The Western fandom surrounding Chinese developer miHoYo and their games, Honkai Star Rail and Genshin Impact, is once again proving to be cancerous.
Following the lukewarm reception and revenue generated by Zenless Zone Zero, a new controversy has emerged. Western fans, who often struggle to separate fiction from reality, are now upset over Genshin Impact’s introduction of the Natlan region.
We’ve already discussed how the inclusion of bishounen (beautiful men) in live service gacha games helps to make them more inclusive and appealing to a wider range of players. However, this inclusion inadvertently attracts those with more extreme fixations.
These gacha games prioritize featuring attractive and intricate female characters, which is a key draw for many players including myself.
These games don’t insult your intelligence; they exist to make money, and they succeed by giving gamers what they want: cute girls, and they do so without charging upfront, unlike other games.
By introducing male characters, the games attract a broader audience beyond those interested in attractive women, leading to a rise in fans of boy love and fujoshis, men and women fixated on male-on-male romance.
There’s also a notable portion of female players and so-called “trans women” who are interested in lesbian content, which is why offering both male and female protagonists is crucial for appealing to these groups.
Games like Blue Archive avoid attracting these extreme fans because their core foundation revolves solely around cute girls, with the protagonist heavily implied to be a man. Additionally, the presence of lolicon characters serves as a gatekeeping mechanism, as these extreme fans often view small anime girls as problematic, equating them to pedophilia in their eyes.
The community surrounding Honkai Impact and Star Rail in the West is notorious for its toxicity. On Twitter, fans often push their delusional lesbian ships and headcanons onto everyone else. The same goes for Genshin Impact, where some fans are fixated on the male characters and seem intent on ruining the experience for heterosexual players.
These individuals aggressively promote their gay fantasies and base their entire social media presence on fictional characters. They cannot comprehend others disagreeing with their views, often resorting to sending death threats to artists and fans who support straight ships. The Genshin Impact community has become a toxic cesspit of hostility and degeneracy.
Their obsession with clout chasing is evident in the Western fandom’s demands for Black representation in the game. They often demonize artists for creating artwork they perceive as racist and offensive, particularly when it involves “altering” the skin tones of Genshin Impact’s tanned characters.
Genshin Impact, developed by the Chinese company miHoYo, has long been targeted by groups demanding more “representation” in its character designs. Despite the cultural differences between Western and Eastern regions, activists have previously attempted to boycott the game. This occurred notably when the region of Sumeru was introduced, which some claimed was culturally based on Middle Eastern regions.
This led to accusations that the game’s newly introduced characters, who featured a mix of white and tanned skin tones, were guilty of cultural appropriation and racism. As a result, the outraged Western community surrounding miHoYo’s game called for a boycott on Twitter, loudly proclaiming the game’s racism.
Many fans even produced “modified” artwork of the characters with darker skin tones, effectively blackwashing the characters they considered offensive and whitewashed.
Some fans take it a step further by creating their own blackfaced renditions of tanned characters, believing their skin color isn’t dark enough to meet their standards. Given China’s notorious treatment of Uyghurs and its systemic racism, it is asserted that China is inherently racist toward foreigners, especially black people.
China’s society and culture differ significantly from ours; they systematically target and prosecute the ethnically Muslim Uyghur group, demonizing those who are different from themselves. Go figure their game primarially designed to pander towards Chinese audiences doesn’t feature such characters in abundance like everything made in the West today.
If these activists genuinely cared about authentic representation, they would reconsider playing a miHoYo game. Supporting and financially backing a game made by a country that oppresses foreigners contradicts their goals.
miHoYo is not obligated, by external pressures like those from Blackrock, to include characters of specific appearances, such as “ugly,” androgynous, or stereotypically Black characters in their games like those from America do.
Nevertheless, over the years, they have introduced a diverse range of characters with different body types, designs, personalities, and varying shades of skin tones. Despite this effort, a small but vocal group of fans continuously criticize others over artwork and accuse the game of colorism, while paradoxically altering the characters themselves by giving them darker skin tones for attention on social media.
