U p F ront
TECH WATCH
Games without frontiers
MARK STIMPSON on how video games have become a battleground in freedom of expression
BLACK MYTH: WUKONG is set to be one of the biggest gaming hits of the year after it sold more than 10 million copies in less than three days after its August launch.
The role-playing game, developed by Game Science, is inspired by the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West featuring an anthropomorphic monkey, also the inspiration for the hit 1970s television series Monkey. Players of the game become this staff-wielding monkey.
All standard video-game fare. Yet concerns have been raised after gaming influencers, who have an essential role in the success or otherwise
ABOVE: Do rules over early access to hit game Black Myth: Wukong reveal the hidden hand of the censor?
of new titles, were only given access to advance copies of the game if they agreed to a number of conditions regarding their reviews of the new title. One condition was that their reviews must not mention “politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishisation, and other content that instigates negative discourse”. It is not specified exactly what “feminist propaganda” entails.
Another rule forbade the use of “trigger words such as ‘quarantine’ or ‘isolation’ or ‘Covid-19’”, a sure sign that either the Chinese Communist Party was involved in drafting the rules or that the developer was self-censoring for fear of upsetting the Chinese government.
China’s Global Times said that concern about the rules had led to inaccurate coverage in Western media. It wrote in an editorial that “the radar of some anti-China forces is triggered when Black Myth: Wukong is increasingly considered as a symbol of China’s soft power” and specifically criticised the BBC.
It said: “Their strategy of attacking the game is just the same old Western tactic - politicising every Chinese achievement, even in the realm of gaming. What’s next? Will they portray the Chinese gaming industry as a ‘threat’ in the future?”
China’s gaming industry was worth around 300 billion yuan ($41 billion) in 2023, out of a global total of around $184 billion.
So, is the gaming sector about to become the new frontier in free expression? Possibly. The gaming sector is already double the size of the movies and entertainment sector. Messages and morals portrayed in video games are arguably as influential as those displayed in films.
It is little wonder that China, or those doing its bidding, are interested in what people have to say.
Free speech in numbers
Russia and Western countries on 1 August 26
The number of people released as part of a prisoner swap between strike in protest at the invasion of Ukraine 11
The number of mourners at the funeral of gifted pianist Pavel Kushnir, who died in a Russian jail after a hunger
Share of vote claimed by Nicolas Maduro in the Venezuelan presidential election 51.2%
67%
Share of vote claimed by opposition politician Edmundo González in the same election
950 million
Number of active users of messaging app Telegram, whose founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France in August
INDEXONCENSORSHIP.ORG 7