, regarding China being a huge player in the box office numbers of American movies and how we cater to fit their audience
China didn’t like that and banned South Park, resulting in their 300th episode being a “love letter” to the government. And I just wanna say...good for them
I don’t watch their shit anymore, but good for them.
And while I would’ve done the same thing, because of the type of creator that I am, it probably wouldn’t have even gotten that far.
Because if any of the film or television rights to any stories I write were sold, one of the conditions would have to be that the characters can not be altered in any way to shape China’s standards. Even if it means it never airs in China
And if no studio can come to that agreement, then I have no problem being a broke-ass bitch because of it.
Because at the end of the day, it’s not about money; you can lose it just as quickly as you earn it. It’s about doing the right thing.
