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Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Controversial 'incel' video game Revenge on the Gold Diggers is renamed after controversy
A highly controversial video game that was released under the title 'Revenge on Gold Diggers' has sparked huge debate over its portrayal of women - after it surged to the top of streaming charts. Released on gaming platform Steam China on June 19th, it was billed as a live action 'anti-fraud' game in which the aim of the game is to spot deception before it happens. However, all of the 'baddies' are women out to manipulate, with male protagonists ready to 'fight to the death' against them - and critics say it will appeal to and encourage incels, men who blame women for their romantic failure. The blurb for the game says its plot centres around a character called Wu Yulun, 'a man who was once deeply hurt by gold diggers' - and was apparently inspired by real-life experiences of the games' Hong Kong creators. Players are invited to 'navigate between several glamorous and highly adept female characters, and experience an emotional hunt that is gripping with every step.' After it became an unexpected hit, a maelstrom of controversy quickly unfolded with many calling the game misogynistic and deeply offensive. It's title was changed to 'Emotional Anti-Fraud Simulator' within 24 hours of its release. Chinese artist Xu Yikun told BBC News the term 'gold digger' is rarely attributed to men in the country, saying: 'If you have a rich boyfriend, you are called a gold digger. 'If you try to make yourself look pretty, you are called a gold digger... Sometimes the label is used on you merely for accepting a drink from someone.' Others have defended the narrative, saying: 'Would men criticise a game if it were titled "Womaniser Game"?' In China, one newspaper said the game labelled 'an entire gender as fraudsters' - but the Beijing Youth Daily said it simply highlighted the growing issue of scams and emotional fraud in modern China. According to the country's National Anti-Fraud Centre, around £204million was lost to romantic scams in 2023. A Beijing-based video producer named Huang told the New York Times that the game 'very precisely taps into the intense gender antagonism currently sweeping through Chinese society.' He says the video game will appeal to incels, or involuntary celibates, men who believe they are unable to have sex or form relationships with women - often because they deem themselves not attractive enough. They often blame women and are extremely hostile towards them as a result. One Chinese man, 23, who is unemployed, told the newspaper: 'I hate women, though I still want to fall in love, just a little bit.' In Australia this week, parents were being warned their children could have access to hundreds of online games that simulate and encourage horrifying scenarios including rape, incest and child sex abuse. When searching on Steam, at least 232 results matched 'rape', a campaign group called Collective Shout revealed. On the same day, a search for 'incest' turned up 149 results. The game titles are the stuff of parents' nightmares, from 'Incest DEMO' and 'Incest Twins', to virtual reality 'Reincarnation in another world going to rape'. The latter allowed players to explore a virtual 'town' raping all the women who are non–player characters (NPCs) – avatars who are not controlled by a player. Another game allowed players to 'set up' hidden surveillance at a female neighbour's home to secretly record her sexual acts. Graphic imagery, which has been seen by Daily Mail Australia but is too disturbing to publish, included violent sexual torture of women and children, including incest-related abuse. Kelly Humphries, who lives in central Queensland, is a survivor of familial child sexual abuse and has shared her horror at the games. 'There's not a lot that surprises me anymore but this was shocking,' she told Daily Mail Australia. Experts have warned gaming platforms used across all age groups, including children, have listed video games that allow players to rape characters. In one game, a player could pretend to be a man recording a neighbour performing sexual acts 'I look at that research and I'm just so ashamed, angry and frustrated because I don't understand why this behaviour is acceptable for big companies.' Ms Humphries has worked in law enforcement and is an activist raising awareness about abuse, including as an ambassador for Collective Shout. 'To see this violence depicted in such a horrific, brazen and humiliating way pushes survivors back into themselves,' she said. 'It completely undermines their experiences by gamifying and almost making fun of their true experience.' Ms Humphries said the games will take a psychological toll on players, particularly on young people who interact online more often than older generations. '(The games) are normalising this behaviour,' she said. '(Young people) are either going to act out that behaviour or they're going to be a victim and suffer silently.' This was echoed by University of New South Wales' Professor Michael Salter, who said the games are 'part of subcultures online that normalise sexual abuse'. Professor Salter, who is also director of the East Asia and Pacific branch of Childlight, said the content will reinforce the acceptability of violence for children or people with problematic behaviour if they play the games. He said that, while the games breach national laws, platforms like Steam and operate internationally and as such, do not follow Australian standards. Both Ms Humphries and Professor Salter signed an open letter to companies including PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, and Paysafe Limited, to request they cease processing payments for gaming platforms which host rape, incest and child sexual abuse–themed games. Professor Salter said there are no rules in international law to manage the issue so 'payment services effectively become a de facto regulator'. