Disco Elysium is one of the best games I've ever played (and PC Gamer's 2019 Game of the Year), in part because it lashes out at various ideologies for their inability to fix fundamental issues of inequality and injustice in society. Regardless of the reasons, it's fascinating to see such an abrasive and politically-charged RPG find an even bigger audience in China. It's an interesting change, but not an uncharacteristic one. In the English version, for example, real-world western imperialism is loosely rebranded as the Moralist International while in-game communists are referred to as communards. Though it's plausible it was done to avoid direct comparisons with real-world ideologies, Disco Elysium often alters names to either add flavor or suit its fictional setting. The word "communism", for example, is translated to the made-up word "kangmi zhuyi" instead of "gongchan zhuyi." Interestingly, Abacus News notes that the Chinese localization doesn't directly translate certain politically sensitive words. "People are still people, stupid and restless, fragile and gentle all at the same time." "It depicted an age where isms fell apart, greatness drew its last breath and various tribes that looked to profit or save people tore our society apart," another reviewer writes.
"Maybe this is a game that only countries that went through the communist revolution can fully understand. "Very impressive," one review translated by Abacus News reads. Anti-Asian sentiment is of a particular focus, reflected both in optional dialogue choices of the player character and the many racists he encounters during his investigation.Īccording to Abacus News, many Chinese Steam user reviews praise the way Disco Elysium confronts these difficult political situations. Through this, Disco Elysium explores racism without it being necessarily tied to our own reality of it. Though Disco Elysium's ethnicities are fictional, many serve as analogs to real-world ones. And though it skews left on the political spectrum, Disco Elysium takes shots at ideologies of all types, including communism. The fictional city of Revachol is ravaged by despots, failed communist revolutions, and free-market capitalism. Despite that fear, Disco Elysium's positive reception among Chinese Steam users is more evidence that there's an audience for games of all shapes and political themes. When I traveled to Shanghai last year to investigate the challenges faced by China's indie gaming scene, most developers refused to speak about the government regulations unless they could do so anonymously.
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Almost a year later, Devotion still hasn't been resurfaced.īecause of the Chinese government's history of suppressing free speech, politics is an extremely sensitive and divisive topic.
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As a result of the enormous backlash, Devotion's developers apologized and pulled the game from Steam while its Chinese publishing partner had its business license revoked by the government. In 2019, Taiwanese-made horror game Devotion drew the ire of a significant number of Chinese gamers and the government when players discovered art assets that referenced a popular meme of comparing president Xi Jingping to Winnie the Pooh. These restrictions don't account for politically-infused scandals that often happen in China's gaming scene, however. It's restrictions like these that led the mobile version of PUBG to be rebranded Game For Peace, an exact clone that adds a patriotic veneer where players enforce peace as Chinese special forces. Games are also "encouraged to create titles with China’s core social values in mind, which includes games that promote traditional culture, particularly with accuracy regarding history, politics and law," according to a recent blog post by Niko Partners, a research firm for the Asian games market.
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What's fascinating about Disco Elysium's success in China, however, is how directly it confronts political systems like communism in light of China's own extremely sensitive political environment.Ĭhina's government enforces strict regulations on all forms of media, but videogames seeking a license to operate must abide by rules like not displaying any blood of any color or corpses. Florence, Metro Exodus, Don't Starve, and Firewatch also benefit from China being their second largest (if not the largest) market. When I spoke to the original creators of Diablo and Torchlight, Max and Erich Schaefer, they told me that Torchlight 2's biggest market was China.
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