Every Chinese Censorship Gaming Regulation Mihoyo Ignores!
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- Опубліковано 21 гру 2023
- China's game censorship board tightened regulations back in 2021. It led to 4 character skins being altered. But nothing else has come from the new regulations even though genshin breaks multiple other rules in this memo. Join Terry in discussing those broken rules and the reason Mihoyo can ignore the "recommendations" of the ccp.
While trying to research topics for a possible winter holiday video I fell down the censorship rabbit hole. I hope you found this interesting! Chinese censorship is complex and changing all the time.
In the last 12 hours NPPA announced new regulations that might take away 90 wish pities. They want to lessen gambling and spending on gatchas. They also want to extend the monthly spending limits to adults. We'll see if these regulations actually go into effect.
Main References
New regulations memo translations
nichegamer.com/new-chinese-ga...
Buff Venti cosplayer (he also did wriothesly!)
www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impa...
/ graysonfin
Subutari's "Shadows in Sands" Fan Animation for Hoyofair 2023
• [HoYoFair] "Shadows in...
UA-camr E's UA-cam and series about queer characters in genshin
www.youtube.com/@EisSocial/vi...
• A Deep Dive into the Q... - Ігри
First of all Thank you! I did not expect this video to blow up. I was away over the weekend for the holidays. Otherwise I would have made this pinned post earlier.
2 big things! This list is not set as laws in China and Mihoyo has not broken any laws. Mihoyo nor Genshin are not at risk of being shut down. Even the anti gacha bill released the day i posted this video is only a proposal. They are waiting for feed back from game companies before adjusting it and Then it might become a law. The only two that are laws is the Minor's curfew ( 3 hours a week) and text chat word censors which are coded into any chats on any app or websites by default. Again Mihoyo follows those two. The tv censorship was a law and Danmei (boylove) shows still haven't gone back into production. When that law came out game companies made promises to avoid that content as well in hopes of getting game verification back up and running again. (Game certification paused for like 8 months in 2021) It is all a very complicated matter. And I'll try to explain it better in the next video. Basically the game company's like to over correct in hopes of getting there games approved on time.
This list is a power point presentation aimed at Chinese indie game developers of what they should avoid in their games if they want to be certain it passes certification. Your game only gets 3 tries to pass certification. And there is not a public list of what the censorship board allows or doesn't allow. Only the basics of no large amounts of blood, no nudity, and no extreme cursing. This list was made by a higher up in the gaming industry based on content he had seen be rejected by the board before. To try and help young developers trying to publish their first games. Foreign game companies also make such lists but those are less reliable. For example ghosts as a concept are allowed in chinese video games. It's the mishandling of a corpses (aka zombies or Frankenstein) that china wants to avoid. But again there is no law against zombies. It is just harder to get a zombie centered game approved.
As mentioned I picked this list to go through because it came out around the time china was cracking down on K-pop style boy bands and Danmei. So game developers being told to pull away from such content made sense. And the list was confirmed by multiple sources as being a legit memo sent out to inspiring game developers. But the Memo isn't law nor was it written by the censorship board themselves.
But from what I researched games have to get expansions approved by the board. So even though Genshin was approved in 1.0. It still has to go through approval again for 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0. So including things listed as possibly getting your application rejected is risky. Especially when players expect expansions to come out at a certain time. Delays to go back and remove things would be bad. So still including such things just affirms Mihoyo's confidence in the board approving their expansions because of how big Genshin is.
My goal was not to show why genshin should be banned. And I do not believe pointing these out will put Mihoyo at risk of getting in trouble. I just wanted to point out the places Mihoyo was taking risks to tell the stories they wanted to tell. Risks other games don't have the luxury the take.
I'm still planning to make the second video. Though it will probably take longer to put together now. Because I can now see where I failed to properly explain a few things. This was the "easier" section as I could just point to the list and say genshin has that. For the next section there is no "list".
For example Democracy is not publicly banned from the media by the ccp. But they constantly censor Tibet and Hong Kong's pleas for such governments. And Pro-Democracy books written by chinese authors are constantly banned. So having multiple plots were the civilian majority dislikes the governments decisions and aggressively protest until the majorities opinion is listened too. Is an incredibly pro-democracy take to have in a Chinese video game.
Having a world quest involving a research institute causing a disaster that exposes the local area to radioactive waste and then having those researchers lie to the press and public about the disaster. Is a very risky take to have in China, but there's not a written rule anywhere saying that's a risky take. But anyone who's kept up with China's constant censorship of discussions of Covid's origins can tell the CCP probably doesn't want folks debating the moral right and wrong of lying to the public about lab caused disasters.
That is where Mihoyo pushes the boundaries the most. Not in what isn't approved for video games. But what topics and discussions these quests lead fan communities too discuss on chinese forums. Topics that are usually only allowed in college campus' are being discussed by the general public online because of this game. Which is a good thing!
I only want to point this stuff out because I feel like Mihoyo doesn't get enough credit for all the work they put into these quests. That fans outside of china take these things for granted, because our media is not as tightly censored. Metaphors about trying to erase information about a tragedy on the internet not erasing the actual tragedy or the victims of that tragedy tend to go over our heads (scara character quest). Because we do not have governments removing discussions of historical events like the Tienanmen Square Massacre from our side of the internet. So I hope the second video will succeed in explaining such things.
@@dougligamingwould be nice but as a 10 year old playing genshin I don't understand because China is very strict when it's ppl make games. I know China has very strict rules and not taking a look at the female characters and other male characters, China banned LGBTQ and famous Chinese ppl dont have interest in femboys, lesbians, gays none of them. I'm very proud of what they did and one thing, I think Hoyoverse is and isn't following the rules. But idk what China is going to do to them next.
its obvious why Mihoyo gets away with it...its called MONEY, they pay CCP off mate
@@Rodoshiilovesstars You seem to understand it very well for someone who is 10! China does have very strict rules and Mihoyo makes sure to not break the big ones. Right now China's government won't do anything. Mihoyo's games make a lot of money and china's government like all governments likes to make money.
Some Famous Chinese people might have interest in LGBT people rights. They might even be LGBT themselves. We just don't know. Because a post made about gay people from them would be deleted and they would get in trouble. And then they would not be famous anymore. China removed all evidence of one actress on the Chinese internet before and so Chinese celebrities don't want that to happen to them.
@@dougligaming Yes I know I love to learn history and countries laws just so I can follow the rules whenever I explore or have a vacation in a another country but the fact I know that Genshin Impact was the most expensive to make and made it free. And indeed if they break those rules they might be in big trouble. Mihoyo made a 1B dollars just from releasing it . Personally I don't support LGBTQ because of my religion and its ridiculous for me I mean more genders are ridiculous only two genders are good. I just found out that the genshin cummuinity itself has full of LGBTQ ppl especially when they ship like two women and two men. The most popular one is Alhaitham and Kaveh. Idk who or when was this nonsense was made but I'm sure that they will know the truth of this nonsense.
“No drunk people, no femboys, no people becoming gods” venti : parkour
LMAO ABHABAHNAM
HAHAHAHAH
Venti: *ehe*
CCP: *EHE* TE NANDAYYOO!!!
Great comment
😭😭😭
So you're telling me Venti is responsible for more Chinese laws than he is for his own country's
But not even laws can stop the God of Freedom.
Ehe~
LMAO@@syzygy536
@@rajaryan-fe1oy "Ehe" TE NANDAYO?!
@@syzygy536 I mean... He IS the God of Freedom
I was flabbergasted when I realized that the Sumeru quest was basically making us overthrow an authoritarian surveillance state
I mean...The same also go to inazuma....kind of...
Inazuma is us making a coup against a military theocratic dictatorship by helping an anarchist army so it's even funnier@@KevinAssalin
@@KevinAssalinwell inazuma was based off Japan which oppressed china for years so I don’t think they’ll care
Vive la révolution !
Ils avançaient l'air buté, poings aux poches
Ils souriaient en pensant à Gavroche
Ils s'enfonçaient dans le vent
Et toujours, ils espéraient au levant que le jour
Viendrait un jour
Quand fera-t-il jour camarade ?
J'entends toujours cette question
Qu'ils se posaient les camarades
Pendant qu'un vieux croiseur en rade
Gueulait à plein canon
C'est pour de bon
Ils avançaient à grand peine, à grands pas
Ils arrivaient de la guerre ou du bois
Ils espéraient le soleil et l'amour
Ils s'épaulaient les amis de toujours
Serraient les rangs
Quand fera-t-il jour camarade?
J'entends toujours cette question
Qu'ils se posaient les camarades
Pendant qu'un vieux croiseur en rade
Gueulait à plein canon
C'est pour de bon@@Aythos
You forgot to consider that Mihoyo is a top taxpayer to the Shanghai city government. As long as Mihoyo does not go crazy they are fine.
