The Impact of DEI on the Gaming Industry: A Case Study of Black Myth Wukong

Abstract

Nowadays, electronic games have broken free from being limited to a single entertainment attribute and have become an important cultural carrier, along with other cultural products, to showcase cultural identity and promote cross-cultural communication. However, due to the implementation of the DEI policy, DEI has gradually become the core criterion for game design and evaluation. For example, the incident of refusing a $4 million DEI guidance contract before the release of "Black Myth: Wukong" has sparked widespread discussion on various media platforms. The discussion mainly focuses on how to promote the development of political correctness and maintain a balance between creative freedom in the context of DEI. Based on this event, the study delves into how DEI affects industry practices and players' emotional attitudes. People find social media platforms convenient to share their experiences, attitude, and opinion. Social media provides a unique opportunity for individuals to discuss stigmatized topics. Thus, the research selects and extracts relevant comment data before and after the event from YouTube, and analyzes and compares it using case studies, online digital ethnography, mechanical learning, and other methods. The study found that players' emotional attitudes towards the game and DEI underwent complex changes before and after the event. For example, before the event, players mainly focused on discussing the mechanisms of the game itself, while afterwards, players mainly manifested their opposition to the negative interference of awakening culture on the free creation of commercial and cultural products, and so on. At the end of the article, it is emphasized that there is still room for discussion and improvement on how to better incorporate DEI elements in the field of electronic games.