A headless bard, strumming on a three-stringed instrument referred to as the sanxian, sits leisurely on an uncovered root of a terrific gnarled tree, seemingly alone inside a brown, parched wilderness of grass and bushes. Yet from the skies, a number of cloaked figures give chase to a fleet-footed Sun Wukong, the eponymous hero of Black Myth: Wukong, as he carves a bloody path in the direction of a derelict temple. It’s a wide ranging introduction to the newest trailer for the soulslike recreation, developed by Chinese indie studio Game Science, with a launch date that’s slated for 2024.
The international buzz round Black Myth: Wukong could also be progressively reaching fever pitch, however the pleasure over the recreation feels prefer it has peaked again in China, with native publications referring to Black Myth: Wukong as the pinnacle of locally-made AAA games. When it was launched in 2020 with a 13-minute pre-alpha trailer, Black Myth: Wukong was met with worldwide popularity of its modern, cinematic visuals and high-octane, high-fantasy fight scenes. Within a day of its launch, the video had garnered 2 million views on Youtube and 10 million views on Chinese streaming website Bilibili. At the peak of this commotion round Black Myth: Wukong, Game Science even had to fend off unsolicited guests at its studio by putting up a notice outdoors its premises, in accordance to a report from IGN China. One intruder, who thought the workplace could be vacant on a Saturday afternoon, broke into the constructing by a window to pay the studio a go to—a stunt that shocked the staff who have been working at the workplace over the weekend. In one other incident, a customer abruptly turned up at the door, declaring that they’d give up their job to take part in the recreation’s improvement.
For an indie studio that has solely launched cell titles inside the nation, this widespread acclaim over Black Myth: Wukong is a largely unprecedented feat, significantly for a recreation that has not been launched but. But beneath the luster of this souls-like is a studio stricken by claims of sexism. Several posts have surfaced from Chinese social media website Weibo, written by people from the studio, that include a number of references to genitalia and sexual innuendos. These have provoked a backlash amongst some in the video games neighborhood, many of whom are girls. This was coupled by recruitment posters by the studio, produced in 2015, which featured photographs and headlines that time to a tradition of ingrained sexism in Game Science.
IGN spoke to a number of girls accustomed to gaming tradition, in addition to the video games and expertise business, in China, many of whom requested to be nameless for worry of backlash from followers of Game Science and the broader video games neighborhood. “In the eyes of many feminine gamers, [Game Science] has a notably damaging repute,” mentioned Jen (pseudonym), a Chinese video games designer who’s now primarily based outdoors of China. “I like their dedication and work. I had excessive expectations for his or her recreation, till I got here throughout their misogynistic remarks round 2021, which was reported in the information.”
IGN reached out to Game Science forward of the publication of this text, however the studio didn’t reply to a request for touch upon any of the allegations.
[CW: This article contains a number of quotes from Game Science that contain graphic sexual content and remarks.]
Founded in 2014, Game Science is a Hangzhou-based studio fashioned initially by seven ex-Tencent Games staff. During their time in Tencent Games, they labored on a free-to-play MMORPG referred to as Asura Online. Black Myth: Wukong may be mentioned to be the non secular successor of this MMO, with each video games primarily based on the Chinese literary basic “Journey to the West”. Asura Online additionally featured mythological figures from the novel, similar to Sun Wukong, the Bull Demon King, and Erlang Shen alongside a darkish retelling of the novel, stuffed with a number of cinematic sequences. But to many of its followers, these have been derailed by Tencent’s push for microtransactions in the recreation—a change that, according to one player, swiftly knocked Asura Online off the altar and turned it right into a “trash recreation”. A yr later, Feng Ji, one of the co-founders of Game Science, left to kind Game Science alongside together with his colleagues. After releasing a slew of cell video games, Game Science determined to give attention to the improvement of Black Myth: Wukong in 2017.
Feng, specifically, has an outsized presence inside the video games business, with a penchant for sharing introspective insights on recreation improvement, peppered with crude metaphors and boorish innuendos. In 2007, he penned a prolonged article titled, “Who has murdered our game?”, the place he delved into the difficulties of recreation improvement in China. Feng in contrast failed initiatives to stillborn infants, on condition that many video games had to stop improvement regardless of being labored on for a yr or so. He then introduced up this analogy:
“Is it as a result of the sperm isn’t virile sufficient? Is the being pregnant too quick? Is the child missing diet? Are the medical doctors in cost of caesarean sections lowly expert? Why can’t we produce a wholesome youngster (product)?”
