In the last two weeks, the United States has been swept by protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Protesting the police brutality that ultimately killed Floyd, thousands upon thousands of United States citizens have taken to the streets.
They certainly haven’t taken to the streets alone, though. While the event that sparked the protests happened in Minneapolis, protests supporting the same cause as the protestors in the United States can be found across England, Germany, and dozens of other nations.
Among the voices that have spoken up have been a high number of the biggest names in gaming, joining the chorus that the majority of the world seems to have joined in on. Companies as small as single independent developers to organizations as big as Bethesda and Riot have voiced their support.
Yesterday, Blizzard joined in on the voices as well, showing their support for the protestors and urging their player base to pay attention to what’s being said around the world.
“More important voices than ours need to be heard, and now is the time to listen,” Blizzard stated through their official World of Warcraft Twitter account. “We are postponing our upcoming World of Warcraft: Shadowlands livestream planned for June 9, and will share more details about the expansion in the future.”
Blizzard’s move has been met with a mix of both support and annoyance. While the majority of the world and nation seems to be in support of the protests, it certainly isn’t unanimous, and those that disagree with the movement have reacted with more than a bit of vitriol to Blizzard’s decision.
Of course, there are also those that play games for escapism’s purposes, and it’s understandably disappointing to have an event pushed away with no announced release date when you’ve been looking forward to it.
However, as Blizzard states, now isn’t the time for escapism, and there are voices that need to be heard. Blizzard’s decision to pump the breaks on their own hype train and slow down advertisement of their upcoming expansion comes from a desire to help these voices be heard.
It’s worth saying, though, that many have been pointing to a strong amount of hypocrisy on the side of the developers. It wasn’t long ago that players were being banned from participating in Hearthstone tournaments for voicing support of the Hong Kong protests, which are still going on to this day.
While the hypocrisy is certainly there, it’s still refreshing to see that Blizzard is willing to postpone their own events for the purposes of speaking out. Though it’s almost undeniably to help their image, it doesn’t change the fact that their voice has been added to the ever-growing chorus of the people calling out for justice and equality.
