Chinese female gamer on Black Myth Wukong's sexism controversy

As a Chinese female gamer, I have a very mixed feeling towards BlackMyth Wukong.
Is it a great game with a rich cultural background deeply rooted in Chinese myths? YES.
Do the devs have a history of sexism? Perhaps it depends on our standard. I'm not quick to judge.
But do I, as a woman, feel uncomfortable about the past remarks made by the devs? YES. And we have every right to express our feelings.

#blackmyth #blackmythwukong #gaming #feminism

[JamesHui]

I completely agrees with you that everyone have the right to express their uncomfortable feeling towards something.
One thing however I want to know, is do you understand the actual meaning and context of the statements made by Game Science devs?

One notable misinterpeted sentence is the one translated as "You do not need the reverse motivation of female players." in the post made by Yang Qi back in 2013. He was referring to a probably much more sexist practice used by the gaming industry back then, where many companies openly advertise their games as "having a lot of female players" in order to attract male gamers. Yang Qi's post was actually calling out and condemning this phenomenon that is widespread in the gaming industry, and is still somewhat happening now. I feel like many people missed that part because it was just a badly worded post, and therefore Yang Qi deleted it. Looking at the context and the gaming environment back then, I can see that almost no one really bothered to look into what they were actually saying, even the original Chinese person who criticized them back in 2020 did not understand them.

Another point is the whole rant perceived as him saying female gamers only wanted "fashion clothing, handbags and pets etc" in their games, he was again calling out companies that are already making these games. For example, there is this thing called QQ秀 which is made by Tencent，basically where you pay real money to buy virtual clothing for a QQ character, and there are periodically fashion contests etc., which is obviously a money grab. Yang Qi called out these practices while he was working for Tencent btw. There is also QQ farm, QQ pets etc. The point is, the industry is making these money grab games because they thought these will be popular with female gamers, and when you have female gamers, then you can advertise to guys who just wanted to date girls in a game. Yang Qi and many of the Game Science dvs were calling these people out, and their poorly worded post both angered their bosses and pissed off the people who did not get this context, because they are looking at stuff posted 5 Or 10 years ago, through a poorly-translated document.


Of course, I do think they need better training on phrasing things better and make sure not to accidentally say things they don't meant, but I still believe that they are overall one of the more progressive developers actually cared to make a good game, while not succumbing to the norm of the industry. If anything, I think they deserve at least some recognition for doing these things, back in 2013 when most Chinese probably did not even know what feminism actually mean. They are a force of progression, just slightly misaligned.

[jacoboreore]

Let's talk flat clear about this. Suppose that I use skirts because why not, declare myself as a hardcore skirt wearer, and at some point I start ranting on social media about lacking of masculinity in skirts... some women would say: hey those are not for men. Then, I rant again about sexism and demand masculine skirts. Companies then make masculine skirts and fail miserably losing millions... it's the same with games, movies sports and so on. There are things for cetain targets, companies and their employees have total right to express themselves with logic, and most importantly with data. The final objective of a company is profitability sticking to the law, not hurting feelings or complying pseudo standards made by activists...

[Locksden]

There's a "Bell Curve (Gaussian Distribution) problem" with rudeness and bad behavior in general. A small number of people out on one end of the curve cause the majority of it. In order to remove them, you have to take all but approximately the same number on the "ultra-nice" end of the curve. The process often changes the environment permanently: if it's a product (like a video game), removing the 5-10% "worst" offenders removes 80% or more of the total customers, and the economic model falls apart.

[Namjashit]

feminist boycotting the game exists:
-steam peak online active players counts
-over 10mill copies sold in the first week
-humanity was rejected, monkey accepted.
-so feminist should boycott game once in a while, it brings good harvest

[DBZNERD]

Why they bringing the game in their shi? I just wanna play it cuz it got wukong and Baji 😭😭 idc about no other male or female

[Dedbread]

If ur elergic to fun, give attention to that bs read online. if ur not, then play the game, 11/10 game btw.

