The developer of World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment is facing another backlash after postponing the 15th-anniversary event for World of Warcraft in Taiwan, originally scheduled for the weekend. World of Warcraft was released in 2004 on 23 of November. No reason was provided for the cancellation of this event, and since posting this on the official Taiwan World of Warcraft Facebook Page, hundreds of people have flooded the comments showing their support for the ongoing protests in Hong Kong – a response which most likely influenced the cancellation of this event and the recent cancellation of the Overwatch event as well. https://www.facebook.com/WarcraftZHTW/photos/a.499668883677/10157881473878678 Blizzard is under fire for the past few weeks after it suspended a Hearthstone pro-player Chung ‘blitzchung’ Ng Wai for showing his support for the Hong Kong protests on a live stream. The pro-player appeared on stream wearing the attire of a Hong Kong protestor and shouted ‘Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our time.' Following this event, the pro player was banned, stripped of his prize money and the casters conducting the interview were fired as well. After internal and external criticism, Blizzard Entertainment released a statement during Friday evening the week when this event happened in which they said that they do not tolerate political agendas on their Livestream and will hold all players to this regard. They added ‘our response was not appropriate, we have changed the suspension from 1 year to 6 months for the Chung ‘blitzchung’ Ng Wai and he will get to keep all his prize money.’ This week, Blizzard Entertainment was supposed to have a launch event for Overwatch on Nintendo Switch on the 16th of October at Nintendo’s New York City store, but the event was canceled a few days before it and people responded in support of Hong Kong protesters. Multiple fans have said that they will boycott Blizzard Entertainment products following these events for failing to uphold their values, and for refusing to change their stance of being apolitical, while clearly showing that with the decisions taken, they are as political as anyone else. In the wake of recent developments, fans have decided to organize a protest during Blizzard Entertainment's annual greatest event, BlizzCon. Multiple groups are in the process of organizing protests outside BlizzCon in response to their actions against their community. BlizzCon is Blizzard Entertainment’s annual convention dedicated to the games they launched, such as Warcraft, Starcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and World of Warcraft. Developers from all over the world interact with the fans and last year was attended by at least 40,000 people.
The developer of World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment is facing another backlash after postponing the 15th-anniversary event for World of Warcraft in Taiwan, originally scheduled for the weekend. World of Warcraft was released in 2004 on 23 of November. No reason was provided for the cancellation of this event, and since posting this on the official Taiwan World of Warcraft Facebook Page, hundreds of people have flooded the comments showing their support for the ongoing protests in Hong Kong – a response which most likely influenced the cancellation of this event and the recent cancellation of the Overwatch event as well. https://www.facebook.com/WarcraftZHTW/photos/a.499668883677/10157881473878678 Blizzard is under fire for the past few weeks after it suspended a Hearthstone pro-player Chung ‘blitzchung’ Ng Wai for showing his support for the Hong Kong protests on a live stream. The pro-player appeared on stream wearing the attire of a Hong Kong protestor and shouted ‘Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our time.' Following this event, the pro player was banned, stripped of his prize money and the casters conducting the interview were fired as well. After internal and external criticism, Blizzard Entertainment released a statement during Friday evening the week when this event happened in which they said that they do not tolerate political agendas on their Livestream and will hold all players to this regard. They added ‘our response was not appropriate, we have changed the suspension from 1 year to 6 months for the Chung ‘blitzchung’ Ng Wai and he will get to keep all his prize money.’ This week, Blizzard Entertainment was supposed to have a launch event for Overwatch on Nintendo Switch on the 16th of October at Nintendo’s New York City store, but the event was canceled a few days before it and people responded in support of Hong Kong protesters. Multiple fans have said that they will boycott Blizzard Entertainment products following these events for failing to uphold their values, and for refusing to change their stance of being apolitical, while clearly showing that with the decisions taken, they are as political as anyone else. In the wake of recent developments, fans have decided to organize a protest during Blizzard Entertainment's annual greatest event, BlizzCon. Multiple groups are in the process of organizing protests outside BlizzCon in response to their actions against their community. BlizzCon is Blizzard Entertainment’s annual convention dedicated to the games they launched, such as Warcraft, Starcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and World of Warcraft. Developers from all over the world interact with the fans and last year was attended by at least 40,000 people.
