Controversy over feminism, again: Kakao Games cancels plan to include a design in Guardian Tales after receiving complaints from users

The announcement of the contest posted by Guardian Tales (left photo) and responses from users criticizing the company’s decision to overturn the initial decision. Courtesy of A, from the Guardian Tales community

When users raised an issue with the feminist ideas of a female artist who took part in a contest organized by Guardian Tales, a mobile game by Kakao Games, the organizer, which said it would include the contest winner in the game, overturned its decision just seven hours after announcing the winner. The company claimed that it was not because of the gender issue, but some people criticized the company for repeatedly accepting the demands of some game users who screen the social media accounts of female artists and raise an issue.

According to the coverage by the Kyunghyang Shinmun on October 16, Guardian Tales held a Unique Costume (costume design) Contest in August. The mobile game Guardian Tales was developed by Kong Studios and distributed by Kakao Games. Artists displayed their works for three weeks and users voted to select the top ten artists in the contest. When announcing the contest, the company said that they would include some of the winners in the game after internal discussions. In other words, they would dress some of the characters in the winning costumes. Guardian Tales announced the ten winners at 4 p.m. September 27. The design by A, a freelance fan art (art created by a fan) artist who took part in Guardian Tales contests many times, was selected as the top winner.

The problem occurred shortly after the announcement. Users combed through A’s personal social media account and, in the DC Inside Gallery and the Guardian Tales community, raised an issue with her posts. A had constantly shared posts on women’s rights and the labor rights of female workers in the game world on her social media account. Users shared A’s posts and collectively protested asking why the company chose a feminist artist. Some users even argued, “They should exclude users involved in controversy over feminism from the winners of the contest. If they can’t cancel the prize, they should at least not include it (the design) in the game.”

Around 11 p.m. that day, Guardian Tales revised their announcement on the contest winners and excluded A’s work from the costumes that were to be included in the game. The company accepted the users’ opposition, and it took them less than seven hours to overturn the decision. The company never informed A about their change of mind.

In a phone call with the reporter, A said, “It’s outrageous how I was subject to verification just because I retweeted an opinion (about female and gender issues),” and added, “The decision to exclude my work from the game is the same as the company accepting the argument by malicious users as one representing all users.”

The company said the change was not caused by the gender issue. A representative of Kakao Games said, “Controversy was stirred in a contest organized for fun, and since it could continue to recall this issue, we excluded the work from the costumes that would be included in the game.”

But after the company changed their mind, many people responded with comments such as “I’ve never seen a company screen the social media account of a contest winner before” and “This is deplorable” in the Guardian Tales online community. Kim Min-seong, head of the PM User Association, said, “That the feminist philosophy of an artist who participated in a contest as well as female workers working in game companies were evaluated shows the reality of the game world,” and argued, “The bigger problem is that the company removed the costume from those to be included in the game without additional verification, such as checking with the artist in question, after just listening to biased views (of some users).”