Online game promo removed after ‘hateful feminist gesture’ accusations

Industry

Published: 27 Nov. 2023, 14:58 Updated: 28 Nov. 2023, 16:05

Online game promo removed after ‘hateful feminist gesture’ accusations

The Angelic Buster Remaster promotion video for Nexon’s online game MapleStory was taken down over the weekend after some viewers accused the head animator of being a feminist and deliberately planting a controversial hand gesture, associated with misandry, throughout the video. Pictured is one of the frames accused of using the pinching hand gesture.[SCREEN CAPTURE]

An animated promotional video for Nexon’s online game MapleStory was taken down over the weekend after some viewers called the animator a feminist and accused the production studio of deliberately planting a controversial hand gesture, associated with misandry, throughout the video.

Studio Ppuri, the animation production company behind the video, issued a statement online apologizing for any possible controversies but denied accusations that any hand gestures were purposefully placed as political symbols.

The hand gesture in question is a pinching motion using the index and thumb finger, which had been used as a symbol in the now-defunct Megalia, one of Korea’s largest radical feminist online communities, to ridicule the size of Korean men’s genitals.

Nexon posted an animated video promoting the remastering of MapleStory's Angelic Buster, one of the game's playable characters, who is shown with the hand gesture. Online users first posted their opinions on an online community website with screenshots of the video, which they alleged were unnecessary additions of the gesture. Screenshots of posts made by one of the animators, who went by the username Daetseo, on X, formerly Twitter, identifying as feminist and of supporting women's rights, were also uploaded.

“A personally held hateful and antisocial ideology was planted in a project contracted between two companies,” one user commented.

Another screen frame claimed to contain the inappropriate hand gesture is pictured. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Nexon took down the video a minute after midnight on Sunday and uploaded a statement right after, saying “We apologize for causing trouble by not making careful examinations during the promotional [video] production process.”

MapleStory Director Kim Chang-Seop also opened a YouTube livestream on Sunday to apologize. "We are firmly opposed to a culture where blind hate is directed to others, while no shame is felt in revealing them, as well as people who find delight in secretly revealing such [hate]," he said.

Studio Ppuri also published a statement apologizing for the controversy. The studio promised to take action by editing the videos and said they would exclude the animation staff behind the video from any future promotional video production.

The studio and company’s responses sparked heated debates on social media, where onlookers argued about the validity of the initial claims, and whether Nexon was in the right for immediately backing down to what some users called “ideology verification.”

It is not the first time a domestic game giant has faced the issue of the problematic hand gesture, with Smilegate, one of Korea’s biggest video game developers and the creator of “Lost Ark,” removing an “OK” motion made by avatars after receiving complaints that it was sexist.

Game Dungeon and Fighter is also claimed by some community users to contain the inappropriate hand gesture. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Screenshots of other videos with the hand gesture were also posted later on the same day, including those from Nexon's Dungeon and Fighter and Blue Archive and Smilegate's Epic Seven.

“The game community has found a ‘switch’ they can turn on,” said a user in reference to the complaints made against the hand gesture. “Whenever they have a complaint, they press this button, and game companies voluntarily make a token expression of sincerity in response,” the user added.

“The hand gesture they claim that symbolizes megal is a natural gesture made when the hand is relaxed,” another user said.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]