lotus pond

Art and rambles

[akuma-ren]

Preview of my piece for Linkon High: A Love and Deepspace Zine!

Pre-orders are available until August 17th! There are lot of talented creatives involved in this project! I hope you'll check it out!!!

https://linkonhigh-zine.bigcartel.com/

[akuma-ren]

Infold, the ball's in your court.

[cairoblair]

Find all other reports here! Current protest info here! Join the Discord!

GOOD MORNING WOLFPACK!! I BRING GOOD NEWS!! I'm not going to make you read an intro because I have too much to say.

Morning Report 7/15/2026

CN Media

Guys...we have POSITIVE articles. Several.

And, here's the kicker: they're from STATE MEDIA—aka, not a source that can be paid off. One article was posted by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). China Reform Network has high political standing and authoritative credibility, according to CN players. Because I'm in the US, I can't access the article directly.

But! It was posted in other places. Here is a link to the article on iNews.qq, and I will include the screenshot below. Here is another link if that one doesn't work.

Guys, I really hope you understand how incredible this is. CHINESE MEDIA is shifting. STATE MEDIA.

The Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation also posted on Weibo saying, "The new character Ao Yin has not been found to violate China's regulations on game content management. Based on the evidence, it can’t be proven that 'Love & Deepspace' engaged in false advertising." Basically, they confirmed that adding a 6th LI did not violate any kind of consumer law, nor was it grounds to claim false advertising.

A CN user on X also offered some speculation on the nature of the smear campaign. Here is the link to the post and a summarized translation (which is pasted below).

In summary, what this post is essentially saying is: Anyone who engaged in rumor mongering, smear tactics, mass negativity, fake engagement or even attacks on Love or Deepspace may have themselves broken Chinese laws and regulations. Sachi makes clear that there are Chinese regulations that prohibit: dissemination of any false information regarding a business, harming the reputation of a business, organization of malicious reviews or harassment online, use of bots, paid accounts, AI-generated posts, and "water armies" to shape public discourse, exploitation of controversies in connection with major product releases. This post further contends that an attack on a successful Chinese game with such an international following runs counter to China's very objective of exporting their cultural and entertainment content abroad. The bottom line being…if the anti-Valko campaign involves coordination, misinformation, and/or reputation attacks, then it may very well be the orchestrators of the movement who are in violation of Chinese law and policy, and not the individuals supporting the character. Again, the post is not making any claim about this having been legally established. It's simply pointing out that, based on a sufficient chain of evidence, there could be grounds for an investigation.

This is HUGE. All of this is paving the way for Infold to bring Valko back. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

HOWEVER! The war isn't won yet. Keep boycotting, keep protesting, keep being loud. The Chinese media has noticed us, and that means Infold has too. Don't stop here—if anything, this is the time to push harder.

I want to get this report out to you as quickly as possible, so I'll include some minor updates in a smaller report in a little while. Sending my love! <3

[akuma-ren]

All I can do is laugh now.

I await your downfall.

[akuma-ren]

Guys the coming soon is gone. Its over.

Please check this thread if you dont believe me

Edit 2: a video.

[akuma-ren]

Ive made the decision to completely stop playing lads. Going forward i will no longer be drawing lads or creating/restocking any merchandise. My heart is broken by infold's decision and my trust is shattered. I cannot in good conscience continue playing and contributing knowing time, work, and jobs were sacrificed for the sake of the remaining 5.

If you followed for lads, feel free to unfollow. Im sorry but at this point im exhausted. Since this week has taken a toll on me emotionally and mentally, I do want to push to finish the valko merch I had planned due to all the support. But it will take a while for me to recover.

On June 30th, as I was recording my rafayel kindleds and preparing to say my goodbyes, I left lemurian sea god for last. In my 2 years of playing, I never once felt that rafayel and I we're talking to eachother until that moment. For those 2-3 minutes he felt real.

I'll never forget the memories Ive made, the people ive met and the wonderful opportunities that came my way because of this game. I'll do my best to keep those in my heart.

