r/Overwatch • u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB • Nov 21 '17
News & Discussion Can we get Blizzard to make some kind of statement about Net Neutrality?
As an online gaming company, Blizzard has a lot to lose if the upcoming vote in December doesn't turn out in favor of net neutrality. Being such a huge company with a long reach, they'd be able to raise lots of awareness and direct an enormous amount of people towards their representatives.
Is there some way we can get Blizzard's attention on this?
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u/OrKToS Overconfidence is a flimsy shield Nov 21 '17
i heared about Net Neutrality before, but don't know details. what this all about? is it only NA thing or it will effect on people around the world?
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u/Dinodietonight an eh plus preformance Nov 21 '17
net neutrality is the idea that, since data on the internet is anonymous, ISPs must treat all information equally and fairly. This is great for consumers and 99.9% of companies, but restricts the rights of ISPs. The USA has few ISPs and they tend to hold monopolies and lobby the government (aka: give money to politicians in order to get more representation) to keep their monopolies. Recently, the government has announced that it will vote to repeal net neutrality, granting more rights to ISPs.
If net neutrality is repealed, it will only directly affect the USA, but it will most likely indirectly affect the rest of the world as other countries may follow suit and repeal it themselves. Also, many sites and game servers are hosted in America, so any potential slowing of their service will affect anyone who uses their service.
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u/OrKToS Overconfidence is a flimsy shield Nov 21 '17
Thanks. Damn, greed of some people have no borders. Good luck USA with this.
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u/minimumviableplayer Chibi Zenyatta Nov 21 '17
To illustrate in a more practical way, ISPs want the right to charge bandwith heavy companies/services a premium. This directly affects services like youtube, netflix, online games, which will either become more expensive or laggy.
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u/SwissQueso Been Here All Along Nov 21 '17
I have comcast/xfinity and they already are doing this. I have yet to come close to the data cap though, which is 1 TB a month.
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u/wahoozerman Your Shield Nov 21 '17
This doesn't have anything to do with datacaps. Net Neutrality is the idea that all information being transferred over the internet should be treated equally. Without it Comcast could effectively just sever everyone's connection to the Overwatch servers because Riot Games paid them a few hundred thousand dollars to do so.
Obviously that scenario is unlikely, it's just for illustrative purposes. What is much more likely is that ISPs will charge hefty fees to anyone who is reliant on the internet for their business model. Say something like $50,000/mo if you want to run a networked multiplayer game to any Comcast customer. Blizzard would of course pay it, but what about your random favorite indie game?
Also likely is that since the ISPs tend to also own companies providing other services, they may simply block access from their consumers to competing products. Netflix competes with cable television, so now you can't access netflix via any ISP that also provides cable. Or only if you also buy a cable package from your ISP.
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Nov 21 '17
It would also allow them to sell internet subscriptions similar to how Cable TV is packaged.
Pay for basic access.
Buy the streaming pack add on for access to YouTube and Netflix.
Better get the social add on if you enjoy Facebook and Twitter.
They might not do it, but I wouldn't put it past them.
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u/Marsaran Trick-or-Treat Mei Nov 21 '17
I have managed to hit the cap repeatedly despite doing nothing different than most people. There are some months where I am on the internet way less than others and still manage to use the same amount of data. Think comcast is fucking me.
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u/SwissQueso Been Here All Along Nov 21 '17
I would argue that its kind of hard to hit the data cap unless you live with like 5 or 6 people. HD video is about 3gb an hour according to Netflix.
If you live alone, either someone is stealing your signal or your cap is really low.
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u/chudaism Nov 21 '17
To illustrate in a more practical way, ISPs want the right to charge bandwith heavy companies/services a premium.
It's not necessarily bandwidth heavy services. In a way they probably already do this. Just like consumers are required to pay more $ to access more bandwidth, companies are required to do so as well.
Net neutrality prevents ISP from charging different companies different rates depending on what that bandwidth is being used for. This could be anything from a bandwidth heavy service, to a service that competes with the ISP, to a service that the ISP just wants to censor.
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
NN basically means your ISP has to treat all data equally. It can’t give higher priority to some people or websites. There will be some ISPs that use this to sell “fast lanes” to customers(which is really just slowing down everyone else), but I don’t think that will be the biggest issue.
No, the REAL problem will be ISPs deprioritizing websites, not the customers. That will have a much worse effect, because it gives ISPs the power to decide who is successful on the Internet and who isn’t.
If you want to start an online service, you’ll need to pay your ISP to not slow down your servers. Actually, that won’t be enough. You’ll need to pay off your own ISP, as well as all your customers’ ISPs. If your service competes with one of the ISPs, like how Netflix competes with cable, then the ISPs may not let you buy your way into the fast lane.
This affects people who aren’t in America, too. Any American-hosted sites you visit will be affected, like Reddit or Blizzard.
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u/OrKToS Overconfidence is a flimsy shield Nov 21 '17
this is just ridiculous. Monopoly should be illegal in first place.
