Chinese game ‘Marvel’ has been accused of censorship after players of its new video game were unable to chat about topics that are banned in China.
Marvel Rivals is a new release featuring battles between heroic characters such as Captain America and Iron Man and the villains Loki and Venom. The plot revolves around Doctor Doom and his future counterpart Doom 2099.
The game was developed by Marvel in conjunction with the Chinese developer NetEase and released in December. However, players have been blocked from typing in words such as “Tiananmen Square” and “Wuhan virus” in the chat function. They are met with the warning: “text contains inappropriate content”.
Marvel Rivals game artwork featuring Iron Man, Spider-Man, and other characters.
Other restricted phrases include “free Taiwan”, “free Hong Kong”, “free Tibet”, “Taiwan is a country”, “Taiwan No 1” and even “1989”, the year of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Chatting about Mao Zedong or the Dalai Lama is also banned.
Winnie-the-Pooh, a name associated with President Xi, is blocked. Xi was compared to the character after appearing in a photograph with Barack Obama in 2017.
Popular gamers have posted videos of themselves trying to type in the words. Asmongold, the YouTuber, is allowed to type in the words “Taiwan sucks” and “Taiwan is bad” only to be blocked when trying “free Taiwan”. At the end of the video he added sarcastically: “Marvel Rivals is a very interesting game that has no censorship at all and lets people think whatever they want and that’s just the way it is guys.”
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China has a long history of censoring the content of video games and films for the domestic market. The Second World War strategy game Hearts of Iron was banned for depicting Tibet, Manchuria and Xinjiang as independent nations. Command & Conquer: Generals, a game depicting a hypothetical Third World War, was said to “smear the image of China and the Chinese army”.
Marvel has also been accused of altering films so they would be accepted in the Chinese market. In the 2016 film Doctor Strange the main character is trained by a Celtic woman played by Tilda Swinton rather than a Tibetan monk who appeared in the original comics. A screenwriter claimed it was to appease the Chinese authorities and Marvel later admitted the move was a mistake.
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Have they banned “West Taiwan?”
“Hey guys what’s the name of the children’s book character that’s a bear with a red shirt in the woods”
“Winnie the poo-” *banned*
The geopolitical “press alt+f4 for free cs money”
Reminds me of chatting in RA2 lobbies and asking people “what is pen10 + pen5?”
Getting a response of pen15 and then swiftly followed by a “user was banned” system message.
I had a guild named that but I can’t remember which mmo. Flew under the radar apparently.
In a global free market, superheroes end up standing for Truth, Justice and Xi Jinping Thought
Even “1989” is banned. So everyone born in 1989 will have to lie and say they were born either 1988 or 1990
I guess I can’t discuss Taylor Swift’s 1989 album while playing Rivals.
Or write it out as words: Nineteen eighty-nine
Censorship is one of the most infuriating things when it comes to Chinese games.
Actually I found that games were a great way to bypass censorship. There was a while Minecraft library with censored books that you could read on the server.
Games are a great way to bypass censorship
Idk, recently a game literally didn’t allow me to use the number 420 in my name.
F in chat for the people in Fromsoft games trying to roleplay as a K***ht.
Then thats a shitty game. I’m saying that games who dont censor can be used to bypass censorship of States.
It was EA
Right, shitty game company that self-censors.
My historical example was Minecraft
yea, i wouldnt trust any computer that has had that shit installed. The core will likely be compromised and if there is going to be bigger cyberwar at some point, those computers could be used as bots. Though same can be potentially said about any anti-cheat with kernel level access. I probably shouldnt trust even my own computer since I have tarkov installed. I hope it doesnt go there, it would be such bother to actively consider that as a thing, but it should be kept in mind as possibility.
There’s a will there’s a way, “Fr33 Tiewon”.
Wonder how the filter creator is punished. They wrote the things
I bet they just copy/pasted the default filter as per company policy. No punishment needed, works just as intended.
Pasting, checking the list, testing. All very naughty things
I hear someone made the list and checked it twice.
Oh, bother.
Yeah, should have known.
Hopefully political stuff like this will not hurt the game.
Really weird for them to make it political by adding such filters — truly the Streisand effect in effect.