These types of content are very dangerous. If the creator was a real fan of the game and want MHY to keep things as they are they wouldn't be drawing attention to these facts. the gov regulatory officers may have an understanding with the company or are turning a blind eye, but they wouldn't be able to keep it up if there is an overwhelming amount of attention or reporting related to the rule violations.
As someone who lives in a country with strict government + absurd rules and regulation (even worse than shown in this vid), videos like this are like a grenade. The gov is willing to turn a blind eye until videos like this bring focus to it and call them out. I have seen it happen a few times. The gov wants to assert its rule and dominance after being called out on favoritism or incompetence in taking action against the offender.
@@rootedpen2 China would be stupid to restrict what mihoyo is doing, genshin is their soft power. Compared to other gachas genshin is so tame they would be wasting their time
@@mangshu21 well they’ve done stupider…
This is true but they are still heavily censored. Femboys are never at Venti's level, there's no big waisted guys. Among other stuff
@@rootedpen2You think the CCP doesn't already know about this?
Fun fact, Ayaka's costume is actually historically accurate. Back during the Meiji era after Japan ended its isolationist policy, wealthy people flocked to Western-style fashion. I'd argue that Raiden wearing only 1/3 of a kimono is a worse case of historical inaccuracy in Inazuma, since high-ranking leaders wore many layers of clothes to display their wealth.
Not only is she wearing a 1/3rd of a kimono, but wearing one off the shoulders like Raiden does is generally associated with... women in the adult entertainment industry, let's put it that way. Like, to this day if you wear your kimono like that in public in Japan, people are gonna make Assumptions about your, uh, moral character.
@@puchuchan8020but if she wore an actual kimono she sure ain’t gonna be running around fighting. She’d be another ancient lady who needs to be carried around. Similar with Xianglin, QiPao did not typically show the entire leg and butt.
@@TumblinWeeds Ermmm her in game clothing isn't exactly comfortable for fighting either so this point is weird
@@TumblinWeeds video game logic is the only reason she's fighting in her current outfit too. A single jump, bending over or just shifting should make her pop out on top, kimono are not really designed with people who were blessed in the chest area in mind. Especially since it's worn loosely enough her girls bounce when he moves, that thing should literally be falling apart. Her geta should also be falling off her feet when she flies, jumps, or moves around.
Tbh she doesn't even have Mora on her, and her subjects usually just give her stuff from what I remember-
Ascend to godhood is basically all the cultivation novel ever written in China.
It's not even enforced. There's a ton of cultivation simulation and wuxia games
Exactly this one really surprised because I was like this is all over their media.
this was my first though and so many of them is just copy and pasted. like i like the more personality of being more actively persuing their desire for power or material. its refreshing for the first few time but after like the hundred time it just feels copy and paste. and especially that damn blue screen text box is just ruining it imo.
Yes, and since there are quite a few very antichinese sects (such as falun etc) chinese government tries to crack down on these. For example, I watched recently a horror movie where ghosts were to be said, and there was a plot twist in the end, completely alien to the main story, which said that there were no ghosts but angry neighbors, police caught them, justice prevailed and blah blah blah. Can't even have ghosts in China :D
@@GhostEmblem because its bullshit, western media keeps making up shit, like stuff like "WINNIE THE POOH IS BANNED< SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM" which literally doesn't fucking exist,
half of this video is just made up, china doesn't even ban sexual stuff, they literally sell dildos in children stores, and the age of consent in china is lower than japan.
Actually, the is one instance where blood is visible, which is Kuki Shinobu's skill. When you use it, she consumes part of her HP, and if you look closely you can see a blood splatter effect on her body.
ha its not blood splatter if u look carefully
when the blood blade hits
Neuvillette bleeds in the archon quest when attacked by Tartaglia
@@HopeIsADrug11037 I mean...it's quite literally the equivalent to a paper cut lol
@@annierminx yeah but that's not the point 😭
Fun Fact about the kiss scene in honkai impact: When the law came into play they removed some potential problematic pages from their official mangas like this one or another one where a character summons and drops a nuke. But after a few months when it wasnt big in the news anymore they just added everything back in xD
Mihoyo,breakers of all rules
@@AdamDj-ic3krRules... are meant to be broken!
I mean bronya and seele kissed eachother
@@yddyhrxhtfxgfhxtfh3986 nah man, that was a platonic kiss, just gals being pals
@@AdamDj-ic3krimo I find Seele and Bronya is very close, but never romantically close. Well I can see people think they are lesbian (same case as Kiana and Mei) from the Kissing scene.
Note that Kiana and Mei never have any kissing scene, but they've shown having marriage application on their comic spin-offs and ingame art shows that they're married (prob as a joke).
I’m saying, money talks
Lobbying helps
Yeah... I mean, China is secretly a capitalist country
@@Azkibean they produce several chinese cultural heavy theme or character enough for the CCP to turn blind eye of the other violation. In overview genshin garner satisfactory amount of soft power.
They'll make alot of money from other countries with lower censorship ;)
"Bling got me chill, 'cause I'm living in an icebox"
"No drunk people"
*Kazuha during the 2.8 Summer Event*
Kaveh getting drunk lmao
Venti:
venti during every event he's in 😂
@@Insig385 venti in general 😂
Also, in Lisa’s story quest, there is a dialogue option that clearly states that the traveler is on a date with Lisa, regardless of whether you choose Aether or Lumine.
yes! there are multiple hangouts that playout as dates regardless of which sibling you choose. Barbara's is also a date, Kaeya flirts with both, Ayaka's date to the festival is part of the Archon quest line, Heizou invites us on his vacation. Lyney's was just the most recent example. While Jeht is a counter example where they intentionally give her flirty lines with Lumine and not Aether.
@@dougligamingso cool!
also noelles hangout, marjorie (or whatever her name is lol) jokes that traveller and noelle must be on a date regardless of gender
The dialogue with Navia at the end of her SQ also stays the same regardless of what twin player chose
@@thienphucn1 Navia also has that line with Clorinde. Saying she likes Navia's lipstick and then Navia answers by asking if she wants some
Just to note, genshin designs are quite tame compared to other Chinese games I've played. Some even look realistic
Ah yes... those classic unrealisticly big Bungalaungacungus 😂
i see,,,
lot of things make a sense now
I honestly like the design, it's one of the games I've found which doesn't overly sexualize the female characters, they look really nice and and the outfit are really well done
I wouldn’t use realistic, but yeah. I really appreciate that about Genshin. The character designs of course are still made to be a little risqué, but it’s tame enough that I can at least play it my phone in public or even on my break at work, without worry.
@@crossanddream2 But if you found out miHoYo's history, they're one of the gacha games that overly sexualize the female characters.
So "softer" men can't be strong? Isn't Gorou, one of the guys pictured in the meeting, a literal military general? When will people learn that cute doesn't mean helpless?
Most of his whole character is trying to defy that kind of idea. Even though he wishes to become buffer someday
Yeah, it would definitely be a good idea to put a femboy as a general irl... lmao
@@Kosac07 There are probably more femboys in actual military units than you'd think. They just are restricted in portraying it bc restrictions.
Not people. The fucking CCP.
@@Kosac07Ok so you’re clearly being sarcastic with your comment so would you mind explaining to us using facts, statistics, graphs, etc. WHY a femboy would make a bad general for a real life army?
Felt like many Games in China also ignores the Laws like Hoyo💀
Yeah, game like Arena breakout and CODM is literally showing violance but just with no blood on it. And both even showed extremely detailed weapon modification and mechanics but somehow passed CCP observation.
And heck nah Arena breakout entries gameplay is basically like EFT where you steal loot from other people 💀💀💀
Because there's no such law.......
I mean Flower Fairy has a ton of feminine looking male pixies, like the last Solar Term was literally a cross dresser.
It's because the way CCP handles governance isn't straightforward. The CCP will announce a set of policies or guidelines without ever formalizing them as a law, and then leave it up to regional governments to interpret and enforce said policies/ create laws of their own.
if you have money you pick and choose laws like a buffet
11:40 Freminet also fits under this category, lore wise he puts on his helmet to block out the sounds of people screaming when he kills people (missions given by the house of hearth/arlecchino)
Alternate costumes were actually not CCPs fault. There were actually too many parents complaining about characters being too exposed 😂
At least Rosaria got a Sensible Outfit. Monstadt maybe a City of Freedom but they clearly have Standards. There was no way they'd let a Nun of the Church of Barbatos walk around like THAT. 😅
@@silverhawkscape2677she walk around like that because she doesn't care that a big part of her personality
@@cum4044 Except she's still a Nun of the Church of Barbatos. She at least should have a Regular Outfit as well.
