Blizzard HQ photo byHeather Newman
Blizzard has been under tremendous backlash since its October 8 decision topunish Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai, a Hong Kong-based Hearthstone champion, after he advocated for the city’s pro-democracy movement during a live post-game interview. Anti-Blizzard memes have spread through the gaming world,along with calls to boycott the company’s games,and protest at its conventions; unsurprisingly, Blizzardjust cancelled an upcoming Overwatch launch event in New York.
However, aside froma small walk-out protestand other ripples of dissatisfaction, one point remains unclear: What do Blizzardemployeesthink of punishing its players for expressing opinions considered taboo by the Chinese government on their gaming platforms?
According to a surveyrecently launched by the development team of Blind, an anonymous messaging app for tech company staffers, a strong majority of Blizzard employees actuallysupportthe punishment of Chung – and in general, strongly support censorship of players criticizing China’s government.
About 500 Blizzard employees are members of Blind’s community for the company, Blind co-founder Kyum Kim tells me. Of that 500, fifty to seventy Blizzard employees took the two question survey, along with hundreds of staffers from many other tech companies – raw data on the right.
Asked,“Should Blizzard reverse its banning of the Hearthstone player?”, only 36% of Blizzard employees surveyed responded Yes. However, a solid majority of 64% opposed the reversal. This greatly contrasts with answers from employees across the tech industry, which supported a reversal at ranges from 67 to 92%. (With the notable exception being Riot Games – like Blizzard, a game company that’s heavily dependent on the Chinese market, with opinion split 50 / 50.)
Blind launched this survey last Thursday, just beforeBlizzard softened (but did not completely reverse) Chung’s punishment. However, when asked a more general question about sensitive Chinese political topics, Blizzard employees were about as adamant in their support of player censorship:
The second Blind survey question was:“Do you think Blizzard should have a strong free speech policy for players regarding Hong Kong and other controversial topics in China (Tibet, Tiananmen, Taiwan) – even if it hurts Blizzard financially by a loss of Chinese revenue? “
The results are at right: Only 31% of Blizzard employees supported free speech on Chinese topics as a matter of principle, regardless of its impact on Blizzard’s bottom line.
To be sure, this survey attracted only 50 – 70 Blizzard employee respondents, a small sample from a total staff countof about 4, 700 People. Then again, that’s a much larger sample than the “couple dozen” Blizzard employees who protested Chung’s ban. And because of how Blind works, the survey likely reflect true staff sentiment.
“Blind allows employees at companies to share their opinion anonymously, which means they can share their honest opinions without fear of judgment,” as Kyum Kim puts it. Furthermore, Blind users can only join its Blizzard community if they create an account through their company e-mail.
Personally I’m surprised by these results, especially as Blizzard is such a player-focused company, full of employees who are passionate Blizzard gamers themselves. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be: We areseeing a similar patternamong celebrity players of the NBA, another organization which makes billions from the Chinese market. And given the size of the Chinese economy, its deep roots in the global market, and the bellicose attitude of its current government leadership, this is almost certainly just one chapter in a much longer story. And so far,Sinclair Lewis’ famous adagethreatens to be that story’s underlying theme.
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