Reading through that made me feel gross. It does seem to be acknowledged by women in China as a cultural issue (as well as globally online).
Sexism is, and continues to be, a global problem. But the difference, as both Zhong and Monica F. pointed out, is that the Chinese government and overall cultural attitudes continue to actively discourage women and their allies from fighting back. There’s no one telling harassers “no.”
In the conspiracy theories groups China is a hot topic, and I believe this is them telling influencers (who they give a free copy) to stick to the game instead of talking about the country they happen to live in. And I would assume if people stuck to the game few of these topics would be relevant.
Now if an influencer had an issue with say, allegations misogyny at the studio, I would expect them to -
not accept the game from the studio
maybe create content on why they refused the offer of a free game and things they think would need to change to allow them to work with the studio in the future.
Do NOT include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishisation, 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.
I see this as them wanting influencers to focus on their game, instead of using the game as a platform to wade into these other topics that focus on the country they happen to live in. And this being an election year in the US ,and the Right having spread wild conspiracy theories about China for years now, them not wanting any of that stuff to overshadow their art doesn’t seem all that crazy of a take. Basically they are saying they want influencers to talk about the game and to leave politics to /c/politics.
Oh and this is of course only sent to influencers, so just people they are giving the game to for free. The rest of the world (including influencers that buy their own copy) are of course free to do whatever they are legally allowed to in their jurisdiction.
Edit - I just want to add an edit after reading the IGN article someone linked above, that I am not siding with or defending any of the gross things coming from people working at this studio. And I guess this would come down to if people can separate the art from the artist, which I personally struggle with in many instances.
My Atari joystick still works, it’s more my Intellivision controllers. But having a nicer way to play on a modern TV with the original games with higher quality controllers would be amazing.
Two of my favorite consoles of all time. If they could do an updated retro console based on the Intellivision II and allow playing Atari 2600 games without buying a separate adapter I would be in heaven.
I have bins of games, but my controllers did not age 40+ years all that well. 😞
So this isn’t about actual gamers, this about bad actors looking for chuds to recruit through games, which is not a new concept. It used to be chat rooms, and then forums, then social media, now games (as many have social features).
I mean the US military, among others, have been using gaming to recruit people already.
I have not played the original so I can’t do a comparison. I play on Linux with a Nvidia 3060Ti and fame runs fine, no real issues yet. If you read the forums though, it’s like any other game and does have some bugs for some people. It also being a souls like, means that it’ll never have enough of X or Y or Z for everyone. People complain it’s too hard, some that it’s too easy, some people hate invasions, others think that constant invasions make it better. I would watch a video or two with some game play and you could probably quickly tell if you would want to try it yourself. It also has multiple endings that you can’t do in one run, unlike a lot of the Elden Ring ending where you can then choose at the end.
I disagree, and think it brings all sorts of new takes on the Souls Like formula. But in the end we don’t have to agree and just play what we enjoy. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Currently playing Lords of the Fallen and enjoying it so far. I would probably enjoy it more if I didn’t suck, but with enough full sends I have gotten past every boss I’ve made it to.
I think the part where they had a trend of selling over the course of a year makes this not insider trading (or harder to prove if they were playing the long game).