Thank you for everything.

[akuma-ren]

Sorry ive been IA here im literally on the front lines of Twitter fighting for valko

[cairoblair]

Find all other reports here!

PM Report 7/5/2026

Good evening everyone! I know these past few days have been a lot, but we can't lose hope! We're on day six of the protest, and we've made a HUGE impact. Keep fighting!

Little note, today I purchased a wolf tracking bracelet from Fahlo! They are partnered with AZA’s Red Wolf SAFE Program, which maintains healthy Red Wolf populations under human care to aid reintroduction efforts, raise awareness for Red Wolves, and support research vital to the recovery and management of this important species. Buying the Scout (wolf tracking) bracelet gives a direct donation to the SAFE program! I paid about $20 (including shipping), so I encourage you to do the same if you're able!

As of 7:00PM CDT:

The claw machine in-game was updated for CN players without any announcement from Infold. The new raccoon plush weirdly resembles one of the hosts of the 6.0 Livestream. Remember, the two hosts were a raccoon and a wolf.

LADS following: Instagram 917k, X 656.6k, TikTok 890.1k, YouTube 324k. Over 100k total followers lost. They've even resorted to bots...

Petitions: 227.5k and 92.6k

This is a link to the JP petition. Please sign it as well!

We've raised over $6,000 in 24 hours for a wolf conservation facility in China

Latin American fans are also starting a GoFundMe for an organization that protects Mexico's gray wolves.

Valko is still #7 on the most popular character list on Weibo. The other LIs and one character I don't recognize are above him, but this is massively impressive!

The8BitDrummer did a cover of Tameless Territory on one of his streams!

The CN pro-Valko girls tracking their spending have reached over 100M RMB, which is about $13.8M USD

Infold's daily revenue has hit a new low of about $88k. I know it still seems like a lot, but we're talking about a company that makes $500k a day during limited banners.

Thames Malerose cosplayed Valko today at AX2026! And there was a whole Valko meetup!

I haven't seen anything new about the legal side of things since this morning, but I can only assume the police are still investigating those who spread misinformation about LADS and Valko

The official LADS account keeps getting ratioed BAD. Just go glance at Instagram or X and look at the likes vs the comments LOL

I've seen SO many people on various platforms posting something along the lines of, "Idk anything about the game, but #bringvalkoback." Our reach is INSANE!

Important!

DO NOT interact with CN players on RedNote or Weibo. They are trying to use sinophobia as a new tactic. If you post on either site, do so respectfully and kindly. Do not respond to hateful comments.

DO NOT post on RedNote or Weibo on July 7th. Please ensure that you're paying attention to the time zone difference. July 7th is a historically important day in China. In 1937, it marks the date that Chinese troops clashed outside Beijing, triggering the Second Sino-Japanese War and the full-scale Japanese invasion of China.

If you are not currently boycotting, remember that July 9th is Blackout Day. If nothing else, DO NOT LOG IN on July 9th.

CN players' protest is different than ours. They need to raise the rating in their app stores, and we need to continue to lower ours. Both sides need to emphasize that LADS helps international players appreciate Chinese culture.

Remember!

DO NOT LOG IN! We're still trying to affect their DAU metric.

Don't expect a statement from Infold until Wednesday. With Anime Expo this weekend, and a historical day in China on the 7th, it's unlikely they will say anything about the situation until then.

Keep fighting! Antis worked for seven days to get Valko's release cancelled. We have to continue to make noise in order to be louder than them. Many companies will wait out protests for a few days to see if they fizzle out.

Don't lose hope! We're making a HUGE impact!

Please remember that this boycott is not just about Valko. The CN fans deserve an apology for the 731 incident, global fans deserve recognition, we need more MC customization options for darker skin tones—there are a lot of issues involved.