@@silverhawkscape2677 yeah but I doubt she wear it that much
@@cum4044 Official Outfit aka Uniform. For Official events she CANNOT sneak away.
Great video!
One statement is incorrect though. The one about Lantern Rite being the only real life festival in the game and at the time of the real life festival. Mondstadt's Weinlesefest is an actual German wine harvest festival with that exact same name, and it also is being held around the time that the in-game festival was held.
Lantern rite is the only real life CHINESE festival portrayed in the game, because Weinlesefest is German as you said. Obviously the CCP only cares about the Chinese ones 😅
@@andres_david25 That literally has nothing to do with the gov
Oh that is true! The Subzarzu festival in Sumeru is based off of a real world Persian holiday. But that holiday is in the spring and Subzaruz is in Oct to line up with Nahida's birthday so i was specifically referencing that one. And I totally forgot to check if Weinlesefest lined up. The only fall German holiday I know is Oktoberfest. Which is more about beer than wine.
@@mxhe. I meant that the CCP only cares about Genshin portraying one of their festivals, which is what the video is about, the government allowing Genshin to do anything as long as they promote Chinese culture
Which brings up the big lore question…What exactly IS Dandelion Wine? Mondstadt pounds that wine down like beer 🍺 including drinking it from Big Ol Mugs and Growlers. Is it a reference to ancient beers which were more like wine coolers than the current beers are? Mondstadt: putting gods under the table since 2020 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
I remember hearing that genshin is China's number one cultural export. I personally like learning about other cultures art, music, theater and comedies. at first hearing Yun jin's singing I thought oh this sounds nice. when I learned it's a traditional opera singing and seeing someone so happy about their culture being shown it put a smile on my face. I am thankful that they're able to break some rules to tell a story and I also like the cute boys teehee
Liyue's new character, Gaming, has so many things that seem to check out. Lower lashline, pony tail, hair band, inner hair colour, voiced by a female VA in Chinese. And not the mention his cultural significance as his named is pronounced with the Cantonese dialect, the native language of Hong Kong that the CCP is trying to destroy (and he apparently also speaks with a Cantonese accent in the Chinese version of the game).
I didn't notice that. Then again we Southeast Asians have more flexible gender rules.
Sadly CCP thinking that long hair on men = feminine is a product of Western influence. Iirc, Confucius and his male followers had long hair.
@@darvinoschannel9826does tge ccp respect confusicus?
@@plasma2125 sadly no. and yet they claim to be "adhering to tradition" when they think that long hair on men is effeminate
Even the whole chenyu vale feels like ancient hongkong
@@MiekuahProductions I'm not too sure about that 😅. If you're talking about the time when Hong Kong was colonized, the buildings would be British in the style of the now Court of Final Appeal in Central, Hong Kong, and there would be many multi-storey buildings perched on pillars...
Quick correction: Clorinde's job is to win duels, not kill people.
If her opponent refuses to surrender (as is the case of Navia's father) the duel ends when they are physically unable to continue, and they can die from their injuries after that; but the actual goal was not to kill them.
If they surrender before they receive fatal injuries, the duel is still over!
Also path to nowhere has multiple assassin player characters
Most are Japanese too
I love that Ninnguang is constantly breaking some of these rules the most like smoking, tattoes, morality and a couple others including the very heavily implied lesbian relation between Ninnguang and Beidou with Beidou also breaking some of these laws like drinking, tavern, pirates and some others (Lesbians Breaking Laws)
The fact that she's a woman who replaced the man that used to be in charge can also go on your list. Because china can be super sexist when it comes to the idea of women being in charge of anything. They are passing multiple laws to try and encourage women to stay home and raise kids (its not working). The fact that it's implied she's running the country better than Zhongli did is also wild to me. Like at least Ningguang knows how mora works and how to make profits. Who knows how much mora Zhongli lost while in charge and just made more.
@@dougligaming Because China is a more Confucian than a Socialist. Confucius once said 'When a hen crows, your family will collapse' (牝鸡无晨；牝鸡之晨，惟家之索)
@dougligaming what are you even talking about
@@dougligamingno they are not
Holy shit are you so racist
@@dougligamingare you sure?? As a Chinese I don't feel the same way?? Women are more represented these days correct, but had nothing to do with laws and kind of stuff. It isn't even that deep dude😅. Passing the three children policy is not intended to encourage women to stay home. But passed because the birth rates are significantly dropping. So for those wgo wanted more children, they no longer get fined.
Honestly I stan mihoyo for making more femboys. I love Lyney sm, he's my pookie, and I just generally love fem men in general. I hate how toxic some of the asian fans are- they have no problems when women have ridiculous body types and clothing, but when a man is slim or has slightly feminine clothing they have a fit. But hoyo has been adding more femboys, both to genshin and now hsr. I have my issues with mihoyo, but I'll give them a W for this one
biggest mihoyo L
@@King_Jockey Babe you can't say that with a Neuvillette pfp. News flash, he's considered as a feminine man by a lot of ppl
@@HazZzel-i love neuvillette, though I wouldn’t call him necessarily that feminine. He’s just not toxically masculine, at least that’s the way I see it. Which honestly is how it should be. Normalize feeling emotions 😭
Well, you're never getting a Chinese Visa, I stand with you though, Venti is my favourite character
@@magpie0_026True, but there are a lot of dudebros who consider Neuvillette feminine because he displays traits such as: being empathetic, being vulnerable, and being emotional (Neuvi has an ENTIRE nursery rhyme about how he is prone to crying). In my eyes, I think Neuvillette is a beautiful blend of both masculinity and femininity. He's perfect.
Plus the way he dresses could be considered feminine by dudebros. He wears high heels, blue eyeliner (SLAYYY), and a bow in his hair. (Note: this is historically accurate to French men in the 1700s though).
Why would anyone complain about Lantern Rite? It is almost always the best event of the year.
No, not even close.
I absolutely love Lantern Rite. Can't wait for this one 🙂
@@goodbro2046 what main event has ever been better?
@@Jdogrey1 The first two Lantern Rites suck tbh. But the third one in January 2023 was really good
@@thienphucn1this years lantern rite looks good as well (as shown in the 4.2 Livestream)
You forgot the biggest middle finger that Mihoyo did to the ccp. They straight up rebranded (to Hoyoverse) and moved their headquarters to Singapore so they are no longer governed by the ccp for primary content. They basically have the ccp by the balls because they’re still so successful in China but aren’t entirely beholden to them. So when they do events like the museum collab or opera collab, that’s all Hoyo extending an olive branch lol
They did not move to Singapore
Please stop being stupid
Wrong. If you've seen what CCP did to the Billioanire Jack Ma you'll realize the CCP DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS. Only sending sending the message they rule not the Billionaires.
Also Mihoyo real Headquarters are still in Shanhai as well as there money that CCP is not letting them move out of the country.
All CCP has to do to teach Hoyo a lesson is to ban and remove Hoyo games from Mobile app stores in China where there largest and main market is and send them a Message.
didn't the creators hold up the communist flag and talk about how great marxism was?
@@NeostormXLMAX Goes to show how controlled they are even if they are held at gunpoint.
@@silverhawkscape2677 "Asians are all brainwash or force to do x"
Ok racist
There are some rules you didn't quite get, based on what you stated in the video.
For example, Hilichurls don't really fit into the "barbarian" category, since they aren't humans. They really are barbaric monsters, and its quite irrelevant that they were humans once, since that isn't the point of this regulation. The eremite enemies are also treated more like bandits, similar to treasure hoarders.
We don't destroy either of their camps becasue we want to conquer them, which is the main point of this rule. There is no colonisation.
The part about not letting the players choose bad options also not broken by Genshin. There is no real decision we can make that leads to a horrible outcome which wasn't already going to happen. And there is always at least one "good" option. The best example for this in the entire game is in the epilogue of the Aranyaka. The Traveler uncovers the true identity of Alphonso (Trofin Snezhevich) beign a Fatuus, and we either have the choice to KILL him, or let him go. One of those is definetly a good option, even if in the end he still gets torn apart by Riftwolves. (L)
Cyno, Clorinde, and Dehya also don't fall into these categories. Cyno is more like a policeman, Clorinde is a duelist and kills people who were willing to duel, and Dehya is a mercenary who doesn't accept anything morally bad. Beidou is also kinda lukewarm, because while she is kind of a pirate, she also really isn't, her and her crew aren't criminals. And Childe of course is a terrorist, there is no denying that :D
The point of this regulation is not allowing to play a character who's job is based off of "bad" violence. (a mercenary can be hired to protect, which can be violent, but its about the intentions)
In the story, none of these characters show a tendency for this besides Childe, but then again he was kind of an antagonist until he became playable. (he's pretty chill after that tho!)
