Dear reader, this text may put you in front of a personal dilemma and and this could change your perception. By continuing to read this text you consent to this risk. You can stop reading this text at any moment. The following is the author’s opinion:
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The Context:
9th of August, happened a complete falsification of the election in Belarus which lead to a political crisis in the country. The reason being a dictator who refuses to let go of the power. The peaceful protest was met with an unprecedented cruelty in the middle of the European continent.
9th of September, president of Russia V. Putin finally drops all pretence by sending to the dictator Luchashenko his top propaganda envoys from TV channel Russia Today: Simonyan and Keasayan . I can only interpret this as an official act of media aggression against the peaceful protest in Belarus , and against the author personally. This text is a retaliation measure in a peaceful form against this aggression.
Welcome to the stage, Wargaming.net (Wiki). You might know this company for their game World of Tanks. This company is know as a Belarusian company, and yet the headquarters is on Cypress (ha-ha).
Do you remember how Blizzard banned a streamer for expressing their support for the Hong Kong protesters? Thus was proven that the so-called triple-A gaming companies are very much involved in politics, because … money. I am telling a similar story.
Some facts about Wargaming.net:
Number of employees:
- Blizzard: 4700 employees
- Riot Games: 2500 employees
- Wargaming: 1750 employees
- Paradox: 423 employees
Money:
$16.5 billion industry by 2016
Main shareholders:
Victor Kislyi (64%) and Vladimir Kislyi (25.5%)
The company is so well-known, Belavia (the only airline company in Belarus) even painted one of they’re planes in their honour. So you can’t deny the fact that this company is in the public eye. And what has the company done so far? Has it showed its support and taken a clear stance towards the situation in their home country? Let’s explore:
- Nothing on their Twitters, Instagram, Facebook, news pages of the games or the company itself. Only a brief trace of the revolution start is in the post here
- CEO signed a group letter
- CEO ‘s Facebook and Twitter are silent.
- An interview to a Polish page on August 20th.
- Oh, look, a thread on the official forum got closed because it’s forbidden to discuss politics. “No politics” in a game capitalising on the industry of war and selling premium bullets is what I would call a hypocrisy.
- Company donated masks to the healthcare, cause the government couldn’t take care of itself.
- Several articles about Wargaming mentioning that they might have to move the office if you search in Russian. Here. Here. These are not the only examples.
Anywhere you look the dates are the first days of the protest. It has since been several weeks and the things have escalated beyond all reason, yet Wargaming is being quiet as a mouse; as neutral as the representatives of clergy. Those priests, an orthodox bishop and a catholic bishop, got kicked out of the country just for their neutral comments.
Statement 1: Games are politics to the same degree as books, movies, radio, and any other type of medium.
Statement 2: Taking a neutral stance is now equivalent with taking the side of the oppressor.
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
A quote not by Dante Alighieri
To Wargaming.net company and its community,
You are welcome to join the peaceful protest in a more active way. Some suggestions: start posting about the current situation in your social media, make in-game events about the theme of the topic, stop censoring political discussions on your official forums.
From the day of this post, the longer Wargaming remains silent, the more it becomes evident that the company supports the current lawless regime. As such the employees have a reason to reconsider their own ethics and perhaps act individually. Fans of their games will also get a chance to evaluate if they want to support a product from a company in cahoots with a dictator.
To the gaming community of the world,
If you happen to play games with citizens of Russian Federation, you may accept the role of envoy and pass on this simple message:
Belarusians only seek peace. Do not let the politicians destroy the bond between our peoples. All deals made with the dictator will be null and void.
Thank you for reading and feel free to share =)
September 9, 2020
lostingame.design 