Take care of yourselves. Take breaks, eat, drink water, and get plenty of rest. We're in this together <3

Resources ↓

#BRINGVALKOBACK

Notes Do NOT log into the game. We need to affect their DAU metric (daily active users) Unfollow on social media (Instagram, X, TikTok, etc.

p.s. imagine they drop 6.0 on the 9th and Valko is just there like nothing ever happened LOL hopium is copium

[widow-of-valko]

Keep Boycotting #BringValkoBack

TLDR: Keep boycotting, uninstalls and reviews will not lead to immediate EOS. Do not believe anything not from a reliable source.

I'm seeing a LOT of misinformation going around about the boycott. This always happens in boycotts for various reasons, especially if they are as big and successful as ours. Because of this, I wanted to make a big post outlining why you should still uninstall and boycott the game.

You will hear a lot of people telling you that you should log in and keep the game installed to "support Valko" and prevent the game from going EOS. They will say things like "you'll hear big news in 2 hrs that I can't tell you about" to get you riled up or make big claims like "he will be back in 2 months, so keep logging in!"

Do not believe these claims unless they have an actual reliable source. I have seen so many people blindly liking posts that are at best rumours and at worst blatant lies. The most annoying lie I have seen is if you review bomb the game, it will EOS. This is false.

This is not the first time Infold has ruined a game. They have ruined many. The most recent example was Infinity Nikki, in which they completely retconned the beginning of the game and gave us the Sea of Stars update, better known as the Sea of Shit update. We don't need to get too into specifics; all you need to know is this: it got review bombed HARD. To this day, these are the current ratings of the game on both app stores:

Again, these are just what they are now, they were of course much lower at the actual time. When was this? Over a year ago and the game still gets updated just like normal. Why? Because the app store doesn't terminate games based on bad ratings. That is not a thing and has never been a thing. Anyone who says otherwise is misinformed. Do not fall for that fear mongering.

I would also like to point out that while Nikki is a franchise that does well for itself, it does not make 40 MILLION dollars a MONTH. Think about that for a second. Every month, Infold makes $40 million from LADS alone. Don't believe me? Good! Don't believe anything without a source, so here is mine:

There is a gacha revenue report every month. As you can see, they made $38 million dollars in June and they were the #1 gacha game in terms of income. I want it to be very clear that I did not cherry pick their best performing month with the most popular banners and events. This is from this last month. In fact, they made almost $50 MILLION in May.

Do you really think that the #1 gacha game in the world that makes $40 million a MONTH is going to EOS immediately if we don't log in for a bit? That would be stupid. You are being tricked into panicking when there is no reason to.

The only true fear you should have in regard to EOS at this point in time is if it is true they're being investigated by the Chinese Government. However, that is out of our hands at this point, and our actions do not have an impact on that. I also have seen a lot of misinformation about this that uninstalling and not logging in would affect this somehow. Tell me: why would the Chinese government care about how many foreigners are logging into the game? If the issue is that the game has "harmful" content they don't want in their country, do you really think that they'll look at high foreigner log-in numbers and go "oh wow this game is popular we can't delete it"? NO! They don't care; they want to censor content they deem "harmful" they don't care about our opinions. They banned AO3 ffs.

In summary, you are welcome to do whatever you like. I cannot force anyone to do anything nor can anyone else. However, if the reason you do not want to boycott is because you're afraid the game will immediately EOS, I do want to reassure you that is not likely to happen. Despite how stupid Infold is, they're unlikely to shut the game down over this if they kept Infinity Nikki going with a much smaller revenue potential. We deserve to be treated better and the way to do that is through boycotting and making noise, not by continuing to give money to a company that does not appreciate us.

Please keep fighting. The Valko antis got what they wanted from boycotting and harassing Infold for a week. We need to keep up a similar pace if we want the changes we want to see to happen. Not just the return of Valko, but also ways to farm diamonds, more story updates, etc. We deserve better. Do not give into fear.

[actuallys8n]

‼️ LADS PLAYERS ‼️

KEEP OUR EFFORTS ORGANIZED!