But the other ones, yes they are a 100% true. Especially about the godhood part :DD
I've found barbarian to be vague when it comes to video game and pop culture definitions. Historical definition was German nomadic groups not part of the Roman empire that couldn't speak or read Latin. But Pop culture mixed it with depictions of native american groups in westerns so it became any uneducated group of outsiders that traveled and attacked town settlements. The game in the power point is Civilizations and the barbarians in that game fall under the general pop culture definition. Eremites hit all the large traits of "barbarian" groups, nomadic natives to their land but separated from "civilized" society by a wall with some being hired as guides to escort caravans through those lands.
It's true we never conquer any of the camps and turn them into civilized people. But I don't know if killing everyone in a 20 foot radius is better? Like we rarely leave any of them alive and aren't given an option to spare them. And to say we aren't killing them and they get to teleport away is untrue. There are multiple world quests confirming we are killing the fatui in the camps we wipe out. Because we pause to keep some alive for questioning.
See but the Aranyaka ending is a sort of weird one? Cause if you deciding to spare him leads to him dying anyway. It sort of implies the narrative sees killing someone as the right answer. It proves we have no real control over the narrative. Which is true the end is already decided. But also that there is no consequence for the Traveler deciding to kill him. there's nothing leaning towards killing him being wrong and it's not labelled as wrong if you do kill him. So I guess the loop hole is we don't get to truly decide to do bad things. The bad things would happen regardless of what we decide. Which still sounds like having two wrong answers if they lead to a "bad" ending. even if no good ended option exists.
For the hitman, assassin, pirate rule it was right around a rule against killing and looting in pvp. They didn't want games encouraging the killing, assaulting, or looting of other's, npc or otherwise. If it was just hitman and assassins I would have just had Childe since he's the only one sent to kill someone else. And Clorinde an executioner that does does the execution through combat is also hired by the government to kill someone else. Clorinde's on the list because she's the only one other than childe to canonically kill people while under the employment of her governments leaders. But Pirates don't kill usually they just assault other humans and loot their ships. The difference between hitman and assassin is only politics (whether they do it for money or following orders against a person in power). So in my mind bounty hunters fall in that grey area, hired by someone to assault another human being. Cyno to me falls somewhere between policeman and bounty hunter. Because the line between both is very blurry as is. Deyha is a stretch and is more included because of what her old band of mercs were known for. They definitely filed her down to not be implied to do anything wrong with her work. But Mercenaries are supposed to be in the middle between hitman and bounty hunter. Willing to take on jobs that include killing a target just as much as capturing a target. Deyha is an over qualified Body Guard at most unfortunately.
@@dougligaming It doesn't matter if we kill them or not, thats not the point of the regulation. They are enemies, we just need to defeat them, but thats all.
By this logic, no combat system should be allowed in any game, because its violent. The main story also rarely focuses on killing people, most often they get away or go to prison.
Remember that event where Albedo impaled "himself"? That wasn't portrayed too severely either.
But you see thats still morally good, because we couldn't have known that he will end up dying. In fact, its not sure that he died, only implied.
Of course we have no control over the narrative, I said it too, when something bad happens, we aren't really "choosing" for it to be that way, Genshin's large story doesn't have alternative outcomes. (often the same with the side-stories too)
However, that point is about us not being able to choose the "story progression that leads toward evil or anarchy", but again its not our choice, even if it happens.
That regulation about the "assassin, hitman, pirate" has the focus on these classes being outright morally bad. Assassinating someone is bad (not the same what Clorinde does), pirates are not only thiefs, they usually kill everyone on the enemy ship, and a hitman is also basically an assassin. And of course there are no classes in Genshin, only characters with their own background and motivations.
Clorinde as you said, can be best described as an executioner, but even then she only battles those who were willing to make the decision in the first place.
Cyno, like almost all of these people, doesn't really fit the category, because his character has high moral standards, so he doesn't do it for money, rather justice.
But I think Genshin could genuenly violate these rules and still not have any consequences :D
I'm surprised Rosaria wasn't mentioned under assassin. Nobody hires her, and she's more of a vigilante, but she does hunt down anyone shady in Mondstadt at night.
@@RGA301092 Rosaria would land under spy/espionage in my book. Her job is to get information without being noticed. With the ability to use force if discovered. She isn't hired by a specific person or group to track down targets and assault them which is the general definition of the job class they wanted players avoiding.
Though Rosaria toes the line in other areas. Her boobs were the first things censored from one update to the next and then they got even smaller on the redesigned model. Not to mention her being a smoking, drinking, knife wielding nun.
@@tamas9554 fighting enemies is allowed. And I do get alerting an enemy leading to a fight. That's how games work. It's just whether the enemy group is portrayed as less intelligent or "uncivilized". I don't consider the Fatui or the Ronin's as references to barbarian stereotypes. Even though they attack us and the Fatui are always foreigners. The Eremite's just hit too many barbarian stereotypes for me to not mention them.
Yeah the dislike of these jobs was definitely of the ability for players to commit morally bad actions against others. Although Genshin has some characters that fit these job titles we don't ever see them doing the worst parts of these jobs. Which is clearly intentional. We never see Beidou raid another ship, we never see Childe actually assassinate anyone we're just told he's done it in the past, and we never see the bad acts Deyha's old band of mercs committed either. And the player doesn't team up with them to do bad things.
The closest I'd say would be teaming up with Jeht to kill the Tanit. Jeht's job was assassin for Babel and we team up with her to help her turn around and wipe out the Tanit instead. Of course it's revealed they were coming out to kill us before we even decided to team up with Jeht. So it became self defense. But it was a time we teamed up with a hired killer and proceeded to kill people. So I probably should have used Jeht as an example instead of some of these.
Speaking of the morally gray options, in the new Two Musketeers event at one point Chevreuse asks the Traveler what they would have done in her place, arrest the two siblings that were seeking revenge or help them kill the man that murdered their mother, and you can actually respond that you would've helped them get revenge. I chose this option and Chevreuse just waved it off as "you're just like the characters in the book lol" and didn't seem bothered by that response.
Helping them take revenge makes no sense, it'll just create an spiral of hate, what i find impressive is that they were able to hold into a grudge they had when they were children up to adulthood
@@Just.SomeGuYontheweb the dude killed their mother, would you not be mad at the guy who killed your mother and never got caught?
It's quite a poorly researched imo, many of those so called laws are so called proposed laws and never actually passed. Also many of the points are taken from western perspective which leads to incorrect interpretation. you'd need to understand the Chinese culture and viewpoint to be able to interpret the meaning correctly. And most importantly you missed the most important laws. Tevyat has its own laws.
Agreed! This video being made and the comments it's getting is honestly ridiculous. For one, people don't seem to understand the difference between a law, a regulation, a guideline, or simply a comment made by a random gov official on a random meeting.
Well stated. It's truly distasteful and xenophobic to extents on how people interpret China as a country with no freedom whatsoever when they haven't even been to the country and only get their source of knowledge from biased western media.
I mean, what do I need to know about Chinese culture to understand the toxic masculinity behind banning "femboys"? It's not just fiction, men in real life are also being threatened with these ridiculous "laws".
@@justaramdomwanderer2490 I want to know when a random gov official just made random comment or actually made it actual thing, which is... almost neither case is clear in any govt/political transparency around the world, isn't it 🥺
Waiting for someone to come and say "this is CCP propaganda" either out of ignorance, spite, or sinophobia.
There are inaccuracies in this vid. A comment has already mentioned that some of these laws aren't officially bypassed - there are differences between what's published on lawbooks what's randomly mentioned in a gov meeting.
Second of all, there is blood in china games, or just china media in general. There is official art from games including blood. There are fanarts of game characters with blood on them. I've seen selfies of someone posting their wound from a bicycle once as a comment underneath a vid. It had 700+ likes and was not removed. Anime with blood are watchable asw, like JJK for example, altho I'm not certain if extremely gorey scenes were censored. I did watch BSD tho, and no scenes were censored at all in season 5 of the anime. There are channels posting everyday accident vids showing footages of car crashes involving blood and potential death (those are blurred out tho) and I've watched a video of a newborn baby with an extremely rare skin condition that makes a part of his upper body translucent - you can literally see the veins inside his body clearly, as well as his heart beating. The video was originally from western media sources but the repost on bilibili (cn yt) had 29 million+ views. Nothing was blurred out.
Now about the femboys. Heizou and freminet are not femboys at all - they look young, like teenagers, and the Chinese terminology for that is 正太 (basically a cute lil boy). Venti does look feminine and his VA is a female. However, there are fanarts and memes of genshin male characters dressed up as maids, and those videos could get 2 mill+ views. Without getting removed, obv. There are also male cosers cosplaying as female characters, and NO, those vids don't get removed. Just, no.
