(Content Warning: Genshin Impact Fans, which temporarily killed Ghost Archive during the archive process)
In a similar vein to AC: Shadows, Genshin Impact is currently undergoing a boycott by twitter freaks because the characters aren't black enough (no, I am not joking). This has been going on for years, but has risen to a fever pitch now that all of the currently previewed Natlan characters either aren't black or aren't the right shade of black - they can hem and haw about "cultural appropriation" all they want, but come the fuck on, everyone knows exactly how these very same people feel about AC: Shadows and "cultural appropriation".
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I am going to try my best to limit myself to one tweet per bullet point because diving through genshin fan brainrot makes me want to kill myself, but by all means, don't just take my word for it. The initial response from HoYoVerse boiled down to "this is a fictional game, please touch grass", which only served to increase their anger. How dare they not capitulate to their demands, etc.
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Officially partnered content creators and even the English voice actors of the game are making a stink about it, but that's just the English VA community in general, nothing that we didn't already know about them. They will quite literally jump on [CURRENT THING] at the drop of a hat, even if it's against the very same people they seek employment from.
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What is their proposed solution to get what they want? Simple, really: they will stop playing the game and spending money on it, and everyone against them are BIGOTS. No, you can't just keep playing the game yourself or not agree with them, if you are against their cause, you are the problem as well. Which, doing even a fraction of this in any other industry would get them fired and blacklisted! These people are utilizing mafia tactics and expecting companies to not only follow suit, but continue to pay them or give them work afterward! I can not stress enough how insane this is! I mean, you can't get any more clear-cut "are we the baddies?" than "keep your foot on their necks", it's just a video game, holy shit!
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Why do I not believe that they will stop harassing the company and its employees if these characters are simply "made more black"? Because then they would cry racism at any possible slight otherwise. As an example: Elfy is a main NPC in the newly released Zenless Zone Zero that the player interacts with daily, she recycles unwanted equipment into new equipment, AND she is the exact sort of "representation" that these people cry about on the regular. So, you'd think she would be everything they want design-wise, right? Unfortunately, there is a record cover in the background of her shop that renders this "representation" null and void, because these people have never seen a penguin in their lives, and immediately jump to "this is blackface"...despite various other Penguin motifs being present in the game as well (including various pieces of equipment referencing penguins, if not being penguins outright).
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If they want to continue this boycott while harassing the employees and people running the social media accounts? By all means, that's entirely on them, and these crybullies should be laughed at and archived in the process. If this boycott gets out of hand - which currently seems possible, with how quickly things are heating up - it's best to have a record of their actions so that they don't try to gaslight everyone that they "simply wanted more representation uwu".
Otherwise, it's Genshin Impact fans being Genshin Impact fans, news at 11.
...How the fuck am I a better game journalists than most other game journalists
holy shit mihoyo fumbled when they marketed this shit in the west
brother touch grass or something holy fuck