What's the deal with the Chinese and Genshin?

And when's the punchline?

I'd say that at this point it's no secret that I'm something of a fan of Genshin Impact. I know, it should be everything that I despise, being a mobile game based on Gacha elements, but everytime I give her a chance I'm never disappointed. The Gacha systems have always treated me surprisingly fair, the game runs so well on PC I often completely forget it doubles on phones too, and at the end of the day the game is just fun to play. Whatsmore, I feel like MiHoYo is made up of developers who seem to genuinely listen to and work upon feedback, as I rarely see an issue that isn't neatly cleaned up in a decent amount of time. Now of course the game isn't at all perfect. The combat can be a little repetitive due to there being only a couple new enemies added since launch, the world is presented just past the threshold of denseness to be slightly unapproachable and the mainstory seems predominately directionless for 90% of the playtime. But somehow the charm outweighs the negatives for me.

And it would seem that I'm not alone given how the game has become something of an International sensation, to the point where they even got themselves nominated for a GOTY award. They didn't win it, unfortunately, (And not because Last of Us Part 2 was up for one in the same category. 'Cause then they'd have no chance.) but it's still indicative of a game that that forced it's way into the big leagues. Think on this; this game was up for a multiplayer award but Avengers, a Square Enix title with the biggest brand in the world attached to it, was completely absent. It has a decent playerbase of dedicated fans, pop culture has already integrated surface level knowledge of the game into popular memes and the free-to-play game made a veritable fortune in it's opening months alone. So if all that's the case, why is this game so hated in China?

I ask because, lest we all forget, MiHoYo is actually a Shanghai-based video game company despite all the ways in which they try to make us forget that. You know, like how the game is advertised with a translation of it's Japanese name rather than it's Chinese one, which leads to the rather nonsense title of 'Genshin Impact' rather than 'Yuan shen'. (Which refers to the Primordial spirit or 'true god' which forms the underlying narrative of the game.) So this here is a Chinese game that does it's utmost to hide that fact and is, anyway, vastly disliked in all of China? We can see this from the general public disinterest shown during events, to the grand display of one Chinese fan who rather embarrassingly broke their PS4 at an expo for the game. There's even outright hostility towards the game on Social Media, and at this point you might be wondering what exactly is the cause of all this. 

Well to be entirely frank there could be any number of inciting factors with anything from random cultural differences to wide spread dogpiling, although I think this may actually date back to the first reception this game ever received. Weirdly, I actually stumbled upon this game months before launch when it existed as only trailers, and as you can see from my blog at the time, I was less than impressed. I thought that it was blatantly obvious how this game was a cheap rip on Breath of the Wild, and that was apparent for anyone to see. The art style looked the same, the movement systems were identical, visual indicators were nicked, the evidence was damning. But then the game came out... and it was actually pretty good. Suddenly the narrative changed, this was no longer a copycat, by an 'inspired by' story. These guys had just seen what Nintendo had done so well and learnt from them, disregarding all the systems which literally ripped their functionality from the Zelda masterpiece. (Heck, they're still doing it. Don't think I didn't notice that recent cold system!) But that image never left in China.

Yep, while the rest of the world turned around and pulled out the 'we forgive you' card, China merely dug in their heels and rallied ever harder against the MiHoYo developers, and it doesn't look like they'll be coming around to everyone else's way of thinking anytime soon. And if you're wondering why this may be, I heard one rather sensible theory relate this to the perception of copy cats within the general Chinese psyche, because quite simply... the Chinese hate them. Yeah, the lax copyright laws in China may allow the place to be the land of infringement, but with that comes an unshakeable and disfavourable reputation that no one wants to foster. Around the world we tend to instinctively think 'China' whenever the idea of foreign knockoffs is discussed, and that's embarrassing, the people don't want to have that label. Whatsmore, it tends to rub off onto the actual quality products actually made in China, making China an easy target for ridicule.

Though we may look at Genshin with the eyes of "we'll make an exception this time" and "Lets look at how you're different rather than how you're the same", to the Chinese gaming audience it's merely another display of blatant creative bankruptcy that reflects badly on China. What makes it worse, now the game is global sensation, so their shame is being broadcast to the world! MiHoYo even knew this was likely, hence them trying to actively hide their original name as I mentioned earlier. Although this may not be a disaster on the level of those cheap movie rip-offs or foreign remakes you see all over the place, the quality of the product does not matter. This is a question of originality, and when you approach it from that angle, Genshin does look pretty guilty.

I find it oh-so fascinating to think about, because I'm on two minds for the issue myself. On one hand it's hard to deny; without Breath of the Wild Genshin would have never existed. Sometimes it feels like you could trip over the set in Teyvat and stumble into Hyrule, they're that similar to one another. But on the otherhand I fiercely defend the right for inspiration and reiteration as long as enough work is put in to sufficiently differentiate the final product. In my opinion MiHoYo put in more than enough effort to cross the freshold into originality again, but I don't have years of insult and disgrace wearing down my patience to the point where I'm fed-up like the Chinese people do. 

It's a shame, for this could have been the sort of game to really bring together the world of gamers that feel so very separate at times. (Due to excessive regulation which often means China is playing completely different versions of our games) And yet an inexplicable clash of cultures has wedged itself between that plan seemingly out of nowhere, it's almost comical in it's irony. Perhaps given time to get used to it, the Chinese gamers will gradually come around on Genshin and maybe join in on the fun the rest of us are having, but somehow I doubt it. (Heck, MiHoYo probably aren't even advertising in their homeland anymore at this point. It's that much of a lost cause.) Seems a strange fate for a game who's very world is designed to celebrate various world wide cultures. But thems the breaks, I suppose.