Kerbal Space Program is best known for being the most feature-rich space flight simulation game on the market. However, this week the narrative has turned to social justice as thousands of players have found themselves offended by a line of text in the game.
The controversial line of text is featured front and center on the main menu, ornamented on a space shuttle that's crash landed on the moon. The text reads:
不到mun非好汉.
This was initially translated by a Steam user to the following:
Without reaching Mun you are not a good male.
However, since then there's been wild debate about what the translation was intended to say. The general consensus is it's inspired by a popular Chinese proverb that reads very similarly but with gender neutrality. If this was the case—and it's likely—, then the translation was intended to say something along the lines of, "Without reaching Mun you are not a [hero]."
Also See: Stunning Images From Outer Space
That hasn't stop a 127-page thread from erupting on the Steam forums, though. Many Chinese gamers described the words as offensive, particularly because China is a major world power that is yet to send a manned shuttle to the Moon.
Kerbal Space Program is now being carpet bombed by some of these offended gamers who have given it a flood of downvotes triggering a 'Mixed' review average this week, a huge departure from its previous rating of 'Overwhelmingly Positive'. This trend is clearly visible on its review page, which includes the alert: "high volume of negative reviews detected".
Some recent reviews read:
STUPID FEMINAZI You dumass dev change the chinese translation without even asking people who contribute to the translation work, for an stupid FEMINAZI who just played this game for 7 hours and who don't even understand the basic chinese language. "好汉" is a word used to describe both men and women, ONLY PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T FINISHED THEIR PRIMARY SCHOOL WILL MISUNDERSTAND IT.
Since, we are not allow to discuss the Chinese translation.
So Bad review is the only thing I can do :)
♥♥♥♥ off,political correctness
Out of the many games that I have this is absolutly my favorite. P.S. WTF china
Many Chinese gamers are hoping the development team will cave due to pressure and change the quote on the main menu and issue an apology.
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