this magical monkey is the protagonist of one of China's most well-known novels Journey to the West has inspired adaptations by Japan and the United States to the excitement of fans like Richard a Chinese game developer has now taken this classic tale to Blockbuster success when Marvel have those superheroes movie right because um they have the comics about Iron Man they have comics about a Thor right but you know you have the base there also for my generation Wukong is our first superhero so we all wanted to be that monkey developed by 10 cent back startup game science in black myth wukan players fight their way through mythical China Richard says the graphics and story make this game Stand Out mobile games have long dominated China's gaming Market in the past authorities have vilified games as spiritual opium limiting licenses and game times to curb addiction now State media appears to have rebooted its Outlook coinciding with an uptick in game approvals this year so you see a lot of State media talking about this game in a really positive light and you see that they're trying to subsume this game under this discourse of soft power yeah this is so SI reviewers who live streamed the game were reportedly told not to mention topics related to misogyny covid-19 and politics sparking a debate around censorship in the long run if you want to attract Global audience users and Gamers and if you want to project like a more positive image then you will have to acquaint yourself with um the global standards and the global Norms at this gaming Cafe the debate is centered on how to win battles rather than politics it's just a game so I don't think I should care about things surround by like by the real world yeah I should play freely I should do whatever I want in the game here Gamers here say they want to see more Chinese mythology stories told to the world the wukan hype is evident at this gaming Cafe the question is whether Chinese game developers can take the success of wukan to the next level and with it a new source for Chinese soft power or will it be a one hit wonder games like these take years to develop so the unpredictability of regulators could pose challenges down the line but with authorities now seeming to recognize the benefit of games as a cultural export Chinese developers are banking on more games like this making their journey to screens Laura Westbrook Al jazer Hong Kong well that's all for me Tom McCrae make sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest news from aler