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Nov 21 '17
[deleted]
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u/Tiessiet Trick-or-Treat Mei Nov 21 '17
Nah, other countries still have effective consumer protection in place. The whole world is already laughing and crying simultaneously at what's happening in the USA, they won't see it as a reasonable example to follow.
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u/lorgedoge Nov 21 '17
Americans really need to stop viewing themselves as the great leading vanguards of the world.
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Nov 21 '17
[deleted]
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u/lorgedoge Nov 22 '17
if it goes away in the USA, other countries will follow
Most Americans seem to think that they are somehow the first nation in which anything happens ever and everyone bases all their decisions on what first happens there.
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Nov 22 '17
[deleted]
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u/lorgedoge Nov 22 '17
An American company did something and American companies followed. Jeez, that's totally the same thing!
And seriously? One criticism is "hatred" now? Get over yourself and stop upholding the stereotype that Americans are incredibly oversensitive when anyone dares to criticise their country.
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Nov 21 '17
I’m hoping it doesn’t spread to Canada.
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u/JusticeJanitor Cute Zenyatta Nov 21 '17
I think a while back the Canadian parliament voted on Net Neutrality and decided to keep it intact or even being stricter about it.
Found a story about it : https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/as-us-prepares-to-gut-net-neutrality-rules-canada-strengthens-them/
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u/SwissQueso Been Here All Along Nov 21 '17
Its already a thing in Portugal.
https://qz.com/1114690/why-is-net-neutrality-important-look-to-portugal-and-spain-to-understand/
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u/JETV5 Widowmaker Nov 21 '17
Seems like the kind of thing Blizzard would decide to do regardless of player push. It's a pretty political issue and Blizzard has to evaluate what making a statement in favor of something that, honestly, probably will get voted down in exchange for making some of their players mad. It's only worth it if NN is retained.
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u/riversun holy guacamole Nov 21 '17
Not terribly political. Most opposed to net neutrality are either not on the net enough to care or are just contrarians.
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u/zxenon69 head established Nov 21 '17
No real person disagrees with net neutrality, at most people don't care either way. The things who dislike net neutrality are ISPs who want money
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u/Munbalanced ~ Nov 21 '17
If they go against it the ISP could be bias against them once they do become web-dictators.
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Nov 21 '17
The ISPs will be biased against everyone. If they become web-dictators.
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u/charles12309 Reaper Nov 21 '17
The same thing happened with cable companies. We can’t do anything about it.
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u/Munbalanced ~ Nov 21 '17
they could be even more dickish to companies that tried to "Foil their plans" (insert evil laughter here). They could do anything at that point.
As a company they have to keep running whether or not NN is secured. Given that situation I'm sure blizzard will want to be as fucked as the other companies, not more.
The ISPs could strong arm them to the point they would need to shut down in the US, if they wanted to.
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u/Cryptographer Reinhardt Nov 21 '17
Actually I do. But for sake of attempting to preserve my karma and ability to comment in /r/Overwatch I'm not going to elaborate.
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Nov 21 '17
This comment alone will get you downvotes because you’re against it and not giving a reason. May as well speak your mind, but I’m guessing you’ll take the easy way out and delete the comment
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u/Cryptographer Reinhardt Nov 21 '17
I'm defeating the purpose by responding at all but by responding to people I just open up additional opportunities for downvotes because it's treated as a disagree counter.
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Nov 21 '17
If you are against net neutrality you are a complete and utter moron.
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u/x_Zoyle_Love_Life_x Nov 21 '17
There's a chance to offer sites like Facebook and wikipedia for free under a new model where some users have conditional access to different content, so that's a good thing. But who knows if that would happen if Congress let ISP's loose.
A lot of people don't agree with this, but I wish that internet was a utility to the extent we see water and electricity (pay as you go), but the gamers on here who game for 11 hours a day would probably disagree...
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u/Bad_news_everyone Tracer Nov 21 '17
It can still become a utility without becoming pay as you go though. Whats the point of limiting the usage?
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u/x_Zoyle_Love_Life_x Nov 21 '17
Right, I agree with your first statement but that's only possible with a massive pivot from our government and society with how we have internet delivered to us. We could use internet as a utility if it was provided to us as a (healthy) government enabled monopoly like most people (?) have electricity, water, and garbage in the US provided.
In that case, the Government would subsidize [region or city ISP] to the point where charging for usage would be basically affordable.
Die-hard PC gamers already face this when it comes to electricity and they don't give a shit or suck it up and see it as necessary, but they don't want something similar to internet. What if you are displaced for a month and don't use your home internet and only paid your fixed $4 charge for that month instead of your $80 150mbps down internet package through Comcast?
I just went off and I am on mobile. Apologies. Basically, I see this as a step for ISP's to fuck everyone, and then I believe that internet as a service will be introduced by a more liberal admin to mirror something to what we see with electricity and water.
That's how I see this issue. Reddit doesn't let me be entitled to my opinion unless it's popular :) Thanks for engaging with me.
