Genshin Impact’s policy is getting more and more chaotic with each new area

Confusing food stalls selling bubbles, spicy hot pot adorning the streets Jinshin effectLiu port. Colorful koi fish swim in serene lotus ponds on a balcony above the meticulously constructed city. If the player wishes, he can participate in Sichuan-inspired water-boiled fish in a restaurant where Xiangling cooks the player character. As the sun sets over the mountain ranges overlooking the city, the slow duo of erhu music and harpsichord enlivens the scene. With design and musical composition, the developers at Hoyoverse have painted a mirror image of Guangdong, Xiamen, or port cities in China’s southern provinces.

Despite all the efforts of Chinese government propaganda in displaying traditional Chinese landscapes, the video game may have outdone tourism agencies. Now in its third year, this open-world action-adventure game has drawn fans’ attention – and their wallets – to the gacha system. The world and its story remain available to explore, showcasing the ambitious visual triumphs of landscapes inspired by real-world locations. However, this attention to detail is not universal. Inazuma, a pseudo-Japanese shogunate, and Sumeru, whose blending of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural references, artistic direction, and linguistic allusions put the game close to tense real-world ethnic and political issues. As Hoyoverse directors and writers shy away from tried-and-true European and East Asian-inspired fantasy role-playing environments, they expose the limitations of storytelling to an over-reliance on stereotype and harsh use of real-life history.

Photo: Hoyoverse via Rui Zhong

For each of the major updates to the game, JinshinDevelopers of major content preview software are taking the lead. On these occasions, leadership at Hoyoverse borrowed the microphone from the game’s voice actors and announced update details between standard patches for six weeks. Major patch notices such as launches in the region are issued by Hoyoverse founder Liu Wei, who has interviewed several team leaders under the pseudonym Da Wei. Liu’s delightful interviews with his colleagues, conducted in elaborate groups based on in-game locations, provide details about the new game’s mechanics with the staff who made such changes.

In the introduction of Sumeru in Jinshin 3.0 update, Liu started with Jinshin Writing leads Xiao Luohao, by asking questions as a group friend over coffee, using the term “classmate” to refer to his subordinates. He then allowed screen time in the broadcast for the developers who assembled the nuts and bolts of the update. Combat designers discussed new enemy mechanisms. Environment team members explained puzzles and interactive elements, such as engagement points accompanied by the sound of chrome. It is an innovative and elegant marketing approach. As a result, the studio’s relationship with players is much more informal compared to the high-level advertisements that AAA game companies typically use for previews.

When Jinshin effect The team discusses a character based on Liyue they have put a special effort into, like opera singer Yun Jin, and describes the culturally specific research and writing that went into development. But when describing Sumeru’s game regions, comparisons with real-world similarities were absent from the developers’ comments. Visual Sumeru Character Designs the reviewer To Amazigh, Nuba and Persian textiles and accessories. But the preview comment did not largely address these cultural influences, instead transferring character descriptions to in-game combat and story roles. Also, opaque decision-making processes are inclusive of regions other than Liyue.

Build Hoyoverse’s world for Jinshin effect, both in-game and in its growing metaverse business, has spared no expense in providing immersive experiences to fans across Asia and global servers. The company renamed its international subsidiary from Mihoyo to Hoyoverse in February, and has since teamed up with brands ranging from fast food chains like KFC China to Cadillac. The upcoming Ufotable anime collaboration is likely to attract more fans of the game. And the JinshinLive Concerts, another series of real-life indoor projects, features artists from real-life areas who inspired Yu-Peng Cheng’s tracks. The music videos feature the London Symphony Orchestra and folk musicians performing in a Sumero-like forest. Similar music collaborations have been organized loaded with artists of the traditional music of the former region, the Japanese-inspired Inazuma.

Unlike other metaverse projects that feature Meta Mark Zuckerberg’s dead fish eyes, the bright color palette and animation designs found in Hoyoverse games allow fans to find favorite characters within a growing colorful team. in Jinshin In particular, the player and non-player characters have costumes and facial features with detailed rendering, not to mention the lush landscapes that make up the exploration sections of the games. The character’s work also emphasized player favoritism and subsequent investment in the gacha system. The more enthusiasm and charisma the character inspires, the more rolls players are willing to spend.

