‘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.”

    • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
      192·
      3 months ago

      You comments are probably not sexist, but they are likely misinformation. The comments in IGN are likely not mis-translation, since the Mandarin-spwaking community also had pretty big reactions to the comments and histories of game science. See: https://m.douban.com/note/776087909/ and https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/710811.html?amp (you can try to use google translate to read the article).

      The screenshot in the IGN article, to the best of my knowledge, is correctly translated. The comments listed has as much sexual implication as the translation.

      I use both Mandarin and English on a daily bases, and can translate between them pretty well. It would be great for me and others, if you can be more specific on which parts of the developer’s posts are mistranslated.

        • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
          191·
          3 months ago

          It is in between, getting licked is the figurative speech for “unjust praises” with a hint of submission in the tone.

          English also have a similar expression like “licking one’s boots”, but in Chinese it is more sexual, as it typically refers to licking something else. An alternative is “跪舔”, which means “kneel and lick”.

          There are other comments in the article I linked:

          杨奇于2013年扬言游戏“不需要女性玩家的反向带动”，“有些东西就是做给爷们的”，“当真喜欢软娘腐的东西，换下个产品，哥天天穿丝袜吊打上班”

          Qi Yang (lead artist) has publically stated in 2013: “we don’t need female player”, “something are for guys only”, and "if we truely love soft female or gay stuff, we would change our product, I would wear stocking to work everyday.

          “游戏科学”技术美术师戴巍于2023年8月20日在知乎社区中扬言：《黑神话》中的女蛇妖“再多看看就能冲了。虽然蛇脖子暂时不习惯，但也不是不能培养”。

          On August 20, 2023, the technical artist of Game Science, Wei Dai, claimed on Zhihu (Chinese Quora): “[the players] will be able to masturbate to” the female snake monster in Black Myth. “Although she has the neck of a snake, which might not be the conventional aesthetic [for masturbation], but people can eventually get used to it”

          That being said, I do not claim that the dev still holds this view point now. China is a rapidly developing country, and its ideology and culture can shift just as fast.

          But I am very dishearten that they would mention “feminist propaganda” in their review bans. It seems like they are still not accepting of feminism.

            • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
              131·
              3 months ago

              From my point of view, the IGN article doesn’t seem to have mistranslation, as you claim in your original article.

              As for whether using clear sexual language in a professional environment is “sexism”, I think it could be up for debate.

                • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
                  10·
                  3 months ago

                  I see, you are right, but translation are typically limited by space, and can never be 100% accurate without pages to explain the cultural context. Thus, it is typical for translator to choose the cloest translation that is also concise.

                  I claim that IGN translation is accurate, because I believe it is within the conventional bound of “meaning loss”. The statement certainly reads as edgy in Chinese as they are in English. Yet, I can see an argument that these “meaning loss” can be misleading to some.