A post in the Kotaku in Action 2 sub-Reddit alleges that a World of Warcraft player named Bruce was suspended for 100 years for “interrupting” an in-game Black Lives Matter protest on his server.
Here’s a screenshot of the message that he allegedly received from Blizzard Entertainment that is purportedly circulating on other venues like 4 Chan, Instagram, and Discord:
Regarding the veracity of this image, a Reddit user named ErikaThePaladin uploaded the image to site called FotoForensics and remarked:
This would seem to suggest the photo is real. The only point where there’s significant “noise” is where the watermark was added.
If this story is true, it demonstrates heavy handedness and intolerance of dissent on Blizzard’s part.
The players that organized and participated in this alleged protest are the ones that should have been disciplined not the person who was accused of “interrupting” it — whatever that means. It was these players who violated the immersion of their fellow WoW players by staging a real-world political protest.
World of Warcraft is a fantasy virtual world. It is not an appropriate venue for real life protests/politics/issues. Players go there to escape the real world and for good reason. Given the tragic events of the last two weeks, Blizzard should be doing all they can to ensure that their players have an oasis they can retreat to that is free from any sort of political or social indoctrination.
Blizzard’s Hostility Toward Trump and His Supporters
I guarantee you if Trump supporters had a peaceful rally in WoW, leftist snitches would force Blizzard to shut it down immediately and suspend all of the participants.
When Mike Morhaime was the CEO of Blizzard, he attacked President’s Trump ban on immigration from countries that are engaged in Islamic terrorism.
Blizzard has also shown their animus toward Trump supporters when a WoW guild called “Make Azeroth Great Again” was forced to change its name. Sure the guild name is a homage to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” but it wasn’t hurting or threatening anyone. It was a harmless funny name like most guild names in WoW today.
Blizzard has to be fair and consistent. Either they ban all real-life political and ideological activism within or they allow all of it. Of course I would prefer if no political activism was allowed.
Blizzard Openly Supports Black Lives Matter
Rarely do Blizzard leaders miss an opportunity to virtue signal their support for radical left-wing causes.
Last week, Activision/Blizzard publicly supported Black Lives Matter with a shameless display of selective virtue signaling:
Then they used the unrest in America to once again level up their virtue signaling powers:
Activision Blizzard, there is no place for real-world politics in video games. What you are doing is showing contempt for the customers who hold different political and social viewpoints than your own. Get over yourselves and stop spreading propaganda.
BLM is a despicable radical leftist organization that makes money by stoking the flames of racial hatred and division. BLM has no solutions.
Many people have pointed out Blizzard’s abject hypocrisy of support for the communist Chinese regime but supporting BLM protests here in America. Here’s a post from a WoW player from their official forums:
When retired black police captain named David Dorn tried to defend a pawn shop that was being looted by rioters, he was killed by a black thug named Stephan Cannon. As the blood left his lifeless body, the spectacle was being livestreamed on Facebook.
Where is Activision Blizzard’s tweets supporting David Dorn?
Where is Activision Blizzard’s condemnation of the rioting, looting, and violence being perpetrated by BLM supporters and ANTIFA thugs?
Nowhere to be found.
Conclusion
If what happened is indeed true, Blizzard has reached a new low by suspending this person for 100 years. This story could also be fake news and a hoax perpetrated by trolls. The sad thing is that given Blizzard’s political leanings, this story seems plausible.
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So anything Anti-Trump and BLM support is okay, but just naming a guild “Make Azeroth Great Again” is a no-go?
It’s interesting that they condone political rallies in their games, but the guy from Hongkong threatened their business interests and got banned, despite him not demonstrating ingame.
The ban of 100 years, basically for life. We don’t have further details, but being against such an ingame “event” is apparently enough. Seems the Gamemasters feel they can do that and that their masters agree.
I was playing WoW again during Warlords and Legion, BfA was bull, maybe the next expansion becomes better again. But I don’t feel like supporting the company that was once known as Blizzard anymore. They aren’t producing good games anymore and how Mr. Brack is riding the pink pony hard is just embarrassing. Seems to be the final stage before failing completely, massive and stupid virtue signalling combined with censorship.
I already had quit by default and was surprised to see the sub fee hit my bank. I cancelled my sub due to both Blizzard’s support of BLM and increasing disenchantment with their terrible game. In spite of almost universal complaints over the storyline and – well almost everything else – they charge forward on some path no one understands. They stopped publishing the sub numbers because they don’t want anyone to see how bad it is, but the last few times I had logged in (months ago) there was almost no where you could go that you could find more than 1-2 players.
Sad to see it go like this.
@JS, you’re full of it. If you logged on at literally any point since CRZ became a thing and you couldn’t find more than 1-2 players, then you weren’t looking. Even in wind-down mode, the main content areas are always pretty well populated and the main cities and hub for sure always have at least a dozen people wandering around.
I’m no Blizzard fanboy. was my guild and I’m still pissed. But let’s be accurate in the things we say.
Apparently this comment section ignores anything put in angle brackets. I was saying that Make Azeroth Great Again was my guild.
Cogblast – I quit because of the BLM crap and because of the treatment of your guild. No joke, MAGA was one of the reasons I put in my cancel. I told them that WoW used to be a fun/laid back to escape the crap of the real world and Acitblizz has turned it into a complete sh*tshow where political ideologies are clearly being allowed and silenced. Blizz claims that they have corporate values. They don’t, but if they did, they’d suck.
BTW – I’m now playing ESO where (best I can tell) the worst that’s happened is that some players went on a walk together. They apparently didn’t disrupt anyone’s gameplay and Zenimax didn’t care, which I’m fine with. The “protestors” in WoW were very clearly griefing.
This guy needs to sue Blizzard if this is true and put it on the news. Because right now there are people calling for a complete banning of all people who post conservative statements on WoW or affiliate with the Republican Party. I feel like there’s a line that has been crossed and it’s time for legal action to stop these corporations once and for all.