Gwent: The Witcher Card Game Is Now Available On The Apple App Store

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Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is now available for free on the Apple App Store. Originally released back in October 2018 after a lengthy beta period for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, the collectible card game has finally made its way to mobile devices.

Gwent’s popularity as an exhaustive mini-game in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt led CD Projekt Red to develop the card game as a standalone project. By downloading the free-to-play game now, you can battle against both the AI and other players online, building up a deck of cards based on the various factions from The Witcher universe, including the Nilfgaardians, Scoia’tael, and Monsters.

In GameSpot’s Gwent: The Witcher Card Game review, Alessandro Barbosa said, “Gwent clearly learns from other digital collectible card games that have carved their niche out of the market, but its play style offers up an entirely different type of challenge. It’s one that requires some investment, and hard decisions on which Faction you’d like to invest in, but Gwent also respects your time by rewarding you for nearly every action in a match, tempting you to play just one more. Its matches could use some fine-tuning in their pacing and presentation, but Gwent is otherwise a refreshingly new take on card games that establishes itself firmly outside of the simple side activity it was in The Witcher 3.”

Of course, Gwent isn’t the only recent Witcher release. The Witcher 3 was improbably released on the Nintendo Switch last month, and we have you covered with a full review if you feel like taking Geralt’s adventures on the road. The Witcher TV series is also arriving on Netflix next month. The latest trailer for the Henry Cavill-fronted series was released this week, and it even recreates a popular meme.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gwent-the-witcher-card-game-is-now-available-on-th/1100-6471063/

God Eater 3 version 2.10 launches on November 7, adds new Zeke episode and avatar re-creation

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God Eater 3 version 2.10 launches on November 7, adds new Zeke episode and avatar re-creation

Another character episode and more extra missions added to this monster-hunting action RPG.

source /news/9144-god-eater-3-version-2-10-launches-on-november-7-adds-new-zeke-episode-and-avatar-re-creation

Ubisoft Confirms First PS5/Scarlett Games, Including Watch Dogs Legion

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Ubisoft has announced its first games for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett. In an earnings call this week, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that the five games it plans to launch in Fiscal Year 2021 will be released on both current-generation and next-generation consoles.

These include Watch Dogs: Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Gods & Monsters, as well as two further titles that have not been announced yet. Ubisoft’s Fiscal Year 2021 runs April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021. The PS5 and Xbox Scarlett are each scheduled for release in Holiday 2020.

“The five titles will be on this generation and next generation of consoles, and they will take full advantage of all the new features that are coming with the machines,” Guillemot said, as reported by IGN. “Which are actually going to be extremely interesting for players, as you’ll be able to download new content a lot faster. Players will experience better framerate, so there are lots of very good elements that will come with those new machines.”

Watch Dogs: Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Gods & Monsters were all recently delayed, and are now scheduled to release during FY21.

With the PS5 and Scarlett coming in Holiday 2020 we may well see even more cross-generation games from Ubisoft and other publishers. During the last major console transition from PS3 to PS4 and Xbox 360 to Xbox One, cross-gen titles included Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag from Ubisoft, as well as high-profile shooters Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts.

For more on the PS5 and Scarlett, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of the key specifics about each next-generation system.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-confirms-first-ps5scarlett-games-including/1100-6471054/

Fallout 76 Refunds Available In Australia After Players Complain About Bugs And Other Issues

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Australia’s top consumer law regulator has announced that some people who bought Fallout 76 will be able to request a refund after ZeniMax acknowledged missteps related to the game.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (ACCC) said in a news release that ZeniMax, which owns Bethesda, “acknowledged they were likely to have misled consumers about their consumer guarantee rights in relation to the online action game Fallout 76.”

ZeniMax’s European and Australian divisions “accepted that their actions were likely to have contravened the Australian Consumer Law.” Some people complained to the ACCC that ZeniMax staff denied them refunds after they experienced bugs and other network issues with the controversial always-online Fallout game. This runs against Australian Consumer Law.

“ZeniMax has acknowledged that they are likely to have misled certain Australian consumers about their rights to a refund when they experienced faults with their Fallout 76 game,” ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said in a statement.

ZeniMax will offer refunds to Fallout 76 purchasers in Australia who requested refunds between November 24, 2018 and June 1, 2019. Players will lose access to Fallout 76 once they accept the refund.