Also wtf is this, no assassins, hitman, or pirate? SERIOUSLY?? That is just, literal, fucking misinformation. In King of Glory (one of the most popular games in all of China, the Chinese League Of Legends) there are so, so many assassin heroes. There is a ROLE in the game called ASSASSIN. LOL is available in China asw and can be downloaded through formal routines without using VPNs. Assassin's Creed is playable in China. There is an extremely popular series made by a well known bilibili UP (cn ytber) called "史上最骚杀手" (basically means "The most twerky assassin in history") where he plays Hitman: Agent 47 but alters the plot of the game and makes up his own story (pretty similar to the original too and included events like how 47 killed Diana's family, just more hilarious and funny). This series has what I believe to be 14 official episodes and 4 extras and I've watched the entire thing for around four times cause I have no life- But the first vid in this series alone, on bilibili only (there are definitely other platforms with the same video), has 50 mill+ views. It involves assassinating ppl too.
No, I'm not gonna watch this full video cause I can't bother to clarify all the bullshitting- And yes I wrote this long ass shit somehow just because I AM MAD and I‘m incredibly impressed with myself. Props to whoever might see this if you read everything.
I only watched till 3:35 of the video and yet I alr wrote so much💀Not watching the rest. Literally unimaginable how MISINFORMING this video is. Bullshit 100
so are these "no blood no assassins" actual laws or not?
@@perchetuvali243 I've been trying to state that they aren't and that these elements exist in the most well known games in China, if I haven't made myself clear.
This is why i hate essay video in YT nowadays lot of missinformation yapping. I'm prefer the articles essay at least you doesn't need 18 minutes to get same results
Don't mind it, bro. It's just another attempt to make CPC a boogyman.
9:09 ayaka's outfit does have historical basis. it’s inspired by the meiji era of japan in which japanese fashion had started to incorporate lots of western inspiration.
Look. If you look at Mika and Call him a Femboy or Heizhou than you have a different definition of what Femboy is. Non of the new Male boy characters come off as Femboys but as Small Boys who BTW exude a number of Masculine traits. Especially in how they act in the story. Despite Promotional art of Lyney being a flirt his actual Depiction in the story shows him being a very Protective and caring brother taking charge and even being visibly more aggressive when he thinks his family is in danger. Looking back despite his design (Which was revealed years ago) Lyney is more masculine than he looks.
Notice how the new Male Characters dont wear any makeup or earrings or any Kpop imagery. They ARE following CCP regultions. Changing enough to be allowed.
Since those regulations we had more male characters be released especially Tall male characters.
Even Ga Ming the newly announced Boy character is anything but a Femboy.
I think Lyney is obviously towing the line, but i don't really know why they think gorou is femboy
@@undeniablySomeGuy Probably because he shows his Body. Itto does that but his Art shows him with enough Abs that he does look like a Muscle man.
i agree that mika isn't really a "femboy" but by chines government he kind of is. Pretty short, shy, has a pony tail and a very pretty face. Not saying these things make you less of a man, just that toxic masculinity might make some people think it does
they do have a very loose definition of femboy but thats okay, generally we try not to gatekeep what exactly a femboy is. i think it would be wrong to say that theres a genshin character that explicitly exudes only masculinity or femininity. lyney and mika despite displaying masculinity in a lot of aspects, also display some level of femininity in them (flamboyancy or shyness which some may consider unmanly). and thats totally okay. i dont feel its wrong to call them femboys- and theyre certainly not your typical manly male designs you see everywhere.
I think the image of “femboy” is very different from the effeminate looking men in Genshin, as they don’t seem super feminine, just guys who aren’t built super tall and muscular. Heizou’s still a renowned detective, Lyney’s a protective older brother, Gorou is a freaking war general, and Mika, Chongyun, and Xingqiu are scrawny teenage boys. I can only see Venti being a femboy by CCP standards, others just look and act like skinny guys or boys which isn’t bad.
I think this video was very interesting since a lot of people probably don’t know about these rules. But please, for future reference, warn us if there’s gonna be spoilers (especially for archon quests). I know you used examples to help prove your points, but it would still be appreciated :)
Sorry! My last video was solely on 4.2's archon quest. My channel was very small before posting this video. So my assumption at the time was folks that subscribed because of my last video would be notified and then watch this one. I'll keep that in mind for the 2nd part as it will discuss the endings of some Archon and World quest lines.
This is the first time i've avoided spoilers, instead of getting them when i check the comments before finishing the video. Thank you
No worries! Just wanted you to be aware. I completely understand that sometimes it’s hard to discuss things without mentioning big plot points but if there was just a warning that would be enough :)@@dougligaming
They're not rules
It was a boomer talking to game devs about things that might cause issues with approval
That's why mhy ignores them because they're not enforce
@@Dante45pMHY probably confident they pass, or they have connection. seeing how influence the game become, they probably viewed as an asset by the government already. Not saying that "CCP" has a hand in the company, they likely sees them as something positive, an example or model to the rest of the population.
I disagree with the part, especially with Chlorinde. Because you're messing with context. Her job is to fight someone defending their honour, basically to be a difficult task or challenge. She doesn't kill for pay, she is supposed to be an obstacle. It's the same as someone going to frozen mountains to prove their innocence. If the person to duel her chooses to give up, she stops the fight
9:58 tiny tiny tiniest little tiny correction ever, all khaenrians are hilichurls yes, but not all hilichurls are khaenrian. Maybe these hilichurls are just hilichurls..the human ones usually find themself in the chasm (which still breaks the rule though)
They are probably from other civilizations that got Celestiad since in Dragonspine, the Lawachurl is implied to be someone from Sal Vagdinr
Not all Khaen'riahns are Hilichurls... Some people got turned into Abyss Mages, Heralds etc, and some got cursed with immortality instead.
@@uboaappears abyss mages are from the abyss
Khaenriah and the abyss didnt start working together until wayyyy after khaenriah got cursed
I did not know all hilichurls didn't come from khaenrians. The backstory implied they didn't exist before Khaenriah. That the ones in the chasm are just the ones that have given up on fighting the curse completely but that not all khaenrians affected by the curse had. Abyss mages recruiting hilichurls into the abyss order with those ceremonies we're always destroying made me assume all hilichurls were from khaenriah and just need to be convinced to join the Abyss siblings new plan to destroy celestial and the curse.
Kaeya intentionally trying to learn hilichurl or straight up just already knowing it. Made me think it was some version of the old khaenrian language. And well Ella Musk confirms that all Hilichurls speak this one language.
In hindsight it makes sense that there's too many hilichurls for them to all be from khaenriah with how many pure blood khaenrians ended up with a different curse. But it does sound like turning into a hilichurl is just a form of smiting Celestia has done on more than one occasion.
@@dougligamingThe in-game archive entry for Hilichurls states they've been around for at least 1000 years, though their numbers skyrocketed 500 years ago (Cataclysm).
And in the manga, there were Hilichurls during Vanessa's time, which was 1000 years ago.
Those restrictions are pretty similar to what cinema and TV in the U.S. had in the 20th century and artist have always found ways to work around those or some of the rules were straight up not applied long before they got removed. It's probably a similar situation.
15:05 Going by technicality, as you mentioned the traveler had their godly powers stolen, so if the game ends with them regaining those powers it wont count as an ascension to godhood as they already were one just without the major powers usually held by one.
its probbaly like "its ok to accend to Godhood, aslong as they dont have godhoodover the CCP" so can destoy or create anythign but some anoimaly protects the CCP for some stupid arce reason.
venti on the official government PowerPoint made me cackle.
6:39 Since you showed the explanation for the 'sworn brothers' thing, one of the funniest passive aggressive things HoYo did was that conversation in Dawn Winery in Kaeya's hangout.
A person from LIYUE asks, 'and who are you to the master of the winery, sir?' Kaeya: 'WE BROTHERS, DEAR PERSON FROM LIYUE'.
17:20 Do people COMPLAIN about Lantern Rite? It's the best time of the year! Beauty everywhere, lot of primos, seeing Xiao... I mean, where's the downside?
And yes, we are getting Bird Mom!!
Nice video, looking forward to part 2.
Edit: concerning Kaeluc, what I meant by passive aggressive is that HoYo know full well that people ship it, and they are totally fine with it (I mean, the official Chinese Paimon account had retwitted a fanart of them with a WEDDING CAKE, lol), and the funny part in Kaeya's hangout was that they got a random guy from Liyue (aka censorship 'expert') pry into their relationship. And HoYo chose Kaeya (=someone who tells lies half the time (c) Diluc) to interact with him and be like, 'Sure thing, dude. Brothers'.
