Taiwanese horror game boycotted, removed from China market, company apologizes
taiwannews.com.tw
taiwannews.com.tw
What? That's it? Damn. That's nothing. Maybe free speech being rampant breeds thick skins, maybe free speech is a good thing.
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.
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.
Really not seeing any resemblance... ?
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.
I think it's just young uneducated idiots, taking credit for the accomplishments of their nation that they personally had no part in to try to convince people they argue with online that they aren't as insecure as they obviously are.
It's an inferiority complex.
The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellow men. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.
– Arthur Schopenhauer
Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life
I do not believe this is related to free speech because the font used in seal are rarely use today， most people can not recognize them.
The reason for anger I've heard from Chinese gamers is that they turned this issue political whereas in the past games didn't involve politics and they're pissed that their apolitical space has been invaded. As well, streaming the game has gotten Chinese game-streamers in trouble or having to take down their streams/videos.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1006510/Devotion/ you can read the Chinese comments yourselves, they're well-written in English
Except that Steam offers full refund without removing your review. This is a well-known strategy for review spammers ;)
"The term "White Terror" in its broadest meaning refers to the entire period from 1947 to 1987.[4] Around 140,000 Taiwanese were imprisoned during this period, of which from about 3,000 to 4,000 were executed for their real or perceived opposition to the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) government led by Chiang Kai-shek." (wikipedia)
So those guys evidently don't hold in high esteem domestic or foreign oppression.
But somehow Detention was a great game for the mainland chinese and a historic remark for taiwan's atrocities to its own people (a true statement) but now they have become angry because of a pixel poster with a reference to a meme about their little dictator? I think they should change the poster with the tank man and be done with it. Too bad they can brute force their way through capitalistic ways of buying power and reviews.
It seems these days I can't watch a Chinese video without some political fight breaking out in the comments over small perceived slights. I guess if during the height of the Cold War, the Russians made a game that made fun of the US, there may have been a similar response, but it's hard to imagine these days if a game company put an Orange Donkey Kong and called it Trump that anyone but a few Trump fans would get upset.
Streisand effect in the making?
People know Taiwan != China. The censorship is a projection of power, not hiding a secret.
Nobody calling the king fat because he cuts off heads doesn't change the fact that everybody can see he is indeed overweight.
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.
Could just be damage control while they snigger behind their hands for all I know.
I suggest that you refrain from buying anything.
There is no way you can get a product which doesn't use Chinese parts as many rare metals are minned in large quantities (hences lower cost) in China only.
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.