If performance woes weren’t enough, a new censorship controversy has embroiled Black Myth Wukong just ahead of its release. The controversy was sparked by a guidelines doc allegedly sent to content creators that, if agreed to, prohibits the streamers from mentioning what amounts to an absurd list of hot topics.
Initially brought to light by French creator and game journalist Benoit “ExServ” Reinier and later corroborated by Forbes’ Paul Tassi and GLHF’s Oliver Brandt, the doc in question allegedly blocks streamers who receive the game key from Game Science from engaging in talking points like politics, “feminist propaganda,” and COVID-19, among others.
This strict set of Black Myth guidelines was reportedly sent as a Google document attached to the email sent to content creators along with the game key. It said the following regarding Black Myth Wukong streaming guidelines:
Dos
- Enjoy the game.
Don’ts
- Do NOT insult other influencers or players.
- Do NOT use any offensive language/humor.
- Do NOT include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse.
- Do NOT use trigger words such as quarantine or isolation or COVID-19.
- Do NOT discuss content related to China’s game industry, policies, opinions, news, etc.
While the first two points under “Don’ts” are standard-fare guidelines for almost all modern releases, the latter three are the ones raising eyebrows.
The point about not using “quarantine,” “isolation,” or “COVID-19” may be somewhat understandable given Game Science is based in China and the pandemic remains to be a sensitive issue there. Still, it makes barely any sense how it made it into the guidelines since the mythology-based Soulslike has nothing to do with it.
The other eyebrow-raising phrase, “feminist propaganda,” may have something to do with reports about the rampant sexism inside Black Myth Wukong’s development team. Previously, Game Science founder Feng Ji came under fire for proclaiming that women and men are biologically different enough that they can’t enjoy the same games.
The gaming Twitter-verse (X-verse now?) is naturally having a field day. “Welp.. certainly starting to seem like the weird is getting weirder,” said one X user. Alluding to Chinese censorship laws, another user chimed in, “On some of those fronts I could believe it is a requirement of the Chinese government to list that or list it to avoid problems created therein. A bizarre list though. With Chinese game development on the rise, I think we might start to see more of that.”
It’s worth mentioning these guidelines are different from the ones journalists received when reviewing the game, so you could consider this week’s review scores untainted by this controversy. My colleague Tom Foley said in his Black Myth Wukong review that the game features “exceptional combat” while being “frustratingly restrictive.” In an ironic twist, the restrictions in gameplay now seem to be expanding into real life.