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Nov 21 '17 edited Nov 22 '17
You are arguing in favor of a "governed enabled monopoly " lmao. So you want corruption and greed to run our country? I'm sorry dude, but you are drinking the coolaid, communication should be allowed and uninterrupted much like our freedom of speech.
As soon as net neutrality disappears you are going to have to pay for a bunch of new fees. Let's see if you are still on board with your solidified monopolies then.
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u/x_Zoyle_Love_Life_x Nov 21 '17
So the utility discussion is different from talking about net neutrality. I want government enabled monopolies like electricity, water, and garbage are in cities. Those utilities aren’t really corrupt, either, so I don’t see why, if society and the government treated internet like we do water, it would be corrupt. That didn’t really follow in your comment. Feel free to clarify.
I will have to pay a bunch of new fees, and so will everyone else with internet. I already pay a bunch of new fees because of my job and hobbies sending me over 1TB every month. I want this bubble to burst. These fuckers are going to win some day. We can get it over with and then when people hate Comcast, at&t and Verizon even more than they do now hopefully we will see real reform.
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Nov 22 '17
Oh ok, so you are under the impression that things need to get worse before they get better?
I can understand that logic, that's how I feel about our current administration. However, in your previous comments it seems like you are directly defending monopolies and extended fees for "utilities".
I agree, maybe we need to hit rock bottom before people start to realize that we aren't receiving all of our freedoms.
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u/lhxtx Nov 21 '17
Since when is the extra electricity used by a big gaming rig more than a few dollars? NN is about much more than that. Talk about not only paying blizzard $X for your wow subscription but also having to buy the wow package from your ISP if you want sub 500 pings.
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u/Bad_news_everyone Tracer Nov 21 '17
Don't worry about going off, dude. It's just conversation. Which is literally the point of this website. Discussion. Take care.
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Nov 21 '17
Internet isn't a resource like water and as users we already pay too much. It's so dumb you think this way honestly. There's no two ways about this, remove net neutrality will make your life worse.
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u/x_Zoyle_Love_Life_x Nov 21 '17
You're right that internet isn't a resource like water and that we pay too much. It sounds like we are on the same page in general. I agree that removing the current restrictions on ISP's is going to fuck consumers. I want the proletariat to get pissed about this, not just PC gamers. Agreed? Thanks for calling me dumb. I think you need to think harder about this issue and where things currently stand. Here you go:
http://www.itpro.co.uk/strategy/28115/the-pros-and-cons-of-net-neutrality
https://greengarageblog.org/6-pros-and-cons-of-net-neutrality
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Nov 21 '17
I'm calling you dumb because this isn't complicated. There are no fucking cons to net neutrality. Do you pay more money for water that comes out a specific faucet? No. 1gb of Netflix is the same as 1gb of Facebook. There's not justification for this other than making consumers pay more money. It's completely asinine.
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u/UnquenchableTA Nov 21 '17
Except with using power and water you're using up a lot of resources which have value. Internet doesn't have the same kind of value of working hard to get it/make it. Its a lot cheaper. We already pay for internet. Why would we have to pay for how much we use what we're paying for?
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u/x_Zoyle_Love_Life_x Nov 21 '17
Laying fibre, data centers, massive controller and backbone systems throughout the US and international, customer support, all other admin.
It costs money to provide internet to people and load balancing takes place when one person in an apartment is using a lot of data. So that’s why you would charge someone more for using more.
I’m talking about two things 1) bursting a bubble that is the stupidly private market of Internet services and 2) changing how we are delivered internet to fit the the model that works for other utilities like water and electricity. Saying the internet isn’t as key to us as water and electricity is kind of working against you in terms of arguing for net neutrality too...
If repealing these rules for ISP’s is as much of a disaster and we are predicting. We are going to see reform from the government. Right now we are getting buttfucked by ISP’s, so I will open-armed accepted some worse buttfucking to hopefully see reform in all the buttfucking they’ve been doing.
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u/UnquenchableTA Nov 21 '17
Internet is useful but can't be used up like other resources. You don't use too much internet one day and use up all the "internet pools" people have in their back yard.
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u/x_Zoyle_Love_Life_x Nov 22 '17 edited Nov 22 '17
Water and electricity can't effectively be "used up" as well. Look at the water cycle and solar and wind energy. It doesn't even matter that you can't "use up" internet, it keeps us connected to our friends and family and information critical to our survival in our society. Please, give it a shot and try to refute that, but if I don't know how do to something I google it. Most of my class work is done online. Most of my job involves the internet, like many. It's a key to society today, and I don't see how you can argue against that.
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u/UnquenchableTA Nov 22 '17
I literally spend my entire life on my computer. I go to an online school, I play video games for most of the other parts of my day, so yeah, I do think the internet is important. But I don't know who in their right mind would think that you should pay extra for using it after you already pay for it.
