“The co-publisher of hit Chinese video game Black Myth: Wukong this week sent guidelines to foreign streamers, urging them against discussing politically touchy topics such as COVID-19 or feminism,” players said.
Released globally on Tuesday, Black Myth rapidly became one of the most successful Chinese-made games ever.
But in the run up to the game’s release, video streamers reported receiving a document from co-publishers Hero Games warning them to avoid topics including “feminist propaganda” or “politics” when they received a passkey to play the game, an email exchange showed.
Gamers were also warned against any reference to “COVID-19”, “isolation” or “quarantine” — likely a reference to China’s pandemic-era policies that placed millions under arbitrary lockdowns and sparked civil unrest.
They were also told to avoid commenting on “China’s game industry policies, opinions, news, etc”.
Benoit Reinier, a French video game content creator, said on Wednesday that he had received the guidelines and shared his email exchange with the firm’s representative. In a YouTube video, Mr. Reinier said he would not stream the game on his channel in response to the guidelines, he described as “censorship”. “I have never seen something so shameful,” he said in the video.
But Chinese gamers have rallied to the game’s defence, with some painting any criticism of China’s first “Triple A” title — some of it focusing on the lack of diversity in the game — as evidence of foreign bias.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
