Hit Chinese Video Game Seeks to Curb 'Negative Discourse' | Hacker News Reader

Hit Chinese Video Game Seeks to Curb 'Negative Discourse'

nytimes.com

15 pointsmikhael17 comments

I hate that most games now only have first-party servers. If the game developers are responsible for server hosting, they're also responsible for what happens on those servers, and rules for conduct end up coalescing on the most sensitive parties.

It's insane to me that there are games rated T or M where swearing isn't allowed. Overwatch made saying "ggez" a bannable offense. The discourse is becoming sterile.

I liked it when people could run their own servers with their own set of rules, and each server had a different sense of character stemming in part from the rules. There were servers stricter than modern game moderation that were "family friendly", and the spectrum ranged all the way to places where the average message contained 4 innuendoes and had more curse words than not. You could choose your own adventure and community.

Isn’t “ggez” a taunt, meaning “I beat you easily?” (effectively, “you suck”). Given the toxicity in online gaming communities, I can see why global servers might play whack a mole with those sorts of bans.

That’s not to take away from your overall point, that it’s nice to allow community servers. I’d guess that companies don’t do that because it takes more effort and reduces their control over the game experience, and not enough players care enough to make it economically viable given those constraints.

Saying ggez is a taunt, thats the point. People talk trash and taunt when they play competitive games. The only sport it doesnt happen in is golf. Its overly sterile to ban taunting.

Quake 3 and it's descendent games (including the amazing Tremulous) were such an amazing time to be a gamer. The servers built their own communities, and were really just a blast to play

It sucks, but it makes sense that Game Science has to limit discourse.

Game Science doesn't want to get cancelled - look at what happened to Lotte China in 2017 [0].

Public Relations management is hard, especially given the amount of hyper-polarization

[0] - https://www.reuters.com/article/business/with-china-dream-sh...

Were these streamers offered more than a $60-70 game key to self-censor? Why would anyone agree to such a thing for so little?

Most self-censorship is done for free.

It's actually the other way around: mainstream media tries to attack a game that is the #1 most played game on steam and is smashing all records.

Steam is great because the reviews are from REAL people, not journalists so you can immediately see what is real vs what is media lies.

Per the article, it's not about good or bad reviews, but the company asking streamers not to discuss things China doesn't like (like feminism or covid). Not even related to the game.

That being said, it would be incredibly frustrating if I were paying people to to advertise for me (or giving people early access to something that will juice their channel), and they insisted on talking about black on black crime, welfare queens, and a "culture of grievance" while reviewing it because I'm black.

I also bet the NYT wouldn't be framing it as a censorship campaign if I made early reviewers sign something saying that they wouldn't; instead they'd be cheering me on.

Not even related to the game is right.

You're 100% correct, but this site is dominated by americans, and they have mostly been thoroughly brainwashed to reflexively hate China and never allow it to have a single W (in their minds)

Win. "Never allow them to have a single win in their minds."

Thank you. The longer I get in years, the shorter the words get on the internet...

Calling it brainwashing doesn't appreciate that there are tensions between different cultural norms. And if you want to look at it that way, every country is looking to be the best at brainwashing, and China's no slouch there.

The first time I hear an american acknowledge lifting 800 million people out of poverty is good and commendable i'll concede any other country is close in terms of brainwashing skills

It's a talking point more than analysis, both countries pried themselves on "lifting from poverty" but don't acknowledge the people that become fodder for a selfish hierarchy.

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