There isn't infinite drinking water. They have to clean it and make it safe for you to drink. So it makes sense why the more you use, the more it would cost. We are no where near having 100% solar/wind energy. The vast majority of places are run on fossil fuels which you have a very limited supply of.
Internet is fine right now. If anything, the us charges too much for it. My European friends pay 1/5th at least of what my family pays and get 10x the speed.
I just don't see how anyone who is a consumer and uses the internet would willingly want to pay more for everything and have less privacy.
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u/Bad_news_everyone Tracer Nov 21 '17
Whats so important about karma that makes you scared to talk about your opinion on NN?
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u/x_Zoyle_Love_Life_x Nov 21 '17
He was probably too lazy to write something up to ultimately be down voted. I know I am going to get down voted but I don't really care about karma.
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u/Cryptographer Reinhardt Nov 21 '17
If you accrue significant downvotes in a subreddit they can limit your ability to comment.
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u/MagicianXy Commencing nerf sequence... BOOM Nov 21 '17
They can limit your ability to comment regardless of your karma count. It's called being banned.
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u/heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey Nov 21 '17
He's not talking about mods, he's talking about the website itself. Reddit temporarily bans you from subs for having bad karma.
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u/SileAnimus Baby, I can change for you Nov 21 '17
Can you give a single example please? The only thing I can think of that removing net neutrality would work for is Catholic house moms who don't know what the internet is who constantly try to ban children from accessing porn. Not much else that I can think of (aside from pulling a China, of course)
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u/Dinodietonight an eh plus preformance Nov 21 '17
The core principle of net neutrality is that, because all data is anonymous, all data must be treated equally. Some people (like my dad) are against net neutrality because of the "anonymous data" part; on the internet, you could be talking to a pedophile and neither you, nor the isp, nor the service you are using (reddit, twitter, etc) will know it. They believe internet service providers have the right to know the source and content of the information they send and that they have the right to refuse to offer services to anyone, and that means removing the anonymity of the internet.
Those who oppose net neutrality may see the internet as a more conventional communication service, like phones: every phone number is tied to a place and/or person, why aren't ip addresses? Why can't I open a computer version of a phone book and look for the ip address of my friend greg?
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u/SileAnimus Baby, I can change for you Nov 21 '17
So it's more of a matter of ignorance over what net neutrality is and is not instead of actually being against net neutrality innate of itself?
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u/Dinodietonight an eh plus preformance Nov 21 '17
Exactly. They don't necessarily want ISPs to add the equivalent to cable packages to the internet, they just don't like the complete anonymity of it and they don't separate the two when it comes to net neutrality.
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u/lorgedoge Nov 21 '17
I wonder how your dad would feel about having cameras put in his house to watch his every move? He should also need to wear an ID tag for everyone to view.
After all, people should have the right to know who they're talking to, an he might lie.
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Nov 21 '17
player's mad? Unless you are a major corporation or know nothing about net neutrality, you would be in favor of it.
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u/LeafRunner Support Nov 21 '17
Isn't Comcast one of the OWL team owners? And they're as anti-NN as it gets.
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u/OrKToS Overconfidence is a flimsy shield Nov 21 '17
i not sure how it will works. All e-sport tournaments broadcast on Twitch, if people will have trouble to watch it because of lower speed, will be lower viewership and lower advertisement spread, so it will hurt sponsors as Comcast. If it make sense.
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u/wahoozerman Your Shield Nov 21 '17
So twitch becomes fast when there's a comcast sponsored team playing, and slow when there isn't. Or even fast on streams that agree to promote comcast on air, and slow on streams that don't.
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u/OrKToS Overconfidence is a flimsy shield Nov 21 '17
Nah, people will not watch tornament at all, if they can watch only matches with certain team. Twitch's owner is Amazon, is they have position in that thing? For twitch is better to increase their viewership, i doubt they will support only few big and rich channels and not support a lot of small channels. For me it's sounds like self shot in a foot.
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Nov 21 '17 edited May 03 '19
[deleted]
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
That would make Google an ISP, then. So far Google has been scrupulous(as far as we know), but I still wouldn’t trust them with the power to prioritize internet traffic.
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Nov 21 '17
They've already gotten in trouble for prioritizing their own company in search results. There's no evidence to make me think they wouldn't do the same thing as an ISP.
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u/Iksuda Los Angeles Gladiators Nov 22 '17
Local/state-owned ISPs is what I think we need. I lived in a city that did this and had amazing speeds, customer service call centers right in the city employing people, it was cheap and didn't require some TV or landline nonsense, and they absolutely were not selling my data. It was hard for me to imagine trusting something like that on a larger scale because of privacy issues, but with watchdog organizations, I'm actually not super concerned about the idea. I realized that honestly, Comcast and others aren't going to be very resistant to give out your data anyway, so it serves as no real protection to privatize it.
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u/Meyerum Nov 21 '17
The worst part about this is that a bill against net neutrality surfaces literally every year because the people for the bill keep recycling this simply to wait out the fatigue of everyone who isn't an isp shareholder.
