Why they say oriental and not Chinese? It's like they are trying to cover up that it's a Chinese game -_-
Other weird thing, Steam has demo and Chinese only, GOG has English only.
Steam definition is "Firework is a Chinese horror puzzle game.". GOG definition is "Firework is an oriental horror puzzle game.". Weird marketing!

Don't see why they'd bother.....Chiina has put limits on citizen's gaming/etc, which means the average Chiinese citizen(those not "visiting the grand country of V-P-N") will likely buy/play less from Gog and other game stores.

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The above aside, the game looks decent enough, so onto the wishlist for now.

Yea that is kinda weird. I'm still of the opinion that 'oriental' as a descriptor for anything slightly asian is hella old. Not even offensive imo, it's past that, like oh you old man still saying that. Although I dunno if it was considered super offensive ever, just wrong.

The discrepancy between the Steam and GOG descriptions is also interesting.

Anyone tried the game yet?

Fireworks are banned this year! Try again next year or so...

I had no idea it could be or was considered offensive. And why would it? No one finds the terms "western" or "western world" offensive. It's simply a descriptor, no different than "Eastern Europe". I don't know, maybe it was a bit different in the english speaking world, but in Poland the word "orientalny" has absolutely no negative connotations (if anything it's quite the contrary). And I guess it's probably still more commonly in use here.

Oriental is considered a negative term in the US (and the UK I think) because of historical reasons.

In Spain is the same as in Poland, "oriental" is just the neutral term to talk about that world region (basically anything east of Europe in old times but now mostly East Asia.)

But since we are using English to communicate, we have deal with their history on top of our own when we talk, but that's just the internet we live in.

Long story short in the US side of things politically correct culture and ''outraged for other people '' and ''moral policing '' has gotten to be a regular thing in varies ways in the US depending where you are at and even more noticable on the net ..

Edited in still with that said this game looks interesting

Covering over BanditKeith2's terrible explanation, there's more nuance to things than they're implying. Recall if you will, the massive propaganda machine that the World Wars were. In essence, the entire stratum of Asia ended up getting painted much the same as the former image of Darkest Africa. Including cultural stereotypes such as voodoo, tower masks, shrunken heads, headhunters, and more. Please note in your copybooks the items that don't even belong to African Cultures.

The gist being, someone from Laos isn't going to have the same culture as someone from Korea. "Oriental" makes the same broad strokes in English as assuming that everyone from Africa practices Voodoo.

For more concrete evidence as to why Oriental is a bad choice, see the confused replies directly below. (12 & 13)

I think the fact Chinese and China are replaced by oriental is weirder.
Considering the game's plot seems to be explicitly based around Chinese history.

Of course, I and others could just be reading too much into it, but considering the past hooplaa, can you blame us.

Anyways, if you care about Steam reviews, seems like people enjoy it. AKA Overwhelmingly Positive on both recent and overall.

Eh that too yes but my point was its less that as the majority of those waring against it and other simlar phrases is not because of that sort of thing but rather just that they think its inherently racist to say such a phrasing. When in truth its more so just lumping groups together or when unsure who is from what together.. Atleast in more modern uses and thus it atleast was known in more modern usage as a way to''not make oneself to be a jackass by assuming '' on who and what something is from..thus it was in modernish usage basically a ''better safe to be in general rather then to seem like a jerk by assuming '' factor

Edited in'; Still on the game its one of the more interesting horror/thriller takes I have seen so far so it seems to be up my ally of a game

Just because a term is a very general descriptor does not make it offensive. European cultures are also very varied but no one finds the general term "European" offensive. I think. These days, it's hard to tell.

Anyway, all I'm saying is that the term is not in itself offensive, it's obviously not meant in such fashion, and if for someone it carries some negative connotations, or completely incorrect assumption, they are certainly not universal nor inherent to that word and its use. Unless someone is really starving to meet a quota of outraged hashtags on twitter today, there's really nothing evil going on here.

yes. yes I can.