“When a consumer has purchased a product that has a fault which amounts to a major failure, the Australian Consumer Law provides them with the right to ask for their choice of either a repair, replacement, or refund,” Court said.

In addition to paying out refunds, the ACCC said ZeniMax is updating its customer service documents to better reflect Australian consumer protections.

Fallout 76 was released in November 2018 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and the reviews were generally unkind to the role-playing game. Unlike previous entries in the series, Fallout 76 adopted an always-online, multiplayer-focused approach, which did not resonate with everyone.

Bethesda continues to update and support the game with new content and features, including a battle royale mode. Most recently, Bethesda spurred more controversy when it launched a $100-per-year subscription service for private servers.

At E3 this year, Bethesda boss Todd Howard spoke candidly about Fallout 76’s struggles, saying the game “missed the mark.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fallout-76-refunds-available-in-australia-after-pl/1100-6471055/

Death Positivity In Games Is Good

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Death is such a major part of video games, but rarely in a way that’s constructive–it’s most commonly a failure mechanic for you or the ever-present goal for you to enact on others, regardless of whether you’re facing other players or NPCs. A story-driven game’s most dramatic moment may use the death of a beloved character to create a severe emotional response and plenty of horror games rely on surprising character deaths to produce jump scares. But that’s usually the extent to what games do with death. So in the few cases when games actually do deal with death and grief as a reality, it’s almost always surprising.

Video games should talk about death more. And I don’t mean just show it; more games should really talk about it and explore how normal it is. Video games too often gloss over or demonize death but that’s not an accurate reflection of real life. We’re all going to die someday, as are everyone we know. And as frightening as that may be, those deaths will probably be boringly normal. So too, in turn, are the emotions associated with coming to terms with that, whether it’s depression, grief, anger, or acceptance.

It can be difficult to talk about death, especially in the western part of the world where it’s almost considered a taboo topic for everyday conversation, but that’s all the more reason that people should. Continuing to shy away from the uncomfortable nature of death and grief prevents the normalization of both.

Several games have already started the conversation by putting you into the role of a caretaker of the deceased–encouraging you to think about dying and to normalize the associated feelings. The upcoming cozy management game about dying, Spiritfarer, is one such example. The Thunder Lotus Games title sees you play as Stella, a ferrymaster who sails through a purgatory-like setting in search of lost souls to befriend before helping them move on to the afterlife. Laundry Bear Games’ A Mortician’s Tale takes a less mystical approach, having you play as a funeral director, Charlie, who prepares bodies for burial. Giant Sparrow has also created an experience where you care for the dying in What Remains of Edith Finch–a more figurative case where you ensure a dead family is remembered by helping its last surviving member, Edith, tell their stories.

“I think it’s funny the way that, in a lot of art forms, you’ll see several people exploring the same area suddenly, and it’s just like something that bubbles up, and maybe that’s some of what we’re seeing in games right now,” What Remains of Edith Finch creative director Ian Dallas said in an interview with GameSpot. “A lot of people have had similar reactions and thoughts, and now we’re starting to see the fruits of that on the developer side.”

In regards to how Thunder Lotus Games decided to approach death positivity in Spiritfarer, creative director Nicolas Guérin said, “We stumbled into the idea of trying to talk about death in a positive way, which is [a subject] we should all be trying to do more with … Death is terrible. It sucks. It’s something that we can’t really escape and it’s actually pretty tough to casually talk about.”

For a game centered around death, Spiritfarer’s visuals are remarkably positive. The world is illustrated in bright colors, a cheery soundtrack accompanies the rhythmic hum of your ferry’s engine, and you can seemingly just hug people whenever you want. Despite half of its story taking place in a morgue, A Mortician’s Tale also steers clear of gore and morbid imagery, presenting its world in a muted-purple and the characters with exaggerated proportions. What Remains of Edith Finch puts a surreal, almost otherworldly spin on its terrifying tales, which Dallas thinks helps transform the game into a collection of “campfire stories.”

So none of them are doom and gloom all the time, and the three don’t try to meddle with their death-positive message by getting into the nitty gritty of religion and faith. “We made sure that the game was agnostic and not taking sides about who’s right and who’s wrong [when it comes to] heaven and stuff like that,” Guérin said. “The only position we take is to say that death is okay. It’s okay to be fragmented. It’s okay to feel lost in grief. It’s okay to have all those negative emotions.”

