I’ll say I have the same question. ;)
I took it to mean one of the chunky dudes dressed up in drag. Semi-professionally.
Hah, nah, you wouldn’t catch my gf dead within 300 feet of a Blizzcon streaming party :)
A few of my friends got pretty deeply into the cosplay community, and a couple-few of em made quasi-careers out of it. The girl in question has now moved up to “paid appearances” at cons vs. just free admittance and is a paid rep for a cosplay armor company; another guy will be moving to CA next year to work fulltime for a custom leatherworking cosplay company that sources a lot of the gear they use.
Remaining vague cuz given the above YOKES I kinda don’t wanna send the Rule 34 crowd to her FB page :)
Haha. I have a couple of friends like that. They think the nerd thing is cute, at best.
That’s neat. We have a leather company around here that does some quality stuff. I think they go to some cons, but it never would’ve occurred to me that some of these cos-players were paid at those events.
Totally off topic, but I’ve been curious about the cos-players for years because some of that is so much work, remarkable work at that.
Very much so. You can always tell when a major con is going down through my FB feed due to the sheer number of panicked cries for help from cosplayers up till 3AM sewing shit together that wasn’t meant to be sewn together :-D
I wanna party with you, cowboy.
Another Member of Congress weighs in…
(I’m not sure what he means by ‘woke corporate activism’ but whatever…)
He means “them censoring HK activists is fully in line with their other foul stances like not hating gay people OR black people.”
“I don’t like their gay game characters or their diversity, but I guess we don’t like Commies telling us how to talk.”
Yeah that’s a stupid comment, this is the opposite of “woke”. I like Crenshaw, though, because he’s honest about his evil. I know where he stands.
I mean he’s literally got a fucking eyepatch. He couldn’t be more on the nose if he tried (pun kind of intended). The man lost an eye to demonstrate his status as middling supervillain!
edit something something troops respect etc etc
Yeah man that’s a bridge too far for me, he was wounded fighting the Taliban, who are 100% Pure Evil.
Crenshaw just believes that poor people deserve to die if they get sick. That’s passive evil.
This is turning into a P&R tangent I’m sorry. Back to blizz…
This is a rumor swirling around, and it would be a shame if it got legs
Kotick being linked to Epstein though has nothing to do with HK. I sure hope someone didn’t pull that right out of their ass, since this is exactly the kind of thing that would distract from the actual issue.
Lots of people were in Epstein’s rolodex, doesn’t make them all pederasts. Kotick is a dickbag but he doesn’t deserve that allegation.
In terms of level of outrage, the last thing I’ve seen that generated this much outrage for this long was Gamergate. They’re not going to be able to wait this out.
Also, unlike Gamergate, the angry folks will be the good people not the bad people.
Perhaps relevant to some of Blizzard’s motivation:
I dare say you are a bit behind in your views on chinese manufacturing.
The reality is that China isn’t even the #1 country in Asia for new manufacturing anymore. Companies started years ago to go to Indonisia, Singapore, Thailand etc (Southeast Asia in general) and those countries have already catched up in regards to their growth with China and this trend will only continue.
In Germany for example a lot of companies actually started to move their manufacturing back to Germany or at least to Europe (eastern european countries are attractive for that now).
The simple reason for that is the rising wage costs in China and more and more automation. That’s another trend that will continue and thus in the future the wages will play a lesser role, what you actually need is a well educated work force as well as regional stability/infrastructure.
A lot of people might praise China when it comes to infrastructure but people underestimate with how much corruption and government interference businesses in China have to deal.
So yes China has obviously a lot of economic power with its huge population (which is aging btw) and no western company wants to lose its access to that market but let’s not delude ourselves here into thinking that we NEED China.
There would be a huge cost in “losing” China but it’s a lose the “West” could overcome unlike China which would not only collapse on an economical but societal level because their system only works as long as people think that they get something in return for their freedom.
There are enough China “replacements” waiting, from asian nations (India, the already mentioned Southeastern block) to Africa (and that’s a continent whose population is actually still growing and finally shows signs of a real industrial development).
China is strong as long as the “West” goes along with it. I mean the hope (most) western countries had was that an economical exchange will eventually lead to a culture exchange and move China closer towards “western” ideals and in a lot of cases that has worked in Asia but if China is proving to be a failed “experiment” then a different direction might be needed.
“The internal silence is deafening,” the Blizzard employee told VICE. “Besides two brief ‘I’m listening’ emails from our president, we’ve heard nothing of substance. No one is helping us process what this means for us as a company, as individuals, or is identifying a path forward. No one has been told what to say or do in the aftermath of a legal yet insupportable decision.”
The company’s president had planned to send out a video addressing the controversy but it was delayed, the employee said. As of the time of this writing, the video still hasn’t been sent around. A second Blizzard employee confirmed they are expecting a video from the company.
“No one in charge I know of has spoken to the throng of employees gathered daily around the orc,” the Blizzard employee said.
“It was already difficult to hire but now people with offers in hand have spurned us because they disagree with our decision,” the employee said. “It’s pulling our teams apart at the seams and making it so difficult to feel safe let alone enjoy my job.”
The employee said they feel trapped. “Some of us are afraid to go to work now because our fans and employees are angry and want answers I don’t have and shouldn’t have to give. I’m afraid that as people leave us in droves, my job will disappear in another round of layoffs. I’m sure most around me wonder the same thing. I want to be principled and join the brave folks standing outside our gates or around the orc, but I also know how hard it is to get a job I loved as much as this one. I still love my project; I love my coworkers; my love and respect for Blizzard is diminished.”
Also:
Until everything in the west shifts to 3D printed, robot-made/controlled, entirely on demand manufacturing, which while not here yet is probably the inevitable direction manufacturing is heading. Then China will be left with a ton of human-operated factories and a billion unemployed. Ok, that’s a best-case (worst-case?) prediction, but I’d be wiling to bet that the US and Europe will eventually be back in the manufacturing business, but with nearly no human workers directly involved in production.
I think this is a good bet.