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Taiwanese horror game boycotted, removed from China market, company apologizes

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Re: Taiwanese horror game boycotted, removed from China market, company apologizes

#21

Post by jay_kyburz »

gpm wrote: post #16
justicezyx wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if mainlanders' feeling are hurt, it's fine to totally ignore their feelings, just because they are from mainland China? Does this count as racism at all? Or it still counts as mainlanders are not applicable to most usual social rules?

No, if peoples feelings are hurt over political speech, it's fine to totally ignore their feelings. It not only has nothing to do with race, it has nothing to do with national boundary, political association, or anything else. It's just a thing that we (westerners) take as a fundamental right. It's irrelevant, but I also doubt that a substantial percentage of mainlanders actually have their feelings hurt by comparing…

Yeah, Trump is regularly compared to a lot worse.

Re: Taiwanese horror game boycotted, removed from China market, company apologizes

#23

Post by jtms »

z2 wrote: post #12
komali2 wrote: post #2

>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.

What makes you so sure it was “rogue” staff that put the imagery in?

Re: Taiwanese horror game boycotted, removed from China market, company apologizes

#24

Post by i_am_proteus »

komali2 wrote: post #2

>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.

Looks like PRC leadership just played perfectly into the hands of these ROC devs.

Not only did they get free publicity, but they've gotten the communist party to publicly (and internationally) telegraph not just how petty they are, but also how much the communist government fears a threat to their power from within mainland China.

Re: Taiwanese horror game boycotted, removed from China market, company apologizes

#25

Post by xfs »

anonytrary wrote: post #19

> 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 in China for its quality but people felt betrayed when they found out they are being played.

Re: Taiwanese horror game boycotted, removed from China market, company apologizes

#27

Post by komali2 »

jtms wrote: post #23
z2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What makes you so sure it was “rogue” staff that put the imagery in?

I believe the company put out a statement to that effect - they're casting blame on a single employee.

Could just be damage control while they snigger behind their hands for all I know.

Re: Taiwanese horror game boycotted, removed from China market, company apologizes

#28

Post by hungryhobo »

anonytrary wrote: post #19

> 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

Re: Taiwanese horror game boycotted, removed from China market, company apologizes

#29

Post by jlawson »

anonytrary wrote: post #19

> 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.

Exposure to difficult, foreign ideas builds up the coping skills to handle dealing with those ideas.

People who have been kept in an ideological bubble for their whole lives have conditioned-in panic/rage responses to ideas that go against the assumptions they've been taught to see as universal moral foundations.

This isn't a bug; these responses are conditioned into people on purpose by the memeplex in order to make it less likely the believer will become infected with competing memes.

You see this clearly in Chinese student facing Taiwan discussions, or American students from any leftist area facing nearly any conservative points of view on any issue. They are conditioned to go into emotional panic mode to prevent the new thoughts from sinking in.

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