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The key to conveying this message, according to Guérin, is to not preach to the player. You can’t just tell someone to believe that it’s okay to talk about death or that they should allow themselves to feel sad when someone dies. You make a good game and then include this message within its mechanics, encouraging players to act through the movements of a character. In Spiritfarer, for example, you literally can’t continue through the game without talking to the spirits you encounter, which leads you to learn their stories, befriend them, and want to walk them through their own lingering grief. The grieving process and personal stories for each spirit are different, allowing you to engage with a range of experiences and emotions for what it’s like to care for someone in their final moments. Then the game takes them away from you one at a time, just like death does in real life, and you’re forced to acknowledge that they’re gone forever (at least until you start a new playthrough, of course).

“It’s something that I think more designers should be doing,” Guérin said. “[I] want to make [stories] that only games can achieve, using game mechanics to say something that can only be experienced in that specific medium.” For Guérin, video games offer opportunities to talk about death and grief in ways that movies and books simply can’t–largely because games can force someone to interact as a part of the story instead of allowing them to passively observe.

It’s a sentiment shared by A Mortician’s Tale game designer Gabby DaRienzo. “A Mortician’s Tale is meant to be an accurate-but-gentle game about being a funeral director, and we wanted to make sure all the mechanics in the game supported this. As a funeral director supporting those in grief, your job is largely to listen rather than speak,” DaRienzo said.

“A Mortician’s Tale is a death-positive game–meaning that our goal was to speak as openly and gently about the topic of death, grief, and the funeral industry as possible,” she continued. Charlie’s story is very linear, without much in the way of choice–but the game uses its on-the-rails gameplay loop and simple mechanics to create a powerful story. “In the game, we force players to go through a daily loop–reading emails, preparing the bodies of the deceased, and attending their respective funerals,” DaRienzo said. “This goes on, day after day, and the player becomes accustomed to this mundane loop. When a day comes that Charlie is tasked with preparing the body of a man in which no one attends his funeral, the player is suddenly thrown for an emotional loop.”

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The scene in question certainly rocked me the first time I played through A Mortician’s Tale. I was struck by how sad it was that, in the urn of ashes in front of me, lay the remains of a man who apparently had nobody in his life–or at least no one who cared. It’s one of the few moments in A Mortician’s Tale where you have a choice: you can walk around the room, return to your work station and prepare the next body, or go up to the urn and give a little nod of respect. I chose the latter, even though I knew next to nothing about the deceased–seeing as I had no one to ask about who he was. And although I mostly did it because I felt bad for the dude, a small part of me wanted to do it for me. In the event I die alone, I’d like to hope that at least one person (even if they don’t know me) will take the time to remember that I was here and that I mattered, much like Charlie did for this man. It’s something I hadn’t really thought about before that moment, and I’ve had small realizations like this for most of the indie games I’ve played that revolve around death and grieving.

“I think it’s easiest to see and understand death on the effect it has on everyone around us,” A Mortician’s Tale writer Kait Tremblay said. “I mean, that’s how we know and understand death, right? Our experiences are always focused through how it affects us and so writing A Mortician’s Tale definitely focused on this: what does death leave behind, how do we pick up the pieces, how do we find our way through mourning, and understand our feelings about what has happened? Because we have to keep living and we have to find a way of accepting death, and that’s kind of what A Mortician’s Tale is about, in some respects, right? It’s about that conversation, about understanding death, and finding a way through it, so focusing on the mourners embodies this.”

Granted, taking a harder look at the uncomfortable emotions surrounding death is not going to make any of those feelings suddenly easier to deal with or make the grieving process for a loved one any less sad. But at the very least, death and grief deserve to be treated as things that are normal. Your calm acceptance of a loved one’s passing is just as valid as breaking down in tears–and how you continue to deal with the grief in the aftermath isn’t likely to be exactly the same with every death in your life. Video games can’t and shouldn’t handle the complete burden of normalizing what it means to come to terms with dying and grieving for a lost loved one, but considering how many kids do play them, they’re an excellent portal for broaching the subject and informing people they are allowed to dig deeper, ask questions, and embrace their emotions.