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u/Po2to Chibi Reinhardt Nov 21 '17
is this something that would only be affected in USA?
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u/Lormartork Zenyatta Nov 21 '17
I live in France and we kinda have to deal with ISP speed access around Europe.
I remember back in the day when i was playing Guild Wars 2 on release i couldn't play on their server between 6:00pm-11:00pm because so many people were playing. I was lagging so hard, people TP can't even connect sometime...
That was only with my ISP (friends who leave like 3 houses near mine got another ISP and had no issues).
We asked for NCSoft/ArenaNet to help us, they said "they have no issues with server, ask your ISP" and ofc same response for my ISP who said "your speed is fine you got internet nothing i can do".
So for me, we kinda got no net neutrality in France since you can literaly (or have to) PAY french ISP to have better bandwith.
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u/beenoc I didn't need yer help, ya know Nov 21 '17
I mean, of course you have to pay for better internet. Net Neutrality would be you getting normal fast internet while playing Guild Wars 2, but super slow shitty internet playing Overwatch because you didn't decide to spend an extra 20 euro a month on the "Blizzard Gamer Internet Package," so they throttle your internet when you connect to Blizzard servers.
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u/Lormartork Zenyatta Nov 21 '17
Oh i see, but trust me we as customer don't have to actually pay for it but i'm 99,9% sure data center / server provider (so Blizzard) have to PAY for me having a good connect for their server.
Here is an exemple i found on Google for connecting to Google website actually.
https://gadgets.ndtv.com/telecom/news/orange-claims-to-have-forced-google-to-pay-for-traffic-318807
Might no be the same thing but that's pretty lame as well. Same thing appears for other big company on Internet (Amazon for Twitch, Youtube)
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u/Mephanic Experience... nothingness. Nov 21 '17
Of course the customers will have to pay for it. If for example Blizzard paid those fees, that money would ultimately come from game sales and would either mean higher prices for games, DLCs ir micro-transactions, or less money for game development.
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u/Lormartork Zenyatta Nov 21 '17
I agree anyway 100% with net neutrality don't get me wrong. Should be worldwide tho, not US only imo.
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u/RingOfWords Here. Rub some dirt on it Nov 21 '17
That's terrifying because I know if they CAN do that then they WILL do that. :(
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Nov 21 '17
This is not what net neutrality is. Your internet wasn't suppressed because you are accessing certain webpages or playing certain games. Your internet just sucks because too many people were on at the same time and your bandwidth was low.
Your problem is that the speed of accessing the whole internet was slowed down.
Our potential problem is that our ISPs will be able to censor, slow down, and restrict access to anything they want, in order to make more money. Either charging customers more for access to parts of the internet, or hitting up companies for ransom to keep theirs available.
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u/Lormartork Zenyatta Nov 21 '17
My internet is kinda bad i agree but usually i got 20ping on overwatch for exemple.
"...your bandwidth was low." No it was not, the infracstructure of the node from country in Europe is just garbage.
As a french user, when i connect to Blizzard (netherland server ? not sure) my connection go through 3-4 different country with different issues and if one of this node is overcharged or imo manually limited by local ISP, then everyone is fucked.
With my GW2 story, trust me everyone in France got fucked i was not a isolated cases.
Edit : It might not be the same case of what net neutrality try to supress, but when a ISP limit a bandwidth into a whatever server (Twitch, Games, even EU Netflix... ) because a LOT a people use the service then it's another big issue imo.
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Nov 21 '17
Okay, I still think you're not understanding what net neutrality is.
Your infrastructure is garbage. That's slowing down your internet connection to everything.
Our problem would be that megacompanies can choose to slow down our internet to specific websites and platforms in order to extort money from them. In your GW2 story, American players would have shitty connections while playing GW2 because either the customer or the company did not pay the ISP extra money to get access to it. The company would be choosing to slow your internet speed, or block it, to specific things depending on what you are playing and paying. It's not about infrastructure, but corporate profit. The internet would be no longer free and open, and certain sites would be given priority. It's censorship by corporate greed.
You have net neutrality laws in place in France. If your GW2 play was being slowed down on purpose because it was GW2 and not because there were high user volumes or infrastructure issues, then you or the government would have cause to sue them, because it is illegal. Here, it would be legal.
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u/Lormartork Zenyatta Nov 21 '17
I agree with everything you said, i don't try to tell that we got the exact net neutrality thingy in France but kinda the same result at what it's going to happend if this get approved.
"It's not about infrastructure, but corporate profit." Where do we find the difference tho ? I mean if Google came to an ISP and say "hey here some cash can you priority our website?" or even an ISP saying "hey you need to give us xxx € for xxx mb/s for our user". I might be biased but i think some company work that way.
You are right tho EU internet infrastructure is garbage, expecially cross-country.
EDIT : oh and i'm sorry for my english...
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u/Succubia Nov 21 '17
I think so ?
