news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

mou shuying (renmin university of china)

the electronic game community has always been dominated by male players. in recent years, the popularity of female-oriented games such as otome, and the increase in the proportion of female players in games such as honor of kings, identity v, and genshin impact have increased the voice and status of female players in the mobile game player community. however, there is almost no improvement in stand-alone games.

"black myth: wukong" released its first trailer in 2020, which immediately caused an uproar among single-player game players at home and abroad, and also attracted several female players like me. its main creative team, game science, has received investment support from many large companies including tencent. at this time, the vast majority of domestic female players, like any male players, have great favor and expectations for the game. then in 2023, game science, the main creative team of "black myth: wukong", was exposed to have used indecent pictures in recruitment advertisements ten years ago, and the remarks made by its main artist yang qi were full of stereotypes and misogynistic thinking. at the beginning, the news only exploded among a small number of players who closely followed game science; then, after the scandal broke out, game science chose not to act, allowing public opinion to ferment further, which not only made more female players dissatisfied, but also attracted some male players who also had strong misogynistic tendencies. the extremely stereotyped and insulting remarks made by these male players, such as "don't play if you don't insult me" and "little fairy's super sensitive skin", have once again escalated the anger of female players. as the incident gradually expanded, more groups on weibo, douban and other platforms also joined the public opinion war. finally, on the eve of the release of black myth: wukong, the public opinion reached its peak, attracting huge attention to the game.

now that the incident has gradually calmed down, i have carefully reviewed the entire process and realized that this is yet another carnival movement by domestic bad marketing and male players to exclude dissidents and consolidate their discourse power.

when game science was first exposed for making improper remarks, the domestic public opinion atmosphere was so relaxed that most female players only wanted a serious and fair official apology. it didn't even need to be formal. a simple apology on social media platforms such as weibo was enough. any employee could complete this kind of apology within half an hour. after all, in the domestic internet ten years ago, insulting women was the "political correctness" of netizens. compared with the crazy humiliation and discrimination at that time, game science and yang qi's remarks were just a drop in the bucket. not only that, yang qi's anger at the deformed game mechanism that only cares about making money is justified, even though he is quite biased and attributes this game mechanism to female players, without realizing that female players are actually victims of this game mechanism. ironically, the big companies that are most willing to produce this kind of money-making games have become the largest investors of games with yang qi as one of the main creators ten years later.

soon, game science, or the big companies behind them, realized the potential of this incident as a public opinion explosion point. they "wisely" chose to remain silent and let the public opinion continue to ferment and escalate. after attracting the attention of many male players, they appropriately introduced the concept of "supporting domestic 3a games", transforming a game that should have been highly condemned into a national hope that needs the strong support of all chinese people. in this context, female players who stubbornly hold on to the "not big or small" "insulting women" scandal have become people who do not distinguish between the serious and the minor, and do not support domestic games. female players are completely placed on the opposite side of game science.

for most of the current "black myth: wukong" players, if you interview them about their thoughts on the incident, they will say: "game science and yang qi do have problems, but this should not affect the good game "black myth: wukong"." however, in fact, the scandal was initially directed at the irresponsible creative team rather than the game. it was the creative team tacitly allowed the scandal to ferment, causing the angry and disappointed female players to eventually let their anger spread to the game.

at the same time, observing the series of publicity during the release of "black myth: wukong", we can find many familiar places. the first step is to prepare for hot topics of public opinion, whether good or bad, so that "black myth: wukong" appears in the public eye; the second step is to create a high-level image for the game, giving the game a value beyond its own, so that it occupies an unbeatable moral high ground, such as "spreading china's excellent culture" and "my country's first 3a masterpiece"; the third step is to continue to put positive publicity on major platforms, and there have been records of more than 3 high-ranking weibo hot searches in one day; the fourth step is to please and consolidate its support groups. through a few small online operations, "strong male purchasing power" has been ranked first in the hot search. after being affirmed, male players gradually form a deep bond with the game. however, how is the co-branded model with a monthly sales of 0 marked as "sold out" in the mini program? why are there no sales of co-branded products in offline stores? this was in stark contrast to the success of the collaboration between the same brand and a well-known otome mobile game a few months ago. the fifth step was to issue a series of big-character posters after the game was released, using sales miracles to affirm the male players' original "keen vision" and live up to their support.

this marketing process is common in china and around the world. whether it is movies and tv series starring popular stars, or foreign domestic violence male stars who reverse their reputation and gain public love, in-depth analysis can actually summarize them into the same routine.

this incident is just like any other incident, in essence, it is a suppression of the right of one group to speak against another group. the reasonable demands of female players have been ignored and abused, and their comfortable living space has become increasingly narrow; even many female players have recognized the need to support "black myth: wukong" under the above marketing, but this move will only make future domestic games ignore female players more and more. today, game science and yang qi can openly discriminate against women, and tomorrow other game teams can directly arrange plots to torture and kill female characters in the game.

the "political correctness" of insulting european and american countries has now become our political correctness. without making any value judgments on the two, the political correctness of europe and the united states has indeed improved the situation of female players. after decades of male-protagonist games, we can finally choose female protagonists in "assassin's creed odyssey" and finally choose to create female protagonists in "baldur's gate 3". the female protagonists in the game are no longer the same beautiful, sexy and revealing. when male players cursed at the fat black female characters in the game, female players had been enduring all kinds of male characters for a long time. some of these male characters were ugly, some were fat, and some even took pleasure in torturing and raping women, but no game was removed from the shelves because of this.

but like any group of members who hold a dominant position and have a say, male gamers are quite uncomfortable with this change. research shows that the political inclinations of men and women in generation z are towards the conservative and open poles, respectively. as female gamers demand more rights and living space, many male gamers have erupted in fierce dissatisfaction, and have resisted any female characters that do not conform to the traditional aesthetic of fair skin and beauty, and the traditional plots of men being strong and women being weak.

black myth: wukong is just one of the incidents in this context, and female gamers have been completely defeated in this movement. in the future, domestic games will only deviate further from the most basic requirement of feminism - "respecting women".