I wish that, as a kid, I would have had something like Spiritfarer, A Mortician’s Tale, What Remains of Edith Finch, or any of the other games that put you into the role of a caretaker of someone who is dead or dying (Blackwood Crossing, To the Moon, and That Dragon, Cancer, just to name a few more). Media that is strictly educational is fine, but it’s hard to absorb something when it feels like you’re being preached at. These games do for death what games like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice do for mental illness–they’re not hitting you over the head with the message you should normalize something that has been demonized for years as something scary and evil. They’re just good games, ones that also happen to use their mechanics to lead you towards making your own conclusions.

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“It’s nice that games are reexamining some of the elements that have been with us for a long time, but have just gotten this patina of conventional ways [in how] they’re handled,” Dallas said. “[Like] enemies just flicker away when they die–that’s an approach to death that we just think [to include] automatically. I think that’s fine for [certain] games, but there’s so much more interesting stuff to explore that I’m happy to see other games moving into.”

“I’m pretty sure tons of triple-A developers want to do games like this too; they want to tackle complex subjects,” Guérin added, speaking to his experience as a game designer at Electronic Arts and level designer director at Ubisoft. “It’s just that the system is not working for them–in the sense that you have to sell a shit ton of those games and make sure that you can recoup your investment … You have to make sure that everything you do pleases a much larger crowd.”

Guérin went on to point out that the triple-A games that are beginning to go into topics like this are the ones that can afford to. They’re either games like Red Dead Redemption 2, which are made by studios that already have a proven track record of broaching complex content, or they’re games like The Last of Us, first-party exclusives that are usually allowed to be a bit more experimental. Still, he adds, triple-A games are rarely allowed to be as niche as an indie game. “Triple-A games are awesome but they need to [fit] on a broader spectrum,” Guérin said.

It’s unlikely that we’ll soon see as many triple-A games tackle death and grieving as well and as thoroughly as the indie games that are doing so already. But as more games like Spiritfarer make a splash at E3 and ones like What Remains of Edith Finch and A Mortician’s Tale leave lasting impacts, it increases the chances of more studios choosing to change how we experience death and grief in games. “[These games] are about dying, but at the same time [saying] dying is okay,” Guérin concludes. “It’s normal. It’s human. You know, people who die still watch football matches and TV. They don’t stop doing everything … Enjoying life is part of the message as well.”

To stay up to date on Nicolas Guérin, check out Spiritfarer–which is due to release in 2020. Gabby DaRienzo is now an artist at Drinkbox Studios, the developers behind games like Severed and Guacamelee. Kait Tremblay has taken her talents to Ubisoft Toronto, where she’s lead narrative designer for Watch Dogs Legion–recently delayed to the latter half of 2020. Ian Dallas is still at Giant Sparrow, leading the charge on the indie studio’s third game.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/death-positivity-in-games-is-good/1100-6471051/

Nintendo’s Top 10 Best-Selling Switch Games Revealed

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As part of its latest earnings report, Nintendo updated its list of the top-selling Switch games made by Nintendo and revealed some impressive statistics about attach rates.

Mario Kart 8 Ultimate is the Switch’s best-selling game, with 19.01 million copies sold. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate climbed to 15.71 million units sold, which makes it the best-selling Smash game of all time. It surpasses Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii, which sold 13.3 million units. It’s also ahead of the combined sales of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS (14.91 million).

Nintendo also shared new details on attach rates of its biggest games, and they are impressive. 45.6 percent of Switch players own a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, while the attach rates for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Smash Bros. Ultimate are each above 30 percent. As Ahmad reminds us, Nintendo has historically had one of the highest attach rates for a platform-holder, and it seems that is continuing with Switch.

In other news, Nintendo announced that Switch sales have climbed to 41.67 million units, which is on pace with the PS4 over the same period of time.

