Actually that is apretty dirty move by Epic, kicking their competition while they are lying down for their own gain! In fact it might come back to bite them in the but in the future. I’ve been over this several times, I don’t think Blizzard has done anything wrong. The executives have the duty to protect the jobs of the company, and getting banned from the largest market in the industry is a pretty certain way of wasting unanounced project investments for last couple lf years, whic if they fail, will cost jobs, and a lot of them, its not just about money, but if the product cannot be sold, then you cant keep developing it, and you will have to fire people.
Blizzard cannot put its name on things that will hurt its bussiness. The rules are there for a reason, and its not greed, its about people, Blizzard does not have a political reposibility for anyone, thus politics are not permitted under the Blizzard label, it has nothing to do with views or political opinions, its about Blizzard being politically neutral, to avoid getting politically rolled by forein governments. If you sell products its pretty smart to have someone to sell them to. As a consumer its also your right to chose not to buy it, and also for political reasons. Thus Blizzard is in a no win dilemma, if they didnt ban the player in question theyd lose a market, if they did ban the player they would lose a lot of market share in their home market. Blizzard has had no choice to first ban the player, and then since slack off when the heat build up in the west.
I actually feel bad for Blizzard they really have no good options. But Epic Games choosing to jump into the feud for profit, if you dont imediately spot that as greed too… wow… ofc. they are trying to pick up consumers from a competitor by passive aggression through attacking their competitor, now my ethical mind wont allow me to support Epic for that very reason. They are just as bad if not worse. If you turn to epic on the basis of Blizzard being greedy… wow… i have one word for you: Hypocrite! The risk of doing buissness with totalitary states will always be turning a blind eye sometimes, staying neutral. But let be be straight, the video game market is so saturated and stressed that the western market cannot support the number of developers and publishers on the market. Demand is simply too low for Supply, so you go elsewhere, its the same with banks investing in oil. There is always a risk someone says no you cant do that. Which also leaves the consumers with an extraordinary ammount of power. If you think EA or Blizzard is too big to go bankrupt, think again. The profit in the buisness is so volatile and swaps company with every big realease of a game. Popularity, dictates the entertainment business nowadays. If you can manipulate large amounts of people to hate or love a product, case, or movement. Then you can literally sway elections. Epic doesnt waste a second on adding fuel to the fire at Blizzard, they have an interest in making Blizzard look like a scoundrel while appearing as the savoir holy angel company, which they most definitely are not. Ethos, Pathos and Logos… use Pathos less and Logos more, before letting your self get offended. Business is business. And yes it doesnt look pretty and you might even say Blizzard build the bonfire them self, but lighting it and watching them burn… that falls back on that one player who broke the rules and didn’t respect Blizzard’s tied hands, and then the consumer who uses this as a reason to stop supporting Blizzard, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pull your support. But Blizzard’s choices really amounts to the likeness of chosing which way you want to die as a soldier. Yeah you could have not enlisted in the first place, but that wont help you now. So yeah i feel sorry for Blizzard. Last year they got unmerrited critique for a mobile game, which they now have to sell on a market… now they have to chose to scrap that entire market, or take massive losses on the homefront. Its not fair, but its not a fair world either. I still support Blizzard, I don’t support the oppresion of Protests in Hong Kong. But i absolutely despise Epic for this deciet they are trying to pull.
Either people believe it or don’t. I believe it, because it happened, and that’s why I won’t buy anything from that store.