I don’t want to see Qt3 mommy and daddy fighting and hope we can settle down to agree to disagree and instead focus on trashing a common enemy instead.
RIM, BlackBerry and Anthem.
I don’t claim to be some paragon of gamer virtue, but FWIW my Blitzchung boycott kinda stings. I would have sunk hundreds more hours into WoW Classic, no question.
I am more than OK trashing Blizzard/Activision’s corporate structure and policies that lead to horrible situations for their staff, as well as their tone deaf management and response to this situation.
I am not OK with boycotts which punish not only the terrible management, but the day to day employees that are being abused by their terrible management.
To the larger issue, that not only gaming hardware but a ton of everything is manufactured in China, and they have us by the balls, this presents a real moral quandary re: the Uyghurs, which could metastasize into the worst genocide since World War II.
You forgot qualcomm!
Anyway, if you’re boycotting over Chinese influence, that certainly is not going to change. If it’s the sexual harassment and unfair promotions, etc, that’s got a pretty good chance now.
And yeah, it’s super easy to boycott Blizzard today. Real test will be when D4 comes out.
I’m not sure how you do boycotts at all without day to day employees getting caught up in the pain. I mean, a lot of South African laborers probably suffered because of '80s boycotts against apartheid, I should think?
Think of the rank and file contractors on the Deathstar?
So you’re saying this thread has gone full Kevin Smith?
Yes, you are supporting Activision. As is anyone playing their games. And you’re supporting them despite being fully aware what they’ve done and furthermore opting to participate in discussions about their actions.
And by way of attacking someone who opts not to support Activision, you’re claiming they’re no different from any other videogame developer.
And then you backed out of a bet.
A boycott implies I’m organizing something. I’m not. I’m making personal choices based on what I know. Just like you, and @pyrhic, and @davelong.
Honestly, I’m not sure how I would have reacted to the California lawsuit, as it’s pretty unprecedented. Probably the same way I would have reacted to their unprompted and unilateral obeisance to China during the Hong Kong protests; with dismay first at the events, and then disgust at Activision’s corporate follow-up to the events.
But if you don’t know about what they did, I hope you’ll watch that video Gordon linked upthread. It’s mostly a game livestream, so you don’t need to watch the whole thing. The Activision stuff is front-loaded in the first few minutes.
-Tom
I don’t know if other companies are different, but I feel like this sort of thing having such high visibility may cause other companies in the industry to empower HR out of simple self-preservation, and that’s a good thing.
Thank you for helping explain to Dave what I was thinking in my head!
I never used the word boycott, so I’m not sure why you would have had to explain that to me. I realize Tom is making his own personal choices and so am I.
Do people actually read my posts or just skim them? I guess I should keep them shorter?
No boycott ever, then?
It was just a (dumb) joke, but I do agree with Tom. You can opt out of playing a game because the company disgusts you without formalizing it into a contract written in blood, like I see some expect (EDIT: that’s directed at this topic as its discussed around the internet, not at you). And while other developers might be just as bad, that’s an unknown. The crap at Blizzard is known thing at this point (due process, courts, etc. but it doesn’t look great).
You are absolutely supporting Activision Blizzard (or whoever), in a very direct monetary way. It doesn’t matter if you just wanted their product bad enough, that’s what you’re doing. And I’m not judging you or anyone else on it because I’ve done the same, we all do. We all have our personal lines that get drawn.
Given my utter lack of intellectual ability, not very many!
This may be the key, really. Women who can communicate to other women, from positions of experience and authority, to give young women just starting out the tools and support they need to push back.
I don’t want to give the impression that all of my students are like this, far from it. Just that even one or two is, in my mind, too many.
Well I can say I am boycotting Blizzard/Activision. I guess I have of a more loose/cavalier/shorthand deploy of the word boycott: I ain’t buying it.
Yeah, that was kind of pedantic for me to say I’m not boycotting them. I mean, I guess I am. I just don’t think of it as anything so grand or even organized. But that’s not really necessary to invoke the word “boycott”, is it?
I guess I would more readily call it boycotting if I were actively encouraging others to do the same thing, if I were proselytizing a cause. But, really, for me it’s just a matter of being deeply disgusted by their policies. I would hope others feel the same, but that’s up to them.
The difference is that you’re trying to characterize my choice as hypocritical or inconsistent by making the completely unsubstantiated claim to other game developers are just as bad. You’re furthermore claiming you don’t “support Activision”, which is absurd. You’re not only supporting Activision, you’re actively refuting people who object to their behavior. Throwing down juvenile challenges to “make a bet” is just icing on top of the absurdly blustery cake.
-Tom
Oh man, that one takes me back. I remember people rolling that one out during Apartheid in the 80s! I see it’s holding up now as well as it did 40 years ago.
-Tom
What company sold apartheid again?