Then there’s the Weibo put up that garnered vital backlash. Soon after the pre-alpha video for Black Myth: Wukong was launched in August 2020, Feng penned his ideas about the video going viral on Weibo. The put up was largely about his self-criticism over the video’s lackluster manufacturing high quality, with Feng Ji stating that “The 13-minute B1 appears prefer it was carelessly pieced collectively” and that the “body charges of 100,000 heavenly troopers have dropped so exhausting that they’ve brought about PTSD.” But this was accompanied by a number of innuendo-laden traces. In the first line, Feng wrote, “I need to increase my circle and rent extra individuals, get licked till I can’t get an erection.” Several traces down, he additionally added, “I do know, you simply occur to be a bit of depressed. It is my honor to give you some consolation in the decrease half of your physique.” He later doubled down with a separate remark, saying that “I acquired moist after watching it a pair of occasions… the stress in my crotch is immense!”
To many who have been accustomed to Feng’s mannerisms, these have been simply the innocent quirks of a recreation developer who, as vulgar as he could appear, is steadfast about his imaginative and prescient for game-making. Several followers have excused his conduct, with them chalking this up to a straight-talking ardour for game-making. “There’s no want to debate, many literary giants additionally use foul language, let’s simply expertise the work ourselves. A single magnificence can cowl up all the ugliness, so let’s simply look ahead to the outcomes. But I’ll help it as a result of of their braveness, and that they have been ready to put a lot tradition and historical past into the recreation,” reads one response, written in Chinese, to a video discussing the controversy.
But to different business professionals and gamers, these feedback felt unnecessarily crude and offputting. “I seen that the firm by no means actually addressed the critiques straight. I do know that they in all probability eliminated some of the stuff that they beforehand posted, however they by no means apologized or by no means acknowledged that,” says Cathy (pseudonym), a Chinese recreation developer who requested anonymity. “Personally, I really feel that as an business skilled, I might in all probability nonetheless play the recreation simply because it is actually vital […] for the business itself. But I in all probability would not promote the recreation anyway, I would not be supportive.”
These crude expressions, and the tradition of sexism, additionally appear to lengthen to the relaxation of Game Science as effectively, even prior to the studio’s founding. In a 2014 annual assembly held at Tencent, members of the Asura Online crew—some of them being the co-founders of Game Science—produced a video that poked enjoyable at the imagined plight of its crew after the recreation was shut down. In this video, a couple of male staff have been depicted as grownup movie actors and a rapist after they misplaced their jobs, whereas some of its feminine workers had to work as nightclub hostesses and foot tub attendants (Tencent declined to remark for this piece).
And a yr later in 2015, Game Science additionally printed a number of recruitment posters that featured suggestive photographs, which IGN has seen and verified. In one poster, a risque illustration that resembles the paintings of Austrian artist Egon Schiele is accompanied by a header that claims “Mandatory self-pleasure”. In one other poster that featured the rear view of a girl, the advert reads, “Don’t screw your colleagues”. In the identical advert, associates with advantages have been additionally implied as an workplace perk. And a 3rd poster, that includes a dumbbell, is way extra pointed, with the advert stating that “fatties ought to fuck off”.
Then there’s a separate Weibo put up by lead artist and co-founder, Yang Qi, again in 2013, which was additionally unearthed by web sleuths. In the put up, Yang launched into an intensive diatribe about how video games made for ladies and men are utterly completely different, due to their organic variations. In the put up, he identified that when males “have been holding a heavy machine gun and capturing at governments in your goals, what the women are dreaming about are baggage that might make their associates jealous.” He then concluded the put up by suggesting that he would wish to placed on silk stockings and suspenders to work, brew chrysanthemum tea, and put a humidifier on his desk to make “comfortable and effeminate issues”.
