Good update to the yesterdays story and my post about it got removed by moderators for some reason, so here is a "reboot" of the conversation
TLDR (full article from GLHF can be read here)
- The email about prohibiting talking about feminism and politics is real. It was sent not by the studio Game Science itself, but it's co-publisher Hero Games (located in China, also the largest external stakeholder in Game Science). The email address is real (post from GLHF journalist on ResetEra) and attached to the person who is named as an employee of Hero Games on game's official Discord
- This doc was ment only for content creators who want to get the key. It was never about journalists/reviewers (the claim came from a subreddit where people can believe in a rumour from 4chan and it successfully damaged the whole discourse)
- This doc wasn't an NDA and wasn't a part of review embargo or sponsored content agreement
- Forbes' journalist managed to confirm that email is real and it was sent to at least one content creator from US
- The first who reported on this email was a French YouTuber ExServ, later on the journalist from TechReport got another French content creator to confirm the validity of the email
- Publication GLHF also got a separate content creator (location is unknown) to confirm this email and who send it
IGN journalist Rebekah Valentine – who is the author of the investigation about Game Science's treatment of women – also confirmed the validity of the email and added her response to "criticism" about her article
I really would like to encourage folks to read my and Khee Hoon's article from October, which is linked elsewhere in the thread. Not just skim or read summaries, but really read it. I think a lot of what's happened since we published it has gone on to prove the point of the article. It's not that the game itself is sexist (it seems fine from what I've heard, though I haven't played it yet so I cannot fully say). It's not even that the whole studio is toxic (I have no idea.)
It's a deep dive into the toxic community that has sprung up around the game due to the ways its founders engaged online, and how that community has spiraled out of control ever since. For all the weirdos online claiming our article was Google Translated (completely untrue) or debunked (what part of it was untrue lol?), everyone has really just gone on to prove over and over that Black Myth Wukong's online community is infested with sexism and its developers at best don't care, and at worst think that's great.
The weird GG2 crowd has been running around boiling my article down to "she wrote that the game is sexist but that's not true" or "she said they have a toxic studio culture but couldn't prove it" and I find that frustrating because that's not what I wrote. Hence why I encouraged folks to really read the article. You can draw your own conclusions on the rest.
My squishy female brain may not be biologically able to enjoy the game itself (/s), but it is DEFINITELY enjoying the backlash from these sexist companies’ decisions. 🤷♀️
I went digging through this sub on this game after the devs were revealed to be huge misogynists and found this post from 3 years ago [link here](https://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/s/NmNh2irlTT)
I think this is pretty clear evidence since it was from 3 years ago when WBM wasn’t nearly as big, and I’m a little sad that OP didn’t get the attention she deserved for bringing this up.
While not quite as bad (this means archived information such as reviews are not being restricted) ANYTHING using this crap in relation to their game is absurd. Still a pass for me. I’ll wait for space marine 2.
I hope this gets more traction, media has been whisper quiet about this for months
knowing what all the main gaming subs are like any post about this will probably just get downvoted to oblivion…
“Feminist propaganda”. Like what, my mere existence?
It was so strange seeing people say “the email isn’t real! I didn’t receive anything like it!” Like it’s not hard to figure out that it’s possible that some people got this and some people didn’t.
Apparently the devs have commented that women don’t buy games any way, we just want to talk drama. If they knew how much I’ve spent on this hobby, buying DLC and especially how much I’ve ended up spending on gacha (don’t get into gacha), they’d cry at the lost customer. Because that’s what I am now.
Can’t wait for all those guys and one girl who called us in a previous post gullible and bad faith to reply!
Now watch men go out of their way to buy their games and rate them highly just because of this.
I remember seeing on 小红书 quite a bit of controversy pointing out the problematic behaviour of the Dev guy whatshisface about a year ago. Now when I do a search on the app all the posts regarding it have disappeared, probably deleted or view-limited by the platform after receiving money from the company to quash the discussion….
It’s a shame I love Chinese Mythology and i’m a big souls like fan I would have surely brought this game but I would never support these pieces of shit.
I’m glad I’ve never heard of this shitty company or their shitty games.
This whole thing is so unbelievably cringe on the developer’s part, it’s funny in a tragic way
Makes you wish everyone started streaming the game only to talk about the things the devs don’t want anyone to talk about lmao
Don’t forget this recruitment notice, which was personally published by the CEO of Game Science in 2020. It contained a large amount of sexual harassment and misogynistic content, leading to a boycott by female players in China, while being praised by a large number of misogynistic male players. Although he later deleted the notice, he never apologized to female players. Instead, he encouraged his male fans to mock female players, often saying things like, ’We don‘t need female players,’ ‘Women should go back to having children,’ and ‘This game doesn’t have the romantic love stories you‘re looking for. It’s hardcore and not suitable for female players,‘ among other remarks. Due to their hatred of feminists and the desire to cover up this incident, they imposed these bans. You really can’t imagine how many incels there are in China; they band together to insult and slander women, while also slandering the LGBTQ community, with a massive and unimaginable momentum
This game has a lot of incel fans in China, and some of them even harass female players on social media who openly criticize the game
While I don’t doubt the source is real, it is also suspicious that there are very few content creators jumped out to verify it. And the news did not spread into any Sino/Chinese speaking news cycle at all, inside or outside of China.
It wasn’t that uncommon for Chinese company to pull this kind of stunt especially in the Gacha circle. It seems like the co-publisher Hero Games is completely based in China and they probably have absolutely no self awareness on how bad things like this can be looked in front of international audiences.
