Best-selling Taiwanese horror game review bombed due to Xi-Jinping easter egg
66 replies, posted
https://www.spieltimes.com/news/xi-jinping-winnie-the-pooh-moron-found-in-devotion-game-is-being-review-bombed-by-chinese-players/
https://www.spieltimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Devotion-XiJinping.png
Just four days past its release, Taiwan-based Red Candle Studios’ Devotion is already in a circle of controversy. The game is being review bombed by players from China due to an in-game poster that said, “Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh Moron”.
Any discussions related to Devotion are currently banned in Chinese gaming forums, which includes NGA.Cn, China’s leading video games forum. Recent reviews of the game have taken a drastic negative turn, the majority of them being from Chinese players.
As reported by What’s on Weibo, there’s another alleged reference to Xi Jinping. In a newspaper segment found in another part of the game, one of the headlines say “Baozi(a Chinese dumpling, which is also used as a term to mock President Xi Jinping) has been sentenced to prison” and that he has been given “capital punishment.”
It’s a matter of utmost importance for Chinese players and the entire Chinese gaming community in general. Upon skimming through dozens of the recent reviews, we found one thing that was in common. If the concerned authority of the People’s Republic of China finds out about the discussed controversy, not just will they ban the game, but there’s a possibility they’ll ban Steam entirely.
Following the controversy, the names of the two publishers – Indievent and Winking Skywalker have been removed and replaced with Red Candle Games. For the context, both the aforementioned publishers are based in China.
Response by the dev team:
Our team often [uses] popular internet memes for placeholders in the prototype stage. It was a temporary material, but it was not completely deleted due to the version synchronization problem. It was an accident and there was no attack or abusive intention. Removed from v1.0.5 on 2/21 night.
This turmoil reflects the fact that the team is not rigorous in the production process. As a game company, Red Candle does have a lot of room for improvement, and we are extremely sorry for the troubles of all parties. Please forgive us.
I love reading salty Commie China stories.
fucking lmao @ these reviews
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1891/5da70e74-734a-400d-9e9e-a717142e2ea0/image.png
Angry reviewer; "You still have a hot face to stick to people’s cold butt. If your surname is Qin, if someone talks to you about how Qin Qin is. Is that simply saying, Qin? That is the way you change the law!"
Profound wisdom.
We shouldn't make fun of shitting ping guys. It makes these little superstatist fellas very upset.
🤣
Their message was quite frank, they really should have anticipated the backlash.
Dumbass doesn't even have a valid point. If you get offended over someone mocking your country's leader then you have a problem. I'd laugh if they were mocking Trump or Obama and I'm American. (Unless it was a shitty no-effort racist joke regarding Obama which are far too common, then I'd just think it was stupid and reflected badly on the devs but still wouldn't be particularly offended.)
i never thought, that the Chinese were that brainwashed.
Taiwan #1
That dude chose a bad example by using Trump AND then mentioning Obama, because any American will tell you that it is a fundamental American right to say "Fuck the President, he's a shitty person and I hope he gets impeached by lunchtime" (tie Trump cultists in knots by asking them to explain why they're in favour of it for Obama or Bill Clinton or any president older than Nixon but it's not ok for Trump!). Any given American may disagree with what you think about the President at the time but if their brain isn't dunked in MAGA juice they'll agree that it's your right to say it because otherwise nobody would get to say anything and that loss of freedom is unacceptable.
It's absolutely perfect subtext for a shill review pushing the Party's official talking points and trying to suppress satirical political speech.
In the comments of the original article, someone offers a more detailed hindsight rather than just "because of Xi Jinping":
No one is offended by Winnie the Pooh. People are offended that the game cursed everyone in mainland to die on top of cursing Xi after selling the game as being made by compatriots.
First, they put Xi’s name and Winnie the Pooh on a dark magic spell paper. It’s the Chinese equivalent of having a stabbed voodoo doll. It is not a generic duly done by normal Taoist monk. It’s a curse spell that is considered very evil in traditional Chinese culture.
Second, the antagonist cult leader is called Lu Gongmin. Lu 陆 means mainland. Gongmin is homonyms with the words for “ citizen” or “populace”. Under his leadership, the cult sacrifice is committed on October 1. One of the main characters also with the last name synonymous with mainland was killed on his 49th birthday. Chinese Independence Day is on 1949, October 1.
In addition there was another piece of writing in the scene with the paper that translates to something like you dumb shit.
Finally, in mainland, multiple social media influencers were paid especially to promote the game as a “made in China” game with traditional Chinese culture elements to sell it.
Basically people felt like they were tricked into paying for something that was literally cursing them in both sense of the word.
Also note that no one in mainland even picked up on any of the above until someone posted on a Taiwanese forum gloating about how mainlanders got tricked into paying for it without noticing the “Easter eggs “.
https://i.imgur.com/4scBzP6.png
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I mean on the hand yes this is dumb but on the other if it could lead to Steam getting banned in that country so I can kind of understand why people living there might not be happy.
I almost wish that happened, might open a few eyes.
If not, fuck em, let them enjoy the censorship they love so much.
The ones who haven't drank the censorship propaganda kool-aid are smart enough to circumvent things like Steam being blocked anyways.
HAHA god now the games gonna get fucking blocked in china
btw its a really GOOD game i recommend all of you to play it
Dude your grandma's fucked.
The only people I really would apply the NPC meme to are the Chinese.
holy shit how can you be this mindless
Tiananmen Square, June 1989, Human Rights, Freedom of Choice, Free Vote, Democracy, Democratic Election, Term Limits, Dalai Lama, Free Tibet, Independence of Buddhism, Independent rights, Capitalism, Winnie the Pooh.
I can't wait until June 4th this year, to commemorate an EXTREMELY BORING day in which NOTHING HAPPENED DURING ANY YEAR.
Also, I wouldn't call Detention pro-communist but it's very critical of the Kuomintang, so it's kind of hilarious that they're pissed off about it.
china is north korea except with money and resources
So basically this is the most ROC video game ever.
i mean, i can understand people being upset at this game for insulting xi jinping. not necessarily because they're insulted but because it opens up the possibility for a: them to potentially face retribution from the government and b: steam being banned entirely from PRC
In China free thought is a capital crime, and inaction is conspiracy. It's impossible to tell the genuinely brainwashed from the people just keeping their heads down to avoid having them removed.
I find it incredibly ironic that a game about a man getting his life ruined by a cult is getting review bombed by Chinese of all people.
Also people on Chinese forum were claiming this is "such a good domestic game" before turning immediately to "such a trash game" over the night.
If you have the money, give it a try. It's a really decent game with some good effort put into the environment. It might be a little bit too short (about 2.5 hrs) even for a walking simulator, but the story and the atmosphere is really well done. It's not even that expensive honestly so pay the developer a little bit support to help them cope with this "loss".
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yeah its amazing how an average citizen approves their government
I am pretty sure that's overthinking on Chinese's part to make them more like the victim. There's a whole lot of articles this morning after the easter egg was found that "analyze" every single bit of the game to find reference for shaming China.
imagine if having something posted by someone else on your steam profile could have you banned from the internet and investigated by the government
Using pretty much any online service in China will require you to tie your real identity via phone/id documents/etc to your account. It's not the same case for Steam but its still a possiblity for pretty much any online user from China.
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