I was first surprised that a bunch of people liked my comment considering my take, then realized the confusion and thought it was kinda funny, and then the author of this video commented below, so I decided to edit this to make my point clear. While I do firmly believe that HoYo will do everything to avoid confirming ANY relationship (to let the players believe what they want), I also have zero reason to think they have a problem with Kaeluc. Maybe the ENG branch does; but I mean the official manga artist ships it, so there's that.
Lantern rite is kinda boring, except the end cutscene of course. We get literally every year the same.
And why only Liyue gets this treatment? I mean I know the right answer, but still the other cities have much more to offer.
@@goodbro2046 'literally' is such a misused word, isn't it. It is literally different each year. Last year's dinner with HuTao and Co was great, and perhaps the longest sequence in Genshin that was pure comedy. It's more difficult to write comedy than drama, but HoYo did really well.
@@AmoritaStorre dont mind them , they are HSR players , they minds only rewards and they dont care about art of games . Lantern Rite is true anniversary of Genshin . Genshin is culture game , this is why Chinese sticking nose to everything related with Genshin
@@Acrossbug1241 oh I wish the art of Genshin was discussed more. It deserves the highest praise.
LMFAO I NEVER REALIZEd THAT ABOUT THE KAEYA dILUC THING.
That is SO funny.
I find it so weird that young male characters immediately get labeled as femboys.
"No ascending to deity"
Scaramouche : yeah right
Theirs so many Chinese media that proves that horseshit I'm shock she said thar
The “being morally good” clause could easily be misinterpreted when moral values are primarily culturally influenced.
how can the CCP even say whats "moraly good" when they are unmorral and corrupt and steal peaopesl orgins?
Honkai has viloated almost all of these i think
yeah with the chest physics in hi3
Its not as big as Genshin so the ccp mostly ignores it
@@vnminecraft9656 More likely the other way around, Genshin makes the government so much money that they're allowed to bend the rules.
@@hallyuniversethen how about arena breakout? It's show violence alright, it show guns mechanic alright and even better than CODM guns custumization, and even entire gameplay is stealing other people hardwork like escape from tarkov, and didn't even come close to CODM revenues.
But somehow its still there. Passed by CCP regulation.
@@noobscoopsies1100 theres also a lot of gay characters
genshin impact isnt going anywhere, its one of if not the highest income maker of china in terms of videogames and also brings outsiders into china bc of their merch or events which also brings more money into the country
damn star rail breaks so many of these too 😭 the cocktail event literally has you making alcoholic drinks (monsters will even ask you to make them strong)
Yeah star rail is steamrolling over rules genshin only slightly nudged past. Genshin walked so star rail could run past lol
Actually, I like what genshin is doing in characters' relationships.
No, it's not about censoring homosexuality because technically there are no canon romantic relationships, be it straight or gay. When they say they are best friends, I would rather believe them. That counts again for both straight or gay relationships, because I honestly don't like the idea of "Yeah if a character talks to another character they must be sleeping together, right?" Funny enough, that's mostly depicted in straight platonic relationships, so let's not have it in gay relationships, okay?
I like the idea of platonic friendship and the free will the game gives you. You could ship any character in your head! I've been dissapointed in anime before where a character ends up with a character I don't ship them with and I like how genshin is avoiding that + showing the bond between to people in a non romantic way
The Honkai series has a very well hand lesbian relationships
Seele and Bronya
Kiana and Mei
Fu hua and Senti
@@Dante45p Honkai also kills it's characters 😔😔
@@marianadobreva_ it does indeed
@@Dante45p Fu Hua and Senti ? O_o
Did Senti get her own body at some point?
@@MorbidEel yeah shes now a living divine key like Void Archives
her body is currently a brick
but yeah the new event kinda leans into their's a couple or at least acts like one
Good video looking forward to the next one with how it looks to be more heavy in discussion matter
They basically encourage gambling. They even sell packs of primogems that don't even cover 1 wish. I guess money is money
Well they do need money, and while they could easily just make the game only be playable if you pay for it. It's honestly amazing that such a well made game is free for anyone to play, if you pay for anything it's completely optional which I really like
@crossanddream2 I'm talking about china's gaming policies, which makes packs like the one for 60 (plus 60 extra) primogems questionable
@@calebpillai4774 oh! Okay well I apologize for bothering you then
@crossanddream2 no no no. You did nothing wrong at all. I was unclear so you were right to question it
There is small amounts of blood in genshin shown briefly 2 times, once in one of the end cutscenes in the chasm quest. it was a still image of past Xiao, specifically (he apparently had red blood then which seems to imply the karma changed his physical composition but that's another conversation entirely lol) and the other time when neuvillette got a cut from the fight with childe
Clorinde and Cyno are Not Mercenaries. Clorinde is Furina Bodyguard and a Champion Duelist. She doesn't do Mercenary work except doig a favor for a Friend like Wriothesley. And even than he pays her for her time.
Cyno is straight up Sumeru Law Enforcement as General Mahamatra. He's effectively the Police Chief. The Matra are Disciplinary officers of Sumeru Akademiya. They aren't hired they ARE the Akademiya as much as the Police are part of the government.
Cyno does Manhunts as any police trying to Apprehend a Criminal.
And no. Clorinde as Duelist doesn't battle people to the death. Childe outright states it's a rare outcome for a duel to end in death. She only fights until she or the opponent Surrender. Callas was a Stubborn man that he preferred to fight to the death.
for the morally gray part
Literally the "big baddies" are going into being depicted as morally gray ( Abyss, Fatui )
And in generally how a location named Nantianmen came to pass?
This is fascinating!!! Thank you for such a detailed video on this topic
how is femboy ban misogyny? literally has nothing to do with women or mistreating women, yet women most affected?
the ban itself isn't misogyny. The reasons for the ban are built on Misogyny tho. The thought that men are better and stronger than women. And that it brings shame on the country if men have feminine characteristics. Because having feminine characteristics means you're "weaker". It continues the stereotype of women being weak and lesser to men.
I kinda forget, afaik the office(?) is moved to Singapore, most people (Reddit) said it was the strategy to avoid these. Again, take it with a lot of grain of salt
yeah that one is a false rumor from what I researched. They have like 5 employees at the Singapore branch and it's purely for processing income funds from countries outside of china. A thing most Chinese gaming companies of that size has. No game devs, writers, or animators have moved from the main campus in China. Which to be fair looks like a really nice Campus. And even if they moved each update would still have to be approved by the regulations board. As it approves local and foreign games.
Shoutout to my boy Xiao Gui at 4:38!! If anyone wants some really cool Chinese punk music, he’s got you covered. ^^
Now as for the discussion of censorship… As per usual, I’ll copy and paste and edit one of my older comments on that below haha:
Censorship in China is truly quite the enigma. It’s tightened in recent years under Xi Jinping, which does really suck, but it’s also surprisingly flexible sometimes.
For example, the most censored media that can be observed is cdramas (probably because it stars real people), and then donghua, manhua, audio dramas, and finally novels.
You can find things such as uncensored gay kisses in audio dramas and uncensored gay sex in novels, even with recent crackdowns.
Now it’s not entirely clear where video games fall under that umbrella, most likely because it’s still arguably a new medium. And China’s video game industry is certainly doing pretty well for itself right now (from _Genshin_ and other Hoyoverse games, of course, but also to otome games like _Love and Deepspace_ or _Queen’s Choice_ to _Reverse: 1999_ to _Arknights_ to _Honour of Kings_ and _Love Nikki_ and beyond).
I’ve seen a game adaptation of the famous gay novel _Erha_ actually include a man saying to another man “I love you,” yet there is also a censored alternative of that scene, which points to this ambiguity.
And even with the ban on “flower boys,” it’s not like the Chinese entertainment industry has changed all that much since then. Xiao Gui and all his fellow young stars, from Xiao Zhan to Wang Yibo to Zhu Zhengting to Luo Yunxi and more, still look the way they used to, and they can now often still be seen with dyed or long hair.
So again, I’ve come to see it as a spectrum rather than as a strict set of rules, especially when you consider that under our current world system, sometimes you must give up your “morals” to make money (as in, sometimes even with censorship in place-even when it is at first enforced-it will eventually back off so as to allow profitable things to keep being…well, profitable).
And see, that’s the thing. Censorship does suck, but Chinese censors are both not as intense and also way more unknowable than western people always assume.
As someone who’s a fan of Chinese media and who’s closely followed video games, cdramas, audio dramas, novels, manhua, and donghua especially, I _keep_ seeing people who go, “Wow, I can’t believe the Chinese government allowed this Chinese media to do this! That’s wild!!”
Which has become a clear sign to me that the censors just aren’t what people expect, especially from a western lens. I mean, it’s easy to assume how dystopian and cruel and harsh it would be, but reality is always surprisingly more unpredictable and flexible than one would expect.