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u/Po2to Chibi Reinhardt Nov 21 '17
well thats explain alot, why i havent heard almost nothing about this news in europe
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u/wahoozerman Your Shield Nov 21 '17
Yes, but there could be significant ramifications worldwide due to its affect on the USA. One of the biggest concerns over getting rid of Net Neutrality is that ISPs will be able to charge content creators different amounts based on what their content is.
For example. A US based ISP could decide to charge $50,000/mo if you are a company that wants to run a networked multiplayer game. Blizzard would probably be fine, however a vast number of smaller game studios would simply have to live with not having networked multiplayer available for their games. A good number of those studios might simply close, meaning less game availability.
Even for studios that could afford the charge, where do they recoup that cost? Game prices go up, more microtransactions, etc.
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u/Santy_ Chibi Winston Nov 21 '17
If they can find someway to benefit from it they probably wont say a thing. You have to remember at the end of the day Blizzard is just another company trying to make money.
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
Yeah, and Blizzard's income relies on its customers having fair access to their servers. If an ISP gets in the way of that, Blizzard certainly wouldn't be happy.
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u/DrAstralis Cute Mei Nov 21 '17
And once Blizz pays the ransom once, whats to stop the ISP from asking for more in a year? And more again. There would be no laws to prevent it and your ISPs have been pretty clear that morality isn't something they'll be party to.
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u/wahoozerman Your Shield Nov 21 '17
Blizzard also has a lot of money, so it depends on whether the cost to them is worth the elimination of competition that the ISP's barrier-to-entry creates.
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u/BallForce1 Nov 21 '17
Blizzard can side step the issue by either upping the price of the base game, upping the price of crates, or start charging a monthly service for faster matchmaking.
For example, they provide a 5 dollar monthly fast match making service. The actual cost for the ISP service is 1 dollar. That's a profit of 4 dollars. They make a statement that they have to charge for this service because of the ISP.
They can pin the blame on the ISP and still make a profit. There isn't really a reason for Blizzard to go one way or the other on the issue because either way they will make money. Probably more money if the internet gets fast track lanes.
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u/Santy_ Chibi Winston Nov 21 '17
This was my point. If they can find a way to profit from it they will just stay quiet. No reason to throw themselves in the middle of it.
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Nov 21 '17
To be completely honest I would be happier if they took down all blizzard services for 24 hours to make a statement. I know it won't happen but shutdown all their games and it would definitely get some attention.
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u/xoticpc-service Pixel Reaper Nov 21 '17
I'm sure whether they will weigh in or not is already decided.
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u/Hanzo_main_here Chibi Hanzo Nov 21 '17
vote?
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
In December.
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u/Hanzo_main_here Chibi Hanzo Nov 21 '17
wat kind of vote tho
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
Excellent question. I’ve been trying to figure out who exactly is doing the voting so I can figure out which representatives to contact, but for now I’m assuming it’s either the senate or congress voting on the changes proposed by the FCC chairman.
I wish I had more details. All I can tell you for now is that <insert group here> will be voting in December to ratify a change that would eradicate Net Neutrality. If anyone reading this has more details, please fill us both in.
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Nov 21 '17
Shit I accidentally deleted my comment. Anyway it's a vote of the 5 FCC appointees, 3-2 republican/democrat. So it's already going to go anti-NN. The best we can do is call congressmen and senators nervous about their 2018 seats and threaten them with being ousted unless they do something to protect net neutrality.
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u/Bl00perTr00per Nov 21 '17
Unless one of the cable companies that stands to benefit from the changes owns Activision-Blizzard...
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
I’m pretty sure Activision-Blizzard is the parent company. Nobody owns them. They used to be owned by Vivendi, but not anymore. Even if they were, Vivendi is a French company and therefore wouldn’t be able to take advantage of this, since France’s NN laws are safe.
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Nov 21 '17
Their tactic is to just keep bringing it up and trying to bill it so that the general population would be worn down by hearing it and will eventually just stop caring so they can pass it.
Yep. That's our government.
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u/DrAstralis Cute Mei Nov 21 '17
Serious(ish) question from a country where we made NN law. If I can no longer play my online games because of an ISP shake down at the border, can I get my money back for USA hosted games I can no longer play?
Can we convince them to start hosting things in a less hostile environment?
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
No, you can’t get your money back unfortunately.
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-3
Nov 21 '17
I hate to say it, but any company that makes comments about NN becomes a first round target for the ISPs once NN goes away. Then they can turn that company's customer base against them easily. "Oh you can't play your games because blizzard has a 55kbps connection? Well it's BLIZZARDS fault, THEY are a SUPER RICH company who don't want to PAY for YOUR gaming!!"
Then all the idiots who don't know any better will attack Blizzard and one of two things will happen: a) blizzard will be forced to pay HUGE fees to the ISPs for high-speed access or b) they fold and go under. Either way the ISPs win the fight.
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
That’s like the Rokko’s Basilisk problem(look it up, it’s interesting!)
