It's not the PRC government, if I read it right, the take down was a result of a backlash from the gamers. There's a huge amount of "glass heart" nationalism going on online. Any slight criticism of China or Taiwan from either country invites a strong nationalist backlash against the other. It seems these days I can't watch a Chinese video without some political fight breaking out in the comments over small perceived…
Of course, because their people have to comply otherwise they'll lose their social credit and their ability to travel and their organs.
> The new horror video game called “Devotion” created an uproar among Chinese netizens when a poster in the game was discovered to mock Chinese leader Xi Jinping, by referring to him as “Winnie the Pooh.” What? That's it? Damn. That's nothing. Maybe free speech being rampant breeds thick skins, maybe free speech is a good thing.
That's not it, but it'd be pretty effective to paint the other side as ridiculous with an incomplete picture. Check who wrote this piece. My best guess is Winnie the Pooh was a hint that prompted people to look for more political innuendos, which they found plenty, mostly consisting of ethnic slurs at the mainlanders that mapped exactly to IRL Taiwanese slurs against the Chinese. This game was praised with a passion…
Taiwanese here, I can tell you it's mostly just that - they make fun of Xi's appearance. But since the joke and the term "Winnie the Pooh" is entirely blocked in China, which is totally absurd, it becomes a meta joke about China's twisted policy, implicitly.
Easter eggs and the like are a very long and old tradition. Heck, there is even stuff one of my past employers shipped, including in production networking code. The customers that found it laughed quite hard and asked for the details. I suggest that you refrain from buying anything.
This is going to sound like a killjoy, but it's all fun and games until an Easter egg unintentionally introduces a weak point. Microsoft made a point of banning them entirely, and high profile easter eggs these days are well designed and tested, not inserted by one person for kicks :)
The Easter Egg I was referring to had autotest coverage. We are professionals. :)
> The new horror video game called “Devotion” created an uproar among Chinese netizens when a poster in the game was discovered to mock Chinese leader Xi Jinping, by referring to him as “Winnie the Pooh.” What? That's it? Damn. That's nothing. Maybe free speech being rampant breeds thick skins, maybe free speech is a good thing.
My friends from the mainland call these people 愤青, which means "young jingoistic men". Any sleight against China and they’ll come in droves: screeching, gibbering, and proclaiming the eternal glory of the lunar kingdom (and its subsidiaries).
These trolls just want to feel big. Bullying other countries make them feel big. Especially when the smaller country in question the one they dream of conquering.
That's not it, but it'd be pretty effective to paint the other side as ridiculous with an incomplete picture. Check who wrote this piece. My best guess is Winnie the Pooh was a hint that prompted people to look for more political innuendos, which they found plenty, mostly consisting of ethnic slurs at the mainlanders that mapped exactly to IRL Taiwanese slurs against the Chinese. This game was praised with a passion…
Nope it could be just that. There’s a lot of weirdness in China about Winnie the Pooh because the dictator in charge there is sensitive about his physical resemblance to the character. You can google it and find lots of articles about it.
>We are deeply sorry for hurting everybody,” Damn. While I get the position of the Taiwanese, I sometimes wish they'd send more middle fingers at the mainland. "yeah, xi jinping is a dumpling, fuckm, we apologise for nothing." As if Taiwan is an existential threat to prc by hurling insults as dramatic as "Winnie the Pooh" across the strait. Just seems like more bullying to me.
When I buy a game, or any consumable for that matter, I'm not expecting angry rogue staff to hide political Easter eggs. There's a place for activism/satire, but perhaps not on the salary of a presumably neutral employer.
Well, banning "pooh the winnie" is more like what "rogue" stands for.
> The new horror video game called “Devotion” created an uproar among Chinese netizens when a poster in the game was discovered to mock Chinese leader Xi Jinping, by referring to him as “Winnie the Pooh.” What? That's it? Damn. That's nothing. Maybe free speech being rampant breeds thick skins, maybe free speech is a good thing.
I believe Jinping made it illegal to compare him to Winnie the Pooh and at one point you could barely talk about Winnie on Weibo because it was censored.
So is that other content you're talking about actually in there?
I found this link from r/Games to be more informative https://www.spieltimes.com/news/xi-jinping-winnie-the-pooh-m... Again, much cultural context is lost in presenting this issue as merely censoring Winnie the Pooh. Remember, the Winnie the Pooh meme was invented by Chinese netizens to mock Xi. They continue to do so, but things stop being fun and games when the meme is used to mock themselves.
> The new horror video game called “Devotion” created an uproar among Chinese netizens when a poster in the game was discovered to mock Chinese leader Xi Jinping, by referring to him as “Winnie the Pooh.” What? That's it? Damn. That's nothing. Maybe free speech being rampant breeds thick skins, maybe free speech is a good thing.
or you know, just a marketing campaign cause Westerners just eat up the big bad china narrative
I can see that assumption if you shield your whole country with a great firewall.