Before you lock the thread hear me out. A lot of people are claiming it's because of social justice warriors or something to why Jaina's art was changed. But it's actually something more sinister: China
As you remember from the Diablo Immortal controversy, a lot of themes from Diablo were censored to appease China's strict censorship laws that forbid women having any kind of fanservice, there be any kind of gore, and all that stuff. Well Blizzard recently failed China's standards review for Hearthstone and their other games, and so they've been making changes.
If you remember months ago Ubisoft made censorship changes to Rainbow Six Siege that removed any sexual imagery, references to gambling (The fucking irony,) and any blood or skulls, because they viewed it as cheaper to do than just making a separate Chinese client. Blizzard could very well be doing the same, as Activision is having them do any kind of cost cutting measure they can.
Jaina's the first. Expect more changes like this as the year goes on.
If you remember months ago Ubisoft made censorship changes to Rainbow Six Siege that removed any sexual imagery, references to gambling (The fucking irony,) and any blood or skulls,
These all sound like positive changes? Thank you China, I guess.
I won't be surprised, if this is the case tbh. I remember reading an article before, how some WoW models, which depicted death and skeletons, were changed in China. Forsaken characters were less bony and I think the skeletons were just replaced by graves.
If you remember months ago Ubisoft made censorship changes to Rainbow Six Siege that removed any sexual imagery, references to gambling (The fucking irony,) and any blood or skulls,
These all sound like positive changes? Thank you China, I guess.
Except why should the rest of the world be censored just to appease the communist regime? The changes were reversed after the majority of the Siege playerbased threatened a boycott.
I'm more interested about Hearthpwn's behaviour right now.
They've locked all the threads on the subject and there's still no news article on the site about this change despite people talking about this both here and on the blizzard forums and youtube (even Kripparian made a video).
I have no love for China's regime and its censorship, and I would not be surprised if that was a reason for the Jaina change, but even to western eyes toning down sexualisation of female characters is a good thing. Especially for one so prominent as the first hero players see.
If they start changing existing skeleton artwork then I'll complain, but so long as it is just covering cleavage then it is fine by me.
Why? We're having a sensible discussion about possible censorship in order to appease China, which is something that is actively happening in not just Hearthstone, but multiple games.
If mods were willing to lock duplicate threads for any other topic besides cleavagegate, I'd agree with you
It's a ridiculous claim in the OP because Jaina is but one piece of art among many that would most definitely be considered "too revealing" by some standards.
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The previous threads were locked because they devolved into a mess, clamoring about SJWs and insulting people. It's not some grand conspiracy.
While I have no say on the subject, I imagine there is no news article about this because it's just not that important. People are blowing this whole thing way out of proportion. Jaina threw on an undershirt; just...get over it lol.
Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
I'm more interested about Hearthpwn's behaviour right now.
They've locked all the threads on the subject and there's still no news article on the site about this change despite people talking about this both here and on the blizzard forums and youtube (even Kripparian made a video).
Why is Hearthpwn hiding it?
We're not hiding it. There's no reason to. If we were going to hide it there would be a bot running to nuke threads immediately and we'd certainly not be locking them, they'd be getting deleted.
Honestly, I think the whole thing is stupid, on both fronts.
On the side of Blizzard changing it, I don't believe it wasn't necessary and it's even confusing as to why Jaina was changed but a way more sexual card, Succubus was not. Blizzard likely caved to some new hire internally that cried about it since I definitely haven't seen massive outcry about the assets in the community (except when they were "nerfed").
On the side that we're all on, I think it's stupid we couldn't from the beginning talk about it without nonsense. The entire reason threads started getting locked is because people can't discuss it properly.
Creating a news article to talk about Jaina's breasts being covered up ends up bringing even more children into the conversation and really, we've been moderating them enough over the past couple of days. Plus, what even is that going to be other than "hey, Jaina got an art update. check out her boobs if you haven't recently.". People hate it when we do anything that isn't factual so if I write an opinion piece on it (for record's sake it's stupid that they caved but it really doesn't matter at the end of the day) we're just going to get a bunch of negativity over that. It's not like talking about it even more is going to end up getting a Blizzard response.
I'm sorry people had to ruin actual discussions taking place, not that there was much to discuss.
