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Before anyone asks, no, I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t play Black Myth: Wukong. Instead, we’re going to talk about Grand Theft Auto and Hogwarts Legacy. It’s not a bait-and-switch: it’s a throughline, a theme. A thread connects these games and others in an almost invisible spiderweb. It’s a thread that lets you Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon your way from Francis Bacon to Goku, while exploring Black Myth: Wukong along the way. Gather close, Destined One, as we brave this storm of controversy together.
GTA 5, Hogwarts Legacy, and Black Myth: Wukong
GTA 5 didn’t sell 200,000,000 copies by accident. It did so because of its incredible scope, depth, and quality. To achieve that quality, Rockstar crunched, as many studios do. Long days and working through the weekend, along with the general pressure of the environment, took their toll on many team members. Crunch culture steals away the rest of your life and makes everything about the project, damaging your relationships and impacting your mental health. It’s there beneath the skin of the game and in every ray-traced shadow that Franklin, Michael, and Trevor cast. GTA sold 200,000,000 at a cost.
What tarnished Hogwarts Legacy wasn’t the culture of its developer but the controversies surrounding its creator. With a long and public history of making transphobic comments and supporting transphobic politicians and activists, J.K. Rowling’s connection to the game sullied the magical fantasy. It didn’t help that Harry Potter‘s problematic elements aged far worse than Daniel Radcliffe and his castmates. Many in the LGBTQ+ community called for boycotts or simply cited the problematic content as the reason they wouldn’t be playing.
Ethical Consumption
Whether you’re attracted to the game’s visuals, difficulty, or mythological influences, Black Myth: Wukong offers a professionally crafted — and in many ways — an incredible experience. Nothing’s stopping you from buying or playing it (or any other problematic game), except perhaps the number of zeroes in your Steam wallet. Whether you think that’s the right thing to do is between you and your morals. Wukong offers us a good excuse to take a step back and take a critical look at what we’re comfortable with and what we’re not.
With details of the controversy surrounding Black Myth: Wukong and allegations of everything from sexism to censorship developing by the day, it’s too early for many definitive judgments. Thankfully, we don’t need them for a friendly conversation about Good, Evil, and Other Lighthearted Subjects. It turns out ethical consumption under capitalism is more than just a TikTok meme (although that version was fun, too). As gamers / humans / Dragon Ball enthusiasts, we’re capable of evaluating the bad and ugly alongside the good. There’s a lot to love and loathe out there.