Anyway the fanbase of this game in China is ABSOLUTELY unhinged. They went out to harass any reviewer who gave the game a score less than 10/10. Claiming that issues like bugs and optimization are “western propaganda”. And even calling out Chinese gamers who don’t buy the game at launch traitors to the country.
It is a mix of misogyny, nationalism and the usual hype culture.
Yeah, I wasn’t super interested in the game beforehand. It always felt more like a tech demo to me than anything, but stuff like this immediately turns it into a “no buy” scenario.
Like I don’t stream, so obviously this list doesn’t affect me personally, but it still gives me a bad enough impression of the companies to the point where I don’t want to financially support them.
English is not my first language, so I apologize for the grammar and other mistakes in advance.
As someone who has lived in China for 30+ years, this doesn’t surprise me at all. At first, I was a bit skeptical because of the single/small information source, but this kind of practice is very common in Chinese companies and government departments, also the “no COVID-19” part of that doc is…how do I say it…very Chinese? By this I mean it’s highly likely it came from a Chinese company or a Chinese person, since the government here doesn’t like people talking about the 2020~2022 period publicly without their approvement for many reasons, and I don’t think this “invisible policy” exists in most other countries.
Also, it’s common for Chinese companies to use platforms like FB\Twitter\Reddit\Google for their international market, most of the time they just use VPN. Yes, using VPN to access the “banned part of the internet” (In China it’s called 外网 which literally means ‘outside internet’) is technically illegal here, but if you’re not posting things like criticizing the government or it’s just for business, the cops usually don’t bother with you. Some big business even have their specialized legal VPN.
So I just said to myself: let’s wait for more verification of this doc, because if it is real, then I assume checking with other content creators won’t be that difficult. And…now here we are.
Another piece of news is that when they anticipated that their past misogynistic actions might lead to a lower score from IGN, they spread a false rumor that an LGBTQ group in Europe extorted $7 million from them in exchange for a favorable review. Although this was later proven to be a rumor, many male players still firmly believed it. Today, a brand called ‘Luckin Coffee’ collaborated with Black Myth on a special promotion, and its sales were very high. They claimed that ‘it was all bought by men,’ which once again angered some female players and buyers. It‘s truly a laughable situation.
Tfw I want to make a game with NO GIRLS ALLOWED but the subgenre has uggo cringe ladies that are speedrunners such as ParkinHarbor, high production lore investigations like Miss Chalice or have beaten bosses with a dance pad controller like Luality >:( Clearly these girls aren’t actually interested and want to go back to making tea in their silk stockings for the *real* gamer men. (Please understand this is /s and these women are all amazing.)
I was recently chatting with a friend and they touched a bit on their excitement for this game. I made a small mention about how misogynistic the team are and they hadn’t heard anything about that side of things. I’m a bit sad to be the one that has to sort of ‘break the news’ as it were for them because they’re staunchly feminist but have been waiting for a couple of years now. I hate them having to maybe skip it as they’ve had a shit few months but I think it’s important we at least inform people of what is being swept under the rug.
I’m sad that we’re seeing this a lot more often now but that’s just a symptom of the political climate, imo (I mean SENSE: Cyberpunk Story literally used possibly fake ‘feminist’ hate mail as a marketing tactic). Thankfully that means much more games in the other direction, but there’s always that pushback.
At least some developers are now emboldened enough to be blatant about their shitty views and takes.
The comments last year made me worry, this just confirms my feelings. All interest has been lost and I won’t play it, watch videos about it, or encourage others.
Yeah I was pretty passively excited for it (didn’t really keep up with it and probably wouldn’t buy it for a year or two when it was on sale). Definitely not going to happen now, really disappointing as Sun Wu Kong is my favorite character in all of mythology.
The other threads I’ve seen on this topic were pretty sinophobic, so it’s nice to see people actually reasonably talking about the misogyny present in the development and how it is a problem.
Violence is a don’t? Isn’t it literally an action game lmaooo
Could the GLHF link be mistaken? It takes me to a story about a Polish game getting a discount
If this turns out to be real then I think this developer and their publisher should rightfully face major backlash since this kind of nonsense is so regressive especially considering China’s own culture which sees a lot of female empowerment nowadays.
It’s still unbelievable to me that someone who is paid money to go to work would generate something this moronic.
I see no logic in why they’d do this. Given that it seems like only two streamers have confirmed this, I wonder if this could be the behaviour if an overzealous or rogue employee who has no concept of professionalism or common sense. I hope it’s not the company’s policy since I’m really interested in playing this game at some point.
why are there two different posts for this?
Honestly surprised anyone is enjoying that game, looks so bland and like they just ripped premade game models out and made a piece of shit
I waited so long for this game only to find this out, dang, it a huge journey to the west fan.
I won’t lie, I might still get it. I’m weak.
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With some people saying it’s fake and others saying it’s not, I don’t feel I can make a good judgment, but I think it’s true. To be honest, I’m not surprised. I’m going to play it anyway, I’ve been too hyped
Such brainwashed in here
1,000,000 players on steam alone right now. Will probably hit 1.5 mil when people get off work. It’s over guys.
Nothing online relates anything to hero games being the co-publisher
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When there are language barriers and huge cultural differences, take note of what the IGN says is your last name. Pls use your female wisdom and silently investigate the issue,rather than blind populism. Thanks.,and this comment is only for extreme non-feminists.