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Before you lock the thread hear me out. A lot of people are claiming it's because of social justice warriors or something to why Jaina's art was changed. But it's actually something more sinister: China
As you remember from the Diablo Immortal controversy, a lot of themes from Diablo were censored to appease China's strict censorship laws that forbid women having any kind of fanservice, there be any kind of gore, and all that stuff. Well Blizzard recently failed China's standards review for Hearthstone and their other games, and so they've been making changes.
If you remember months ago Ubisoft made censorship changes to Rainbow Six Siege that removed any sexual imagery, references to gambling (The fucking irony,) and any blood or skulls, because they viewed it as cheaper to do than just making a separate Chinese client. Blizzard could very well be doing the same, as Activision is having them do any kind of cost cutting measure they can.
Jaina's the first. Expect more changes like this as the year goes on.
GJ having the only intelligent post about this topic.
I hadn't thought of China, but you are almost certainly correct.
this makes a lots of sense but do you have any source about HS failing china review?
That might be the reason, honestly it doesn't bother me.
Dead but dreaming
It's not really 'sinister' to want to tap into such an enormous market as China. Who cares if some Fantasy Bits have to be covered?
And congrats OP on a sensible post about Jaina and her TankTop.
4/3/19 RIP Keith Flint. 😔
Right here: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/a4w3ux/chinas_ethics_board_reviews_20_popular_online/
These all sound like positive changes? Thank you China, I guess.
I won't be surprised, if this is the case tbh. I remember reading an article before, how some WoW models, which depicted death and skeletons, were changed in China. Forsaken characters were less bony and I think the skeletons were just replaced by graves.
Except why should the rest of the world be censored just to appease the communist regime? The changes were reversed after the majority of the Siege playerbased threatened a boycott.
China censoring bobs. Guess we're going to war bois >:(
Dab
I'm more interested about Hearthpwn's behaviour right now.
They've locked all the threads on the subject and there's still no news article on the site about this change despite people talking about this both here and on the blizzard forums and youtube (even Kripparian made a video).
Why is Hearthpwn hiding it?
lock please before this gets out of hand again.
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If mods were willing to lock duplicate threads for any other topic besides cleavagegate, I'd agree with you
I have no love for China's regime and its censorship, and I would not be surprised if that was a reason for the Jaina change, but even to western eyes toning down sexualisation of female characters is a good thing. Especially for one so prominent as the first hero players see.
If they start changing existing skeleton artwork then I'll complain, but so long as it is just covering cleavage then it is fine by me.
Why? We're having a sensible discussion about possible censorship in order to appease China, which is something that is actively happening in not just Hearthstone, but multiple games.
It's a ridiculous claim in the OP because Jaina is but one piece of art among many that would most definitely be considered "too revealing" by some standards.
Kaladin's RoS Set Review
Join me at Out of Cards!
The previous threads were locked because they devolved into a mess, clamoring about SJWs and insulting people. It's not some grand conspiracy.
While I have no say on the subject, I imagine there is no news article about this because it's just not that important. People are blowing this whole thing way out of proportion. Jaina threw on an undershirt; just...get over it lol.
Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
We're not hiding it. There's no reason to. If we were going to hide it there would be a bot running to nuke threads immediately and we'd certainly not be locking them, they'd be getting deleted.
Honestly, I think the whole thing is stupid, on both fronts.
On the side of Blizzard changing it, I don't believe it wasn't necessary and it's even confusing as to why Jaina was changed but a way more sexual card, Succubus was not. Blizzard likely caved to some new hire internally that cried about it since I definitely haven't seen massive outcry about the assets in the community (except when they were "nerfed").
On the side that we're all on, I think it's stupid we couldn't from the beginning talk about it without nonsense. The entire reason threads started getting locked is because people can't discuss it properly.
Creating a news article to talk about Jaina's breasts being covered up ends up bringing even more children into the conversation and really, we've been moderating them enough over the past couple of days. Plus, what even is that going to be other than "hey, Jaina got an art update. check out her boobs if you haven't recently.". People hate it when we do anything that isn't factual so if I write an opinion piece on it (for record's sake it's stupid that they caved but it really doesn't matter at the end of the day) we're just going to get a bunch of negativity over that. It's not like talking about it even more is going to end up getting a Blizzard response.
I'm sorry people had to ruin actual discussions taking place, not that there was much to discuss.