Users called for a boycott of Genshin Impact, seeing racism and sexualization of children in the game
The hashtag #BoycottGenshin suddenly burst into Twitter trends, under which some users called for a boycott of the miHoYo project. This time, users complained not about gacha, but accused the developers of racism and sexualization of children. However, Genshin Impact fans came to the defense of the game.The hashtag #BoycottGenshin began gaining popularity on April 5, after which it attracted the attention of users in several countries in a few hours.
Initially, it was used to point out the problems that are allegedly present in Genshin Impact.
Main claimsSome users felt that the hilichurls were copied from the indigenous population of America.
- As proof, a video was used in which one of the developers animates a hilichurla against the background of Indian dances.#boycottgenshin IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT.., did yall know that mhy used indigenous people as reference for hilichurls??
they’re not even hiding it pic.twitter.com/78l1miiVMw
— milo ????⬛ (@venluvr) April 6, 2021Others felt that minors were being sexualized in Genshin Impact.
- The example was mainly given to a little girl Flora, to whom one of the NPCs wanted to confess his love. However, as it turned out, in the beta version it looked much more adult – perhaps the developers simply forgot to change the dialog.Y’all in #boycottgenshin wilding but
Beta Flora was meant to be an adult woman, hence the NPCs comments about confessing to her.
They changed that obviously but didn’t bother to remove the NPCs dialogue [heard it has been remove patch 1.4 tho?] pic.twitter.com/nUDrpKWA6K
— Fisseha |Ad Astra What The Fuck (@fi_sse_ha) April 6, 2021Also, miHoYo was reproached for the insufficient number of dark-skinned characters.
- Among them in the game there are only Kaeya and Xinyan. For some users, this was enough to accuse Chinese developers of racism.Some users also used the hashtag to voice their concerns about security issues.
- In particular, the developers were reproached for the lack of two-factor authentication.Community reaction
Despite the initial wave of negative reactions and calls for a boycott, Genshin Impact fans quickly turned the hashtag against critics.
Some even used it for comic purposes and, for example, complained that miHoYo had reduced the breasts of the heroine of the Rosary.
Over time, more and more ironic posts with vulgar or obscene content began to appear on Twitter, in which fans of the game intentionally objectified female characters.
#boycottgenshin god Mona makes me so horny giving her happy handles was an incredible choice pic.twitter.com/5j8irM6Cj1
— Me¡ (@KumikoReturns) April 6, 2021
Also, some players defended the developers and mimicked messages criticizing Genshin Impact. Soon, such posts became even more popular than calls for a boycott.
“oMg thEy bAseD ofF hiLicHurls on iNdiGeNouS pPl”
“WhY is KaeYa anD XinYAn arE oNly 2 dArK Skinned TonE CharAcTeRs!”
“OmG fLorA iS a cHiLD wHy DoEs Ulfr ‘aN aDulT’ wants to coNfEsS tO fLorA!!”
People are saying this without knowing the meaning behind#boycottgenshin #miHoYo pic.twitter.com/XQ4g84KRKK
— Kyle Austin (@xXxKyle667xXx) April 6, 2021people need to know that the grass in genshin impact is mocking the real life grass we know today.
how it waves and it grows back after being burned is not real and it’s utterly blasphemous !!#boycottgenshin pic.twitter.com/tNfKlPvvJT
— enki (@Kep3natan) April 6, 2021Genshin Impact was previously criticized, but it was mainly associated with the local gacha.
However, this did not prevent the project from becoming a big hit — the game miHoYo earned $ 1 billion in just six months, which became an absolute record for mobile titles.
