![[1122] Masters And Slaves](/comics/2019-10-11-1122-masters-and-slaves.png "[1122] Masters And Slaves")
On the following page you can find all the info about this year’s Sandra and Woo + Gaia artwork contest which comes with $5000 prize money!
In response to the controversy surrounding Blizzard, we completed this strip as quickly as possible. Here’s the one published yesterday in case you missed it:
![Sandra and Woo: [1121] Party Hard!!](/comics_archive/2019-10-10-1121-party-hard.png "Sandra und Woo: [1121] Party Hard!")
- J. Allen Brack: This concludes our presentation of T-Sam, the first transgender Overwatch heroine!
- J. Allen Brack: We here at Blizzard firmly believe that people of all races, genders, and religious beliefs should be represented in our games!
- Xinnie the Pooh: Mmmm, delicious Uyghur organs!
- J. Allen Brack: Could you please not do that here?!
- Xinnie the Pooh: Shut up, slave, and get me another spleen!
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Rather more cutting than the usual here.
Spleen? Have you tried eating it? It’s has a consistency of wet paper. Now, livers are much tastier!
Nice work.FREE HONG KONG FREE TIBET.
F*k Blizzard ,f*k Bobby Kotick(listed in Epstines blackbook), and f*k China. May Xi Jinping live in interesting times.
While I support the criticism of double standards/Blizzard/China, having them eat uyghur organs is maybe a bit harsh.
Having Winnie Pooh play with little police/rioter figures on air & making shooting sounds would maybe also have been funny.
@ Aleksei Besogonov:
I know spleen in sausage (link only in German, sorry)
If Sandra and Woo isn’t already banned in China, it probably will be now.
@ Keulen:
Given their rules for works of fiction that can be allowed on Chinese internet, most of the webcomics in the world are verboten there.
American tech companies, your friendly sympathizers of tyrannical leftism. If you disagree, you’re surely homophobic or something. (Wait, doesn’t China electrocute gays in attempts to “cure” them?)
Look at this and the pinned comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t5quhq8-DI
Can Sandra and Woo 1108 be applied to companies that claim to do no evil? I think it can.
Which reminds me of the Patreon link on this page here. They should’ve been hit for libel, and broken up by antitrust right along with Paypal. Respect for Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin, and everyone else who risked their income to take a stand.
All that hurry and you’re still behind the news, Apple got in on the action.
But really, it’s a for-profit company that’s 5% owned by a Chinese conglomerate, what were you expecting?
I don’t understand, I thought westerners loved nihilistic capitalism and the pursuit of profits at all costs? I was told that chasing money at any cost leads to the highest quality for society?
Anorweoi wrote:
No? Most Westerners in my humble opinion are neither socialists nor ignorant of the shortcomings of free market societies.
@ Anorweoi:
Whoever told you that lied. And now the question is – where else did he lie as well?
So a political one after a strange one ^^
honestly, I think it is important to include all kinds of people and to create rolemodels for everyone. I do think that they do it often a little bit to on the nose and not subtle enogh. To be fair sublty really isn’t the strength of todays society in general, so no surprise there.
But what’s even more important is to stand your ground when it comes to democracy and freedom. And honestly, almost all companys are really bad with that. And most customers don’t care.
Welp this goes completely over my head. I know of Winnie the Pooh and Overwatch but not how they relate to each other.
@ Techno Gray:
Xi Jinping has been compared to the Pooh. He is not fond of the comparison.
@ Techno Gray:
Blizzard banned and took away the win money of a tournament winner when he used his speech to talk about Hong Kong. Blizzard happens to be partially owned by Tencent, a massive Chinese corporation who has been buying stock of several entertainment companies in the world and is rumored to be used as a propaganda arm of the CPC government.
@ Anorweoi even the biggest capitalism supporters don’t support it if there is no free market. You can’t blame capitalism when there is an authoritarian regime that would ban you from selling any products to their citizens if you let contestants express opinions. That’s not capitalism.
Good for you! It’s long past time to face the truth about China.
@ Anorweoi:
That’s a bit of truth, hidden in misconception. Free market advocates support capitalism because consumers have the right to not buy from a company they don’t like. If their actions cause them to lose customers, then moving back to a more popular stance becomes the way to make more money. Or, you know, incentive to think things through before they actually do it, but wheres the fun in that.
