They feel entitled to do this because they believe that the next region of the game does not adequately represent dark-skinned people. Genshin Influence Activists are celebrating the fact that the CEO of game publisher miHoYo was recently the target of a break-in or theft.
The Natlan tribal region, which will welcome visitors starting August 28, is, like the game’s other regions, visually inspired by various real-world cultures, particularly those in South America and Africa.
However, there is a clear difference between Natlan and its inspirations: the people of Natlan do not have skin as dark as their real-world counterparts, but are “lightly tanned” at best.
In response to this discrepancy Genshin InfluenceThe more activist-minded fan community then called for a boycott not only of the game itself, but of miHoYo’s entire game catalog – although given the success of the new Zenless Zone ZeroIt seems as if their call to arms ultimately fell on deaf ears.
According to a post first shared on the Telegram channel @GenshinMedia, miHoYo CEO Liu Wei was the victim of a car theft on August 6 while visiting the Bay Area in California, where “they smashed the window of Da Wei’s rental car today to get the loot.”
“The only thing stolen was the laptop of the man who was dating the founder of Hoyo,” continued the Telegram post, which was originally published in Russian and subsequently machine translated by DeepL. It then joked: “Perhaps the robber was hoping to find secret promo codes or passwords for the Natlan beta.”
In response to this news Genshin Influence Players complaining about the fact that characters from the game’s upcoming Natlan region were not as dark-skinned as the real-life races they were inspired by took to social media to Joy in Wei’s misfortune.
@loonathesquirt pleaded: “CAN THE ROBBER GET THE CHARACTER MELANIN?”
“DESERVED,” @monasriel explained succinctly.
“Oh my god we’re getting those Natlan changes,” exclaimed @Samiararah. “WE WILL.”
“An angel just performed miracles before our eyes…” said @Onacalors.
“And that’s because you didn’t give a fair representation,” sneered @Mauinhell.
“As long as it doesn’t directly harm him or his fellow human beings, I’m OK with it,” wrote Twitter user @nomorainwallet. “We should make it clear to them that we are serious about the dark skin color and the boycott. #BoycottHYV”
“The old witch deserves it, I think,” said @CurePog.
@kusanalihp pleaded: “WHOEVER YOU ARE, PLEASE KILL SUMERU AND NATLAN.”
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