IGN’s Rebecca Valentine revealed that she left X and locked her account after criticizing Black Myth: Wukong developer Game Science for its complete failure.
X’s Valentine profile now reads, “No longer on Twitter so please do not DM me.” She has also locked her account and protected her posts so that only approved followers can see them.
Read: Black Myth: Wukong hits second-highest concurrent player count in Steam history and keeps climbing
Valentine’s departure from X and lockdown of his account comes after Black Myth: Wukong was a huge success, despite Valentine and colleague Ke Hoon Chan repeatedly making disparaging remarks about the game’s developers.
Shortly after its release, the game became the second most played game of all time on Steam by concurrent players, reaching a peak of 2,223,179 concurrent players, trailing only PUBG: Battlegrounds, which had an all-time high of 3,257,248.
The game’s success follows a report in November 2023 in which Valentine and colleague Kee-Foon Chan accused the developers of sexism and misogyny. The two reported that “several posts surfaced on the Chinese social media site Weibo written by people associated with the studio, which contained multiple references to genitalia and sexual innuendo.”
They also said that “recruitment posters created by the studio in 2015 featured imagery and headlines that suggested an embedded culture of sexism within games science.”
The article doesn’t provide any evidence of these headlines or posters, but the description does say: “One poster features a risqué illustration resembling the work of Austrian artist Egon Schiele, with the headline ‘Obligatory Masturbation.’ Another, featuring a woman’s backside, advertises ‘Don’t have sex with your co-workers.’ The same ad alludes to sex friends as an office perk. And a third, featuring dumbbells, is far more pointed, advertising ‘Fat Go Out.'”
Read: Chinese gamers deny IGN’s sexist accusations against Black Myth: Wukong developer Game Science, but call out the developer’s comments as unprofessional
Chinese gamer Fei_fiii confirmed the existence of the poster, commenting, “Before working on Black Myth: Wukong, they had developed two mobile games for survival, but we don’t know much about them. However, during this time, they created a rather vulgar recruitment poster that reflected their usual style, which received a lot of criticism.”
She continued, “I’m sure you’ve met people like this – people who find vulgar jokes and name calling funny. Personally, I don’t really mind. I think everyone swears sometimes to relieve stress, and so do I. But I would never do that kind of behavior at work or in a formal setting, and I wouldn’t even include it in my videos. It’s about boundaries and a sense of respect for others. Otherwise, like right now, [they’re] “When they attract attention, their poor quality behaviour is also magnified and they may be accused of being sexist. This is unfortunate as it could affect the reputation of their work.”
The poster, which can be seen in the video below, is clearly in bad taste, even obscene. Game Science should be reprimanded for creating it. However, this does not mean that the developers are sexist; it just means that, as Fei_fiii points out, they were behaving rudely and clearly unprofessional.
Messrs. Valentine and Zhang then took issue with social media posts made by the company’s co-founder, Feng Zhi, who they said had said he wanted to “expand my network, hire more people, and get licked until I can’t get an erection.”
They continued translating, “You know, you’re just a little bit down, and we’d be honored to be able to give your lower half some peace of mind.”
The report further alleges that he wrote, “After watching it a few times, I was wet…the pressure in my groin was incredible!”
Read: Black Myth: Wukong developer Game Science reportedly bans content creators from including politics and feminist propaganda
The translation initially sparked debate over a clip from Asmongold Clips, which explained Feng Ji’s comment as “an idiom used in Chinese. As a colloquial expression, it is used humorously or sarcastically to describe a situation in which excessive flattery or brown-nosing has an overwhelming, paralyzing effect on someone. The use of this metaphor can be seen in informal conversations on social media.”
Additionally, the video points out that other posts that IGN used in its smear article were translated “in the most callous way possible” to push the argument that the developer is sexist and misogynist.
Fei_fiii also commented on the post, pointing out that IGN mistranslated the first sentence, as what he meant to say in Chinese was that “I just wanted to recruit a few people, but I got more praise than I expected, which made me feel uneasy,” she noted.
She continued, “But just because I understand what he was trying to say doesn’t mean I approve of the way he said it. You can call him ‘rude’ or ‘vulgar,’ but there’s no need to label him a sexist.”
In fact, she details that there was a significant backlash in China in response to these comments: “The backlash against them on the Chinese Internet actually started when the first video was released, so it was nothing new. Previous inappropriate comments were dug up and widely spread at this point. This spread extended beyond the gaming community, and every year since then, every time they release a new video, people have been furiously discussing it and sparking a new wave of criticism. IGN’s report last year was too late.”
Read: Black Myth: Wukong benchmark tool hits peak of 85,277 concurrent players despite media backlash against developers
One of the strangest claims made by Valentine and Zhang came from a post by Yang Qi, one of the company’s co-founders and lead artist, who asserted that men and women are biologically different.
The report alleges he wrote, “In your dreams, men are holding heavy machine guns and shooting at the government, but women dream of bags that will make their friends jealous.”
He ended his post by suggesting that when he goes to work he should wear silk stockings and suspenders, brew some chrysanthemum tea and put a humidifier on the table to make things “soft and feminine.”
Finally, Valentine and Chang accused technical artist Daiwei of claiming that players could masturbate by “looking more” at female characters in the game. He allegedly wrote, “I’m not used to snake necks, but I can still develop a fetish for them.”
Read: Former Kotaku and IGN editor calls on video game developers and publishers to denounce gamers who disagree with woke ideology
Valentine doubled down on these accusations in IGN’s first impressions piece on Black Myth: Wukong, in a section he wrote in response to the outlet’s November report.
She said, “Last year, we published a comprehensive report on IGN detailing sexist and inappropriate comments made by multiple developers of Black Myth: Wukong, including people in leadership positions at Game Science. As of the publication of this preview, Game Science has not yet responded or issued any statement regarding our report or past comments.”
After detailing his enjoyment of previewing the game at Summer Game Fest, Valentine added, “It is also true that several people making this game have made derogatory comments about women and have no interest in retracting past statements or supporting the many women who have been harassed in online conversations about Black Myth: Wukong for simply expressing discomfort with those comments. These two ideas can exist simultaneously. What viewers want to do about this conflict is ultimately up to them to choose.”
She concluded, “One final note: the demo did not feature any female or femme characters, and I have heard from Game Science that the portions of the game shown to press did not feature any female characters. While the final game will feature female characters, it is not possible at this time to comment on whether the beliefs expressed by the Game Science developers have been imbued in Black Myth: Wukong in any meaningful way.”
Black Myth: What do you think about Valentine leaving X and locking down his account after his failed smear campaign against Wukong and his development team?
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