Once again, a vocal minority within the miHoYo fandom is outraged over perceived cultural appropriation. Interestingly, these critics often overlook cases like Ubisoft’s portrayal of Japanese history in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, where a Black samurai features prominently. Instead, their focus turns to Genshin Impact’s tanned characters, claiming they are not sufficiently dark to match their fictional interpretation of cultural influences within a game created by a Chinese developer.
A social media campaign is currently underway under the hashtags BoycottHYV (Boycott Hoyoverse), accompanied by a change.org petition that has garnered over 32,000 signatures. However, despite this vocal group’s considerable outrage, they represent only a small fraction of the broader player base of miHoYo games.
For instance, recent trailers for Genshin Impact’s next major update have received a significant number of dislikes, yet they are vastly outnumbered by likes, with ratios as high as 7:1 and 19:1.
This disparity underscores that the majority of players are not particularly concerned about the issues raised by this racially motivated protest and simply like the cute girls for what they are.
Games journalists have predictably taken up the cause, their focus seemingly fixed on upholding a politically correct agenda even at the expense of alienating consumers and labeling them as bigots. GameRant, for example, covered the boycott by suggesting that Genshin Impact needs to improve its character designs to better represent the fictional cultures portrayed in the anime-themed game.
GameRant’s article overlooks the fact that Genshin Impact has a limited number of characters of color in its roster, by arguing that it prevents players from feeling represented in the Chinese game and could detract from their overall experience.
Ultimately, if the game’s tanned characters do not meet certain expectations of darkness, perhaps the game simply isn’t intended for those individuals, perhaps they should explore one of the many excellent black-only video games, such as ValiDate or Sony’s Concord instead to truly feel representation.
According to GameRant, the new characters set to debut in Genshin Impact’s upcoming Natlan update have names that sound Arabic, yet neither their skin tones nor their costume designs reflect such cultural influences.
The article criticizes the depiction, noting that even the Archon of the Natlan region, strongly hinted to be Mavuika, does not have sufficiently dark skin. In contrast, characters like Iansan, Kachina, Xilonen, and Mualani, who do not have Arabic-sounding names, display various shades of tanned skin.
The GameRant article exacerbates the situation by endorsing the political viewpoints of certain “fans” of Genshin Impact. It criticizes miHoYo and Honkai Star Rail for supposedly failing to include characters with significantly dark skin tones, despite regularly featuring characters “implied to be LGBT.” Which is complete and utter horseshit.
Any claims made by Western fans regarding the supposed sexualities of characters from a miHoYo product are seen as superficial, while their pleas for darker skinned characters is entirely aimed at publicly shaming and humiliating the company for not aligning with their Western sensitivities.
In contrast, games like Firewalk Studio’s Concord boldly challenge mainstream gaming norms by exclusively featuring characters who are described as ugly and gay. However, such a niche approach may alienate the average gamer, potentially leading to indifference upon release.
Journalists might attempt to salvage the game’s reputation by offering glowing reviews or dismissing critics of its character designs as racist.
These supposed “fans” fail to distinguish between fiction and reality; their concern for tanned characters is laughable. Instead, they harshly criticize, vilify, and target those who don’t conform to their headcanon fantasies, whether it’s artists drawing straight relationships or anyone who doesn’t share their skewed perspectives.
They’re quick to demand “fixes” to character designs, yet they erupt in anger if someone uses a slightly lighter shade for tanned characters. They seem to ignore the fact that in a 3D open-world environment, character appearances can vary due to factors such as lighting.
Their extreme reactions expose their own delusions; their protests, driven by an unhealthy obsession with a company, are baseless. That’s why miHoYo consistently reminds these critics that Genshin Impact is a work of fiction, its characters are not real and do not exist. Short characters are not engaging in child exploitation, and tanned characters are not appropriating any culture. They’re just retarded.
The game is created by a Chinese developer and primarily targets a Chinese demographic. Chinese society is often characterized by a deliberate prejudice towards outsiders. Personally, I hope they follow through and leave the game entirely. However, given that most of these individuals have built their entire social identities around miHoYo characters, I doubt their claims will lead to any significant action. Instead, history suggests this cycle will repeat itself in the future.
