Jim Sterling (The Jimquisition)

Knowing Blizzard they'd announce Warcraft 4 out of desperation and it still won't be enough

The most common rumor is that OW 2 is in the works.

Not a second OW game but a singleplayer expansion or something.

Hopefully Mei isn't in the forefront...

The big thing atm people wanna do is force Blizzard characters to become associated with anti-China meme. The same way China banned Winnie the Poo (and the Christopher Robins movie) despite Disney having nothing to do with it, people are hoping to do the same with Overwatch.

Mei's a popular target, but another is Tracer, whose "Graffiti" outfit basically already looks like a Hong Kong protester.

I'd be super amused if they succeeded.

Blizzard is now pressuring Streamers to stop this saying it’s financially unreasonable for them to do anything

That includes an Overwatch coach who tweeted about it

investors are fearing ‘brand damage’

This has gotten so freaken stupid

Edited by Memers on Oct 10th 2019 at 9:05:11 AM

Makes me wanna see how low they can go.

(This... this didn't become the Blizzard thread when I wasn't looking, did it?)

Anyway, I'm utterly intrigued by the whole Enchanted Portals hullaballoo, to just borrow some comments from Rebel Taxi's vid on the matter:

I think that's what they're trying to do as well.

Also, apparently this isn't just a gaming thing, there's a good number of companies currently scurrying to censor stuff that could anger China so as to not lose their business, up to the fraking NBA. And people are taking a very unkind notice to that.

Eh, honestly, I remember the times where Doom had thousands of clones who were really the same thing, with even less shame about being copies of it. This kinda stuff happens.

Also, not the Blizzard thread, but it is esentially a "Gaming Industry Discussion Thread" with somebody to set the topic for us, and this is the biggest topic around right now.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Oct 11th 2019 at 7:00:36 AM

And it will be focused on blizzard for a while if the next jimquisition is anything to go by

I'm reminded of when Marvel changed the Ancient One in the Doctor Strange movie from Tibetan to Celtic cause China & Tibet don't have the best relationship.

This "don't offend the Chinese" mentality in media is not sustainable in the long run. Something has to break.

I feel bad for the Chinese people.

They don't like this China pandering anymore than we do but Goddamn that oppressive government.

I remember reading that they find blatant China pandering in movies like Transformers ridiculously obvious & hilariously asinine.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 11th 2019 at 3:31:33 AM

Is there hard confirmation that the Ancient One was changed to Celtic to mollify the Chinese market? Or is it just well-reasoned speculation? All I've seen is a screenwriter's take on a podcast that he eventually walked back from. The two official reasons I've heard is "Ancient One was a racist archetype we didn't want to perpetuate" and "when you have the chance to work with an actress like Tilda Swinson, you fucking take it" - which both seem somewhat reasonable on the face of it, but do feel like smokescreens once you recognise that a Tibetan Ancient One would have most likely led to the film being banned in China.

There's no way in hell the CCP would have allowed a movie with even a Tibetan character, to say nothing of one played by an actual Tibetan actor.

Mainland Chinese people who aren't all about the nationalism mostly get by via grumbling on social media (to a very limited degree). The last time they tried protesting it...didn't end very well.

It's not fun living under an oppressive regime like the CCP. It's like trying to live your life with a straitjacket wrapped around your brain.

To say nothing of the "social credit" system. Imagine you had to live your life in a Black Mirror dystopian nightmare where you have to worry about points the way an Instagram Influencer worries about likes and such, with the penalties ranging from losing your dog to your kids being denied the best schools to being denied public transportation to being blacklisted on everything to public shaming, etc.

Well, the people of mainland China don't have to imagine starting next year...

Edited by M84 on Oct 11th 2019 at 7:11:19 PM

That argument is weak because it's constantly used to justify whitewashing casting. You can apply it to anything. "Sure we could've cast an Asian to play Genghis Khan. But when you get the chance to work with John Wayne you fucking take it"

It's steeped in the unsaid implications that non-white are either not as good or that there's no great non white actor.

"Well I can't cast non-whites so long as there's good white actors who exist. I'd be missing out."

Edited by Ghilz on Oct 11th 2019 at 9:18:53 AM

Yeah, that's a flawed argument. If you're going for star power to attract audiences, just admit it.

And for the record, I don't think De-Asianing the Ancient One was so much about appeasing china (Might've factored into picking Nepal as the location for filming rather than Tibet which is more clearly the inspiration in the comic). Doctor Strange has this big Mighty Whitey thing that was always gonna be problematic, about the white guy showing up at a place full of Asians and outdoing them all at stuff they've been practicing forever. So in that sense making the wizards more multicultural wasn't a bad move.

Well, that basically is their argument. "Yeah, but Tilda Swinton tho" is tantamount to saying "we'd rather cast this well-known star power actress who is a star power actress because of her white privilege as much as anything else rather than some unknown who won't attach as much gravitas to the movie and who is struggling in an industry that is highly unbalanced against their race in the first place". But they wouldn't use those words, obviously.

Edited by GoldenKaos on Oct 11th 2019 at 2:30:17 PM

They could have made the wizards more multicultural and still had a Tibetan Ancient One.

Or, if we must Race Lift the Ancient One, they could have made the wizards more multicultural and had a Japanese or Korean or Nepalese or Vietnamese Ancient One.

Or, if we must erase Asian representation, they could have made the wizards more multicultural and had a Hispanic or black or Native American Ancient One.

Why's multicultural gotta mean "White Default"?

Also, avoiding Mighty Whitey is as easy as not having your main character be a white dude. If you recognize that you're writing a Mighty Whitey story and want it to not be a Mighty Whitey story, Race Lifting your protagonist is a much easier route than Race Lifting the entire culture he's stepping into.

"In the interest of diversity, everyone has to be white," is a self-defeating argument that nakedly reveals its own ulterior motives.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Oct 11th 2019 at 7:47:53 AM

The Standardized Leader trope really does do that.

Huh now that I think about it, a good deal of the Red Rangers from Power Rangers if not white are usually black. I don't think there's an Asian Red Ranger to my recollection.

And of course female Red Rangers are a very small handful.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 11th 2019 at 6:49:30 AM

I've not said they couldn't do it better.

Merely that I don't think "Appeasing China" was the sole motivation.

all the rangers in the original Super Sentai that Power rangers is adapted from are asian, but thats different because its a Japanese product.

Well of course yeah that goes without saying.

Its just with the Western based show they can be a bit "particular" about who's cast. Oh yeah I remember hearing how one actress was told she couldn't be in one of the shows because they already hired a black woman & thus didn't feel the need to hire another.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 11th 2019 at 7:19:51 AM

I mean, the original one was a bit on the nose with the fucking colour coding.

Red Ranger - Jock. Yellow Ranger- Asian. Black Ranger - Black. Pink Ranger - Girly Girl. Blue Ranger - Nerd.

And now I'm reminded that David Yost quit the show due to homophobic bullying.

Oh the behind the scenes problems.

Its some fucked up shit.

Wait it was Megaforce that wouldn't hire a POC actress because they already had one on-board.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 11th 2019 at 7:29:32 AM