Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story publisher fights back after activists demand it be censored

Top Hat Games is fighting back after social justice activists demanded that Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story be censored over its suggestive themes.

The game itself has been characterized as a mix of Cantonese folklore set against a cyberpunk background. A young woman, Mei-Lin Mak, is dragged into a supernatural horror, and begins to question her perception of reality. She heads out to explore a derelict apartment building in Neo Hong Kong in order to piece together the stories of 14 lost souls, and the truth of her own family’s curse.

Sense has received mostly positive reviews on Steam. To be honest, it doesn’t look like anything groundbreaking. There’s certainly parts of it that are rough around the edges. Though fair dues as it seems to be indie developer Suzaku’s first title. Sense release on Steam back in August without much fanfare. Top Hat, however, had recently announced the game would be arriving on Switch. News that has suddenly gotten the Twitteratti all hot and bothered.

You see, main character Mei-Lin Mak has some rather glorious big and heavies that would make Dolly Parton proud. At least on the cover art. They’re a bit more toned down to a more sensible set of Double Dees in game. However, armchair activists have deemed the marvelous melons as inappropriate. Sense has been accused of being pornographic and promoting sexual violence against women, with calls for it to be censored.

Publisher Top Hat stepped in stating that they are aware of the demands, but neither they nor Suzaku have any intention to alter the game. They also took the opportunity to refute the claims made against them, and to call out those demanding censorship, accusing them of lying to promote their own agenda.

“As a cyberpunk game, Sense uses imagery and themes relating to a future of hyper-commercialised, over-commodified imagery as part of its cyberpunk theme and inspiration; this is reflected in ALL character designs. With that said, we expert that this is lost on those attacking the developer for being “harmful” and somehow inflicting “violence and pain”. Those who believe words or images inflict “violence” should perhaps stop spurting their own hateful, false rhetoric and also cease condoning death threats to those they disagree with,” the publisher said in a press release.

“We reject any and all of the aforementioned, brazen characterizations of the game, and would like to reiterate our principles against tampering with creator’s expressions. We would also like to reiterate this game is rated ESRB M (17+) / PEGI 18. This is not an AO game, not have any “laws been broken”, as some social media commenters have ridiculously claimed out of their biases. The game’s rating reflects the target audience, and yet this fact is lost on those who have been lead by a will to blindly crusade against their false perceptions.”

“The game will not be censored. We categorically refuse.”

Needless to say the statement did little to quell the angry mob, who have taken to social media to attack Top Hat. The publisher noted they have received hate mail and numerous death threats from social justice activists, which they have documented in a lengthily multi-post thread on their official Twitter account.

Top Hat is the latest publisher to reject demands to censor games in the wake of online hate mobs. Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red also notably refused to alter their game after it received similar vitriol due to an in-game poster featuring a woman with a dong as big as Donkey Kong’s. In that case, activists tried to label it as transphobic.

So far, it does seem like the tolerance for this toxic behaviour from SJWs is starting to wear thin. We’re only a couple days into 2021, and they’ve already been handed a couple major losses. Perhaps most notably from the Star Wars community, after a studio employee mocked a fan for getting emotional seeing Luke Skywalker in the Mandalorian. The behaviour garnered widespread condemnation from the fandom, as well as both independent and mainstream media. Finally exposing the ugliness of the movement to a much wider audience. While it’s unlikely things will change overnight, hopefully this signals a return back to artistic freedom and entertainment that’s actually fun.