If we could channel the horny energies of gamers into science, we would have FTL travel by now.
It's less about that and more that I think this forum shouldn't be so undignified in having it expressed here at all.
What everyone does in their own time privately is another matter.
Disclaimer: I stopped playing video/computer games quite a while ago, so my views/assumptions might be outdated, but here goes.
"I feel like it would be more dignified if everyone would talk more about the merits of the game rather than touting it as a sign of cultural superiority or comparative cultural competition."
That's a bit like saying, "I feel like it would be more dignified if everyone would talk more about the technical merits of Pan Zhanle winning Olympics gold in the 100m freestyle in a vacuum, completely divorced from the cultural/geopolitical aspects of the matter." China is the first country in literally hundreds of years to pose a credible full-spectrum threat to Occidental hegemony. BM:WK's storyline, mythology, setting, cultural references, etc. are unabashedly Chinese. I don't think the success of BM:WK, especially among Chinese gamers, can or should be discussed without at least a passing nod to that issue. Which brings me to the next point:
A passing nod is entirely reasonable.
I don't think some of the posts in the previous pages to what I wrote is necessarily consistent with that.
In any case, the subsequent posts in the most recent pages are much more restrained, which is beneficial.
"But also, this kind of cultural representation is also not uncommon for most AAA games of other nations and cultures and those games are not all touted as some sort of cultural "win"."
OK -- and I *don't* mean this in a challenging or condescending way -- please list all those "AAA games of other nations and cultures" that were *not* from countries that were Occidental/Occidental-adjacent/Occidental vassals. From my casual browsing over the past few years, I don't recall a single one. Not one.
Of course, all of the AAA games of other nations and cultures were from "occidental/occidental-adjacent/occcidental vasals" aka the nations in those categories captures the full variety of what is commonly considered as "developed nations".
That is an even bigger reason why this cultural representation in BM:W specifically shouldn't be celebrated too much, because it is merely the first game of the Chinese industry that is a successful AAA title which happens to also be highly culturally cohesive.
Instead, the real achievement is when each year there are a handful of games released of the quality of BM:W from a variety of different domestic studios and developers, with varied but cohesive cultural representation.
Putting it another way -- this game is just one industry of many other industries that indicates that China is moving from a "developing nation" to "developed nation" status. Acknowledging that advancement is important, and giving credit to this game as being the first to lead the charge is fair, but there is still a lot of unmet potential in the industry overall and it is not preordained that the industry overall will all advance in the same way.
