Anyone who is on PvP servers in Atlas has probably heard about the problems. Chinese players are hated for many reasons.
Several weeks have passed since the launch of Atlas. After initial teething problems, more and more players are enjoying the large pirate MMO – but one factor is dampening the fun for many gamers. Why Atlas is still fun, we have revealed in this article.
Meanwhile, racism has become a major topic in the game and on Reddit. The “western” players are uniting against the “eastern” players – basically, China against Europe and America.
What is the problem? Chinese players do not have their own servers for Atlas and therefore have to play on European or American servers. They quickly gained a reputation for being very coordinated and precise. Players are deliberately hunted down and overwhelmed while the “territory” of the Chinese companies continues to grow.
Time zones are a factor: It is also annoying that players from different regions of the world live in different time zones. While Europeans or Americans are sleeping, Chinese players are active, plundering and destroying the ships of other players. Conversely, the same is true – when the Chinese are sleeping, “we” are active.
This has led to many players developing a strong hatred towards Chinese players. They are now calling for unity against the Chinese players and often use racist insults. Sometimes this ends in slightly macabre (but possible in-game) scenes, like a lone Chinese skeleton that has been hung up.
Reddit mods are cracking down harder: The fact that the line between the game and real racism has often been crossed is evident in the subreddit for Atlas. The mods are now implementing a “zero-tolerance” policy where obviously racist comments are immediately punished.
The Chinese censorship system is to be triggered: As a countermeasure, players resort to especially insidious tricks. They try to flood the chat near Chinese players with terms that the Chinese government considers “critical” and trigger the censorship system. By doing this, they want to permanently disable the players. On Reddit, many terms are exchanged that are said to work particularly well for this.
Grapeshot Games (Studio Wildcard) has not planned any dedicated servers for China, and Chinese players are also not supposed to be blocked from European or American servers.
How do you experience these problems with Chinese players? Do you share the view that racism in Atlas has long surpassed something “gaming-related” and has become a serious problem? Or is this all just part of the game?