Best-Selling Switch Games (As of September 30)

  1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — 19.01 million
  2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — 15.71 million
  3. Super Mario Odyssey — 15.38 million
  4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — 14.54 million
  5. Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee — 11.28 million
  6. Splatoon 2 — 9.28 million
  7. Super Mario Party — 7.59 million
  8. New super Mario Bros. U Deluxe — 4.59 million
  9. Super Mario Maker 2 — 3.93 million
  10. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening — 3.13 million

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendos-top-10-best-selling-switch-games-reveale/1100-6471050/

BlizzCon Protest: How We Got Here And What You Need To Know

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BlizzCon is traditionally a fan-favorite spectacle, a raucous celebration of all things Blizzard. This year, however, controversy may flare up during the event. A series of high-profile incidents, most recently its controversial decision to ban a professional Hearthstone player for speaking out in favor of the Hong Kong protests, has given the impending event a tone of trepidation, as the community waits to see how or even if the company will openly acknowledge it.

Though this particular incident is only weeks old, high-profile changes at Blizzard and other news events had created a degree of skepticism and distrust among some in the community. At BlizzCon 2018, the announcement of the mobile game Diablo Immortal was highly controversial, especially as fans had been anticipating a long-awaited reveal for Diablo 4. Coming alongside executive departures and a new president, some felt anxious that this signaled a new direction for a company that had historically been remarkably close with its fanbase.

The Hearthstone community, too, wasn’t without its share of controversies. On July 1, Blizzard announced that as part of its update to prepare for the new Saviors of Uldum expansion, it would be changing the artwork for several classic cards, many of which had been around for years. Fans on the Hearthstone subreddit quickly noted the impacted cards were ones that showed graphic violence, especially blood, and sexuality. The community quickly posited that the changes were in deference to the heavily censored Chinese market–a theory that Blizzard quickly denied. Still, a seed of doubt had been planted regarding Blizzard’s relationship with China.

It was in that environment that the Blitzchung controversy took hold, and events unfolded extremely quickly.

Timeline of Key Events

October 6

During an interview on the official Taiwan Hearthstone stream, professional Hearthstone player Ng Wai Chung put on a ski mask and gas mask in solidarity with Hong Kong protestors, and said the slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age.”

In a statement issued the same day, Chung said: “As you know there are serious protests in my country now. My call on stream was just another form of participation of the protest that I wish to grab more attention. I put so much effort in that social movement in the past few months, that I sometimes couldn’t focus on preparing my Grandmaster match. I know what my action on stream means. It could cause me lot of trouble, even my personal safety in real life. But I think it’s my duty to say something about the issue.”

October 8

Blizzard announced its official ruling that Chung had violated its 2019 Hearthstone Grandmasters Official Competition Rules section 6.1 (o), which reads in part, “Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player’s prize total.”

As punishment, Blizzard removed Blitzchung from the competition and rescinded his prize money, which was to be approximately $10,000. It also banned him for 12 months, to end on October 5, 2020. As part of the statement, Blizzard also announced it would no longer work with either of the shoutcasters who had been interviewing Blitzchung.

Several Hearthstone players on the official subreddit quickly said they were quitting the game permanently in protest, and a “Boycott Blizz” hashtag began trending. Blizzard employees staged a walkout in protest, and the decision was criticized by US Senators Marco Rubio and Ron Wyden, among others.

The evening of October 8, during an official collegiate event against Worcester Poly, the team from American University held up a sign reading, “Free Hong Kong. Boycott Blizz.”

October 9-10

Several professional Hearthstone players and casters voice disagreement with the severity of Blizzard’s ruling. Hearthstone caster Brian Kibler says he will no longer host or cast Hearthstone events in light of the decision. The first Hearthstone world champion, James Kostesich aka Firebat, called the decision “ridiculous” and “unreasonable,” and implied Blizzard was trying to make an example out of Blitzchung.

October 12

Blizzard issued a statement partially rescinding its previous ruling. Though it stood by the rule infraction and that a punishment was necessary, it reduced the banned period from 12 months to 6 months. It also returned Blitzchung’s monetary winnings, and reduced the punishment for the casters to 6 months.

“Playing fair also includes appropriate pre-and post-match conduct, especially when a player accepts recognition for winning in a broadcast,” read the statement from Blizzard president J. Allen Brack. “When we think about the suspension, six months for Blitzchung is more appropriate, after which time he can compete in the Hearthstone pro circuit again if he so chooses. There is a consequence for taking the conversation away from the purpose of the event and disrupting or derailing the broadcast.”