Most lately, a technical artist from Game Science, Daiwei, recommended in a put up on Zhihu (the Chinese equal of social question-and-answer web site Quora) {that a} feminine character from Black Myth: Wukong—referred to as the snake spirit—may be masturbated to by “taking a look at her extra”. “Although I’m not used to the snake neck, I can nonetheless nurture that fetish,” he provides. The remark, which was posted in the wake of the launch of Black Myth: Wukong’s Gamescom trailer in August 2023, has since been deleted.
Finally, there’s the Game Science emblem: a number of Chinese netizens have identified that it resembles a sperm. Game Science has but to verify or deny this discovering.
The controversies round Game Science and their potential impression on the imminent launch of Black Myth: Wukong don’t exist in a vacuum. In truth, one widespread protection of Game Science’s remarks introduced ahead by its supporters is that this type of speak is commonplace and completely unremarkable on the walled-off Chinese web, together with in gaming circles. And they’re not incorrect. While China as a complete is currently seeing a growing feminist revolution, girls are combating an ongoing, uphill battle in opposition to what a number of Chinese recreation builders have advised IGN is an historic, prevailing tradition of girls being thought of, spoken of, and handled as sexual objects inferior to males.
Speaking to IGN, Chinese recreation developer Monica F. names quite a few causes for China’s feminist struggles, together with the lingering impacts of China’s one-child policy leading to an total gender imbalance in China and a rising inhabitants of annoyed grownup males. Another concern, she says, is a broader authorities hostility towards feminist beliefs, making it troublesome for discussions to acquire traction on the walled-off, closely censored Chinese web. Current Chinese president Xi Jinping has been significantly strict. He oversaw the detention of the Feminist Five, alongside a wave of crackdowns in opposition to girls’s rights organizations and feminist on-line speech, together with the censorship of the #MeToo and #MeTooInChina hashtag throughout the heyday of the on-line motion. And whereas this piece explicitly focuses on girls, it’s important to observe that China’s community of nonbinary and genderqueer individuals face even higher social ostracization and discrimination.
“Feminist group in China has been very uphill in lots of senses of the phrase,” mentioned Rui Zhong, a board member of Chinese feminist editorial collective NüVoices, and a China analysis specialist. “There’s been crackdowns after labor organizing efforts, there’s been crackdowns over discussing marital issues, there’s been undoubtedly crackdowns after individuals have accused outstanding Chinese males of harassment, assault or sexual misconduct, and the deck has been usually very stacked in opposition to them.”
In gaming communities, these struggles are echoed and exacerbated. While a 2020 Niko Partners report identifies almost half of the nation’s players as girls, Monica F. explains that on-line gaming rhetoric particularly is poisonous and regularly sexist in China, making it exhausting for girls to really feel secure. Zhong, too, famous that whereas Chinese on-line areas specifically may be extraordinarily hostile towards girls, in some ways, these areas aren’t that completely different from different on-line communities round the world. Sexism is, and continues to be, a world downside. But the distinction, as each Zhong and Monica F. identified, is that the Chinese authorities and total cultural attitudes proceed to actively discourage girls and their allies from combating again. There’s nobody telling harassers “no.”
It doesn’t assist that, till very lately, nearly all video video games launching in China’s walled-off market have been marketed explicitly towards males, successfully growing perceptions that ladies didn’t belong in the area. Elva Tan, knowledgeable in the Chinese video games business, tells us that this case has improved in recent times, kicked off in no small half by a surge of Chinese otome games – story-based, romance-driven video games initially popularized in Japan – that began with Mr Love: Queen’s Choice in 2017.
“Before the emergence of female-oriented video games, all feminine gamers might solely play video games that have been primarily centered on males,” Tan says. “After the emergence of female-oriented video games, not solely women who play video games found that there are video games specifically made for girls, however extra women additionally found that video games will also be enjoyable. This expands the gaming inhabitants and brings additional prosperity to the gaming market.”
But even with the latest recognition of girls as a viable gaming market in China, their inclusion in the business itself is an uphill battle. At greatest, Zhong suggests, girls in tech and gaming in China are sometimes invisible. She identified that whereas there are a small handful of outstanding Chinese girls in tech, similar to Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, nearly all main figures are males: Tencent’s “Pony” Ma Huateng, Baidu CEO Robin Li, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing, NetEase CEO Ding Lei, Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun, and lots of extra.
