• Media freedom activists have built a 125 million block library in a Minecraft map called the “Uncensored Library” which contains a collection of banned publications and is available to read for users within oppressive regimes that otherwise censor such information.
  
• The publications are available in English and the original language. The texts within the library are contained in in-game book items, which can be opened and placed on stands to be read by multiple players at once. These articles generally discuss censorship, unjust punishment, and other critiques of the writer’s government.
  
• The Uncensored Library works because though many of the works currently within the library are censored, the Minecraft software is not currently censored in any country.
  
• The Chinese government may try to lean on Microsoft to remove the map from within the game. Worst yet, the Chinese government may leave the map up and instead use their powers to log information on who accesses the Uncensored Library within Minecraft and China and forward that information to their internet police.

Gaming activism is not new. It started as early as 2004 when video games broke into the world of politics, advocacy, and activism. In April 2020, Hong Kong protesters began to shift their protest actions to the virtual world of Animal Crossing because of the restriction of public gatherings in the name of health security. The game was used by Hong Kong activists to spread pro-democracy messages, and consequently it was removed from sale on websites in China.

In July/August, protesters in the US also started to voice out in Animal Crossing and other video games such as World of Warcraft, Splatoon, ToonTown, Grand Theft Auto, and NBA 2K20. In The Sims, a BLM rally hosted by Ebonix (as her avatar is known) was attended by at least 200 players. (from The Guardian)

A spin-off of ‘Heung Shing Online’ was launched on 31 December 2019 (with revenue from advertisements donated to the cause). This time it is a real game but in a milder/more peaceful form. It’s actually an information sharing app in disguise of a game. In the app, protesters can find a timeline of major events, memes, information about protest schedules, frontliners’ tasks and a map of all the yellow shops (shops that voice out for the movement) etc. Once you enter the app, you can create your own character like in any other game. There are both tasks online and in real life that you can complete. For online tasks you can tweet info or ‘like’ a post on other protest apps such as LIHKG; for real life tasks you can participate in street protests or visit yellow shops. Once a task is completed, points can be earned.

The story of ‘Heung Shing Online’ is fascinating. It’s a perfect demonstration of how the virtual and physical realms are blurred. The yellow text in the above image reads,

‘Disclaimer: We urge all netizens to be clearheaded. Please distinguish reality from fantasy. Don’t indulge in gaming to excess. This webpage is only for the purpose of gaming, we don’t instigate nor encourage real violent acts nor criminal behaviour. We take no legal responsibility in the usage of the content of this webpage’

On 19 July 2019, one month into the Anti-ELAB movement, a netizen on LIHKG posted about their idea of creating an online game like Sim City, that mimics the street protests in Hong Kong. (LIHKG is an online forum much like reddit. It was highly influential, generating images, slogans, discussions and strategies. I would say LIHKG was the leader of the leaderless movement, especially in the early months.) On the same LIHKG post, they also uploaded a ‘strategy guide’ created with excel.

‘Heung Shing Online’ was never meant to be a real game, only the strategy guide exists. However it was labeled by pro-Beijing media as the ‘Biggest real life RPG (role-playing game)’ that instigates violence against police, the strategy guide as a training manual for frontliners, especially secondary school kids who ‘do not’ have the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy.

In the following months, netizens continued their discussions of strategies on LIHKG with gaming terminology as if the protest was a real RPG. This was to minimise the risk that one day the posts could be used against these netizens in court.

The Dutil-Dumas messages were sent out by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) scientists in 1999. Different messages about the conditions on planet Earth were represented with special symbols designed to maintain a high level of information even in a noisy reception. The whole set of characters is made by small bitmaps of 5×7 pixels.

For my residency, I will selected a series of symbols and re-create them on the virtual art space of Hong Kong’s Cattle Depot Artist Village. I will also compile my own glossary for these symbols on the studio page.

I managed to get into the Videotages Minecraft realm and be part of past residents Cattle Depot creation zone realizing I accidentally let all the animals out! I’ll try and get them back in!