A reported document regarding coverage for the upcoming Black Myth: Wukong has been floating around the internet making very strange demands from creators in order to receive a code. It seemed almost too absurd to be true, but now I have been able to confirm with a US-based creator I trust that it is in fact legitimate.
A Google document attached to the email said the following about coverage:
DO’s
DON’T’S
- 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 discus content related to China’s game industry, policies, opinions, news, etc.
This email was not sent to journalists, as some of them have said it’s fake based on that, but it was for creators only. These guidelines may also not have made it to all creators, or were sent out merely from requests for codes from those creators. There is no NDA required to accept the code.
I confirmed this by talking to the creator I trust and seeing an actual screenshare of the email and a lengthy ensuing back and forth which ended with a link to this document with the banned topics list, along with an actual Steam code. There appear to be other streamers starting to confirm they received the same email with working codes for the game. It’s not clear how many creators this was sent to.
There were some oddities about the Google document pointed out before this, including a Gmail address that created it, but the initial email contacts were not sent by Gmail. Having seen the full exchange, not shown here due to parties not wishing to be identified, which ended in an actual code to redeem, this is not just a random document that was made and circulated online.
As for…why this exists at all, this is a game made by a Chinese studio where COVID-19 is obviously a sensitive issue. As for why that would be mentioned when talking about Wukong, that is extremely unclear.
The other standout phrase, “feminist propaganda,” may have made its way there due to reporting that indicated Wukong’s studio had a “history of sexism” in a widely distributed story, and they did not want that discussed, presuming they think that is what feminist propaganda entails. This could also include a topic like “did they make the female characters too sexualized” or something of that nature.
There is actually a crowd seeing the list of banned topics and saying it’s good and obvious creators should “focus on the game.” Though it’s easy to imagine what that same group might say if a Western developer sent a document telling streamers not to discuss “right-wing propaganda” or something similar.
It’s a very strange situation. I have reached out to Game Science and have not heard back. This is not something that affected review scores given that journalists were not sent this email. And it’s unclear why almost any of these topics might have made its way into creator coverage in the first place.
I will update this article as further information comes in.
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