[runawaybottle]

They don’t really care that much about the American market anymore really. Something like 90% of League of Legends players are in China. The mobile gaming market is massive over there, hence Diablo Immortal.

China does not care about the West’s uproar over most things. Blizzard does not care if you buy Diablo 4, they care if the East buys Diablo 4 and Diablo Immortal.

[biryani_chicken]

It's dystopian to see Chinese people consume American products at the expense of American workers.

[azornathogron]

Turn-about is fair play, right?

Less tongue-in-cheek, I'm really not sure it's China's responsibility to ensure good working conditions in the foreign companies that produce the goods they want to buy, and I'm not sure it's the west's responsibility to ensure good working conditions for the Chinese workers who produce the goods we buy either. I feel I may be in the minority with that view though.

[ehnto]

I don't entirely disagree, pointing out that their workers are at least the producing country's responsibility is fair, since some seem to forget.

But the consuming country is still participating in the exploitation knowingly. It's not like we're unaware, so it's definitely a conscious choice being made to ignore it. It's worth considering the weight of that, since being loud about it has been cause for quite a lot of positive change over the decades.

It's not like I think someone who buys something made with exploitation is a monster, or even shares much of the blame at all, but it is a choice you can make to support less exploitation here and there and I think that's worth doing.

[dillondoyle]

I don't totally agree but it's a good point.

I think it's important to add that with China t's not simply poor working conditions (happens in other countries too, but CCP on a vast scale and what we're talking about).

It's forced labor and genocide, which I think we have a fundamental human obligation to do the smallest bare minimum of trying to avoid those goods (like cotton). That should rise above states and politics.

Though tougher action that could make a difference of course has big consequences and a big ethical dilemma for sure. But a boycot seems like the most basic bare minimum.

[zeusk]

And not dystopian to see American people consume American products made in China at the expense of Chinese workers?

The manufacturing industry in Asia isn't very pretty.

[beebmam]

Of course it is. My god, there have been like 100+ documentaries and an uncountable number of news articles and literature written about this exact topic for like the last 30 years.

[csydas]

Can you explain why you chose «dystopian» here? Did you maybe mean to indicate a sick irony?

I want to lead off with saying I don't want __anyone__ exploited, but this more or less is what US consumers have and continue to do world wide, and I'm not sure that dystopian is the most accurate word for it.

I'm not fully convinced that the original comment that Blizzard wants to sell in China is entirely accurate (there is truth of course, but somehow I think they'd really feel if the American market lost confidence), but dystopian is a pretty specific word for me, and just curious what you are meaning to communicate.

[runawaybottle]

I can lend some color to that. Blizzard created a modestly successful MOBA to compete with League of Legends and it just couldn’t make a dent in LoL’s Asia numbers, so they slowly put the game into maintenance mode (effectively given up on it).

Diablo Immortal is them outsourcing development of a flagship franchise to a Chinese company Netease to develop a mobile version. Netease mobile games are really big overseas. That to me is similar to Facebook outsourcing to Bytedance to make a social network with China in mind first. There’s a world of difference between having an office China and literally handing over your IP to a Chinese company. It’s a big deal.

It’s not they don’t want American’s money, everything adds to the bottom line, but China is showing itself to be bigger markets for video games (just as Hollywood is seeing that they are becoming a bigger market for movies).

It’s a very real thing, and forward decisions are being heavily influenced with that market in mind first and foremost.

Edit:

To put a final stamp on my main point, if the Chinese people were to be offended by these allegations, I can promise you Blizzard would turn the world over and rectify it over night. The same way they got John Cena to apologize in Mandarin to not fuck with the Fast and Furious release in China.

We matter very little at this point to these industries.

[itsoktocry]

>Blizzard created a modestly successful MOBA to compete with League of Legends and it just couldn’t make a dent in LoL’s Asia numbers, so they slowly put the game into maintenance mode (effectively given up on it).

Are you talking about DOTA2? It was hugely successful, both from a gamer's perspective, as well as in the eSports world.

[runawaybottle]

No, Heroes of the Storm. DOTA2 was created by Valve :p

[itsoktocry]

Oh, whoops.

[vlunkr]

Still though, dystopian is not the right word for video game drama/economics.

[runawaybottle]

The irony of what you are saying here is too much friend. Americans consumed Chinese goods at the expense of Chinese workers.

I’m no CCP apologist by any measure.

[aksss]

> Americans consumed

Still a voracious consumer of Chinese goods, as is the world.

[Ericson2314]

I would like a tarrif that goes down as wages of the exporter goes up. Screw nationalism. Help all the workers.

[Aunche]

How are Chinese people benefiting from Blizzard hiding sexual harassment allegations? From a pure workload perspective, most Chinese people would probably consider Blizzard to be relatively lax.

[nemo44x]

It's amazing that they're actually paying for them.