Mistranslation has stirred controversy between fans of Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong and Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3.
After The Game Awards 2024, Game Science CEO and the producer of Black Myth Wukong, Feng Ji, made a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo, where he expressed his disappointment over the action role-playing game not being able to win Game of the Year. However, it turns out that much of his message was mistranslated by the Western media, making it seem like his message focused entirely on him complaining about losing the big award.
Chnese content creator ordinarymizu took to Twitter/X to point out that Ji only wrote two specific line about Black Myth: Wukong not winning Game of the Year out of the whole passage. She criticized the labeling of his message as a rant, and said that it was more a reflection of his thoughts and that it ended on a positive note.
According to Mizu, Ji expressed gratitude for Black Myth: Wukong winning Best Action game and Player’s Voice awards at The Game Awards 2024. He then talked about being disappointed over the game not being able to wing Game of the Year. He mentioned not understanding the criteria for the selection of Game of the Year. At the end of his message, he talked about how a lot of things like winning awards are outside of his control, so all they will focus on is making great games.
Regarding Ji saying that he had written his Game of the Year acceptance speech two years in advance, Mizu stated that it read more like he’s thanking players for the confidence and making a joke about him having even more confidence than the fans. He ended his message by sharing the philosophy behind Black Myth: Wukong about the world being beautiful and being worth fighting for, and he hoped that it influenced people in a positive way.
The Western media isn’t the only one mistranslating messages, however. Baldur’s Gate 3 director and Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke gave a speech at The Game Awards 2024 on what it takes to be Game of the Year prior to announcing the winner, Astro Bot. While his criticism was aimed at the game industry as a whole, it was mistranslated in China as a personal attack on Chinese developed games, including Black Myth: Wukong, resulting in plenty of outrage that led to Baldur’s Gate 3 getting review bombed on Steam.
