“He’s more obedient than a dog… If only more of these dumb ones come along,” boasts a woman in a new video game that has fuelled a debate on sexism in China.

The players in the live-action Revenge on Gold Diggers are male protagonists lured into relationships by manipulative women who are after their money – how the man responds shapes the rest of the story.

It topped the gaming platform Steam’s sales list within hours of its release in June but controversy quickly followed. Some slammed it for reinforcing insulting gender stereotypes, while supporters say the game cautions people about love scams.

So heated was the criticism that the game’s creators quietly renamed it Emotional Anti-Fraud Simulator the next day.

But that wasn’t enough to undo the damage. The game’s lead director, Hong Kong filmmaker Mark Hu, has now been banned on several Chinese social media platforms.

The game’s creators insist they never intended to “target women” – rather they wanted to facilitate “open dialogue about emotional boundaries and the grey zones in modern dating”.

Xu Yikun, an artist who tried the game and found it deeply offensive, rejects that rationale. She accuses them of “a classic business model that thrives on generating content that sparks debate and divisions”.

Critics like her say the very term “gold digger” reeks of misogyny.

“It’s a label that’s used, all too often, on women,” Ms Xu says. “Sexist jokes and derogatory terms like these have found their way into our everyday language.”

“If you have a rich boyfriend, you are called a gold digger. If you try to make yourself look pretty, you are called a gold digger… Sometimes the label is used on you merely for accepting a drink from someone,” she adds.

Some players, however, find the criticism overblown.

“The game isn’t trying to say that all women are gold diggers… I don’t find it targeting either gender,” says 31-year-old Zhuang Mengsheng, who used a pseudonym to speak to the BBC. “Both women and men can be gold diggers.”

And yet, in the game all the “gold diggers” are women. From a fresh-faced online influencer to a go-getting entrepreneur they are all shown scheming to get the men to lavish money and gifts on them.

“Want to know if a man loves you? See how much he spends,” one of them says.

The game has divided even local media. A newspaper from the central Hubei province said the game was “labelling an entire gender as fraudsters”.

But Beijing Youth Daily praised it for its “creativity”, citing the financial impact of love scams: around 2bn yuan ($279m; £204m) in 2023, according to data from the National Anti-Fraud Centre.

“We need to put a stop to emotional fraud without delay,” it said in an editorial.

Controversy aside, sales of the game have continued to soar. It is now among China’s top ten titles for the PC platform, surpassing even Black Myth: Wukong which is reportedly the most successful Chinese game of all time.

“I don’t get why people are upset about this. If you aren’t a gold digger yourself, why should you feel attacked by this game?” says a 28-year-old man.

“I actually thought the game’s creators are very bold. These issues [like emotional fraud] aren’t widely discussed enough in China.”

Some people online have suggested the game is inspired by the real-life story of a Chinese man, known as Fat Cat on the internet, who jumped to his death last year after a breakup.

His death sparked an intense discussion online, where the term “gold digger” was liberally used, with some accusing his ex-girlfriend of exploiting him, leading him to take his life. Police have dismissed these allegations.

Women who spoke to the BBC worry that the video game perpetuates problematic gender norms in China, where society believes women belong at home, while seeing men as the primary breadwinners.

So for women, marrying well has traditionally been perceived as more important than professional success.

Official rhetoric from the male-dominated Chinese Communist Party endorses this – President Xi Jinping has repeatedly called on women to embrace their roles as “good wives and mothers”.

The government has also cracked down on a growing pool of activists demanding gender equality.

“I feel a game like that merely fans hostility between men and women,” says one woman who did not want to be named, fearing hostility online.

“It casts women, once again, as the inferior gender who have to somehow find ways to please men to earn their livelihoods.”