And with monetary and decision-making energy primarily held by males, many of these tech companies have permitted work environments toxic to women to thrive. The video games business, we’re advised, has comparable points. One nameless developer confirmed IGN screenshots of a video games business group chat they have been in, which included quite a few casually sexist remarks and inappropriate nicknames. They advised us they have been in a number of such chats, billed as networking or discussion groups for business speak, however which frequently devolved into discussions that they referred to as “very unsettling.”
One instance of this manifesting that we have been pointed to was from the firm Duoyi Games, developer of Gunfire Reborn. At one level, its CEO Xu Bo laid off 11 female employees as part of an internal investigation, with one nameless worker alleging that Xu Bo shared in a board assembly that he did so as a result of he “didn’t need one other feminist bitch” in the firm. However, regardless of this report, Duoyi Games’ has suffered little to no blowback. Gunfire Reborn, its most up-to-date launch, sold two million copies on PC alone, and subsequently launched ports to Xbox and PlayStation consoles, with a Nintendo Switch model on the manner. Duoyi Games didn’t return IGN’s request for remark.
And a number of builders we spoke to have been accustomed to the story round a recreation referred to as Retirement Simulator. The recreation was criticized at its early entry launch final yr by a quantity of girls for a sure character’s look coming throughout as oversexualized. Developer DoubleThink Studio made changes to the character in addition to different adjustments in response, solely to be hit with a massive backlash from another segment of its audience for supposedly pandering to a feminist viewers. Even right this moment, the recreation’s Steam evaluations are “Mostly Negative,” with many damaging evaluations seeming to refer to the change.
“Careless removing of content material, change of paintings, all in order that the simp developer of the recreation can suck up and please some excessive feminists,” learn one evaluation from final May. “Would not suggest for anybody with greater than a single mind cell.”
With all this in thoughts, we return to Black Myth: Wukong. The numerous remarks about girls made by its founders have spanned the final decade, throughout which China’s on-line gaming communities have undergone a significant upheaval in phrases of how girls communicate, act, and exist inside them. They are modern with dozens of different examples of comparable conduct from a lot bigger and extra profitable corporations, however in addition they exist on a world stage the place girls are more and more demanding equal rights, protections, and consideration. In the midst of these incidents, with Black Myth: Wukong almost completed and worldwide repute solely rising, girls in China are demanding the studio’s builders take the different half of the complete gaming viewers into consideration in the end. But the backlash has been fierce.
Cathy recalled the response on Chinese social media round a latest Black Myth: Wukong Gamescom trailer, saying that many players in China have been conscious of the controversy, however girls specifically have been annoyed that the builders’ feedback weren’t getting extra media consideration. Numerous posts about Game Science and Black Myth: Wukong have been flooded with debate, with girls and supporters declaring and condemning Game Science’s previous remarks, and others arguing again to defend the studio.
“[The] majority [of] the gaming media protection was clearly specializing in how superior the new trailer appears, and the demo, and many others,” they mentioned. “So the girls, no less than the main voices got here from girls, mainly began one other marketing campaign saying, ‘Hey, you mainly made it clear that you do not need us to play your recreation, so I suppose we can’t play your recreation.’ And that acquired rather a lot of retweets on social media…Even although there are lots of girls or many feminist supporters retweeting the put up, rather a lot of individuals would go to the dialog to say very nasty issues and mainly that is all the time what occurs when somebody speaks out.”
Cathy’s abstract echoes what we noticed in analyzing the responses to the numerous Game Science posts, in addition to on-line discussions on the topic. Opinions span a large gamut from outrage to defensiveness, with quite a few girls and their allies expressing harm and anger at what was mentioned. Some declared an intent not to play the recreation, or expressed uncertainty due to a conflicting need to help Chinese improvement. “Okay okay, he undoubtedly doesn’t want cash from a feminine participant like myself,” said one Weibo commenter. “So gross, as a feminine participant I truly wished to purchase the recreation initially. Forget it, I’ll simply maintain taking part in international AAA video games (bye bye),” wrote one other.
In response, detractors diminished the severity of Game Science’s remarks whereas defending Black Myth’s standing as a possible huge breakout recreation for the Chinese business — one that might cement the nation’s place in the international video games dialog after years of insular improvement. That success, many argued, didn’t want to contain girls. “AAA video games and most video games truly don’t want feminine gamers,” one person commented on Douban. “What about the pitiful gross sales you contribute? Can it save Game Science from fireplace or one thing?”
