There are some words you can’t say in Genshin Impact even when chatting with friends. These words are probably not of an enormous surprise to anyone familiar with the Chinese government, as the banned terms include Hong Kong, Tibet, and Taiwan. Others are a bit weirder, as some players are reporting “enemies” as an auto-blocked word as well. You can see it in action in a video down below.
So what’s the deal here? Well, the simple answer is that miHoYo, the indie studio that both developed and published Genshin Impact is a Chinese company that has to abide by Chinese rules. Most games have a certain list of words that automatically trigger filters, as do many sites more concerned with moderation (our own comment filters automatically catch certain terms, for example). There have been no reports about the game’s moderators coming down hard on people who express pro-Hong Kong sentiments, unlike certain other companies… but it’s still worth noting that if you want to talk about subjects that are controversial in China, a China-made game is probably not the place to do it.
Source: Kotaku
