Officially sanctioned or not, the clampdown won't do anything to change the perception that Blizzard is cracking down on free speech—ironic, given that it was a call for freedom that sparked this furor in the first place.

Evidence of that can also be seen on Blizzard's own forums. "For some reason, one of our recent mods set the subreddit to private then deleted his account," the post reads.

You can read more about it here. Hearthstone player Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai recently made waves when, during an official competition, he voiced support for Hong Kong amidst ongoing protests over Chinese rule.

UPDATE: Following a significant wave of backlash to Blizzard's suspension of a pro-Hong Kong Hearthstone player, the subreddit r/Blizzard has shut down. “I’ve spent around £200 in the game and countless of hours.

Finally, a note on the short time the subreddit was private: For some reason, one of our recent mods set the subreddit to private then deleted his account. Press J to jump to the feed. r/Blizzard: Activision Blizzard company news and discussion of Blizzard games. The tyranny caused by the communist government in China should never have any control over companies not based in China.

Your opinion is the laziest, most intellectually defunct, most stupidly common entitled whine out there.

Apparently, it was the work of a single mod who also deleted their account, not an attempt to put a stop to criticism of Blizzard. Image credit. I didn’t totally know what was going on in Hong Kong before the blizzard situation. None.

Blitzchung wanted to raise awareness.

It was an odd event, but rest assured, us remaining mods have restored it to public.

What Blizzard has done, or rather what they have become, is just a straight up tragedy. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts ... Conforming to the letter of the rules is not a magic talisman against moderation if your posts are bad for the subreddit. It was an odd event, but rest assured, us remaining mods have restored it to public.

Today was my last day playing Hearthstone. No, we were not contacted by Blizzard, nor are we employees to any extent.

Blitzchung brought awareness to the situation for people like myself. Finally, a note on the short time the subreddit was private: For some reason, one of our recent mods set the subreddit to private then deleted his account. Wai, a citizen of Hong Kong, used his platform during a mid-tournament interview to call for the “liberation” of his city from Chinese influence, referring to the movement as the “revolution of our age” and donning one of the protective masks that have become synonymous with the pro-Hong Kong protestors and outlawed by the local government. Throw your energy at actually helping them.

(UPDATE 2:15 pm ET: Kotaku reached out to both Blizzard and the r/Blizzard moderators about this topic, but they did not immediately respond to our request for comment. There are many bad things happening in the world at any given moment, and it's literally impossible to give all of those things the attention that they deserve.

If corporations, politicians and even regular players will bow down to China's money and influence at a time when freedom is actually at stake, what hope does the rest of the free world have? No, we were not contacted by Blizzard, nor are we employees to any extent.

The blizzard censorship was what brought it into my awareness. The Hearthstone subreddit closed, overwhelmed by the explosion of criticism.

Once our special interests get infringed, we take arms. You really think a gaming company can make the difference there?

What he said was about Hong Kong, but the issue everyone has with it is the censorship.

The reaction to Blizzard's year-long suspension of the Hearthstone Grandmaster has come fast and furious. The problem is tangentially Hong Kong. I truly care about not censoring what would in any other context be totally acceptable and appropriate. In his off hours, he wishes he had time to play the 80-hour RPGs and immersive sims he used to love so much.

The whole attempt to guilt trip people isn't a constructive way to hold a debate. To me a lot of you sound fake and only cared after blizzard ban and think boycotting will save or do something for HK. Update: The Blizzard subreddit is once again open to the public, and a quick glance at the recent thread titles provides a pretty good idea about why it was closed in the first place. The lockdown came without warning or explanation, but this message from r/wow moderator DotkasFlughoernchen all but confirms that the outrage over Blitzchung's suspension and loss of winnings is the cause.