In response, the player Blitzchung accepted the decision, but did say six months still seems long. He also said he was not sure if he would return to competitive play once the banning period was over. (Blitzchung has since accepted a position on Team Tempo Storm.)

October 14

In a statement issued on Twitter, Nintendo said Blizzard cancelled a planned Overwatch for Switch launch event that had been planned for the Nintendo store in NYC. Blizzard did not comment on the event.

October 16

Blizzard banned the American University students who had protested in solidarity, matching their punishment to Blitzchung’s–six months.

October 18

A letter addressed to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, co-signed by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), and House members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Mike Gallagher (R-WI), and Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) urged “in the strongest terms to reconsider” the punishment decision. Notably, the letter referenced the original punishment decision that had been partially rescinded on October 12.

What Comes Next?

Though the decision has been partially reversed, tensions in the community are still high, and Blizzard has not announced whether or not it will address the concerns at its event. One element adjacent to the festivities is trying to make sure the issue is highly visible at Blizzard’s annual fan event, planned to begin November 1. A protest being organized by the group Fight for the Future aims to organize just outside BlizzCon. The nonprofit was founded in 2011 and focuses on digital rights advocacy. In the past it has organized around issues like NSA mass surveillance and net neutrality.

At the center of the protest is Dayton Young, product director at Fight for the Future and the lead organizer behind Gamers for Freedom, a suite of advocacy steps the organization has taken in response to Blizzard. Those have included a developer scorecard for studios that have publicly committed not to take similar action, and an online day of action. GameSpot spoke with Young about what inspired the protests, how Blizzard should open its lines of communication and transparency, and its plans for the event.

The interview transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

This controversy blew up surprisingly quickly. It was all over the news within less than 24 hours. Did that surprise you at all?

Young: I think it was surprising to all of us, how quickly and how big it blew up, but I also think it’s the appropriate response. In our messaging and in the people I’ve talked to, I’ve spoken to people who are older than I am who are still surprised to learn that one can be a professional video game player, and now they’re hearing about this thing because it’s on the news. So, given that context, I think it is a little bit surprising to see articles about this, and this very important issue being covered by a variety of major media outlets beyond just the gaming community. But I am happy that people are paying attention to it. Gaming is a worldwide phenomenon. It’s the most popular form of entertainment worldwide, and so I think it’s entirely appropriate that people are starting to pay attention to these issues that affect the gaming community and actually have a bigger impact outside of the gaming community as well.

Blizzard partially rescinded its punishment to Blitzchung on October 12, after your protest had been announced. How did that impact your protest planning?

Young: On the one hand, I was heartened that our protests were having an impact, that people were speaking up, and that this was not an issue that was going to go away, and that we had caught Blizzard’s attention and let them know that the entire gaming community was very serious about this important issue.

On the other hand, I think that the issue still remains. They’ve punished an individual for speaking out, advocating for his own freedom. They’ve done it under very loosely defined rules. I think it’s really important for us to note that gamers around the world have expressed offense at Blizzard’s punishment of Blitzchung. We’re offended that they would sensor this person for what he did. There’s been a lot of outrage. There’s been a lot of public backlash. We’ve seen members of Congress taking Blizzard’s task for their actions, so why is Blizzard not listening to all of us who are offended by their unfair censorship? Who has been offended by Blitzchung’s comments, and why is Blizzard prioritizing those people’s offense and outrage over these very vocal and very powerful members of the gaming community and US politicians? Those are questions Blizzard hasn’t answered, and I think it’s very important for Blizzard to start to engage with the gaming community in a dialogue. Everybody is speaking up, and we need to know why Blizzard isn’t listening.

It seems your implication there is, “Are they listening to China instead of us?”

Young: I would like for representatives of Blizzard to start answering these questions. We can only speculate. There’s certainly a much larger conversation going on about the Chinese government exerting influence over the NBA, South Park, and clearly over politicians and activists and things happening in Hong Kong. So, as long as Blizzard is staying silent, they’re leaving it up to us to interpret their actions and their motivations. Within this larger context, it certainly appears as though their motivations aren’t purely on upholding this very broad and poorly defined rule.

