Hearthstone (and battlenet desktop)

[Marco]

I thought Taliesin had a good take on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPrFvcdKxWw

[**andius]

Made interesting viewing thank you. I left the following comment on the video.

While what he said is no joke the way he went about it made it seems to me to be more a badly done prank than serious political messages, all three of them were laughing and smiling before he said it.
He was silly rather than bad but he sure was playing with fire.

Which sums up what I think about it, blizzard's response was heavy handed rather than be malicious. Most likely done at a local level rather than some think at the highest level of Activision Blizzard.
Was it wrong to punish them for breakings the rules no was it to harsh yes but I am not sure what a suitable punishment would have been.

[Marco]

Blizzard walked back about half of the punishments (including giving back all of the previously earned prize money, I think) and issued a statement: https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/23185888/regarding-last-weekend-s-hearthstone-grandmasters-tournament

One part of the statement says "our relationships in China had no influence on our decision" which doesn't look great whether or not you believe it.  If it's false then they're lying about the extent to which they're beholden to the Chinese government; if it's true then they are entirely responsible for harshly punishing a political statement that (I would guess) most of the US and European audience agrees with.

[jsoh]

J Allen Brack rolled out the extremely hoary “stick to sports” line in his statement, which is depressingly on-brand for this timeline.

I’d comment on the rest of his mendacious tripe, but I choked on my bile halfway through and passed out.

[Leah]

J Allen Brack rolled out the extremely hoary “stick to sports” line in his statement, which is depressingly on-brand for this timeline.

I’d comment on the rest of his mendacious tripe, but I choked on my bile halfway through and passed out.

I too found this shallow and pedantic.

[Snique]

Me three. I thought Taliesin's assumption that this was made by a lower-level person was likely correct and I was waiting to see if Blizzard threw someone under the bus.

Saying things like "our process wasn’t adequate" and then saying nothing about how it's inadequate, how they determined that, or what they'll do about that is just bafflegab. It's throwing "the process" under the bus rather than having some human own it. There's not even a half-hearted apology for the "process" or its outcome. Literally, the words "apology" and "sorry" don't appear anywhere on that page.

Also, the bleating about "values" without any language indicating how they plan to hold those values in the face of conflicting national and fan interests is incredibly shallow. If this is the best they can come up with after a week? They're just begging for trouble.

[Snique]

Bliztchung's response, as quote on Hearthpwn: https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/6994-blizzard-adjusts-and-explains-decision-on

[Marco]

Me three. I thought Taliesin's assumption that this was made by a lower-level person was likely correct and I was waiting to see if Blizzard threw someone under the bus.

I don't think Blizzard was ever likely to identify an individual at fault; subjecting a person to harassment that way would be pretty unusual for a company, especially in the games industry.  That's more of a government thing.

Saying things like "our process wasn’t adequate" and then saying nothing about how it's inadequate, how they determined that, or what they'll do about that is just bafflegab. It's throwing "the process" under the bus rather than having some human own it.

I think it's pretty obvious; the invocation of esports contract penalty clauses needs to be run further up the corporate hierarchy.

[Snique]

I don't think Blizzard was ever likely to identify an individual at fault; subjecting a person to harassment that way would be pretty unusual for a company, especially in the games industry.  That's more of a government thing.

Sure. No named human, at least below exec or "public face" level. But I did expect something along the lines of "This decision was initially made by people in $LOCATION (or at $LEVEL). Upon further review, we decided to modify the initial judgment..."

Saying things like "our process wasn’t adequate" and then saying nothing about how it's inadequate, how they determined that, or what they'll do about that is just bafflegab. It's throwing "the process" under the bus rather than having some human own it.

I think it's pretty obvious; the invocation of esports contract penalty clauses needs to be run further up the corporate hierarchy.

I think that's a generous assumption on your part, particularly without an official statement like the above. I also think it's likely that this inadequacy is likely to lead to more howling maenads the next time something like this happens, which it surely will.

[**andius]

I think if they said something along the lines of "This decision was initially made by people in $LOCATION (or at $LEVEL). Upon further review, we decided to modify the initial judgment..." it would seen for some PR speech and they would be called out on it.
If it was to specific then it would lead to people guessing who did it and that is going to get toxic very quickly.
Better they take responsibility jointly and blame the process. The next step is important fix it and tell people how this fixes it.

[HeidiB]

"howling maenads"?

[jsoh]

"howling maenads"?

That’s the crazy guy from the A-Team, I think.

[Leah]

"howling maenads"?

That’s the crazy guy from the A-Team, I think.

I regret my role in this escalating war of using the most obscure and unwieldy word, especially since mine was a Family Guy quote intent on needling Apert for his use of mendacious.

[Snique]

https://www.wordnik.com/words/maenad

I'm very fond of that word. I debate that it's unwieldy.  "Cithæron" - now THAT's unwieldy.

[HeidiB]

It looks sexist to me.  Why "howling maenads" and not "harpies" or "banshees"?