Black Myth: Wukong's streamer guidelines are bonkers. They say you can't use the game to spread "feminist propaganda" or discuss anything about China.

Black Myth: The film Wukong is releasing tomorrow and it's really good. Tyler Colp, PCG's Tyler Colp, said in our review that "these animals don't have thumbs but they sure do have hands."

A marketing email sent by the team to content creators who plan to cover the launch of the game has caused further controversy. Hero Games, the co-publisher of the game, is giving out Steam keys with a link that leads to a Google document containing some wild conditions.

The text is a list of "dos" (and "don'ts"), with the first being "enjoy your game" before we move on to the more controversial stuff. This includes the standard requirements you'd find in any pre-release code such as not insulting or joking with other streamers.

Then, it goes off the rails, saying that streamers of Black Myth: Wukong should not include "nudity or feminist propaganda, fetishization and other content which incites negative discourse." This will set off alarms, as the main controversy surrounding this game was a history of sexist comments from GameScience's leaders. These remarks were detailed in an IGN article last year. The studio has been in bunker mode since the release of the game. While such attitudes do not appear to permeate it, taking aim at 'feminist propaganda' is a bad look.

The situation doesn't improve as the guidelines begin to cover sensitive topics in China, the country where Game Science and Hero Games are based. Streamers must refrain from using "trigger words" such as "quarantine", "isolation", or even 'COVID-19". This requirement seems to be related to different theories about the origins of the COVID-19 epidemic. It's a mystery why streamers would do that, but it is what it is.

It ends with a clear directive: "Do not discuss content related to China’s game industry policies or opinions, news etc." This is a strange one because Black Myth Wukong is loosely inspired by Journey to the West. Journey to the West is a classic Chinese Novel and is arguably the most popular and influential literary work in Asia.

It almost seems futile to talk about Journey to the West and not mention China, even if the true reason for such overbearing rules is that Hero Games does not want streamers to use its game to launch into broader allegations about the Chinese industries. Some corners of the internet in the west have an anti-China stance. But telling westerners what to talk about and what not to talk about is a terrible way to deal with it.

PC Gamer's code of review did not have any restrictions similar to the ones above. These requirements also seem to be limited to streamers. Hero Games also seems to be rethinking their position in response to the backlash. The document has been withdrawn, and the community is questioning its veracity. I've contacted Game Science and Hero Games to get their comments. I will update this post if they respond.