Another wrote, “There are literally no feminine gamers! Let’s throw flowers, that is nice! Game of the yr at TGA [The Game Awards] is secured.”
Conversations seen by IGN included quite a few sexual, harassing, derogatory, and even threatening remarks made towards girls important of Game Science. Multiple girls who have been significantly outspoken on the topic seem to have deleted or locked their social media accounts, seemingly due to a deluge of harassment for talking in opposition to the recreation.
“I hope players abroad are made conscious of all this — not to encourage them to boycott the recreation, however I feel customers ought to learn about the stance of the creators earlier than making a purchase order,” Jen advised us. “These male builders have by no means paid the worth for his or her misogynistic remarks. Furthermore, when feminine players categorical their dissatisfaction, we are able to simply be attacked. It’s time for this to change.”
Black Myth: Wukong’s controversy sits at an inflection level not only for Chinese feminism, but additionally for the Chinese video games business. While a handful of breakout hits similar to Genshin Impact have gained international consideration in recent times, China has nonetheless struggled to produce many video games with worldwide attraction. Black Myth: Wukong’s reception at Gamescom Opening Night Live and different occasions signifies it might be the distinction maker (ONL creator Geoff Keighley didn’t return our request for remark). But whereas that’s excellent news for the business, it’s having the knock-on impact of placing Game Science on a world stage – one which will deal with its previous remarks with much less generosity.
“They intend to launch this recreation internationally, the firm shouldn’t count on to simply coast on good wanting gameplay,” Zhong mentioned. “Granted, the one factor they’ve going is Western video games are sexist as effectively…I feel they might in all probability simply count on to coast on the established order, and folks ignoring misogyny, however that is the danger that that firm chooses to take.”
In gentle of all this, Game Science could have discovered itself backed right into a nook. If its remarks flow into extra broadly to a Western viewers, it dangers Black Myth: Wukong being condemned. But in China, its viewers is full of fervent defenders of its previous actions. Should the studio apologize, and danger alienating the supporters it gained from the stance it’s perceived to have taken over the years? Will it?
This backdrop of sexism inside Game Science and the business appears to be in stark distinction to the very themes of Journey to the West at occasions, a story about overcoming trials and tribulations in a legendary pilgrimage. One of its central characters, Zhu Bajie (or Pigsy), was the commander-in-chief of a celestial military, and was banished to Earth after harassing the moon goddess Chang’e. Known for his gluttony and lust, he didn’t obtain enlightenment to turn out to be an arhat, in contrast to his fellow pilgrims. Then there’s Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion and the goddess of mercy. Notably, we’ve got not but seen Guanyin make an look in Black Myth: Wukong’s trailers. But Guanyin performs a central function in Journey to the West who helps the pilgrims on their journey—an irony that’s additionally not misplaced on Zhong.
“I simply bear in mind Sun Wukong going, “We have rather a lot of issues proper now, and I would like your assist.” And Guanyin’s like, “Okay, high quality,” and [that] solves the downside,” she provides. “Which is as a result of she’s the bodhisattva of compassion, so she’ll do it out of the goodness of her coronary heart, which can be variety of sexist in its personal manner of, “You’re a girl, you have acquired to clear up the dudes’ messes.”
It stays to be seen if Game Science will acknowledge these allegations, and even acknowledge the function of girls in Black Myth: Wukong each as characters and viewers members. But for a lot of feminine gamers and builders, the sexism of the video games neighborhood in China continues to be troublesome to grapple with, exacerbated by the actions of an more and more outstanding studio like Game Science. “Do you get it now? In mainland China, even a slight gesture of respect in the direction of feminine players can lead to huge backlash,” says Jen. “In their eyes, girls do not deserve respect. Even simply listening to them is taken into account pandering, a advertising and marketing tactic, and catering to Western political correctness. I am unable to describe how despairing this feels.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Khee Hoon Chan is a contract author from the web. They will also be discovered on different publications, together with Polygon, Edge Magazine and PC Gamer.
Disclosure: One of the co-authors of this piece has a private relationship with a former worker (2021-2022) of a Tencent subsidiary.