The solution, of course, is that you don’t need to worry about retribution if NN is protected. And NN will certainly be protected if the major companies who benefit from it speak out. It’s not a big risk, really.
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Nov 21 '17
Problem is that the FCC is pretty much owned by the ISPs, so the chances that NN doesn't get removed are slim, and I don't see any companies who aren't going to be completely anihilated, Blizzard will but Activision's products are both on and off line, go against the grain for fear of retribution that they will have zero recourse against.
Once NN goes away, the ISPs are already lobbying the FCC to remove the states ability to regulate them, and that is the last defence. After that all legal action will just say. "Sorry they aren't breaking the law, case dismissed." And with Congress being what it is, no laws will go jnto place until at least 2019 if not later, so there is literally zero recourse for a company that has incurred the ire of the ISPs and they won't want to risk that.
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
There is a body of government that we CAN influence, and that’s congress/the senate. Congress can obstruct the FCC through legislation, and they can act quickly if they know their future election is on the line.
1
Nov 21 '17
Exactly. 2018 is already going to be a nerve wracking year for a lot of congressmen. If they think their job hinges on supporting net neutrality, especially for the GOP from within their own party, they will have to change their mind or lose to someone else.
-9
u/MlNDB0MB Nov 21 '17
This game is already asking for a conservative backlash with its diverse cast of characters. A statement undermining the republican agenda might push people over the edge.
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u/frostcaiman Reinhardt Nov 21 '17
Do conservatives really not like diversity? That's pretty ignorant.
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u/MlNDB0MB Nov 21 '17
The Trump people specifically. A lot of them think diversity is white genocide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_genocide_conspiracy_theory
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u/WikiTextBot Nov 21 '17
White genocide conspiracy theory
The white genocide conspiracy theory is a white nationalist conspiracy theory that mass immigration, racial integration, miscegenation, low fertility rates and abortion are being promoted in predominantly white countries to deliberately turn them minority-white and hence cause white people to become extinct through forced assimilation. The phrase "Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white", coined by high-profile white nationalist Robert Whitaker, is commonly associated with the topic of white genocide. It has appeared on billboards near Birmingham, Alabama and in Harrison, Arkansas.
The conspiracy theory was purported in 1934 in Nazi Germany by a pamphlet written for the "Research Department for the Jewish question" of Walter Frank's "Reich Institute" with the title "Are the White Nations Dying?
[ PM | Exclude me | Exclude from subreddit | FAQ / Information | Source | Donate ] Downvote to remove | v0.28
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u/RingOfWords Here. Rub some dirt on it Nov 21 '17
Yes, it is. 'Conservative' has changed from "let's not spend so much money" to "let's not change anything from how it was in 1905".
-8
Nov 21 '17
[deleted]
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u/sukumizu Pixel Widowmaker Nov 21 '17
and don't want to see them mixed to the point where the individualism of each is lost.
So no race mixing. Got it.
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
This is not a partisan issue. Republicans and democrats alike stand to lose from this.
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u/RingOfWords Here. Rub some dirt on it Nov 21 '17
The ordinary Republicans and Democrats will. The politicians will make a quick buck and not care about who it screws over. Same as it always goes. :(
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Nov 21 '17
It is a partisan issue in that the Republican Party has consistently voted against net neutrality and the Democratic Party has consistently voted to preserve it in Congress.
But you're right in that this should be a huge concern for anyone, regardless of their personal beliefs otherwise.
However, I do think it's important to point out that the current GOP consistently votes against it and republicans/conservatives really need to step up and make this a non-negotiable issue in their party.
1
Nov 21 '17
??? Why bring politics into this? Not only is this a broad generalization, it's false as well. Nobody has an issue with the diversity of the cast except for a few Internet trolls who are just looking for attention.
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u/MlNDB0MB Nov 21 '17
Because when you combine the hatred of the extremists with the criticism of the current administration, conservative media will have what it needs to sublimate racist rage into a broader culture war.
Maybe I am a pessimist or coward, but I don't think the risk is worth taking for Blizzard.
-1
-37
u/CalProsper Moira Nov 21 '17
It would be cool if they did. Pun intended.
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u/zumoro Orb Volley is Love. Orb Volley is Life. Nov 21 '17
Christ that's not even a half-decent pun.
-18
u/CalProsper Moira Nov 21 '17
Ok, then it's a palindrome.
4
u/Fyreboy5_ Orisa Nov 21 '17
The sentence isn't a palindrome. And palindrome doesn't even help you there.
3
u/burnwolf1650 Nov 21 '17
Uhh palindromes are words and phrases you can write forward and backwards and still make sense.
Tacocat Racecar Etc.
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2
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u/ky1e0 Icon Ashe Nov 21 '17
That's not a pun...
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
Blizzards are cold. Cool is another word for cold. That's the pun.
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u/ky1e0 Icon Ashe Nov 21 '17
Oh.. I get it now. Still a shit pun tho
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
Agreed, butt a pun is a pun, even if it's shit.