Like if Genshin’s Sumeru plot surprised you, I can bet that you’ll probably be shocked into awe by the audacity of the animated film _Dahufa._
It’s literally about a dystopian, authoritarian government where one man has built himself up as a god to control civilians that he doesn’t even value-civilians that he abuses and steps on and uses in his chase to get more riches and power.
So many people were flabbergasted that such a film could even come out of China, because everyone felt like no film could ever question authority if it was from China.
It’s surprisingly common though. If you check out _Jiang Ziya_ or _Nezha Reborn_ or _Yang Jian,_ you’ll see the same thing. It’s all got people questioning systems of power, and multiple times I’ve seen westerners respond in shock that China is capable of creating these things.
In fact, it just happens all the time. China’s produced a lot of gay content by now, and despite censorship of explicit gay material, I constantly see people react with shock and surprise at how much queerness a lot of Chinese media can get away with.
And of course there were those people who spread the lie about China censoring blood into a white substance that looked sexually inappropriate, which was completely false and did result in some people being surprised Chinese media even allows heavy blood to be shown lol.
Similarly, people may assume Chinese media automatically equals propaganda, but that’s not really true either. Unlike the west where everything must sell and thus less palatable things must be hidden (eg US military’s demands and contributions for the MCU films), Chinese propaganda is actually super obvious, which makes it easy to avoid haha. So if anyone ever assumes _Genshin_ of all things is propaganda just because they occasionally show cultural pride for Chinese cultures and traditions, they probably need to re-evaluate what they know about propaganda and cultures and what their own prior biases are.
Censorship is a spectrum and it’s one that’s always sliding. I know it’s easy to assume China’s just a big scary evil entity because of its government, which makes people assume everything it does must be super controlled and heavy-handed, but this isn’t always the case. Because it’s a spectrum, a lot of things can fall in the middle, and the things that Chinese media _can_ get away with _can_ be more than you might first expect, at least based on one’s preconceived notions of what a communist government _should_ censor haha.
I was shocked when that broke the blood one during that one chasm quest that gave us a PERMANENT item that has the blood of someone on it
At launch of the game it felt a lot like this, I forgot how it was, thanks for reminding me.
Why is snezhnaya on the map diagram not listed on any countries. I thought hoyo made it painfully abundantly obvious it was based on Russia
I'm guessing this map was made earlier before we knew much. because yeah snezhnaya is very obviously Russia. i just found one on google images.
I also really struggle to find anything Italian in Mondstadt. Maybe someone can enlighten me
@@jensmeyer4542 A couple names like Mona (pretty sure this is Italian) and Italian food items like Mushroom Pizza and Flaming Red Bolognese
@@jensmeyer4542afaik, Fontaine has more Italian references/cultural aspects. I don't know much about Europe so I can't talk about Mondstadt's influences, but I'm pretty sure Fontaine is based on western europe such as France (obviously), England/UK/whatever that place is called separate from the irish, and possibly Italy.
Brits have too many names.
@@jensmeyer4542 Mondstadt is heavily based on Germany tho
Unfortunately, they did change femboys and other characters. Just enough so they are in regulations but also just enough so those changes are detrimental for character variety and representation. No more makeup in guys, long hair guys are rare specially with different hairstyles, no more tattoos, no more Venti proportions, no revealing clothes and the list goes on.
??? When was this done?
These types of content are very dangerous. If the creator was a real fan of the game and want MHY to keep things as they are they wouldn't be drawing attention to these facts. the gov regulatory officers may have an understanding with the company or are turning a blind eye, but they wouldn't be able to keep it up if there is an overwhelming amount of attention or reporting related to the rule violations.
As someone who lives in a country with strict government + absurd rules and regulation (even worse than shown in this vid), videos like this are like a grenade. The gov is willing to turn a blind eye until videos like this bring focus to it and call them out. I have seen it happen a few times. The gov wants to assert its rule and dominance after being called out on favoritism or incompetence in taking action against the offender.
Good.
Oh so that's why newer medium male models are becoming bland,,
why @@silverhawkscape2677
It's nice whenever I watch a video related to Mihoyo, I get an ad for one of their games.
NPC's are mentioned to die you said, from the Thundering Fury Goblet: A ceremonial cup that holds the blood of the. It is brimming with the thundering fury of the prayers that echo within it.
That innocent is Ruu btw, whom was literally sacrificed.
Tbh I wish there were more muscular characters in Genshin. I want some people looking like Arnold in the Terminator or Rambo.
Do people literally call every young man a "femboy" now? Just dumb. Also, people really look too hard into the whole "gay subtext" stuff in Genshin. A lot of pairings are legitimately just platonic, but people just want to look for things that aren't there. There are clearly some NPCs who lean a certain way, Jeht being the most obvious example, but the idea there's some substantial amount of characters that are gay or whatever is just headcanon for the most part.
Yeah the mass exodus of treating headcannon as fact is why I don't really trust UA-cam essays anymore.
@PeruvianPotato Yeah it gets tiring. I prefer to try and keep some semblance of sanity intact.
I wish raiden got a redesign like some people feared; she'd look sooo cool and regal with more covering her legs
Great video, stopped a little too late before getting spoiled 4.2.😅
As a Chinese, I find that many people have a narrow view of China.
Because the laws are vaguely written on purpose without clearly defined standards. This is so the people in charge can selectively enforce them at will.
@USERZ123XD The same bullshit happens in the USA, and is happening right now. Look at how the January 6th non-violent protesters are being treated versus the violent insurgents breaking into state capitals in the name of being pro-transgender and/or pro-Palestine are. Kid gloves.
That freminet event sum up was very accurate lol
I really loved this video but I wish there had been warning for spoilers of at least the most recent Archon quest
Now we know where the genshin money is going they must be paying a hefty amount by breaking these laws
There are no such laws, these are more like "guidelines" especially about the lewd clothes. I play a Chinese game with more lewd and revealing clothes than Genshin and there is no censorship. As far as I know some parents complained about Genshin having revealing clothes and that's why these rules were enforced, but if nobody stirs the water so to speak these rules are not enforced.
ngl, the new jean and amber outfits are better than the old ones.
I do admit I like Jean's suit design. It's more professional and fits her character. It's just a shame they were added as a censorship and not just alternate outfits.
personally i would've pointed out that Lyney wears garters instead of the corsette but so be it
I mean yeah his whole outfit is questionable. But corsets are traditionally only worn by woman and are not part of a magicians outfit. I personally think he would have looked cute in a little tuxedo. But with the circus angle they could have picked some form of Leotard which come in male designs along with female ones. And still have a tight fit outfit on him. (realizing Lynette's is a Leotard so their outfits would also be matching if he was wearing one)
So the corset comes off as an intentional attempt to break off from the norm and go in a more feminine direction. The garters just sort of play into that in my mind. But can still be argued for practicality sake. If he was wearing full length tights like Lynette he wouldn't need something to hold the stockings up. But since they both are supposed to be running around a lot on stage those stockings wouldn't stay up on their own. Which I mean isn't a problem for a video game model. . . but still! Corsets have no practicality use other than slimming down the figure and holding in tits. Neither are things Lyney should need making the corset a style choice and nothing more.
Amazing analysis!! I really enjoyed this video! 😊 Also you have a very pleasant voice! 😌
I’m so proud of Venti 😂❤
How is Heizou a femboy? I'm confused.. and kaveh? Well maybe his long hair I guess (i dont have kaveh so i haven seen him much)
Great video but please warn people about spoilers, the examples provided are a great contribution BUT it is absolutely not granted from the video's premise that there will be spoilers so they should be announced.
One thing about the Assassin, Pirate, Hitman ban: We literally have Yelan, a SPY, she’s implied to have offed people, and I think she works for Liyue QiXing as a spy XD
You forgot that literaly sumerus archon quest has Scaramouche ascend to god? And there has been a lil of blood, even if it was a small cut on neuvis cheek its something, thankfullyyyyyy its getting more open
With all those laws, im genuinely impressed with game like Game for peace (Chinese version of PUBGM) CODM, Arena breakout and more even manage to be approved by the CCP govertment because all of those games above contain weapons and violence.
Ngl the China approved outfits are fire!
That's cool that the presentation mentioned Shin Megami Tensei IV: Final (or Apocalypse in the West)! Very good sequel to a fantastic game that are both trapped on the 3DS.
There’s also blood in Wanderer’s face when he first receive his vision
There's a ton of wrong information if you ever look at other Chinese media
Path to nowhere has multiple assassins their leader targets government official
Long hair, revolts against the government are insanely common
Some of the points like the "kill, shoot, death" one - the English local translation probably can use these fine. I'd be more interesting in the Chinese local words, and how they skirt by with different phrasing.
