On the one hand, I can kinda get it. It must really suck to lose to a self-servicing corpo ad-a-palooza, even one as well crafted as Astrobot. It's like losing a collectible contest to FunkoPops, just clear feelsbad.

On the other, fuck this guy for dragging nationalistic pride into a dumbass award ceremony. The Geoff-fest is always a stupid corporate cockgag that celebrates publisher money more than developers, taking it personally and trying to pretend like all of China was snubbed only serves to makes BMW look worse.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 12 hours ago

I don't feel it was undeserved, it's good that super productions lose to better crafted titles, maybe one day actual indie games will be on the contest for game of the gear

[–] gcheliotis 21 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

While he comes off as a jerk, and possibly is one, I can understand the sentiment, having spent a few years of my life among ethnically Chinese people in Asia. There is this drive and aspiration to be recognized by leading brands in the West as equals, perhaps even betters. Due to a history of subservience and shame and a strong nationalistic current seeking to undo that.

This game is one of the most ambitious and accomplished to come out of China and they’re hungering for that kind of recognition. So it is likely that fans of the game feel it was ‘stolen’ from them and he seems to be responding to that sentiment. To us it looks petty, but to some of the game’s most ardent Chinese fans this may have been an appropriate response. Not sure how this was received in China though, just speculating.

[–] batmaniam 13 points 15 hours ago

Not going to lie, despite loving the stories about the monkey king, I skipped it entirely because of the notes they sent to content creators. Which would also be why I skip movies and games that take the US' DoD money. I'm glad it got passed over.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

The last three weeks or so of Chinese video game reporting has basically been:

"They'll never shortlist us for GotY. They'll never choose a Chinese game for GotY. It's all a Western ploy to denigrate and deny Chinese achievement because They are jealous that the first Chinese AAA game is so good."

It's been tiring.

Edit: just opened up my Chinese feeds, and I'm glad to report that the first one I found was criticising netizens for review bombing BG3 and defending the Larian speech, and giving it a more detailed translation.

[–] gcheliotis 3 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

They review-bombed BG3? For shame. Why?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

THAT actually probably was a translation error (unlike "oh, he is not a disgusting misogynistic piece of shit. You are just racist and so is google translate").

Swen's speech was (paraphrasing) about how an oracle told him that the future GOTYs will all be games made because they are games the studios wanted to make and were allowed to make without fear of layoffs (which is why it was ironic that a studio that came out of Sony gutting Team Japan won...).

But a lot of chuds and CCP mouthpieces keyed in on the "An oracle told me" narrative framing as an indication that it was all rigged. In large part because they are fucking morons who don't realize they were voting on a different category when they rushed that vote harder than a gamefaqs poll with Aeris in it.

And Swen is head (?) of Larian who made Baldurs Gate 3.

Also: BG3 is, in scientific terms, gay as all fuck. So the chuds who were already focusing on BMWukong because "it understand that women should be sexy" and whatever other "anti-DEI" bullshit they are radicalizing people with, saw an opportunity to pick a fight now that the mass support of BG3 is somewhat waning.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 15 hours ago

Because they couldn't review-bomb Astrobot since Astrobot isn't on Steam.

[–] gcheliotis 1 points 16 hours ago

I wasn’t aware, but basically this confirms my suspicion above regarding how this is playing out in the Chinese psyche so to speak.

[–] Contramuffin 123 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Translation appears accurate, but misses the cultural element. In my admittedly limited experience, this is pretty par for the course for Chinese humor. Compared to Western humor, Chinese humor is more brash and abrasive, and almost boastful when viewed from an outside perspective. I can definitely envision someone receiving that sort of response as a joke ("What, you didn't receive game of the year? Why did you even go?"). And it would certainly agree with my impression that he makes a lot of crude jokes on his social media that don't translate well into English (see: the IGN article on how the developers are sexist). It can really be quite difficult for inexperienced people to determine what statements are humorous and what statements are earnest, since the difference is often really subtle, even when read in the original language.

I'm not necessarily defending him, since these sorts of jokes do have a nugget of honesty to them, but my read is that he plays them up for humor.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (14 children)

Yeah... fuck off with that?

I am Chinese with a lot of Chinese family. This is not some unique and elevated humor that westerners do not understand. It is the same self deprecating humor that is increasingly prevalent in all cultures (that have been exposed to similar media...) combined with the equivalent of "ha ha, wouldn't it be funny if we kissed .ha ha ha . What a joke. ha ha. But what if we did? Ha ha ha".

Same with the truly disgusting misogynistic shit that asshole has said. It is a "joke" in the same way it was "just a joke" when people were testing the water on being magats.

The only thing that is "cultural" about this is the tendency for East Asians (but especially Chinese) to assume that everyone else is fucking stupid and that they just have to say it is a joke to ignore all consequences. And... that has been regularly demonstrated to be true so I guess the joke is on us?

Do I think he was tearing his shirt in agony and screaming in pain? No (although apparently Alannah Pearce and the people in her section saw him crying when he lost...). But there is very much the fundamental truth of "I deserved to win so this must be bullshit if I didn't and I wasted my time by coming to an awards ceremony that doesn't understand how amazing I am".

Which... DOES have a lot of ties to East Asian culture (the idea that you are either best or worst) coupled with the fucked up number that the one child policy did on people.

