Zilong Game Limited’s free-to-play MMO, Second Galaxy, is currently being review bombed by Hong Kong gamers over on the Steam store due to what they claim are unfair bans on anyone who speaks ill of Communist China or are part of Hong Kong-themed guilds.
The game’s review rating sits at mixed, but if you check the histogram it’s reported as “Mostly Negative” for all the English reviews.
According to the user reviews players from Hong Kong or those who speak up about China’s oppressive Communistic practices.
There are various reviews giving the game a thumbs down, explaining what’s happening to users from Hong Kong who are either part of a Hong Kong guild or say anything negative about China.
User Evergreen explained in a review that even if you don’t criticize China or say anything bad about the Communist party, you can still be banned just for being part of a Hong Kong guild, they explained…
“PSA: English is not my native language. If you don’t understand. Please feel free to ask and I will try my best to explain for you.
“We are coming from HongKonger (HKer), one of the guild of the Alliance that mostly formed by Hong Kong players.
“The below list are the Guilds that Alliance was originally included:
“HongKonger (HKer)
HK Glory (HKG)
HKFREEARMY (HKFA)
Free HK (FHK)
FEHK (HKE)
HK Legend (HKS)
HK Freedom (F4F)There’re total over 1000 players were the members of the Alliance [sic]. […]
“[…] So, you might ask, what does the Alliance did that making the company go against HK players in this way?
“NOTHING
“We were not insulting China or Chinese players while in the game.
“We were not making any noise about the protests of Hong Kong.
“We were not arguing with other Chinese players in poor manners.
“And no way for all the members of the Alliance violence the rules in this scale.
“We were simply just wanna play a game that look like a EVE ripoff, as a Hong Kong people.
“Unfortunately, it is not allowed.
“We had refunded all the money we spent on this game.
“We hope you think twice before spending anymore Time or Money by telling the fate of our Alliance.”
These sentiments were not only echoed in the user reviews, but the discussion also found its way onto forum boards, too. Some users on the Steam forums complained that their threads were being deleted by Zilong. Over on a Taiwanese game forum more users complained about being banned for joining Hong Kong guilds.
There’s an obvious language gap between what players are experience and what they hope the wider gaming public might be made aware of, but they hoped that they could get the word out using the Steam reviews and other forums, but it seems like many of their voices are falling on deaf ears.
With the Hong Kong protests ratcheting up the ire of mainland China, it’s not much of a surprise if we start to see any positive sentiments of Hong Kong squashed in certain Chinese-made games to avoid incurring any sanctions from the State party or the Department of Propaganda. Sanctions could range from fines to being stripped of a publishing license.
So far there doesn’t appear to be any actual announcements from Zilong regarding the matter or any acknowledgment about thread deletions or user bans.
(Thanks for the news tip durka durka)
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