So, I think they need to clarify. When we look at traditional sports leagues, the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, we’ve certainly seen a lot of protests in those different leagues over the years. We’ve seen protests at the Olympic Games. Many of these organizations have guidelines and rules in place to advise their participants and their fans on what behavior is and isn’t acceptable and where it is and isn’t acceptable. Certainly those leagues get those decisions wrong quite often. I’m not going to make apologies for some of the problems that other leagues have had. However, those leagues have given this a great deal of thought. They have more clear regulations in place. And most importantly, many of the players have a union and a means by which to approach the league and make complaints if they feel like they’ve been unfairly punished. It does not appear the Blizzard has these mechanisms in place. It does not appear that many of the gaming companies in general have these mechanisms in place and has given this a great deal of thought.

Again, we’re asking for a conversation. Games are the largest form of entertainment worldwide. It’s inevitable that we’re going to have people from many different countries, many different cultures, many different backgrounds having conversations, participating in these events together. That’s going to lead us to talk about issues that are integral to our identities and our freedoms and our basic humanity. These companies need to be prepared to address those issues in an intelligent way, in a way that gives participants a voice, in understanding what the rules are and regulations are and recourse for when we feel we’ve been wronged. I think there’s some bigger things that we need to address, and hopefully this is the beginning of those conversations.

Have plans for the BlizzCon demonstration changed at all, given the partially reversed statement?

Young: Not at all. It kicked it into overdrive. We are excited that people are listening to our protests. We are excited that people are joining the protests. We’re excited that people are starting subreddits. We’re excited that everybody is paying attention because it’s a serious issue. This is not the only time it’s going to happen. This is a part of a broader issue about censorship in online media, and it’s really, really important for us to win this fight. It’s really important for us to show up at BlizzCon. It’s very important for us to speak up and make our voices heard. Not everybody has the ability to make their voices heard, so we’re going to show up, and we’re going to show people how important it is and what an impact it can have when people all speak up and all speak out together.

What do you think would be a good first step? Do they need to make a statement at BlizzCon?

Young: I think that certainly they need to address this issue at BlizzCon. This is the biggest thing happening in regards to Blizzard as a company. It affects their future. It affects their stock price. It affects their fans. It affects the lives and well-being of people around the world. So if they fail to address this at BlizzCon, I think it will be absolutely outrageous, and I think they’ll be doing a disservice to gamers around the world, as well as everyone interested in their business. As far as how to address it, they have many avenues. They can speak to our movement. They can speak to Blitzchung. They can make public statements. They can speak to other game companies. They can speak to the press. It seems to be that Blizzard has been very silent on the issue.

They’ve been more than silent. They’ve been canceling public events as well. [Ed. This is in reference to the Overwatch event planned for the Nintendo Store in NYC.] They’re not just staying silent, they’re actually withdrawing. And certainly that’s not going to get us to stop. That’s not going to get us to not protest. That’s not going to get us to stop sharing our voices and stay silent.

What would you like to see from Blizzard, in terms of public communications about these decisions?

Young: I think being able to have someone who can participate in these conversations we’ve talked about is going to be a very important step. We talked about different leagues previously and player’s unions. Can we organize player’s unions so that players have a representative to speak for many of their concerns? And can they have somebody at the league offices or at the company offices they can speak to about these concerns? Certainly there’s a lot of precedent in other sports for how to handle these issues. Again, I don’t think that every other league has handled these issues in a positive way in every situation, but I think that companies involved in e-sports should certainly take a look at what’s been done historically and try to take the best pieces of those systems and apply them to their own e-sports leagues.

If someone were to show up to the protest at BlizzCon, what would they see?

Young: We’re a big, friendly group of people. We are very outraged about what’s been going on, but we’re doing this out of love for everyone. We’re doing this to support those who are advocating for their own freedom, and we’re doing this to help people. So, I think what you’re going to see is a big crowd of people who really care about other gamers and who are speaking up to make a difference and to make gaming safer for everyone to participate in.

Do you have any kind of resource document that covers the dos and don’ts of protesting? How do you plan to keep people at a mass protest safe?

Young: There’s a handbook that’s linked to on GamersforFreedom.com. We have discussed the protest with the Anaheim Police Department, with the ACLU. Our goal is to make this a safe and successful protest. There is information in the handbook. But, again, we’re going to be protesting legally, and we’re going to be having a great time, and we hope to see everybody there.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzcon-protest-how-we-got-here-and-what-you-need/1100-6471040/