Starcraft 2 makes major announcements (and I am off the hype train)

[Final-Fan]

bbsin said:

Final-Fan said:

Look, find me a dictionary definition consistent with your claim (unless you think I have again misrepresented you) that you can boycott a product (not a company) all by yourself, without ever being part of any organized effort of protest/demand/threat/etc., and when the fact of non-purchase is due to low valuation of the product's worth instead of another form of disapproval. 

My favorite dictionary, Webster's Third New International, in fact says that to boycott is "to combine against (a person, employer, group, or nation) in a policy of nonintercourse for political or economic reasons ... as an expression of disapproval or means of coercion" or to engage in "concerted refusal to have anything to do with ... in order to force acceptance of certain conditions ..."

[edit:  and no, your earlier examples are not sufficient. 
[Dictionary.com
[1.  "as a means of intimidation or coercion" this clearly doesn't qualify
[2.  "abstain" this is a much more subtle disqualification.  "Abstaining" implies not doing something that you would normally be inclined to do.  Abstaining from drinking, or drugs, or whatever.  One abstains not because the thing is undesirable (like Cheetos taste bad or are messy) but for some other reason like ... Cheetos are made with child labor or whatever the reason was. 
[

Would they not to inclined to buy/play SC2? To abstain can be to refrain from something by one's own choice or to voluntarily do without. 

[yourdictionary.com
[1. "join together", "so as to punish" double fail
[2. "to refuse" probably your strongest case.  Still, "refuse" seems to me to be a more purposeful sentiment than just not wanting to buy -- not as clearly as "abstain" but still there.  Plus, either "refuse" does mean something aside from not thinking the product worth buying, or that definition means that anything you ever decided against buying is a boycott.  I think you agreed that that's not the case. 

"refuse" is a word with many different meanings. You can used it in many situations. In this case, I'll agree that it represents a more purposeful sentiment that just a simple "meh, I don't want it." However, Some people that are refusing to buy SC2 are in fact "refusing" as they've clearly shown their unwillingness as a result of no LAN. Simply put, they've refused to by SC2 without LAN support.

[

[Yahoo dictionary
["abstain" "as an expression of protest or disfavor" Abstain again, see above.  Also, "disfavor" again ought to be something else than just not wanting to purchase. 

I've already covered "abstain". But I'll also agree that "disfavor" is something else other than simply not wanting to buy.. but that's irrelevent because I've been using the word "disfavor" as an expression or act of disapproval and dislike, which fits perfectly with the reactions of SC2 boycotters. Some people are abstaining from purchasing/playing SC2 because they disfavor Blizzard's decision.

[
[So only one of the five definitions you quoted could even arguably support your interpretation, and IMO not even that.]

American Heritage Dictionary.

boy·cott

To abstain (To refrain from something by one's own choice) from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

Cambridge Dicitonary

boycott
verb [T] 
to refuse to buy (a product) or take part in (an activity) as a way of expressing strong disapproval 

abstain: to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial from an action or practice
Like I said, "abstaining" implies a reason you're not partaking of something beyond the undesirability of the product; it implies that you DO desire the product and would buy it if not for circumstances other than the product itself and its price and availability that cause you to sacrifice getting it.  e.g. not buying stuff made with child labor, not going to a restaraunt that employs illegal immigrants, etc. 

refuse: 
Again, if you interpret it that way, then I am BOYCOTTING vending machines that sell pop cans for more than 65 cents.  Would you say that that is the case?  I wouldn't. 

disfavor: 
If you agree that the disfavor has to go beyond just not being willing to buy the product, then I think we may agree.  But...

"Some people are abstaining from purchasing/playing SC2 because they disfavor Blizzard's decision."
I'm sure some are.  But many more are not abstaining so much as no longer are willing to spend that much money on it.  "Disfavor" in that sentence, of course, applies not to SC2 itself but to Blizzard's decision regarding it.

But I will admit that Cambridge's definition clearly does allow for a boycott to be of a single product as an expression of disapproval (of the company or its actions, not the product)

Hey, it occurs to me that that was something I might not have been articulating clearly enough before now.  Boycotting is disapproval of something apart from the product, whether it be the policies of the manufacturer, or processes of manufacture, or something totally unrelated to the product itself but which will hopefully be affected by the boycott.  If the disapproval is simply of the product's cost/value to the customer in question, or how far away the store is that sells it, then it's not a boycott but simply not buying it. 

So a person who refuses to buy SC2 because Blizzard chose to take out LAN play is boycotting;
but a person who refuses to buy SC2 because SC2 doesn't have LAN play is not boycotting.  (Unless they send letters to Blizzard saying they'll buy it if LAN goes back in or sign a petition or something.)