Black Myth: Wukong studio Game Science has once again been accused of fostering a sexist work environment, with developers found to have made crude, highly sexualised and demeaning comments about women. Some devs have frequently talked about the game using sexual innuendo too, making many women in the Chinese gaming community uncomfortable.
This comes courtesy of a report from IGN, exploring the misogyny attached to Black Myth: Wukong and the Chinese gaming industry at large. In the report, multiple instances of Game Science employees making highly sexualised and sexist comments are shared. IGN also verifies reports of job recruitment posters for Game Science bragging about “friends with benefits” perks in the workplace, and another poster allegedly reading: “Fatties should f*ck off.”
While it has already been widely reported that a developer for Black Myth: Wukong openly expressed that he doesn’t want women playing his games, the report finds the source for this. It stems from a Weibo post from the game’s lead artist, Yang Qi, written in 2013, in which he suggests that women and men cannot enjoy the same games.
“The G-spots of male and female games are fundamentally different,” reads the post, translated by IGN. “This is not determined by the gaming environment, but by biological conditions.”
He continues, growing increasingly hateful towards what he perceives as games made for women: “F*ck sissies, f*ck tragic love stories, fuck moon-lit peach blossoms and flute-playing scholars! […] Some things are just for men, their depression, their anger, their pain…”
These male developers have never paid the price for their misogynistic remarks.
Some of these comments are recent, with one social media post from technical artist Daiwei discussing a half-snake woman who appears in the latest Black Myth trailer. “The snake spirit is different from what I imagined,” says Daiwei. “But if I cover the bottom half with my hand, it’s still possible to jerk off.”
This has been a theme with social media posts from the men at Game Science for some time. Infamously, co-founder Feng Ji is known to frequently make sexual innuendo. In a post shared in the report, he wrote: “I want to expand my circle and hire more people, get licked until I can’t get an erection. I want to be honest and make a [game] trailer, and be praised as the savior of the industry.”
Black Myth: Wukong was first revealed in 2020. It still doesn’t have a firm release date, but is aiming for 2024.
The report quotes multiple women in the Chinese gaming community who express their discomfort at the language used by the men at Game Science.
“These male developers have never paid the price for their misogynistic remarks,” says one woman, going by the pseudonym, Jen. She also says that the gaming community doesn’t want this to change. “In their eyes, women don’t deserve respect. Even just listening to them is considered pandering, a marketing tactic, and catering to Western political correctness. I can’t describe how despairing this feels.”
Game Science hasn’t responded to the report, nor the accusations of sexism levied against some of its developers.