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Valve Corporation, which operates Steam, and the platform which is also named in the open letter, regarding the claims. Valve is understood to have changed its rules earlier this week, adding a clause prohibiting content that broke rules set out by payment processors including 'adult content'. There were initially 14 clauses which banned content including hate speech, malware, sexual content of real people or exploitation of children, Automaton Media reported. Professor Salter has also raised concerns about discoveries by his team which noticed people breaching others' boundaries on new technology platforms. 'Gaming services often forge ahead with designs without building in safety,' he said. '(On virtual reality platforms), we see kids adopt avatars that are highly sexualised adult avatars and then interact with actual adults.' He said the issue comes down to regulation and the need for clear, enforceable content rules to protect children, adding that parents can take action at home too. 'It's important to have discussions with kids about the gaming services they are on and the content they are seeing,' he said. 'It's not as easy as monitoring games so parents should set clear rules about types of games they are permitted to play and the types they are not allowed to play.' Another suggestion was that parents explain to children that their behaviour online matters and speaks to their character. 'There is a pervasive view that online behaviour is not real, that it is not serious,' he said. 'So it licenses a range of behaviours that are antisocial and transgressive.'
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India.com
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- India.com
Gold Diggers Or Scapegoats? Why This Chinese Video Game Sparking Outrage Among Women, Fuelling Suicide Fears
New Delhi: A young woman sits across the screen. Her voice cuts through the silence. 'He is more obedient than a dog. Wish there were more idiots like him.' The words are not real. They are part of a game. But their sting is very real. And in China, women are feeling it. The game is called Revenge on Gold Diggers. Players step into the shoes of men. Women appear as charming manipulators. Their smiles hide greed. Their intentions point to wallets. Every choice the male player makes decides what happens next. Within hours of its launch in June, it topped Steam's trending chart. Downloads soared so did criticism. Anger came fast and loud. The game, many said, insulted women. Painted them as liars. Used their image to tell a story soaked in prejudice. Others defended it. Claimed it warned men of emotional traps and heartbreak-for-profit scams. But the backlash snowballed. The very next day, the developers quietly renamed it Emotional Anti-Fraud Simulator. Too late. Damage done. Mark Hu, the director of the game, vanished from several Chinese social platforms. His name disappeared like a ghost. Platforms took no chances. In a brief statement, the creators insisted they meant no harm. They said they wanted to open a conversation. Something honest. Something about modern love and blurred lines. But few believed that. Artist Xu Yikun did not buy it. She saw it as a calculated move. A business built on rage-clicks. She spoke about the word 'gold digger'. She called it poison. A label soaked in contempt. Easy to say and hard to erase. She spoke softly but clearly. 'You date a rich man, they call you a gold digger. You wear makeup, same thing. Sometimes, even accepting a drink can earn you that name.' The room she sat in was quiet, but her words were not. Across China, media outlets clashed. In Hubei, a local newspaper slammed the game and called it sexist and dangerous. Beijing Youth Daily took the opposite route. It praised the creativity. Cited statistics. Over 2 billion yuan lost to romance scams in 2023, it said. This, to them, was timely storytelling. The editorial ended with a sharp sentence. 'We must stop emotional fraud before it spreads.' Still, the game flew off digital shelves. It climbed to the top 10 among all PC games in China. Surpassed even 'Black Myth: Wukong', long considered a gaming legend. A 28-year-old man defended it. Said the hate made no sense. 'If you are not a gold digger, what is the problem?' he asked. To him, the developers were bold, fearless and willing to touch topics people avoided. Topics that made people flinch. But for many women, this was not just a topic. This was their life, fear and anger. Some think the game was inspired by a real story. A Chinese man. A heartbreak. A tragic end. They call him 'Fat Cat' online. After his breakup, he died by suicide. His story went viral. People blamed his ex. Called her a gold digger. Turned her into a villain. The police later dismissed those claims. But the damage had already settled into the public mind. Women speaking to BBC described their fears. Quietly. Without showing their names. They feared this game would make things worse. That it would harden the belief that women belong in homes. That their role should end at being wives. Or mothers. That money belongs to men. That love is a transaction. Many blamed China's politics. The ruling Communist Party. The speeches from Xi Jinping. His repeated calls for women to be 'good wives and good mothers'. That narrative, they said, was not new. But the game added fuel. Activists asking for gender equality have faced pressure. Some were silenced. Some pushed underground. The fear hangs heavy. One woman, hiding behind an alias, summed up her pain. 'This game does not just show women as liars. It turns us into enemies. It shows we survive only by pleasing men. That we stand below them. Always have. Always will.' That is not just a game. That is a wound. And for many, it is still bleeding.
