More than 50,000 tweets have appeared in recent hours with the hashtag “#BoycottGenshin” on Twitter: players are calling for a boycott of the gacha game Genshin Impact (iOS, Android, PS4, PC). What is behind this negative trend?
This is happening on Twitter: Last night, players began tagging their tweets with the hashtag “#BoycottGenshin”.
A total of 57,000 tweets have appeared in a short time: This brought #BoycottGenshin to number 5 in the German Twitter trends.
The hashtag calls for no more money to be spent on Genshin Impact.
The screenshot shows how significant the hashtag was at one point in Germany:
Apparently, the template for the rogue race in the game was taken from an indigenous people
This aspect of the hashtag evokes the most reactions: In Genshin Impact, there is an antagonistic race, the “Hilichurls”. They are portrayed as goblin-like and primitive.
In a video about Genshin Impact from the developers in October 2020, you can see an artist creating the animation of a Hilichurl (via youtube). He has a video open on his monitor showing a member of an indigenous people dancing.
The video apparently serves as a reference for the animation of the Hilichurl.
The accusation is that Genshin Impact has used an indigenous people as a reference for this rather unpleasant race in Genshin Impact: It is said that an indigenous people is depicted as a rogue race.
These accusations are being hotly debated: Some players defend the Chinese developers miHoYo of Genshin Impact, stating that there is not as prominent a discussion about political correctness in China as in Western democracies. They simply do not think anything of it, it is said on Twitter.
A variety of problems leads to the trend around the hashtag
This is how the hashtag is currently being used: The call “BoycottGenshin” has taken on a life of its own, and other users have added what particularly bothers them about Genshin Impact:
- Some are concerned about the portrayal of the heroine Xinyan. She is depicted as a racist stereotype of a “wicked, black woman”. One user says: In the Chinese original, her dark skin is cited as the reason why others are afraid of her.
- Others complain that there are very few “non-white characters” in the game.
- Others are bothered that young-looking characters are sexualized. Flora is mentioned as an example.
- However, there are also entirely different, non-content-related issues that some people have with Genshin Impact and want to express: Twitter users criticize the game’s account security.
- Others complain under “BoycottGenshin” about the game’s cash shop, the content flow, or their personal loot luck in the game.
This is why there are so many tweets: As with many hashtags on Twitter, the exact reason for the protest becomes blurred and turns into a collection of complaints.
#BoycottGenshin is therefore not a unified movement with the same goal, but a mix of problems that individual players or player groups have with the game.
The popularity of the hashtag #BoycottGenshin is further fueled by the fact that there are also people who vehemently oppose the criticism. One user says that Genshin Impact is still in its infancy and there are not that many characters yet. “Non-white characters” will come eventually.
Moreover, the “non-white characters” are not portrayed as evil at all. That is interpretation.
In any case, aspects of Genshin Impact seem to be concerning and upsetting many players. For such a heated discussion to arise around a game, it must be relevant.
A critical point of Genshin Impact is surely the controversial gacha system:
YouTuber invests a lot of money in Genshin Impact to show you how absurd it is
