Solidarity with @blitzchungHS and Gods Unchained

in #splinterlands5 years ago (edited)

Yesterday Blizzard Taiwan deleted the VOD from their channel in which blitzchungHS wore a mask symbolizing the Hong Kong Protest and playfully called for the "Liberation of Hong Kong." Blizzard further went on to enact 2019 Hearthstone Grandmaster's official competition rule v1.4 section 6.1 (o) which states:

Engaging in any act, 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 to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard's Website Terms.

Beyond simply deleting the video they have also gone on to ban him from tournaments for a year, strip his eligibility for Grand Masters series events, and strip his winnings to date.

Gods Unchained was quick to respond and we stand in solidarity with our fellow crypto game: free people all over the world have the right to speak truth to power.

Simply put, all people on this planet regardless of where they live or where they were born have the creator given right to express themselves. Governments and corporations at times attempt to limit that right to protect themselves, their profits, and their power. Here's hoping the Striesand effect spreads blitzchung's message of liberty far beyond that one simple VOD.

@blitzchungHS, feel free to contact (yabapmatt or aggroed) on Discord. We'd like to give you free cards from our upcoming UNTAMED series to help make up for the losses you incurred from Blizzard for speaking your mind.

Pioneering esports property rights and freedom

At Splinterlands, we have not only chosen to put game assets on a free, opensource, transparent blockchain (Steem), but we have taken the additional step to put all of the gameplay and market transactions on that blockchain as well. In light of Blizzard's decision to remove rewards, limit play, remove speech, and cater to an oppressive government it's a little easier to see why a decision as simple as "should we put our assets and our game on a public database (blockchain) or private database" is so meaningful today.

Make no mistake the Steem blockchain is a tool powering the game, but it's also the backbone of "dangerous liberty" and "security of property" for players in the game. Two things that don't seem all that critical until the private companies with their private databases strip you of your freedom of speech and rightful property.

Keys = Rights

If you don't own the keys you don't own the property. If all you have is a password you're always at the whim of someone else who actually controls the account. You're allowing a third party to act as custodian. Here, we allow the blockchain to operate as custodian and trust that the nodes operating the blockchain will continue to post our key-signed transactions with blissful indifference to our political views.

We stand in solidarity with , blitzchungHS, Gods Unchained, and free people the world over. We invite people interested in gaming, asset ownership, and freedom of speech to come explore what crypto games have to offer at splinterlands.io.

In proud solidarity

Stay blessed, stay safe, and stay free!

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Is there a way we can help get some hearthstone players to splinterlands?? Any tweet we can retweet ?

Posted using Partiko iOS

I've been kicked off twitter three times now, it sucks that we need that avenue because they are part of the problem too. I have not gone back to twitter...

Ive been kicked from twitter 100 times, they really dont like my personality

yea, its hard when you are just alone shouting in the woods... instead of being able to use the channels that are blocking you

I sent him this one if you want to give it a push https://twitter.com/InfoSteem/status/1181630400894029825

That's what's up, couldn't of said it better myself. Bring him into are game speaks volumes on what you and our community is building... Great job crew......💯

Posted using Partiko Android

Splinterlands and freedom of Speech!
012 - Fire Dwarf (690px, 10fps).gif

Posted in FB by Jeremiah Lee Custis‎:

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It is so sad to hear how governments and cooperations are abusing their power over the people and customers. I still wonder why people vote and support for this kind of behavior. On the other side I really like the fact that Blockchain can regain some of the power to the people. Do you guys have any plans to make Splinterlands mpre decentralized aka. incentives more Nodes to run the Network or encourage other developers to build Arenas based on the cards?

Posted using Partiko Android

Free speech is important to us, people have to know what's happening. My country has lived this for several years.

Thanks for sharing it we need that freedom.

greetings, @steemmonsters

take my solidarity too!!!!

hve a good night all here

Right on, @steemmonsters! While I believe that during this "politically heated" time is is best to TRY to stay away from speaking about politics, as a libertarian I agree that the occasional commentary should NOT result in sanctions to private property. I have a strong opinion on the issue in question, but I CHOOSE to vent that opinion in "more appropriate" venues. That is a personal choice that people need to make, and I believe that reasonable people are erring on the side of diplomacy for the most part. But, due to the severity of the situation, one can be forgiven for the occasional venting of opinion. Another underlying issue which is brought to the forefront here in this post is that #steemmonsters is ULTIMATELY a "community". The game is an EXTENSION of that community. The Gods Unchained game has recently been brought to my attention, and I have been taking a look at it, but the lack of the established community there, versus the firm integration of SteemMonsters with the Steem blockchain (and its community) has been the main catalyst which got me SERIOUSLY into SteemMonsters, and which is making it difficult for me to "get rolling" on Gods Unchained. My point is that gaming is a SOCIAL experience involving COMMUNITIES, and so naturally the same issues that affect "communities" will occasionally play out in these venues (ex. this current free speech issue). I applaud your defense of free speech, and this shows that SteemMonsters is MORE than a mere game, but a game built on a strong COMMUNITY...

I blame Blizzard and PRC.
Boycott both, please.