BBC News
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
A Chinese video game on 'gold diggers' is fuelling a debate on sexism
"He's more obedient than a dog... If only more of these dumb ones come along," boasts a woman in a new video game that has fuelled a debate on sexism in players in the live-action Revenge on Gold Diggers are male protagonists lured into relationships by manipulative women who are after their money - how the man responds shapes the rest of the topped the gaming platform Steam's sales list within hours of its release in June but controversy quickly followed. Some slammed it for reinforcing insulting gender stereotypes, while supporters say the game cautions people about love heated was the criticism that the game's creators quietly renamed it Emotional Anti-Fraud Simulator the next day. But that wasn't enough to undo the damage. The game's lead director, Hong Kong filmmaker Mark Hu, has now been banned on several Chinese social media platforms. The game's creators insist they never intended to "target women" - rather they wanted to facilitate "open dialogue about emotional boundaries and the grey zones in modern dating". Xu Yikun, an artist who tried the game and found it deeply offensive, rejects that rationale. She accuses them of "a classic business model that thrives on generating content that sparks debate and divisions".Critics like her say the very term "gold digger" reeks of misogyny. "It's a label that's used, all too often, on women," Ms Xu says. "Sexist jokes and derogatory terms like these have found their way into our everyday language." "If you have a rich boyfriend, you are called a gold digger. If you try to make yourself look pretty, you are called a gold digger... Sometimes the label is used on you merely for accepting a drink from someone," she adds. Some players, however, find the criticism overblown. "The game isn't trying to say that all women are gold diggers... I don't find it targeting either gender," says 31-year-old Zhuang Mengsheng, who used a pseudonym to speak to the BBC. "Both women and men can be gold diggers."And yet, in the game all the "gold diggers" are women. From a fresh-faced online influencer to a go-getting entrepreneur they are all shown scheming to get the men to lavish money and gifts on them."Want to know if a man loves you? See how much he spends," one of them game has divided even local media. A newspaper from the central Hubei province said the game was "labelling an entire gender as fraudsters".But Beijing Youth Daily praised it for its "creativity", citing the financial impact of love scams: around 2bn yuan ($279m; £204m) in 2023, according to data from the National Anti-Fraud Centre."We need to put a stop to emotional fraud without delay," it said in an aside, sales of the game have continued to soar. It is now among China's top ten titles for the PC platform, surpassing even Black Myth: Wukong which is reportedly the most successful Chinese game of all time."I don't get why people are upset about this. If you aren't a gold digger yourself, why should you feel attacked by this game?" says a 28-year-old man."I actually thought the game's creators are very bold. These issues [like emotional fraud] aren't widely discussed enough in China." Some people online have suggested the game is inspired by the real-life story of a Chinese man, known as Fat Cat on the internet, who jumped to his death last year after a breakup. His death sparked an intense discussion online, where the term "gold digger" was liberally used, with some accusing his ex-girlfriend of exploiting him, leading him to take his life. Police have dismissed these who spoke to the BBC worry that the video game perpetuates problematic gender norms in China, where society believes women belong at home, while seeing men as the primary breadwinners. So for women, marrying well has traditionally been perceived as more important than professional success. Official rhetoric from the male-dominated Chinese Communist Party endorses this - President Xi Jinping has repeatedly called on women to embrace their roles as "good wives and mothers". The government has also cracked down on a growing pool of activists demanding gender equality."I feel a game like that merely fans hostility between men and women," says one woman who did not want to be named, fearing hostility online. "It casts women, once again, as the inferior gender who have to somehow find ways to please men to earn their livelihoods."
