Black Myth Wukong Review Guidelines Ban “Feminist Propaganda”

Video Games

The makers of Black Myth: Wukong are not playing around with games journalists. The Soulslike action RPG from Chinese studio Game Science (their first game, which is hard to believe when you see how good it looks) will be released tomorrow, August 20, on PlayStation 5 and PC – and Xbox Series X|S at a later date – so, naturally, writers and YouTube content creators want advance copies to play so they can review it at launch. And co-publisher Hero Games is obliging, sending Steam keys to reviewers in an email from their marketing team. However, the keys were accompanied by a Google document asking the recipients to agree to a series of “Dos and Don’ts” in their reviews. Most are typical, asking reviewers not to insult other content creators or use offensive language. But they also ask reviewers not to include “politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse” or “use trigger words such as ‘quarantine’ or ‘isolation’ or ‘COVID-19’.” There is also a request not to “discuss content related to China’s game industry policy, opinions, news, etc.”

Okay I’m actually surprised here, but I have confirmed with a US creator I trust that the Black Myth Wukong guideline email is real. An extended conversation with an email tracing back to the company resulted in an actual code for the game. It’s not some random google doc pic.twitter.com/UzIgBWuiE8

— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) August 18, 2024

I don’t have to tell you that games journalists are losing their minds over this. Their biggest sticking point is the “feminist propaganda” line, particularly because of the recent “controversy” over Game Science and the producer of Black Myth: Wukong, Feng Ji. Feng and the company are accused of sexual harassment, sexism, and creating a toxic work environment based on statements Feng may have made and reports from women who worked at Game Science. That IGN appears to have mistranslated some of Feng’s statements in their initial report appears not to have changed the mind of anyone in the media, but a rumor that this is happening because Game Science turned down a blackmail attempt from Sweet Baby Inc. has put it in perspective for plenty of gamers (assuming it’s true). PC Gamer calls it “a terrible look,” and IGN reminds its readers that Game Science hasn’t responded to their “sexism” hit piece while talking about how people on social media are criticizing these guidelines (while providing no examples). There’s also the pre-release review from Screen Rant that docks points from its score for being “lacking in inclusivity and diversity.”

The review dedicated an entire section to Wukong’s supposed “lack of inclusion & representation” repeating the infamous @IGN hit-piece on the developers, Game Science.

The problem is that the IGN article was full of mistranslation, including misunderstanding of cultural idioms… pic.twitter.com/Mfcn9tAD3h

— Grummz (@Grummz) August 18, 2024

Gee, I wonder why they asked the media not to talk about feminism and politics in their reviews. This has been a back-and-forth between the studio and games journalists for the past few months – and by “back-and-forth,” I mean the journalists mention sexism every time they bring up Black Myth: Wukong while Game Science ignores them. And their indifference is perhaps even louder than any attempt to counter the narrative could be; they’re letting the harpies screech while they release incredible trailers and build hype with the people who will buy their game instead of requesting a free Steam copy so they can accuse Game Science of hating women through their action fantasy game that stars a monkey. To discover their own irrelevance probably hurts the media most of all, and to now be treated like the infantile activists they really are is adding insult to injury. You can tell how phony this is because they don’t seem to care half as much that they’re being asked not to discuss Chinese politics or COVID (about which I’m sure journalists wouldn’t complain); it’s just keeping their own identity politics out of their articles and videos and reviewing the actual game mechanics – their job, in other words – that pisses them off. And good; I hope they feel as ridiculous as they look to the rest of us, and I hope Feng Ji and the rest of the team at Game Mechanics have a good laugh before they start counting their money.

Let us know what you think of these Black Myth: Wukong review guidelines in the comments!