Blizzard Facing Class Action Lawsuit

With popularity comes exposure and in our society often lawsuits.

Blizzard Entertainment, the development behemoth behind such games as World of Warcraft, Starcraft II and Hearthstone is no stranger to lawsuits, in fact, they sit on both sides of the litigation table more often than you might think. 

In 2013 Blizzard received $275M after some shenanigans involving C.E.O. Bobby Kotick.     Just days ago, Blizzard allegedly received another boost when Chinese Hearthstone Counterfeiters were ordered to pay $1.6M and another $7M went into Blizzard’s coffers via a lawsuit against a botting company.   Blizzard and Valve have even butted heads over the term DOTA (which neither created), but walked away amicably realizing that both could simply return to their offices and watch bags of gold bullion rain from the sky. 


Blizzard's logo is made of solid gold. 


As recently as February 14th,  Blizzard was notified of a class action lawsuit against them by players participating in their Heroes of the Storm community.

This lawsuit alleges that Blizzard is acting in both a racist and discriminatory way by not allowing them to play for the “Red” team in the game.   Players are always shown their own team, team mates and objectives in blue on the map while their enemy counterparts are denoted by red markers. 

“This is pure and simple discrimination”, said a player who goes by the call sign wutdaFaQ. “Why can’t I be the red team once in a while?”  “Obviously others get to be the red team.  I play against them every damn game!!!!!”


Several forums sites are awash with arguments, as players fight among themselves.

“Who cares what colour you are”, wrote FlyWhiteGuy on a NeoGAF forum.

To which a forum user known as N00bSt0mper replied, “I care you jack-hole. I always get blue and the red team always wins.   How stupid can you be? I’m an awesome player and I never win.  How am I going to rank up and show that I’m Pro enough to play for Evil Geniuses if I never get a chance to be on the winning team?  ”

Obviously others get to be the red team.  I play against them every damn game!!!!!

Blizzard has yet to comment, other than one developer’s post stating, “We do switch up which side you play on.   Sometimes you start on the left and sometimes the right.”

This enraged the community further, in part because it was posted in all blue text.

"They post in blue just to piss us off" said 3loquent0ne in a post on the official game forums.  "They could post in red or blue, but they always post in blue.  Funny guys."

(A blown up photo of the mini-map in a "Seeds" game. Note blue is on the left)

“I’m as Liberal as it gets and yet… I start on the right half of the time.  This is a personal insult and it’s obvious that it is directed at me.  I don’t see anyone else having this problem.  Just me.  Why single me out? F.U. Blizzard and your political statements” posted a user who goes by the call sign MakeLoveNotWarcraft.

They could post in red or blue, but they always post in blue.  Funny guys.

(Blown up mini-map of a "Doubloons" game.  Note blue is on the right.)

"Don't get me started on this," tweeted DaCripplah, followed by "Doubloons, seeds, go in the mines,  I can barely keep track of what I need to do.  Making me understand which team I'm on would be too much. I'm only rank 3 for Pete's sake."


Reddit has taken mudslinging to a new level as players face off in textual warfare over the lawsuit.   This is especially unusual given that Reddit is normally such an understated and welcoming place in which to post your opinions. 

New players should take the time to visit /r/HeroesoftheStorm.  It takes a second to get past the dozens of posts of cats and dogs playing Heroes of the Storm, but if you delve deep enough and have thick enough skin there is much to learn. 

Making me understand which team I'm on would be too much.

One long-time Redditor had this to say, "I always got blue, so someone on Reddit suggested that I buy a new video card.  Buy a GTX Titan they said.  You need it for the game to render red they said.  $1,000 later, no difference.  Who can I trust if I can't trust the /r/HeroesoftheStorm community?  I mean seriously, it's right there in our name, REDdit.   We're not BLUEit. "


(A police sketch of the video card purchased by the Redditor)

We will post more on this story as it becomes available.  

In other news, PETA Protesting Against Evolve.


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Last Updated: Mar 15, 2016

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Dissecting and distilling the game industry since 1994. Lover of family time, youth hockey, eSports, and the game industry in general.

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