[–] LeroyJenkins 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

eh I'm the same as you. even grew up in China for many years and the original comment could be true. who knows, but its getting weird coverage in both countries.

it's also quite the stereotype (one especially held by western raised Asians) to believe all East Asians have asian elitism. most people I knew in China were insanely jealous of Americans and would give their life savings to send their kids to the US for education and a better life. the rich had the everyone is stupid mentality, but that's true for rich people everywhere. one thing that is true and why I made the comment in parenthesis is that most Chinese people think Western raised Asian children are raised incorrectly and make that known to their family members in the West which comes off very elitist, but that's also something shared between cultures around the world who have family members living in the US or equivalent.

no comment on the dudes other comments he's made since I don't know much about him, but to apply this to all East Asians especially the Chinese because of his one comment is pretty... yeah.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

(the idea that you are either best or worst)

"If you not first, you're last."

So, this guy is Ricky Bobby?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

This should be the top comment. Knowing a couple mainland Chinese, this is probably 100% accurate and a more charitable read than most are giving it.

[–] cybervseas 92 points 1 day ago (6 children)

As the article says, since his comments were run through machine translation, it's possible they're meant more in jest rather than seriously. I'll keep a charitable perspective on this until we learn more.

[–] acosmichippo 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

except we know Chinese people have been review bombing other games because BMW didn't win. Sure doesn't seem like a joke to them.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is based on a shit article from the shitrag "TheGamer" that calls 500 players downvoting a game a movement. There's 1,4B people in China, 500 votes don't even register. TheGamer is a clickbait/ragebait shitrag that weaponises xenophobia/culture wars/ignorace to generate traffic. They are the precise example of the enshitification of the Internet. Veritable parasites.

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[–] nialv7 10 points 1 day ago

i read the original on weibo and he appears to be (to me at least) fully serious. tried to invoke nationalistic pride as well

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[–] aciDC14 4 points 20 hours ago

Pizza Tower: «First time?.»

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not the journey to the west he had hoped for

[–] emax_gomax 4 points 1 day ago

Damn it. This is gold. Take my upvote.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That's some top tier Main Character Syndrome.

[–] Rooty 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

BMW looks like a terribly mediocre souls-like, and it's like 60 bucks on Steam. The hype surrounding it is manufactured AF.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

12 souls-like fans absolutely furious

[–] icecreamtaco 37 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

That’s how awards work lmao. 5 losers, one winner

[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 day ago (2 children)

One winner and five nominee's. Let's not downplay being in the top 6 nominations for "best game of the year" as "losing." It's an incredible achievement no matter how you look at it.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago

Especially for a fresh team that's amazing.

[–] icecreamtaco 6 points 1 day ago

Yeah you’re right

[–] DNU 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I'd be ashamed too, losing to astro bot. What I've heard from the Platformer community is that while the game is good, it's very short and lacks in the amount of unique areas (and enemies?) and as such is more or less blitz and glamour. Like, props to sony for producing jump and runs, but still...

[–] Ostrakon 8 points 15 hours ago

I just finished Astro Bot and it is a very good game. However, it is very derivative of Mario to the point where it is very clearly a Mario game, except you are collecting PlayStation member-berries instead of stars or whatever.

I loved it, but I have a hard time justifying it as GotY. IMO it should have gone to Wukong or Balatro.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Haven't really been following it all - after reading the article I think maybe its because Astro Bot had a larger audience because its generally more accessible?

[–] tb_ 7 points 23 hours ago

Black Myth Wukong had one of the highest concurrent player counts of Steam of all time. The game was very popular in China.

Meanwhile Astrobot's sales figures were lacklustre, according to some reports.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago

I haven't played that Astrobot game (I don't have a PS5) but I am not surprised with it being highly praised honestly.

Astrobot Rescue Mission was awesome, even forgetting about it being VR. It's very fun and well designed, with new ideas all the way through, up there with Super Mario Galaxy to me. That team definitely knows their stuff.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I think you are right. Its why Fortnite usually wins in categories it is in, because at the end of the day it mostly comes down to a popularity contest.

I mean, I heard people I know in real life discrediting BMW even being nominated because "oh all the Chinese are voting for it." I was like what, you think Chinese Gamers only count for 3/5ths of a Gamer?? I personally wouldn't be surprised if this sentiment was shared with at least some of the judges.

I'm not saying BMW should have won, personally I liked it but it wasn't perfect and I didn't play Astro Bot. It's just crazy to me that people are reacting like this over a video game just because it came from China. They're not acting like that over Marvel Rivals, probably because they don't know it's from China yet, lol.

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[–] g1ya777 3 points 23 hours ago

But its an exclusive, only PS5 players can play it.

[–] acosmichippo 27 points 1 day ago (10 children)

there's an easy fix for that, don't come anymore.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

Man, calling this a snub is a misnomer to begin with.

[–] CosmoNova 14 points 1 day ago (3 children)

China mad Japan won in American awards. You love to see it.

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[–] dance_ninja 12 points 1 day ago

Machine translated comments are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/1he81dp/game_producer_of_black_myth_wukongs_post_after_tga/

Chinese translations aren't always the best in my experience, so hard to tell what's serious vs what's said in a joking manner.

My partner has been playing BMWK, and from what I've seen it's an excellent effort for a studio known for mobile games. That being said, there's noticeably rough edges, so I'm not surprised it didn't get game of the year (whatever the decision criteria is).

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