As this global audience grows, Hoyoverse and Jinshin They must face political questions in their game world and beyond. Upon Sumeru’s release, fans criticized the colors in the character designs, especially when 3.0 characters were leaked. In addition to skin tone, the female character designs of Sumero players prefer to wear a midriff and inspire their belly dance costume. Candice, Dahiya, and Nilo in harem costumes – these are all characters Jinshin Players pointed out the collectible “waifus”. The regional deity, the young and pale-skinned Kusanali, also bears little resemblance to the peoples of the cultures of South Asia and the Middle East whose land it refers to in detail.

When street stalls in the area sell panipuri chicken and tandoori, and meticulously compose sitar pipes through towns and jungles, the character design and stereotypical writing of minority groups are even more evident. Nilo and Kusanali inhabit the city of skilled scholars, while Candace and Dhya are descended from tribes of nomads who double as enemies of the mob. For some people in the capital of Sumeru, they are described as “real soldiers of fortune who will do anything for money.”

Principal art featuring Sumeru characters in the Jinshin Impact.

Photo: Hoyoverse

Sumeru captures the problems of billing a game about traveling the world as politically neutral, and the risks developers take when venturing into a field far beyond what is familiar to them. The team’s uneven attention to detail becomes even more apparent when reviewing Hoyoverse’s previous behind-the-scenes videos shared on YouTube. When working with Han Chinese culture, which the developers share, everything from architectural details to discussions within the team about Peking Opera-inspired character movements right down to the last pixel is planned. The game may be great, but when the developers want it, they can copy the cultural inspiration they want to get right.

The increase in studio cultural sensitivity and inclusivity in games comes at a time when the electronic entertainment business is experiencing challenging growth in general. In the West, big companies like Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, and Wizards of the Coast face backlash from employees and fans about crisis situations, workplace harassment, and racist character writing, respectively. Dungeons & Dragons in particular attempts to move away from the “good” and “evil” archetypes of their various races, most recently removing racial descriptions of Hadozee-like primitive animals. Meanwhile, the past Jinshin The controversy over the foundation of monster movements on the aborigines has largely been reduced to fan drama. However, the developers have remained silent about the design issues of the game’s characters and monsters, while still pairing realistic food with fashion Choices that blend South Asian and Middle Eastern culture without rhyme or reason. Fans pointed out that movements Dancer Nilou has been thoroughly researched, but the belly dance costume she wears does not match her Persian-style performances.

Issues of race and the game’s real-life inspiration remain unaddressed within the Teyvat Continent, even with references to politics in writing it elsewhere. While Jinshin Flourishing in cultural images of Han Chinese culture within the Liyue region, it is the area of ​​the electric element closest to realistic political history. In the Japanese-inspired Inazuma Archipelago, where overseas travel is prohibited by the shogun’s ruler, individuals with emblems of the gods are tracked down and stripped of their ambitions. The military-led Inquisition and the war with the Ryukyu-like island of Watatsumi resemble the divisions that still exist in Okinawa. To the south in the ocean is the island of Tsurumi, barren and mist-shaded, but with ghosts and sites named after Ainu. language. Within these details, JinshinThe book’s developers and writers have crossed the line between inspiration and direct references to real-world racial tensions, political conflict, and historical wounds. It’s the basis that any developer, let alone a developer who has made $3.7 billion in iOS and Google revenue, should proceed with caution.

Although the game is intended to be immersive, the question of which players are immersed and which are singles is likely to be a question that minority players keep asking.

Inazuma’s live-wire policy and the introduction of Sumeru marks a turning point for the game’s protagonist, the Traveler. But through Paimon, the floating companion who has followed them from the beginning, Jinshin effect It gives the player permission to ignore the weight of the stories they are currently telling. As Paimon follows the player through Sumero, Paimon complains that the names and vegetarian meals of the new land are difficult to pronounce. These notions of “alien” customs by outside nations JinshinAsian and European regions illustrate other cultures and focus the views of the ethnic majority not only for the player, but also for the developers. Although the game is intended to be immersive, the question of which players are immersed and which are singles is likely to be a question that minority players keep asking.

Travel and travel novels are not and cannot be politically neutral, particularly in popular cultural products that have strong imaginations ingrained in their design and writing. In the context of Jinshin effectFor the first two years of her life, the protagonist served as a stray sword knight who saved people in three of the seven regions of Tivat. What may save JinshinTheir future and the provision of a more inclusive society may not depend on their hero’s swordsmanship, but rather on inclusive engagement and a more honest relationship with critical fans.

from San Jose News Bulletin https://sjnewsbulletin.com/genshin-impacts-policy-is-getting-more-and-more-chaotic-with-each-new-area/