Philosophy

Seamus Murphy

Armstrong

Joseph Du

2020.03.09

Morality on the Internet.

Allow me to introduce the topic of the essay with a case study.1

Genshin Impact, a game manufactured by Mihoyo, released its first promotion video on

2019.06.07. Rains of assault immediately followed. Some bloggers criticized the video for

plagiarizing over the PV of The Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild. And soon similar

commentaries flew around the internet. People were outraged by such unscrupulous rip-off, and

began to enforce their “freedom of speech” over the game and its supporters. They talked as if they

were a master player at both games, when one of the games have not even begun its alpha-testing.

And so, under a unfriendly atmosphere, Genshin Impact begun its alpha testing on

2019.06.21. As expected, the tide of accusation rose higher. Several influential we-media blatantly

scolded Mihoyo for creating rip-offs games and tread-stone in the Chinese game industry. One of

them, in his video, said that “This is the darkest day of Chinese game industry.” (The original video

has already been deleted), and later this became a satirical title (dark knights) that the fans of

Genshin Impact use on themselves to commemorate the cyber-violence they experienced in June

that year.

At the time, the public opinion were divided between mainly three factions. The factions

that thought that Genshin Impact was a rip-off and should perhaps go to hell; the factions that

thought Genshin Impact was innovating while ripping off, and should be given more time; and the

1https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6158967206 Provided a thorough recount of the Genshin turmoil. Many

events described in the essay are quoted indirectly from this website.
faction that thought the game did not constitute for a “rip-off” case in law, and many of the

accusations were unfounded when given careful consideration. The first and third faction bickered

(or perhaps, sweared) bitterly via all forums, with the former holding a absolute advantage. People

from the second faction were often identified as the third’s, and received curses all the same, thus

converting many of the second faction supporter into the third faction.

Five days afterward, the alpha test came to an end, and Mihoyo wrote a letter,

acknowledging the fact that this game has many “Zelda elements” in it, as well as elements from

other predecessors in game industry. The letter proved to be of no avail, as it failed to pacify the

anger of the copyright guardians and public scandal. The war waged onward until August.

On 2019.08.01, a PS4 fan claim swears to trash his PS4 right in front of Sony’s stand, in the

ChinaJoy expo, because Sony decided to give Genshin Impact a spot in its game station. Well, he is

a man of his words. And his action brought up a new wave of revolt in public opinion. People

finally started to contemplate, whether if Genshin Impact is receiving more persecution than

deserved. His action also unexpectedly caused another critical turning point in public opinion,

which I will put into detail afterward.

On 2019.08.03, the second critical turning point came up. The official account of Tencent

Manga posted a comment under its own blog: “Bested 120 temples on Zelda, won’t be going to

tomorrow’s expo, I am afraid to mix up the stands.” (Deleted minutes after it was posted)2 This is

perhaps the first time that Tencent presented any attitude towards the debate, and its deletion added

to the a lot of people’s suspicions that some how Tencent was involved in the upheaval of this

turmoil.3

2 https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv4353725 The original comment was deleted, so a blog containing

its screenshot was cited.
3 https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6212949469 The verification of Tencent’s involvement in the turmoil.
 The third critical turning point came when IGN (one of the world’s largest and most

authoritative gaming media) commented on Genshin Impact.4 During the talk, IGN’s anchors are

generally holding a positive attitude towards the game, and it made a significant impact on the

public opinion, because someone authorized enough finally spoke up for Genshin impact.

The final critical turning point was established about 4 months afterward. On 2020.01.14,

Genshin Impact announced that it will be also be published on Nintendo Switch, whose company

created the Zelda series in the first place. This official acknowledgement overthrew the tide of

plagiarism, and the commentaries began shifting towards Mihoyo’s side. Soon, the war that waged

for more than half a year ended in the silent triumph of Mihoyo’s fans.

This event happened to expose some moral issues that the current Chinese internet is

harboring.

1. Swearing Is the Popularity.

In China, swearing is becoming a inevitable trend on the internet, despite the government’s

effort to reverse it by replacing curses with stars. In fact, due to such regulation, the ability of

swearing became classified into different levels. The “true masters of swearing” were those who

were able to punch their opponents hard in the face without a single star appearing in his comment.

As the trend continues, swearings in Chinese are often abbreviated to save space and avoid the F-

word detectors. During the turmoil of Genshin Impact, this phenomenon has been demonstrated to

the extreme, as all three parties are throwing curses all around. The devastation caused can only be

described as terrifying.

So what was the reason behind all these degrading demeanors that the reality despises?

Primary reason lies behind the fact that curses are often used as stress freer. According to Liao

Deming, written in his text The Sexist Approach to Swearing, “…people swear to discharge

4https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV144411X7hU The video containing IGN’s commentary on

Genshin Impact
emotions such as anger, dissatisfaction, depression, etc.”5 In my opinion, people tends to endure all

types of pressure in everyday life, adhere to all sorts of doctrines, set up either by the society, by the

environment, by the superiors above them. Internet was a easy let out for the stress accumulated

during all those situations. In the precious spare time that people save to surf the internet, they want

to become someone less bounded, more violent, more daring.