…Of course that mostly works for luxuries, since we can’t exactly skip/pay extra on basic living needs.
@ Arent:
They can talk all they want but their actions prove otherwise. All they do is eat, consume, and whine impotently.
You guys are SO banned in China.
Good work.
Nate wrote:
But we /can/ blame capitalism for valuing profit above principle. Why do you think every major corporation bows to China? Because capitalism compels them to seek the path of greatest profit. This isn’t caused by a few bad individuals. We can’t dismiss this by saying ‘the people running Blizzard/Apple/etc just happen to be immoral’. This is a systemic problem. Capitalism uses profit as its metric of success. Entities that behave profitably are rewarded. The ones who don’t are punished. It’s that simple.
So Blizzard took away winnings because a contestant made a political statement? That seems rather harsh. What’d Apple do?
The SJW are so innocent in their feelings of ‘equality’ and ‘rights’ that they cannot see the real world.
@ Silhalnor:
The full story is that the winning player, a Hong Kong native, went onto an official Blizzard Taiwan stream to make his statement. So (1) the stream being Taiwan (which is ‘officially’ part of China) makes Blizzard responsible for policing that stream according to Chinese regulations and laws. Blizzard had to respond not just to remain in business in China, but to avoid potential legal actions China might have taken.
(2) The players in that game were bound to Blizzard’s eSports rules which are available in a handbook, and “forfeiture of winnings” and ban from playing were included as such. The clause, however, is vague and has been a target of the Internet’s frustration:
“A player may not, during any Tournament, commit any act or become involved in any situation or
occurrence which brings him or her into public disrepute, scandal or ridicule, or shocks or offends
the community, or derogates from his or her public image or reflects unfavorably upon Blizzard,
Hearthstone or any of the other products, services or sponsors of Blizzard. ”
“Blizzard may impose additional sanctions against players participating in Tournaments during or after the Tournament, that may include the following:
• Disqualify the player from participating in any future Hearthstone Tournaments and events;
• Revoke all or any part of the points and prizes previously awarded to the player;
• Terminate all licenses granted to the player for Blizzard titles, including Hearthstone; and/or
terminate all Battle.net accounts that are held by the player.
• Add the player to a public list of players who are ineligible for play in future Hearthstone
events. ”
The player in question knew he was likely giving up his prize money and his future participation in the game, and chose to sacrifice such for his cause. While a respectable decision, his actions put Blizzard in a bad spot (that’ll continue to get worse. Blizzard has their big convention coming up in less than a month).
While they later released a pro-China statement, I firmly believe Blizzard did not have a choice in how they responded to the player’s actions – they both had to appease their existing business partners and pass down a harsh enough penalty to discourage others from repeating the behavior..
@ Arent:
Is referring that chine right now is rounding up minorities and taking their organs
Anorweoi wrote:
Who’s “they”?
Aurilia wrote:
They could have gone the way of Lavabit, with the benefit that most of Blizzard’s assets are not under rule of the offending jurisdiction’s law. Of course that would completely trample on any expected corporate rights of Tencent (which owns 5% of Activision Blizzard), but I see no problem with ignoring the corporate rights of 5% of a nonhuman entity in order to fight against serious human rights violations. In fact, depending on who owns the other 95%, and strength of consumer response to Blizzard’s support of China’s human rights violations, this may have been the more profitable option, which is what capitalist corporations are meant to choose no matter what laws/rights are violated.
Seems like getting banned in China is the top trend these days.
@ Arent:
“They” being gamers. They’re actually using Mei, a character created by the corporation that they’re protesting, as a symbol for pro-HK. The voice actress for the character is pro-China. In a week or so they’ll forget about this and go back to their stupid video games.
Well masters, slaves, and copouts:
https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/8779-J-Allen-Brack-Regarding-Last-Weekend%E2%80%99s-Hearthstone-Grandmasters-Tournament?page=1#comments
Also this: https://cad-comic.com/ for Oct 11
Bet this will be one of the great moments of Sandra and Woo that people will still read after a… Month… Give or take half a month… And get all nostalgic and maybe even remember what it was all about. XD
Anorweoi wrote:
Ok, that I can agree to. On the other side you have to admit that Hong Kong is far away & most people do, in fact, not care deeply about it, as long as it does not directly concern them.
