A blockbuster new Chinese online game hailed as a milestone for the nation’s gaming business has put an surprising highlight on longstanding claims of rampant sexism in China’s male-dominated gaming tradition.
While some avid gamers are basking within the runaway success of the action-adventure title “Black Myth: Wukong,” others are voicing their complaints about sexism in Chinese gaming and lodging allegations towards the sport’s Shenzhen-based developer, Game Science, that it posted offensive messages on-line.
Critics posted screenshots of the messages on Chinese social media platform Weibo, with one compilation receiving over 400,000 likes. One of the posts that critics say got here from founder Feng Ji makes use of descriptions of oral intercourse as a metaphor for the optimistic responses concerning the recreation’s promotional video. Other examples embrace lewd recruiting posters.
AP was not capable of independently confirm the screenshots, although avid gamers interviewed reported seeing the posts. Game Science didn’t reply to an e mail searching for remark and hasn’t publicly commented on the controversy.
The criticism displays simmering anger amongst Chinese ladies within the business who say they’ve lengthy been focused by misogynistic remarks and habits.
Gender inequality is a worldwide downside within the closely male-dominated gaming business. Despite making up nearly half of the avid gamers globally, ladies made up solely about 22% of the gaming business workforce in 2020, in accordance with Women in Games, a United Kingdom-based group.
Skylar Hu, the one girl on her recreation engineering crew of over 20 folks, stated her male colleagues usually posted sexual jokes in work discussion groups. She stated when she advised offenders to cease, her messages had been ignored.
“Offensive jokes are so common and explicit,” Hu, 23, stated in a cellphone interview, talking on situation she be cited by her English title out of concern for her security on-line.
For Jessica Hua, a former online game operation supervisor, controversy over the sport reminded her of the poisonous atmosphere she skilled as a girl within the recreation business.
“A lot of people think it’s just kidding around. But I cannot accept such misogynistic remarks,” stated Hua. “I take it quite seriously.”
“Black Myth: Wukong” is China’s first-ever AAA recreation, a designation for big-budget productions akin to A-list films. The recreation made historical past when over 2.4 million folks performed the sport concurrently on-line, breaking the file for most-played single-player recreation on Steam, a serious on-line gaming platform. Three days after the sport’s debut, over 10 million copies had been offered.
Many within the Chinese gaming business say they regard the sport as a degree of nationwide pleasure, selling Chinese tradition and difficult Western dominance within the business.
“There is no doubt that this is a milestone in the Chinese gaming industry,” stated Feng Xu, secretary of the Chengdu Cyber Game Industry Association. “It’s exporting authentic Chinese culture by introducing Monkey King to the world.”
China, which famously imposed limits on how lengthy youngsters can play video video games and sought to curtail extreme spending on on-line gaming, has proven full help for “Black Myth.” The authorities of China’s northwestern Shanxi province collaborated with the sport’s developer to advertise native tourism. State media have additionally revealed a sequence of articles praising the sport.
Feng Xu says he doesn’t assume the allegations towards Game Science would have a lot impression on the sport’s success. “Political correctness has nothing to do with the game,” he stated. “We gamers only play the games, and we only care if the game is good and fun.”
Others say it was solely a matter of time earlier than addressing sexism in Chinese gaming tradition gained extra traction.
“Most game creators are men. You can see in a lot of games women are usually unnecessarily sexy and objectified,” stated Ashley Li, a cultural critic and recreation fanatic. “But I think this will gradually change in the future. We need to give it some time.”
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