The lack of responsibility is another reason that caused everyone to become so pompous.

People are almost unaffected by the consequences of their doing in the virtual world. One probably

will not swear at Dwayne Johnson in the face, but anyone can do so on the internet. Because there is

no way that they will suffer from the same consequence as in reality — getting beaten up. In his

book “A Theory of Justice”, John Rawls thought that the “Veil of Ignorance” can be a idealized

situation where justice can be found.6 What he did not realize is that the idealized part is not the

“veil”, but the prerequisite that everyone acts on behalf of his or her reason. In my opinion, the

deviation of action from its consequences causes people to make rushed, careless, and illogical

decisions, and to become less connected to the moral responsibilities that their actions supposedly

bring about.

The third reason was tied to the fake vanity that swearing can bring to a person. As

mentioned in the beginning of this section, swearing is becoming a popularity, and he or she who

excelled at it are worshiped as a superior individual (at least so when his or her opinion agreed with

the masses’). The fascinating taste of authority can be seducing, especially to those who were less

respected in reality, which occupied a large portion of the internet surfers.

2. The Majority Always Wins.

Most people were simply followers of the opinions of the majority. In the case of Genshin

Impact, many rational and professional gamers have already clarified most of the accusations, yet

5 Liao, par.9
6 Rawls, 118
people chooses to turn a blind eye upon such evidence. Or at least the voicing majority were forced

to turn a blind eye over such evidence.

The most direct cause of such phenomenon is the bandwagon effect. People tends to abide to

the conformity, despite the fact that the majority’s opinion contrasted with his or hers. This is a

general weakness in human society, but greatly amplified by the power of internet. On the internet,

the comment that received the most number of “thumb-ups” would appear in the front, and when

two contrasting ideas confront, it is very natural for the prevailing idea to dominate the front page of

the commentary. A 6 to 4 ratio battle would look like 9 to 1, if one was only to read the front page.

Thus, people who were on the minority side may be afraid to comment due to the violent discussion

atmosphere, and the minority became even lesser in number. This caused vicious circle of logic,

amplifying the bandwagon effect.

Confirmation bias was another thing that caused the majority to rule. When looking out for

evidence, people tends to look for those that enhances one’s original opinion. And again, this effect

was amplified by the violent discussion atmosphere on the internet. People easily get offended or

provoked by the harsh words used in the opponent’s article and, as a result, would refuse to read any

further. Thus, most people only believed in their opinion firmer after searching for evidence. This is

true for both sides of the debate.

3. The “Justice”.

It is most certainly true that the majority of the people craved for justice. People were

outrageous with Mihoyo, because they were outrageous against copycats. From their standpoint,

they were obviously justified. And this is how justice on the internet became distorted — Many

people tried to bring about justice without proper collection of evidence, without relevant

knowledge, without judge or jury. The result is that, as shown in the Genshin case, people are easily

manipulated and became puppets of the few sly conspiracists. Or even if the anger and resentment
is directed towards the correct direction, people tends to abuse this power, and take actions that are

overly aggressive towards the guilty ones.

The main reason such phenomenon kept reoccurring over the internet is that the current

government fails to enact protocols concerning cyber violence and informalities. Understandable, as

the internet is indeed a hard place to manage. But the neglect of management will cause some dirty

bastards to roam freely on the internet without receiving punishment, which thus would trigger the

sentiment of resentment, hatred, and envy buried inside the hearts of some internet surfers. And the

enraged mobs will not check to see if anyone had overdone the action or not, they are just grateful

that they found a justified way to vent their negative emotions.

In other word, the way justice is executed now fits well with how the internet surfers’s

wishes, despite the fact that its deeper motive may contrast with what the majority believes as

moral.

I was only lightly involved in the turmoil over Genshin Impact, and yet its nauseousness, its

abominable characteristics, and the deeds of some people, were all shocking to me at time, making

me realize how far away from harmony and perfection the online community is.
 Works Cited List

Liao Deming. “The Sexist Approach to Swearing”. Journal of Eastern Liaoning University

(SocialSciences)

Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Universal Law Publishing Co Ltd, 2013.

“Bested 120 temples on Zelda, won’t be going to tomorrow’s expo, I am afraid to mix up the

stands.”. 15 Jan. 2020, www.bilibili.com/read/cv4353725.

“【Chinese Subtitles】IGN talk room’s commentary on Genshin Impact”. 10 Aug. 2019,

www.bilibili.com/video/BV144411X7hU.

“The Development of Genshin Impact”. tieba.baidu.com/p/6158967206.

“The Development of Rumors over Genshin Impact”. tieba.baidu.com/p/6212949469.