Game Science Is Reportedly Making Content Creators Promise Not To Discuss Feminism, Politics For Black Myth: Wukong Codes

Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to Games@sh.itjust.works – 140 points –
thegamer.com

Black Myth: Wukong developer Game Science is reportedly trying to ban content creators from discussing certain topics in exchange for game codes. 

In a leaked document, which at least one content creator has publicly stated they received from Game Science, there is a "do's and dont's" section, telling those who receive a code what they cannot discuss in their content. Here, the document informs those with Black Myth: Wukong codes that they cannot include "politics" and "feminist propaganda" in their coverage of the game, among other topics.

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I was just going to write "China's gonna China", but then I remember this particular studio goes a little further than that:

In one instance, a lead is said to have written that men and women play different games because of "biological conditions", following up his comment by writing: "Fck sissies, fck tragic love stories, fuck moon-lit peach blossoms and flute-playing scholars! [...] Some things are just for men, their depression, their anger, their pain...".

The studio is also said to have shared job recruitment posters that boasted "friends with benefits" as a job perk. Another was reported to have read, "Fatties should f*ck off."

Charming.

So a 4chan edgelord is somehow running part of a company. Lovely...

I wasn't aware that only men have depression, anger and pain. 🤔

Lots of bigoted edgelords have lots of management positions… they just aren’t actually on 4chan.

“China’s gonna China”

Fuck China, but I really don't see how this is specific to them. Lets not pretend this shit couldn't happen (and is happening) pretty much anywhere else on the planet.

Some things are just for men, their depression, their anger, their pain…”.

I mean, you can just ask for suicide watch straight up, instead of veiling it like that?

How dare he speak bluntly about having different tastes!

Except he's not saying people have different tastes. He's saying genders have different tastes, of which only that gender can enjoy and they should enjoy them. He's saying the opposite of what you're implying it says.

The guy who sent this was apparently using a gmail domain, not Game Science domain, this might be fake.

The article itself says that they never received any such requirements.

Others have already pointed out important things about what the dev has said; I would like to add that the book the game is based on has a number of female characters which are simply not in the game.

Red flag.

Not for most of the Dark Souls crowd.

But what I'm thinking is that they don't really have much leverage, I don't know who is expecting this studio to put out more than this one anticipated game before returning to relative obscurity. At most they can provide a shorter demo and deny the full game codes to reviewers that didn't obey.

This is fake.

https://x.com/JordanMiddler/status/1824864368342753719

EDIT: Seemingly different guidelines for reviewers and "influencers"? I'll wait for the dust to settle on this one.

It’s not.

https://x.com/paultassi/status/1825193786273681489?s=46&t=EUtgwMByNj4sQbVP9INV-Q

Ah yes, the undeniable proof that is a man's word and a screenshot of a bullet points list without any context.

“GLHF has confirmed that the “Do’s & Don’ts” document was sent to Reinier and at least one other content creator by Hero Games, a developer and publisher that co-published Black Myth: Wukong according to a LinkedIn post from the company. Hero Games is also a major shareholder in developer GameScience, and as of a 2021 press release was the largest external shareholder of the company. 

Reinier sent GLHF a copy of the email sent to content creators and we can confirm that it was sent from a company email address associated with Hero Games. The email signature also contained a Discord username, and the account associated with the sender is listed as a Hero Games employee on their profile in the official Black Myth: Wukong Discord server.”

Source

Seems reasonable. They are to review the game so the player know what's the game like.

You are confusing "review" with "advertise".

That's all mainstream reviews have been for AAA games for the last decade+ anyway.

What all obedient reviews have been, yes. And those are the reviews you've been seeking out and watching.

LMAO way to assume shit about me.

I only go by steam reviews and gameplay videos/demos, if the games aren't recommended by someone I know personally.

Game journalism has always been essentially marketing, the publications are way too tied to the industry and way too dependent on advertising from the same companies and products they're supposed to be criticising, hence why big titles that get less than an 8 are equivalent to normal games getting a 2 or a 3.

Good games will rise to the top organically, some might get lost in the shuffle but it won't be the perennially 2 weeks late big budget crap apologists at whatever game """news""" publication you care to name to fix that.

You must be reading weird reviews then. Probably too deep into the influencer-bubble, which granted with the proliferation of video reviews and the way algorithms work on Youtube and so on is sadly rather comment.

So just really worried about right-wing cancle culture?

I would quarantine that game in my review bucket based on it's isolation of specific trigger words such as 'COVID-19'. I'd rather talk about Winnie the Pooh, tbh.

Oh no! You can't talk about politics. When talking about the game. Who haves nothing do to with politics.

Good to know you like censorship.

If the same document forbade reviewers from talking about, say, white replacement (which I don't personally believe btw, just trying to hold up a mirror, here), I'm sure you wouldn't be crying censorship.

That’s a really stupid hypothetical because why would a Chinese company give the first shit about “white replacement”?

And the devil has enough advocates.

Why you need to talk about that stuff. If the game about is not about that stuff?

Why did they forbid talking about stuff that isn't about the game? Why do they need to talk about this stuff?

The game studio brought this up, not the reviewers. The reviewers are just pointing out that the devs are clearly woke obsessed piss babies that can't not talk about politics, even when it doesn't have anything to do with their game.

Forbidding people to talk about politics is inherently political, and therefore hypocritical.

Why do they feel the need to forbid that speech if it isn't related to the game. If the content of the game inspires people to discuss such issues then they should be allowed to discuss them. If it's extremely misogynistic, they should be allowed to point that out.

Because I am a believer in death of the author. That means that a developer doesn't get to decide what their game is or isn't about.

A dev could have put in a theme unintentionally. Does that mean you are not allowed to talk about it?

Why do they get to decide what a work of art means to me?