Andrew Yang weighs in on Blizzard Hong Kong controversy Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has taken a stance on Blizzard\u2019s recent controversy regarding the suspension of Hearthstone pro Chung \u2018Blitzchung\u2019 Ng Wai for his pro-Hong Kong message. Speaking with The Washington Post\u2018s video game outlet Launcher, Yang claimed that while he agrees with China\u2019s stance on Loot Boxes, where companies are required to disclose the odds of obtaining an item inside, he differs on their suppression of free speech. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now is two of China\u2019s driving priorities starting to be at odds with each other,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir priority is maintaining robust economic growth. Number two is social order and suppressing any political dissidence. [\u2026] The unfortunate reality is that these are the kinds of decisions we\u2019re forcing companies to make every single day because of the globalized nature of the industry.\u201d In reference to complaints he hears from executives he added, \u201cA lot of these companies are like, \u2018Why am I making these decisions?\u2019\u201d \u201cAnd these decisions end up being massive investments of resources. They\u2019re actually looking for some sort of guideline or assistance. These are from companies who have historically not been excited about having any government hand in their industries. It just goes to show we\u2019re putting more and more companies into untenable positions,\u201d he explained. Congress recently took a less sympathetic hardline stance on Blizzard\u2019s decision to ban Hong Kong native Hearthstone pro Chung \u2018Blitzchung\u2019 Ng Wai, condemning the action and calling for a complete reversal of the ban. This came after Blizzard reduced Blitzchung\u2019s ban from one year to six months and restored his prize winnings. Yang on video game violence and addiction When asked about his thoughts on video game addiction, Yang said he believes part of the problem is that politicians rarely bring up games and when they do it\u2019s about violence. He, however, believes game addiction is a real issue. \u201cNo one ever talks about it unless it\u2019s in the context of violence, and even then you just get some hand wringing behind it,\u201d he said. For Yang, he views video games as a complex medium. \u201cTo me, games are intrinsic to the human experience, and video games are a natural evolution,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is vast potential for gaming to serve not just for our entertainment, but for other positive things.\u201d It\u2019s refreshing to see a politician take a pro-game stance given the frequent attacks against video games by politicians who blame them for acts of violence. Back in August, President Donald Trump said that the United States must stop the \u201cglorification\u201d of violence in games following a shooting in El Paso, Texas that saw 21 people killed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andrew Yang weighs in on Blizzard Hong Kong controversy Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has taken a stance on Blizzard\u2019s recent controversy regarding the suspension of Hearthstone pro Chung \u2018Blitzchung\u2019 Ng Wai for his pro-Hong Kong message. Speaking with The Washington Post\u2018s video game outlet Launcher, Yang claimed that while he agrees with China\u2019s stance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}