Following a decision Blizzard Entertainment, publisher of the popular Hearthstone virtual trading card game, to ban one of its grandmaster esports players earlier this week over political speech, the online gaming community has reacted with almost universal anger.
Part of that anger has been channeled into a need to show solidarity with the banned player, Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai while also expressing communal support for the political activity in Hong Kong.
As it turns out, Blizzard already has a self-made mascot in one of its equally popular games, Overwatch, who happens to be Chinese: the Arctic-themed scientist Mei.
Reported at Polygon, the ice-wielding scientist is becoming a representation of a discussion that the Blizzard fan community (and video game community at large) has entered into:
A post yesterday on the r/HongKong subreddit suggested people turn Mei, a Chinese Overwatch hero, into a “pro-democracy symbol” to get “Blizzard’s games banned in China.” (China already censors Winnie the Pooh after the internet began associating the character with president Xi Jinping.) The post has been upvoted more than 12,000 times, and has more than 300 comments, plenty of which are images of Mei supporting Hong Kong. The movement has spread outward into Twitter and elsewhere.
Chung was suspended by Blizzard on Oct. 8 and the news spread quickly across gaming media, primarily fueled by a hashtag published on Twitter. Using “#BoycottBlizzard” Twitter users have continued to stir up anger at Blizzard’s decision to punish Chung for his political speech during a livestream interview.
The previous Sunday, Chung had ended a broadcast with a pair of interviewers by showing his support for the protests in Hong Kong against China’s draconian, oppressive government. In response, it is reported that Blizzard not only fired Chung – but also banned him from esports tournaments for a year and pulled his $10,000 in prize winnings – but also the two Taiwanese interviewers.
Blizzard claimed that the ban was handed down because Chung violated Blizzard’s tournament rules which forbid players from speech that “brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard’s image.” The company cited section 6.1 (o), which gives the company sole discretion to decide what breaks this rule – which also happens to include a section that allows the company to zero out prize winnings as a punishment.
“We’d like to re-emphasize tournament and player conduct within the Hearthstone esports community from both players and talent,” a spokesperson for Blizzard wrote in the announcement. “While we stand by one’s right to express individual thoughts and opinions, players and other participants that elect to participate in our esports competitions must abide by the official competition rules.”
The HongKong forum on Reddit has come out in, understandable, disagreement as users began to produce their own take on Blizzard’s decision.
Mei the Force be with Hong Kong
Posts include “Someone drew this Hong Kong Mei and asked me to post it anonymously, I think it’s amazing, don’t you?”, “Pro Hong Kong Mei inspiered by a post on here. Fuck Blizzard.”, “Mei the Force be with Hong Kong”, “Was gonna burn this cosplay, but this is a much better use of it. #MeiSupportsHongKong” and “Pro-Hong Kong, Anti-Communist Mei for the Free China (proxy posting for artist friend who wish to be anonymous, not my work)” and “Sarcastic piece i made to mock Blizzard.”
Hong Kong protestors get a boost from the video game community
The Hong Kong protests started in June in reaction to Chinese policies allowing the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China. Although Hong Kong is officially part of China, it is a former British colony and maintains a separate culture and still has some autonomy from the mainland. The ability for the Chinese government, which is well known for its draconian and callous humanitarian disregard, to retrieve Hong Kong citizens is seen as an unwelcome power grab by China’s influence.
The Chinese government is also well known in its targeting of journalists and activists, amid other highly vulnerable people, who protestors in Hong Kong feel would quickly become victims of this policy.
Using a character from Blizzard’s own stable, one who represents China, the digital community is showing support for the Hong Kong protests and revealing to Blizzard that cultural influence is out of the company’s control.
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