With the money already spent, I think it should be played. The nagging problem would be that the game, unless an emulated MS-DOS game, is tied by DRM to their launcher.

But still, in the line of not losing as much by not playing something you spent on, playing the game could be good at least to leave an in-depth review about the qualities of the game, the technical sides, the background of the company, price point, etc. And you could also post the review to NeoDB (part of the fediverse), Steam (if you have the game there), GameFAQS, etc.

Play it. The money’s already spent. Avoid giving them money for anything else in the future. No ethical consumption under capitalism, so just do the best you can.

Well, you already spent the money, might as well waste theirs on datacenter costs.

You’ve got a lot of replies already advising you to play this game because you’ve already paid for it. I’ll add on to it.

I completely understand how you feel about contributing to their power. I have my own struggle with blizz because while I despise them, they make the only game that all of my friends want to get together to play. It’s infuriating.

You are correct that they get something out of you playing the game after you’ve paid for it. A video game company basically trades on sales, market presence, and monthly active users (MAU). The first two are essential to their success, but MAU is a bit trickier for them to extract value from. The strategy is that MAU is a metric by which they can curry favour with investors, or it gives them an idea how much they could earn from continuing to support the game or creating a sequel, or the potential value of crossover events.

However, MAU also comes with direct costs to the company. As you say, the game runs on their servers even when played against no human players. You cost blizz money every time you play it. That cost, honestly, is pretty negligible. But, the benefit that they get from one single active user is also negligible.

Something I think about is how difficult it can be to protest a game. The saying goes is that even bad publicity is still publicity, and this is true of games. For instance, when people talk about boycotting a game, the name of the game ends up in the news where it will have a wider reach - potentially to people who don’t care about a boycott and are hearing about a game that everyone’s talking about.

This is something that comes up in the piracy community too. A common defense of piracy is that it’s actually good for the company: people who weren’t going to pay for your game are still playing your game and talking about it. They inspire their friends and strangers to play this game, and if they really like it then they become potential customers when they can afford to do so.

My belief is that the two best ways to support a game are through purchase and word-of-mouth. You already paid for the game, so there’s nothing you can do about that. However, if you don’t want to feed the beast, the best way to deprive them would be to simply not talk about the game. Don’t name it, even to shame it

This is a rare case where keeping quiet can ease your conscience.

Is the game you’re thinking about a famous real-time strategy game? They have a few that I’m nostalgic for but I’ve never been able to get running on my computer in recent years. Modern RTS games tend to be a bit different, and they just don’t scratch the same itch. Happy to be proven wrong if someone knows some indie darling though.

The president is a pedophile. Morals are made up. Do whatever you want.

I’m considering this with Overwatch to join a group of friends online. I’m not as bothered with it, because I judge each societal action by its weight. Jaywalking doesn’t matter much even if I generally support traffic safety.

With that group, I still might point out and recommend better multiplayer games as they come around. But I won’t stake my social morals on successfully convincing them - I admit I’m not a compelling guy.

Play it. You already have it, and playing it will have no measurable impact on Blizzard whatsoever. If anything, it will cost them (a marginal amount of) money. Don’t rob yourself of enjoyment for no real reason.

I play stuff I have from the publishers I’m boycotting. Maybe I bought it before I started boycotting them, maybe I got it for free.

The point is to not give them any money going forward. Not using something you’ve bought really plays into the whole “you don’t own games, you just rent them” mentality.

What is wrong with your people?

Play the game and stop listening to other gamers. They’ll ALWAYS find something new to bitch and moan about.

Play it. You already gave them the Monet money so playing it offline will give you the enjoyment you purchased.

Thank you for the responses so far 🫶

I’m also thinking about the gains they get when I login to Battle.net.
Are there any?

If it’s Diablo 2/3, Warcraft 1/2/3 or Starcraft 1/2 you can get those through other means. If it’s World of Warcraft there are private servers. Only Overwatch and Diablo 4 would strictly need to use battlenet.

Take the good energy you get from playing the game and put into the world and the universe wins imho.

Dreaming?

Like, sure, you won’t be giving them power by playing their game, but you will be by consuming their product and talking about it and becoming a fan of it.

That being said, Blizzard games have been pretty shit lately, and unfortunately I think that coincides with the metoo gutting that happened.

Use your discretion though, and make sure you’re okay with the actions and results that will come from it. If you can go without, I do think that’s worth examining. But if your heart is truly set on playing the game, imagine how the victim of whatever Blizzard atrocity you’re thinking of would feel, you knowing you played whatever game it is. Right? Because that’s the entire point of being socially and ethically aware. Look up what happened and whatnot, and see for yourself if you’re okay, then, with playing it. Don’t let people online convince you to compromise your ethics or to protest something you don’t think is important. Discuss the morality and really understand it. Then digest your options and what you want to do about your decision of the morality of the situation.

Sometimes, you will end up being a protest of one. And sometimes, if you are really disgusted with something, being a protest of one is okay. But other times, if you really don’t feel like it’s a big deal to you, you don’t need to performatively protest alone, silently. And other times, your own integrity tells you that’s the right thing to do. It really depends on where you are and what is going to be the most positive net outcome in the world. But for that, you may need to do some deep thinking about who you are, what your values are, and all that jazz. It can be heavy. Other times, though, it can be okay to take a break and breathe, as long as you aren’t hurting anybody. Social responsibility is meaningful stuff and takes a while to develop, but it’s worth it. And mistakes are okay, sometimes we can only grow by making them.