[moomoodeadcow]

Anyone should be able to decide whether they want to play/enjoy a game or not for whatever reason or rather no reason at all.
Nobody is obligated to provide the world a reason or logic for their preference.
Also, nobody has the right to tell anyone whether if they should or not play a certain game for whatever reason.
How ever justifiable that reason may be.
There's absolutely no need for a logical explanation for someone whether to play/praise a certain game or not unless that person feels the need to provide one.
However, if that person does, that reason also doesn't need to be accepted by anyone else. How ever sound the logic may be.

[gxhcbchchvfhbxsddvptrg]

I played a MMORPG as a female character. I got a lot of advantages, presents and flirting. That's the reality.

[alekid]

You mention the alleged "history of sexism" the devs are being accused of, but you didn't elaborate any further. The comment the devs made and mistranslated by IGN were not sexist, as you might know. Clumsy perhaps, but nothing more. So who cares about the comments some players make on social media? That's not related to the game itself. Need to differentiate what the target of your criticism is: is it the devs, the game, some gamers, social media...? It's not all the same.

Lastly: are games dominated by men? Historically videogames were made for families, but boys ended up enjoying them more than girls, and programers were mainly men. Boys enjoy videogames more than girls, particularly console and AAA games. On the other hand women prefer mobile games. It's not me saying it, but marketing statistics. It's not sexism, it's how things are. Men and women have preferences on the type of products they buy and use. Do women play AAA games too? Of course, but creating a product for a small customer pool is not a great strategy, considering how expensive game development is nowadays.
All the above has nothing to do with the Wukong game itself. If you like it you play it, if not you don't.

[jwong]

Who give shits about remarks by dev. ALL companies and their employees behave like that one way or another. And I live in western country.

[johnnyanderson]

Well, skill issues for someone say "boycott this game"

[geraldcortez]

Idk they are very few female hard core gamers. Not that I mined female gamers, I think it's awesome when you find a woman who enjoys games. All the drama is more about feminist bs if you ask me. And they did mis-translated the main thing about until I can no longer get a erection. Now maybe they have old comments from staff. But who cares. As a Journey to the west fan I'm just so happy to have a game about monkey king. I always dreamed about making a monkey king game. And someone did it. And everything we get is an Abomination here in the west. So to get an accurate Sun WuKong in English is wonderful. I have read the novel so many times watch 10 or more shows, started Sun WuKong fan subs to make the English subtitles to the 1996 tv show with Dicky. Dubbed the whole 2014 movie in English by myself. So I can say that this is a great reputation. Even the English Dub of Sun WuKong was pretty good. I still think I do a better monkey king voice but it is the best English Dub done by a studio. 🎙 sure game science is to thank for that as well. 🙏 so I think people need to get out there feelings and enjoy greatness. This is a great game, hope they make Journey to the west next. Might be many parts but I'm okay with that.

[Ryusyousef]

Girl's should play Barbie games and dont make it too big its only video games

[MarkMiller]

Nobody cares, just make games that cater to each gender separately. You’re not going to make a game that pleases anyone if you try to please everyone. Men started gaming culture, women followed. Don’t demand what came before you to cater to you, make your own separate games that you like. Everyone can play their own separate games and stop crying about some game doesn’t represent you.

[chernoalphaspunch]

A game simply a game when toxic feminism had not yet entered the industry.

[yojimbo]

Agreed. A lot of guys like to treat gaming as a boys club, no girls allowed. And it's toxic. I've stopped gate keeping.

[coffeetea-vd]

It just a game, i think you need social valiadation (feminism) for me i dont care i just enjoy my game 😂

[HellGatyr]

hey i love if females play video game 2 of my ex is online gamer (ended up dating real life) but the truth is female playing video game mostly want attention and short term
man would love to see females solo consort radahn no doubt

[tabinekoman]

The woman should just call their mother and tell them what he say in social media.

[bibiworm]

It’s not about the game. It’s about sexism rooted in Chinese culture. Leave the game alone.