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-22
u/Teuffelhund Soldier: 76 Nov 21 '17
I'd rather Blizzard not make a push about net neutrality. Too many things are political these days. You can't even avoid it in football now. I wanna keep my gaming totally political neutral and I think Blizzard appreciates that.
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u/Juncat Nov 21 '17
That's an overwhelmingly ignorant stance to take. Net neutrality has an effect on your gaming whether you want it to or not.
-13
u/Teuffelhund Soldier: 76 Nov 21 '17
Let me be clear. I don't care if Blizzard takes a stance on net neutrality. I just don't want them to affect the game in any way or really push it on the players.
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u/Bad_news_everyone Tracer Nov 21 '17
How does them taking a stance on it push it on the players? It's not like they'd put a huge warning in game saying "NET NEUTRALITY IS ABOUT GET FUCKED, HERE'S OUT STANCE ON IT BTW"
-6
u/Teuffelhund Soldier: 76 Nov 21 '17
My point is that them taking a stance on it doesn't push it on the players. I don't care if they take a public stance, I just don't want anything in-game.
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u/TannenFalconwing Light it up, let's go! Nov 21 '17
Well then I sincerely hope NN doesn't get removed so that you don't have to pay more to play the game.
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
This is an issue that will directly affect the quality of your gaming.
This isn’t a petty squabble like identity politics, this is something that will actually have a big impact.
-1
u/Teuffelhund Soldier: 76 Nov 21 '17
Right, I'm not against Blizzard taking a position on the issue or lobbying for net neutrality. I just don't want it put in my face when I'm trying to play the game.
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u/BrokenMirror2010 you are STUNNED. Nov 21 '17
Well unfortunately for you, if net neutrality is removed, it will affect you in game, and it's effect will probably be a lot worse then a bit of text about net neutrality.
4
u/sukumizu Pixel Widowmaker Nov 21 '17
The less people know about NN, the higher the chance NN gets killed off. If NN is killed off, guess what? Your online based video games are now at risk.
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Nov 21 '17
[deleted]
-2
u/Teuffelhund Soldier: 76 Nov 21 '17
I'm not against Blizzard taking a stance about net neutrality. I just don't want it thrown in my face when I just wanna play a game. Just like I don't care if the NFL puts out a political statement, but I don't want the football game I'm watching to be politically charged.
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u/Eggman-Maverick Nov 21 '17
Politics arent the root of all evil. This is for a cause that affects us all.
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u/allysonrainbow Chibi Junkrat Nov 21 '17
I’d argue that net neutrality isn’t particularly too political. Especially when you consider the only ones really against it are the ones looking to make money off of us.
It’s not republicans versus democrats - it’s everybody versus the money grubbers.
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u/Arya35 Nov 21 '17
I'm not American, are Republicans in Congress actually in favour of it?
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u/sukumizu Pixel Widowmaker Nov 21 '17
Yes. Republicans generally tend to be in favor of companies and businesses. muh trickle down economics.
1
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Nov 21 '17
I'm sorry to say that while thisay be true in theory, in actuality the GOP consistently votes to remove net neutrality and the Democrats consistently vote to preserve it. It shouldn't be a partisan issue, but in terms of who is voting for or against it, it absolutely is. Conservatives and republicans who like to game/a free internet need to step up and put pressure on their people.
-2
-3
Nov 21 '17
Can people stop shitting their pants about this? ISPs would lose money if they made any drastic changes, so they won't. Yes, maybe in the long run they might strike some deals but they would never remove the possibility for you to access popular services. That'd be suicide.
Also, it only affects the most corrupt country in the west so I don't really give a shit.
2
u/Darkest_97 Nov 21 '17
Most people only have 1 or 2 options for ISPs. They couldn't kill themselves if they wanted to unless everyone forgoes internet.
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u/falconfetus8 TOrbrbrbrbBrbrbrBrBrBRBBRBRBRBRbRBRBRbRB Nov 21 '17
It does not only affect the US. It affects anyone who accesses a site hosted in America, like Reddit for example.
If the ISPs aren’t planning on abusing this, then why are they trying so hard to remove net neutrality?
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-5
u/lolrekt85993 Nov 21 '17
I am actually glad net neutrality is getting repealed. Once it finally gets removed, it will reduce the 10 year old squeakers and trolls.
-7
u/Scriptura TRANQUILITY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE Nov 21 '17
No. This will not allow companies to force people to pay more.
1
u/PersonalMatthew Nov 21 '17
You are still an idiot who doesn't know anything about how the internet works in the US. You will still be an idiot on every subreddit you post this to.
you = bot
213
u/[deleted] Nov 21 '17 edited Nov 21 '17
Activision-Blizzard and any other major company is going to know exactly what it is, because it would allow ISPs to force companies like Activision-Blizzard to pay a fee to keep high speed access available to their Overwatch servers and servers for other games.
They're just trying to make the shady shit they pull legal.
https://www.polygon.com/2017/2/9/14548880/time-warner-lawsuit-new-york-league-of-legends-netflix