I’m sure this incident will certainly boost authentic ethnic diversity in the games of miHoYo.
Following the laughable racially motivated “boycott” campaign against HoYoverse otherwise known as miHoYo, the developers behind Genshin Impact which saw activists take to twitter Twitter in targeting the Chinese company for alleged cultural appropriation over a lack of Black representation in a game primarily developed for Asian demographics.
To prove they were serious, these activists modified the characters from Genshin Impact’s upcoming Natlan region to appear as “authentically” Black in their ongoing crusade against “colorism.”
Despite these protests, their boycott failed, and miHoYo actually saw an increase in revenue, with the release of Zenless Zone Zero earning $100 million and a nearly 9% profit rise from June to July.
In an attempt to grasp genuine cultural representation during his visit to America, HoYoverse co-founder and president Liu Wei who is also known as Dawei “Big Wei” had his rental car vandalized while parked in California’s Bay Area.
The Bay Area, including cities like San Francisco, is notorious for high rates of car-related crimes. Given America’s significant crime issues, especially in liberal states, such occurrences are unfortunately common.
Fortunately for Liu Wei, it was unlikely that this was a retaliation due to the on-going “boycott” of Genshin Impact by Twitter activists, more rather this seems to be an isolated incident, witnesses say that a swarm of Hilichurls quickly left the scene.
San Francisco, a longstanding Democratic stronghold since the 1960’s, had a population of 873,965 according to the 2020 census, with 44.9% White Americans, 34.3% Asians, and 5.1% African-Americans.
According to FBI crime statistics, African-Americans are statistically more likely to be involved in incidents of rape, murder, and other violent crimes despite being a fraction of the population. These statistics are reported per capita, meaning they are adjusted for the population size to provide a clearer picture of crime rates relative to the number of people.
For example, if a city has a high crime rate per capita, it means that crime is more prevalent in that population compared to other areas.
Despite these figures, America’s current president often emphasizes “truth over facts,” which can lead to a skewed perception of crime trends. Official reports, which rely on self-reported data from individual states, may claim that crime rates are declining by simply reporting less.
According to the post’s author, who randomly happened upon the scene, a laptop belonging to someone traveling with Big Wei has been stolen from the car, but fortunately nothing else went missing.
There’s no definitive proof whether or not one of Natlan’s residents were responsible for the theft of the laptop.
There is always some concern about Big Wei’s safety. For instance back in 2021, a crazed individual armed with a knife reportedly attempted to break into HoYoverse’s Shanghai offices with the intention of assassinating the studio founders.
This threat followed the contentious removal of certain skins in Honkai Impact 3rd, highlighting how domestic backlash from Chinese gamers, under a communist regime, can be significantly more intense than foreign boycotts on social media.
Mere days ago the developers of Fate/Grand Order, another gacha game, received death threats due to a controversial update in the game’s mechanics that more or less fucked over its players.
Wei co-founded miHoYo, also known as HoYoverse, with his university peers Cai Haoyu and Luo Yuhao in 2009. To this day, the trio, along with one investor who helped them establish the company, are the sole shareholders of the multi-billion dollar enterprise, known for its success with the release of Genshin Impact.
Big Wei continues to be a key figure among HoYoverse players, frequently appearing in special broadcasts that unveil major updates to the company’s games. His next appearance is anticipated to be during the Genshin Impact 5.0 livestream, which is set to introduce the Natlan region, which faced racially motivated criticism over its lack of Black representation and alleged cultural appropriation.