And since the Traveler was already a god of sorts, him getting his powers back isn't the same as just any human doing that - though Mihoyo still does it with other NPCs.
I love that they can get away with it though, because I do enjoy learning the traditional arts of chinese culture, the people are not their government. AND these chinese players get to learn about the outside world too, two way street.
Sumeru's story has Scaramouche attempting to ascend to godhood (and succeeding too for a hot minute), that should count as well. Plus the whole allogenes thing as the video mentioned.
@@uboaappears yeah, allogenes/genshin is only mentioned once the entire time in 1.0 stuff. All other times it mostly just talks about visions giving NPCs their power and being a part of them.
And imo I'd consider Scara as a vessel for god powers too
I'd love to learn the Chinese word for "unalive" lol. But like I said it's impossible for some of these descriptions to not say the person is dead or died. Like Ruu's death is incredibly gruesome and from what I've gathered it was actually toned down in the english translation. but they do avoid showing dead bodies the only ones being the thief and teppei. Though Teppei "fell asleep".
Traveler already being a god is a possible loophole. It just depends on if they decide to include Vanessa or not. As she'd be a living example of a human gaining godly status. I thought about Scaramouche counting, but decided them stopping him made it fall under "bad villain idea". Sort of like how the Hayes code allowed gay characters as long as they were villains or died in the end. Scara can try to do it, but as long as he doesn't succeed and is a villain when trying, it's not Mihoyo encouraging it. And as others have commented some form of "ascending to godhood" has been allowed in other chinese games. So it's not a hard ban. It's just funny that Genshin's name translates into something frowned upon.
Hi! I use CN text, and I believe that you should do some more research regarding the CN text. I think that many inaccuracies in this video can be solved quickly if you could read some of it.
This is not aggressive, by the way! I liked the video and the rules you did cover, but I still think you should have consulted a person that can access the Chinese internet and has a well understanding of these laws. There is ratings for games which are categorized by age and there are 18+ games in China which show full blown organs. Also, I am pleasantly shocked on how you forget the uh....VERY realistic bosoms in certain other Chinese games.
I personally believe that a lot of the misunderstanding with these censorship laws can be resolved if one interacted with the CN community. Seriously, as a person who does, some people there are way too weird and aggressive compared to the EN community. Quite a LOT of stuff is left to the imagination in CN, it's one of their main strategies.
Also, the general Chinese word for "unalive" is 杀, pronounced sha! It just means kill as the verb.
Hope that helped! Pretty nice video!@@dougligaming
@@justanotherrainyday9213 I'm not upset or anything! cause it's 100% true I had no way to contact someone who knew chinese to double check the translation. And since it's images there's no way to work it into google translate.
And the browsers I use can't translate chinese or japanese apparently. Learned that through reaching the chinese government site here www.gov.cn/flfg/2010-06/22/content_1633935.htm and not having a way to know what I was looking at. So I never used it in the video even though some of the sites I visited linked it as a reference.
For the 18+ thing. I knew they announced a rating for 8+, 12+, and 16+. But never saw any reports saying they added 18+. and the articles I did find said the current rules would still be in place. It would just be extra labeling on the types of games the NPPA already approved. So yeah if they are allowing 18+ games now it hasn't be reported on in the last 2 years on the english side of the internet. And from what I could gather M rated games like Elden Ring were never released to this day. Chinese players just used VPNs and bought it on Steam's international version instead of the Chinese version. Only for the streaming of games like Elden Ring to get banned from Chinese streaming sites.
Also the more i researched the more I ended up cutting from this video. But it seems like I didn't cut enough. It makes me hesitate in making the second video. Even though I know it has more legs to stand on. Genshin literally just criticized movie censorship in the film festival event. You could argue it's about censorship in any film anywhere in the world. But like China is infamous for cutting out whole scenes of movies because of the content. Saying viewers should be allowed to see the uncut version and interpret the content for themselves is a fairly hot take. And that's one of countless commentaries Mihoyo hid in Genshin.
But none of these commentaries are breaking a law or regulation. So a someone who can't access China's censored internet. I can't fully confirm which topics lead to your post being removed. Other than the obvious one's like revolution and democracy. Which I know they have work around words so they can talk about that stuff anyway
Also thanks for sharing what the unalive word is! I knew with internet slang on Weibo they had to have multiple (die or kys) short hands. Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised they have their own version of unalive since that one started on tiktok.
I find it odd that they band the depiction of male characters with ponytails, considering men would grow out their hair in ancient China, and would even have to cut it when committing disgraceful acts in many cases.
That's why Zhongli's ponytail is allowed to stay. In character descriptions it's listed as a reference to that traditional style. But since the ban Mika and Heizou have been the only male characters added with their hair tied back, so not Liyue characters. And Baizhu's design was finished for 1.0.
Ponytails are completely fine in traditional settings. Chinese Dynasty era dramas don't censor any of the hair and all men have their hair tied up in traditional ways. It's encouraging such styles as current cool and hip hair styles that they don't want. The worry C-pop stars having ponytails and wearing makeup will encourage current teenagers to look like that. Genshin is in a weird grey zone where they can cry traditional while having characters with pink, green, and purple hair.
Op made shit up
They're too racist and stupid to look at even other Chinese media and video games or even Honkai Star Rail
@@dougligamingshut up you're making shit up
Path to nowhere has a male characters with long hair and even a tongue piecing (Mr fox)
Same with Reverse 1999 who has a nonbinary characters
i really hope youtube will bring me back for part 2
Thanks for making this video!
thumbnail is so funny
"how is genshin not banned in china?"
its made in china
Yeah, because they somehow bypass every regulations which is why it is question why is it not banned
Yeah its clear to see that most of these rules are unrealistic if you want to make good world building that other games like arknights also ignore these rules. These rules are also reminiscent of Hollywood's haze code that restricted depictions of gay characters but that didnt stop some directors and writers from sneaking them into their movies. Also its weird to paint this as a communist this when china is more capitalist than is communist, its just more authoritarian than the US.
Haven't finished the vid but I think the Chinese gov just calls themselves communist, not that the poster is saying that. If they are, then both them and the country is wrong. For the reasons you said, but I wanna add that authoritarianism is more akin to a political addendum/trait than a necessary requirement. Most times.
This actually makes a lot of sense for no venti second story quest, I still think it’s partly cus Monstadt already has 2 weekly bosses tho
Man I had no clue the censorship laws went as far as "no morally gray decisions" that's so fucking sad man. I can't imagine how much more Genshin would be able to do without the censorship. I love the game but I can never shake the feeling they still have to pull punches all the time because of censorship.
Informative video, but it needs spoiler warnings! A lot of people have yet to complete the Fontaine story line, myself included.
Rules are made to be broken
Thanks for covering this topic
Cant wait for the next part👍.
Imagine if some players go and keep pestering the CCP about the femboys just for hilarity, specially since there's also a part of the fanbase that do want actual playable big muscle dudes instead of bishies but MHY seem to avoid it, even tho there's already a body model used by NPCs.
I would not mind a playable character using the larger muscle model. But I hope fans learned mass reporting doesn't help. More government control won't make genshin a better game. They'd probably insist on the muscle character wearing a sweater or something. Certainly not shirtless.
I don't consider trailblazer Morally grey at all. I see them as just Trash panda chaos. As for Kafka. She is wanted and so you have the "correct" choice to Ignore her. That the game ask you if you are absolutely certain you want to igbore her.
So this is to add to the no blood in genshin aspect, but I literally was going back to finish a world quest in the underground chasm and one of the items you give to the NPC to complete the quest is a fatui insignia HALF COVERED IN BLOOD 💀💀💀
If I'm remembering correctly Zhongli's hairstyle is a take on a traditional Chinese hairstyle. So that's why it gets a pass.
CCP members are in Hoyoverse company. As such they likely can bend the rules enough to just he barely allowed. It helps those ideas are not front and center. They likely have CCP advisers to keep them i good graces with the CCP.
This can be debunked by looking at more Chinese media beyond genshin
Tbf, the bit about Japanese/Chinese armour etc, does sort of make sense, a lot of people mix up Asian cultures all the time, so it’s pretty fair they want to make it clear in game whos meant to be who
Most dislike of Japanese culture comes form imperial Japan invasion and genocide they carry out and a lot of Chinese people have family members that live threw it
For video games it's because for the longest time cn games try to ape Japanese games and Japanese culture
So yeah
It's why star rail has a video talking about how the devs want it to be a Chinese rpg rather then a jrpg
I get that, but I mean more in generalised terms, not just about Japanese, all Asian cultures can be often mixed up by western society, so each of them is kind of wishing to be more stern about what they show as their culture compared to one’s of other Asian cultures
11:41 I would like to mention that Sayu was also hired to kill the Traveler (hangout event)