Games worth discovering

DNF’s Extensive Modification of Character Art Frustrates Players

1K View2022-11-14

On October 27th, many Chinese Dungeon & Fighter (DNF) players on the test server of the game found that the upcoming patch had a large number of changes to the game’s art, which included characters, enemy monsters, scenes, skills, and other in-game items,

These adjustments, stored in a 7 GB file, turned red elements into gray or green, as red is often associated with blood and violence. Many characters’ facial expressions featuring sharp teeth had been changed into mild smiles, and the wings and crosses, considered related to religion, had been directly removed.

A before and after of the modifications to DNF

The scope of these changes was unprecedented, and players have said these may be the largest adjustments since the game was launched 14 years ago.

Posts and videos discussing it quickly went viral on game forums such as NGA, Tieba, and Bilibili, but soon after that, Tieba's hottest topic was replaced by another DNF topic.

As for the reasons for these changes, rumors said that DNF's mobile game and client version used the same game license, which was needed for the legal sale and operation of games in China.

In order to make the mobile version easily pass the regulators’ review, DNF’s operators had probably used the client version as a reference and delivered it to regulators. However, the review standard for mobile games is stricter, resulting in more significant modifications to DNF.

Last month, some players spotted a similar modification in the mobile game Path to Nowhere. Some game characters, which might be considered suggestive, were changed to have less skin showing.

However, regarding the scope of the revision on DNF, some players speculated that the game’s operators might have overreacted and the actual regulations were not as strict as the changes made.

Players guessed these changes were made by Artificial Intelligence and additionally condemned how the changes had been irresponsibly churned out.

Crosses in DNF have been removed or changed to other shapes.

In fact, players were not strongly opposed to necessary modifications, especially for violent content that minors may be exposed to, given that there is no game rating system in China. But they hoped that these changes could be better adapted to the game scenes and be more refined.

Because of the loss of enjoyment and familiarity, the changes may cause many people to leave DNF in the near future. An official was said to be considering launching some gift packages to compensate gamers, but those may do little to help retain players.

A remark widely circulated in the community was that of players hoping that this revision would not be the straw that breaks the camel's back, especially since this game has already experienced its heyday.

Source: Tieba

Mentioned games