Black Myth: Wukong - TARGET of the Culture War

Black Myth: Wukong (After storming the games industry with millions of players and record setting interest)... is now being subjected to faux outrage over a "lack of diversity"... as opposing commentary proclaims victory in a conflict that isn't even remotely relevant.

A Chinese game, finding success on the basis of merit, has somehow become the beacon for two sides to argue when the foundation of that argument has nothing to do with either of them.

I for one, am happy to see this game breaking records, especially when its a well made product, with complete features, and a profound lack of monetary greed. Its incredible to see, even if the political sides of the carnival are hellbent on arguing with each other.

#blackmyth #wukong #gaming

[UpperEchelon]

Ways to support the channel/special deals.

[Inarimiko]

"Makes games beliveble?" BRO I'M PLAYING AS THE MONKEY KING

[holysecret]

When the same article says: "Catalyzing a divide between gamers is terrible for the industry (...) the world is divisive enough." And not 2 sentences later: "If you are mad, cry more". Absolute zero self-awareness.

[xhao]

As a guy spending more time on weibo and bilibili than facebook and youtube, I have to make a comment: the Chinese internet is very well aware of the western woke culture and hating it especially in the gaming community. The reason is simple: we love western games. We have legal and open access to steam in the gfw. It hits us in the heart too when ubisoft and sony f things up with woke. To think we are not part of the player community that care about this stuff is not true. SBI is a well know running joke on bilibili. And yes, we laugh at concord and bespoken too.

[barretprivateer]

Not being able to play as a disabled black woman while fighting a lizard in ancient China really broke the realism for me

[xkiri]

To be honest is not about American politics and cults. It's about gamers reaction to "game journalist" pushing a Wef's agenda. The world is not just the US.

[iKrazyyi]

I find funny their "lack of diversity" argument where the main character is a monkey and there's a female boss in chapter 3. It's clear whoever wrote those articles didn't play the game.

[TurtleChad]

We need more games like Wukong and less games like Concord and the industry would be better.

[DarkSeraph]

IGN or at least one writer tried to kill this game by her own admission. She said and I quote "All my hard work for nothing" when seeing how well it sold.
Game spot complained about a lack of "diversity"

Game journalism is a cancer

[Sadeithefennec]

"World is divisive enough..." ~from journo driving a wedge in and create divisiveness.

[saschaberger]

Lack of diversity! *No women for the first two chapters of the game.
Get out of here. No one should ever give a damn about the journo takes. All they can do is divide

[Wormweed]

Furries should feel very included in this game

[srossiter]

This is a pretty lame 'both sides are bad' take. The bottom line is that major gaming media made a coordinated effort to cancel a game because of cultural differences with the game studio that made it. You are correct that they understand nothing about non western people.

As a result, this game did become a rallying cry for the gamers in the West who oppose what is happening in the AAA space. For this reason, the game would already be a success in the West without Chinese players. The big takeaway however, is how massive it is with Chinese Players. The real story here is that western AAA is dying, and Eastern AAA is rising.

[absolute-xero]

I used to be an "enlightened/apathetic centrist" when it came to politics, but that went out the window when my favorite hobby started to be infested with social politics. I would be just as pissed if just about every major gaming company was hell-bent on preaching to me about conservative values for the sake of appeasing major church donors. Out of the 2 sides (woke vs. anti-woke), only one of them often uses common sense and wants politics out of gaming, so that's preferable.

Also, culture wars happen everywhere, including China Just look at any major figure that portrays China or Taiwan in a positive/negative light. Thousands of bot comments will insue either praising or insulting said figure even though they might not know anything about Chinese politics. Don't see a problem with prople here doing the same thing.

[williamdistefano]

You're missing the point. This game doesn't care about agendas... GAMERS don't care about agendas either. Then, when you consider this game's success as well as the success of Stellarblade and put that up against agenda-drivel like Dustborn and Concord, it really tells the story.

[MjollTheLioness-oy]

This game being dragged into the culture war is on the activists currently larping as game journalists. Unfortunately, ideologues in the media and game development have turned gaming into one of the battlegrounds of the culture war. I would argue that most gamers don't want anything to do with the culture war, but they are being pulled into it by self-righteous, and often racist, ideologues who seem intent on ruining their hobby so they can sermonize their beliefs to a wide audience through entertainment.

[bastiancole]

So i wouldnt say that we think this game is a beacon of anti-woke, im a regular EndymionTV subscriber and i get where your take is coming from but his channel has always had very clickbaity titles, but his assessments of these concepts are fair. It's not that we think its anti-woke, its that the woke think it's anti-woke and are seething about it which we find hilarious and he runs with that. The real concept Endymion and us believe, is that eastern game media is leagues above western game media right now. Providing quality entertainment like western studios used to do but no longer do they value the customer. That's his main point.

[tbone]

I usually love your takes. In this case you missed the mark.

“The grift” only exists because of DEI has ruined so many games and other entertainment.

So a game that is hugely successful that doesn’t embrace DEi (and this game does not as evidenced by the games media reaction) is by definition of a win against “wokeism”.

That’s the nature of the argument. And this game is absolutely a win against that.

[lunamia]

People are making this game as a "beacon of hope" because quite frankly it is. DEI has ruined so many games just for the sake of representation, when it doesn't make any sense to have that type of characters/people in the world building. Game of Thrones, for example, have diverse casts but they're placed in different demographics of the world building and that makes sense, and is used as a political plot in the story, not just a mere representation.

Going back to my point of Wukong being a "beacon of hope", gamers are just rejoicing the fact that it's a proof that DEI is just nonsense being shoved to people's faces for mere representation, and that is, in fact(just look at the data of the player base, etc.), killing games. So when you said that the anti-woke are just dumb for making Wukong a "beacon of hope", I'd have to disagree because that, to me, feels like you're disregarding the points that the anti-woke are making in the first place; unrealistic representation.

I would also like to add that most of the time, when games are “woke”, all the journalists and devs are saying the game is good because of the representations, not the gameplay, not the story.

Sure, Wukong has nothing to do actively with the DEI war. But games like this get DEI hate (from journalists, etc.) because "not enough representation". Despite all these pressures that come from terrible articles criticizing Wukong for being sexist and all other similar words with the same gist, the devs didn't budge and the game triumphed. So yes, I think Wukong does have an indirect relation to the DEI war, and I think that the anti-woke are justified for rejoicing.

Need more games like Wukong, Lies of P, and Sekiro.
No DEI bs, just great games.

[Dangerdad]

You missed the whole point that Grummz and others are making. They didn't bow to DEI rules and are having great sales. It's not that it's anti-woke rather it just didn't care. And many Chinese fans are angry about reviews dinging it for " lack of diversity"