Social media is heavily regulated in the country, and criticism of public figures and politicians can have dramatic consequences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the alleged post from the Diablo Immortal account caused massive backlash in China. It is also a word often used to demean President Jinping, who is referred to as Winnie the Pooh. On May 22, the Diablo Immortal Weibo account was accused of publishing a post that translates to “Why didn’t the bear retire?” In terms of context, “bear” in Chinese is a term often used to describe incompetence and cowardice, especially when it comes to politics. However, there may have been another reason for Diablo Immortal’s delay related to an alleged Weibo post that was mocking Chinese President Xi Jinping. Originally scheduled to launch on June 23, NetEase attributed the delay to a variety of technical issues affecting the game’s performance. For more on the game, check out this story that's even better than the headline: Diablo Immortal player uses premium currency shenanigans to turn old WoW tokens into a whale-killing Necromancer.Last week, NetEase, Blizzard’s Chinese localization partner, officially delayed the release of Diablo Immortal. Some Diablo fans may not be happy with Diablo Immortal, in other words, but Blizzard certainly seems to be. It has also seemed, at times, that critics were going to extreme lengths to make arguments against the game, throwing around over-inflated numbers that don't really reflect how any normal person would play (a quick youtube search for the topic finds one content creator claiming the game has $110,000 worth of microtransactions). Mobile game monetization is an easy piñata for us all to take swings at, but microtransactions remain the dominant business model for mobile games: and there's a lot worse out there than Diablo Immortal. That being said, Ybarra may have a wider point (though that certainly won't stop Immortal's critics). For Diablo Immortal and games like it, the fun parts of games are money extraction devices." The important question being: well, is Diablo Immortal any good then? PCG's Tyler Colp took a look and described it as a game designed to exploit your love of Diablo: "It's built around the dopamine that comes from whacking demon piñatas for loot, meticulously designed to give you a jolt of satisfaction every 30 seconds-and then, when that's not enough anymore, it charges you for it.
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