The marketing team behind Black Myth: Wukong has asked streamers covering the game to avoid mentioning topics including “feminist propaganda,” COVID-19, and China’s game industry policies, multiple reports have revealed.
Screenshots of the document with a number of “Do’s and Don’ts” for influencers circulated on social media thanks to French content creator Benoit “ExServ” Reinier, who said he would not be covering the game due to the unusual guidelines. The email has since been confirmed as legitimate by multiple outlets including IGN and GLHF.
The guidelines were part of an email sent to content creators by Black Myth: Wukong co-publisher Hero Games, which also included a Steam key for the game. The document included “Do’s and Don’ts” for covering the game, with the one “Do” being “enjoy the game” and multiple “Don’ts” as seen below:
- 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 discuss content related to China’s game industry policies, opinions, news, etc.
While some of the items are understandable, such as asking players to refrain from insulting others or using offensive language, the guidelines also ask streamers to avoid discussing a number of topics. These include “politics” as a broad category, while also specifying “feminist propaganda” and “fetishization.” The document goes on to ban so-called “trigger words” around COVID-19, as well as asking streamers not to discuss policies, opinions, or news around China’s game industry.
The email was sent by Hero Games, which co-produced Black Myth and is a major shareholder of developer GameScience. The company doesn’t appear to have sent the same guidelines to journalists who were also supplied keys to review the game.
“By using the game key and creating content, you acknowledge that you have been informed of the following guidelines, and any statements made are your own and not related to our marketing team,” the email says alongside a link to the “Do’s and Dont’s” document, though Reinier added that the document was not an NDA and a streamer could choose to ignore the guidelines if they chose.
Black Myth: Wukong has reviewed well among critics, and has seen huge player numbers even on its first day of launch, but Hero Games may have just provoked the Streisand effect by attempting to block any political discussion around the title.