The autonomous Chinese city of Hong Kong has been rocked by protests since March as the Chinese government has moved to institute greater control over the region. Gotta be honest, idgaf. Public criticism of the company’s decision has been swift, and the official Blizzard subreddit closed following Blitzchung’s suspension, Kotaku reported. It’s not immediately clear if that closure was in response to the suspension. Activision Blizzard company news and discussion of Blizzard games.

He succeeded and that's a good thing. No, we were not contacted by Blizzard, nor are we employees to any extent. Its about hate of a company that trows their morals to the trash for money. You think you sound intellectual? Vote with your wallets; these disgusting corporate sacks of shit will cave, quickly.

Yesterday the r/Blizzard subreddit closed down (it’s live again now) and there were more protests during the Hearthstone Tespa Collegiate Champs (thanks, Kotaku). r/Blizzard Rules. You all know it by now.

Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, This thread in the Hearthstone forum is already well over 500 posts, but lively discussions are also underway on the World of Warcraft and Overwatch forums.

Vote with your wallet people, it’s the only language they understand.”.

You're unnecessarily acting like a gatekeeper in this whole situation. Boycotting Blizzard sends a message to Blizzard (and by extension to China) that the people will not stand for China's behavior. © We are committed to supporting this community.

I'm really curious how many of you actually cared about the whole Hong Kong situation BEFORE the blizzard ban... And with cared I don't mean reading an article about it and think "hmm it's pretty bad over there" and just read the next article. For science, ya dig.

The reaction to Blizzard's year-long suspension of the Hearthstone Grandmaster has come fast and furious. It's such a cliche opinion with a side of bleach that it'd almost be funny if the likes of alt-right, Trump, and indeed China didn't feed off such opinions causing false neutrality that favors them. The thing I care about the most is how a US based company is pandering to communist China. Blizzard is just another puppet which is being played with by the Chinese goverment.

As such, all discussions relating to the aforementioned situation will go in this megathread for now. You will receive a verification email shortly. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it made private again before long—I'll update again if that happens. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. they'd be pretty quickly criticised for not solving the Israel/Palestine conflict yet. I didnt care about the situation because I did not know the situation-- there are a million things going on in the world right now and I can't follow them all.

Though, when I heard about the ban I did some research about the hong kong situation. Everything you need to know and expect about. NY 10036. It should go without saying that any witch-hunting, doxxing, and personal threats are against site rules and are still bannable offenses. ), “I’ve played Hearthstone since early 2014,” one Reddit user said. Now it affects us. The blowback from Blizzard's extremely heavy-handed reaction to Hearthstone Grandmaster Chung 'blitzchung' Ng Wai's call for freedom for Hong Kong yesterday—removal from Grandmasters, a year-long suspension from all competition, loss of all season two winnings, and the effective firing of the two casters involved—has come unexpectedly fast and furious. Sign up to get the best content of the week, and great gaming deals, as picked by the editors. PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. You don't want to hear what shakes your boat too much with all those "annoying" other people and their "problems", but you also don't want to sound like a callous shithead, so you pretend nobody else really cares either.

There was a problem. All discussion of Blizzard banning the Hearthstone Grandmaster after his comments on Hong Kong has to go in the megathread, say the mods, but it's taken over the subreddit all the same. "It also makes up nearly the entire frontpage of r/Blizzard.". Thank you for signing up to PC Gamer. Update: The Blizzard subreddit is once again open to the public, and a quick glance at the recent thread titles provides a pretty good idea about why it was closed in the first place.

You're the one who sounds the fakest. You don't care about Hong Kong at all, most likely never have, and your attempts to guilt trip others for it are hollow at best. Visit our corporate site. Visitors to … We are committed to supporting this community.".

What does affect me is when a company I play games on all the time is pandering to a communist government and censoring people. At the same time, we take great care to avoid censoring sensible discussion. We are grateful for all our decent users, and everyone who reports rule-breaking posts/comments. Andy covers the day-to-day happenings in the big, wide world of PC gaming—the stuff we call "news." I don't even like how much control that evil government has in China itself.