‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Devs Told Streamers to Avoid Politics in Their Playthroughs. It Backfired
www.wired.com
The Chinese studio granted early access on the condition that topics like “feminist propaganda” and “Covid-19” go unmentioned. What followed is the Streisand effect in full force.

The Chinese studio granted early access on the condition that topics like “feminist propaganda” and “Covid-19” go unmentioned. What followed is the Streisand effect in full force.

“I feel that it only served to bring more attention on Game Science’s culture of sexism,” linktothepabst says. “All they had to do was let the game speak for itself, but it came off, to me, like an own goal, effectively stoking the flames between the people who were using this game as weapon against ‘wokeness in games’ and those who can level-headedly either enjoy the game and criticize GS or just ignore the game altogether.”

It’s the Streisand effect in full force: Try to hide something, and it becomes all the more visible. “Nobody was going to bring up Chinese politics unprompted,” Zhong says, “but the topic was there as soon as they released those guidelines.”

    • HauntedCupcake@lemmy.worldEnglish
      152·
      2 months ago

      I can’t help but notice that she isn’t disagreeing with the translation. Just that the intention is somewhat disguised behind cultural barriers.

      The infamous “I want to expand my circle and hire more people, get licked until can’t get an erection.” she describes as “crude” meaning it isn’t a completely off base translation (which honestly surprised me). It’s clear she has a bias, and is upfront about it, so I think she’s being more forgiving than a Western audience would be if a Western dev said similarly crude things.

      I think a lot of the context is helpful, particularly about Chinese devs using female players as part of their own marketing. So “pandering to female players” is more directly associated with exploiting female players.

      Clearly the studio has some statements the West would consider iffy, even with cultural context in mind. So the accusations of sexism don’t seem as cut and dry as either side is making it out to be

        • HauntedCupcake@lemmy.worldEnglish
          51·
          2 months ago

          Totally agree, I interpret it in the same way as saying that people are blowing/fellating you. Not saying that is/isn’t sexist, but it is crude, especially as a public statement from a company. I’m just trying to get the facts straight