Feeling justified in doing so due to their belief that the game’s next region is failing to properly represent dark-skinned individuals, a number of Genshin Impact activists are celebrating the fact that the CEO of the game’s publisher, miHoYo, was recently the target of a break-in-slash-theft.
Set to begin welcoming visitors on August 28th, the tribal-centric Natlan region, like the game’s other regions, takes visual inspiration from various real-world cultures, most notably those found throughout South America and Africa.
However, in one distinct difference between itself and its inspirations, the people of Natlan are not as dark-skinned as their real-world counterparts, but are rather ‘lightly browned’, at best.
In response to this discrepancy, a large swath of Genshin Impact‘s more activism-minded fanbase proceeded to call for a boycott of not just the game itself, but miHoYo’s entire catalogue of games – though, given the success of the developer’s new Zenless Zone Zero, it seems their call to arms has ultimately fallen on deaf ears.
Per a post first shared to the @GenshinMedia Telegram channel, on August 6th during a visit to Bay Area in California, miHoYo CEO Liu Wei fell victim to a car theft, wherein “they smashed the window of Da Wei’s rental car today to get the loot.”
“The only thing stolen was the laptop of the guy who was with the founder of Hoyo,” added the Telegram post, as originally posted in Russian and subsequently machine translated by DeepL, before joking “Maybe the robber was hoping to find secret promo codes or passwords for the Natlan beta”.
In response to the news, the very same Genshin Impact players who have taken issue with the aforementioned fact that the characters natives to the game’s upcoming Natlan region were not as dark-skinned as the real-world peoples they were inspired by took to social media to delight in Wei’s misfortune.
@loonathesquirt begged, “CAN THE ROBBER MAKE THE CHARAS GET MELANIN”.
“DESERVED,” succinctly declared @monasriel.
“Oh my god were getting those Natlan changes,” exclaimed @Samiararah. “WE WONNNN”.
“An angel just performed miracles in front of us…” said @Onacalors.
“And thats for not giving proper représentation,” taunted @Mauinhell.
“As long as its not something that harms him and those around him directly, I approve it,” wrote Twitter user @nomorainwallet. “We should make them know we are serious about the dark skin and boycott. #BoycottHYV”
“Old hag deserves it me thinks” opined @CurePog.
@kusanalihp begged, “WHOEVER YOU ARE PLEASE FIX SUMERU AND NATLAN”.