You can’t really criticize them for that. To be honest, Hong Kong is by far not the worst thing in the world – just think about Nigeria or Somalia. And people have jobs, their own problems, they can’t care for all problems in the world.
@ Arent:
They can remain as apathetic or as selectively outraged as they want, it doesn’t matter because we all know gamers have absolutely no self-control whatsoever. Just look up that time they decided to boycott Modern Warfare 2.
@ Arent:
How would you qualify the erasure of a whole culture and history? They even razed cemeteries.
Anorweoi wrote:
Well, yes, of course it’s superficial. They don’t live in Hong Kong, they don’t have to bear the consequences.
They point is that no one will lift a finger over Hong Kong, even if the chinese army marches into the city. I suspect Europe won’t even impose sanctions. Maaaybe the USA might impose sanctions. But that’s all that will ever happen.
While I am an ardent advocate of free speech and despise totalitarians of every stripe, It is inappropriate to use another man’s stage to spout your political beliefs. If Blizzard wants to cuck to the Chicoms, I can choose to never buy another activision/blizzard product again. CD/Project Red is making better products with no microtransactions, anyway. They can have my money.
I read this aloud with Jim Cumming’s voice and it was weird
Anorweoi wrote:
Nope. You get that sort of view when you vastly oversimplify key aspects of reality, and ignore the things other than capitalism that drive people.
As artists, Novil and Powree understand that free speech is a freedom that you must not compromise. Take away freedom of speech and can throw art into the trash bin. Frequently, good art says things that people in power would rather not be said.
BTW, for those stating how capitalism can be at odds with free speech, while it can be in the short term, long term, capitalism needs free speech as much as art does. People in power usually like staying in power even if it negatively affects their society and population. Long term this causes an economy to stagnate and eventually spiral down into disaster, which isn’t very friendly to capitalism.
Red5 wrote:
People are base creatures thriving on their base instincts. If Blizzard is China’s slave, then gamers are the cattle for milking and eventual slaughter.
Arent wrote:
Consumer choice is not a shortcoming of free market societies. In fact, it’s a key feature. People choosing to not involve themselves with a company that makes nice with a country whose practices are abhorrent to them is something that exists ONLY in free (or semi-free) markets.
@ Arent:
They are litterally performing a genocide program…
@ Arent:
Most “westerners” are capable of more nuance, yes.
But being nuanced doesn’t get you on television in our current media climate, or elected in the fringe-baiting primary or party-vote systems that many countries use.
Niri wrote:
Exactly.
Part of being a responsible citizen in a free market society is looking at the bigger picture of who you choose to do business with.
Ironically, as many of the monopolies that exist and keep us from doing that exist BECAUSE of goverment regulation as exist because of the LACK of government regulation. See, the cable companies in many parts of the country who were granted exclusive rights to territory in exchange for putting in the infrastructure.
Kobrag90 wrote:
Indeed, the Uighur they don’t kill or drive out, are being stripped of their culture. And I don’t mean in a stupid “identity politics” way, I mean literally they’re being “reeducated” to destroy the culture.
We should never have allowed ourselves to get entangled with China, all we’ve done by doing business with that country is empower its government to new heights of repression and belligerence. I’ve been saying this for almost 30 years.
Niri wrote:
Here is a list of major companies who don’t have abhorrent ethics:
…
…
…
That was it. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Nestlé (yes, the chocolate company) employs actual /death squads/, who assassinate union organisers. The tech industry gets its metals via African slaves. It’s literally impossible for consumers to shop ethically. Every product is stained with blood.
What.
Uhhhh, why do companies whose games I sorta enjoy have to make utterly stupid political decisions?
Ok… I see what they’re trying to do, they want to stay completely neutral, weak move, but they’re a game company, they’re out to make money, getting involved, for or against, does not help them.
Unfortunately, this is a situation where neutrality is not possible.
I still don’t blame them, they are weak minded capitalists whose only concern is making money, I just pity them. I blame the Chinese Government for causing this mess in the first place.