2026/7/3–7/9 全球玩家接力進行為期七天的 #KeepValkoAlive 聲援行動，每日更換平台，7/9 以拒玩行動作結。

This site was created by fans with the goal to keep Valko’s hashtags trending until July 9th. Find your time zone for peaceful online protesting by scrolling down the page.

JULY 9TH IS THE OFFICAL LADS BLACKOUT DATE. DO NOT LOG IN OR INTERACT WITH THE OFFICIAL LADS ACCOUNTS. IF YOU WANT TO REMAIN ACTIVE, CONTINUE TO USE THE HASHTAGS ACROSS SNS.

#BringValkoBack

#SaveValko

#KeepValkoAlive

[akuma-ren]

Deadass genuinely how do u support a game that actively chooses not to welcome you? (RE: dark skin tones) especially after how loud so many mainland fans were about valko being "too dark"

girl dpmo, I already uninstalled the game and dont plan on playing again if infold doesnt return valko.

CN players spouting racist shit is not the same as the developers. Get tf out my inbox.

[calebs-slavicgirl]

what is happening as of this hour

the situation surrounding love and deepspace and valko has reached the state/governmental level in china.

here is what is happening right now:

1. the decision to delete calko was a panic-driven, spontaneous move.

just 3 days ago, infold was planning to keep him. however, haters flooded government regulatory bodies with complaints and even brought manure and funeral wreaths to the office. in a state of pure panic, the studio decided to "sacrifice" the character to save the entire project.

2. the issue has reached beijing.

the game has received an official warning. however, the shanghai municipal government (where the developers are based) is currently desperately defending the studio before beijing. this is because love and deepspace pays massive taxes into the city’s budget (in 2025 alone, the game generated nearly $380,000,000!). shanghai does not want to lose such a cash cow over internet trolls. everything will be decided in the coming days.

3. the chinese fandom has started a rebellion.

right now, cip players (who have collectively spent over 4 million RMB on the game) are coordinating a late-night siege of weibo's trending topics. tomorrow, they plan to hold a PROTEST with fresh flowers in front of the infold office to prove to the authorities that reasonable, paying players vastly outnumber the haters!

4. infold is in a panic, holding emergency meetings.

summer events are already being canceled or postponed on the japanese account — everything is falling apart because they had no plan b. the official account is losing thousands of followers every minute.

u can also read a chinese player's thoughts on this matter here

if you have even the slightest desire to help, you can do so by following these steps ‼️

HOW CAN WE HELP RIGHT NOW?

we need to support both the chinese fandom. we must flood official chinese media outlets and customer support with emails stating that the game does NOT violate any laws, that valko is clean, and that his cancellation is purely the result of a harassment campaign by haters

📬 where to send:

chinese state media : [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

developer support: [email protected], [email protected]

✉️ email text:

Dear Editors / Support Team,

I am writing to express my deep concern over the targeted cyber-harassment campaign against the game "Love and Deepspace" and its character, Valko. As global players, we want to emphasize that "Love and Deepspace" strictly adheres to international standards and corporate compliance. The game does not violate any laws. The recent wave of negative rumors was entirely fabricated by a radical group of anti-fans who used cyber-bullying tactics to force a scandal. By abruptly canceling Valko due to this malicious pressure, the developers have harmed millions of legitimate global consumers who have heavily invested in the game. We respectfully urge the regulatory authorities to recognize that the game is a compliant, legally sound cultural product. We request that the malicious rumors be dismissed, and the character Valko be safely restored to the servers.

Thank you for your time.

[akuma-ren]

I need everyone to know that "dont bathe in the pot" isnt referencing a crime. It's the story of the 3 little pigs.

[akuma-ren]

Im so heartbroken yknow. I dont know how lads will recover. I've been here almost since launch and have made amazing memories and met so many cool people..im watching it all crumble

[akuma-ren]

Its this part that makes me think valko isnt gone completely. Maybe im OD-ing on copium

[akuma-ren]

wait I read the announcement as valko being delayed and put back in the oven not getting axed completely.....

[akuma-ren]

YOOOO I wonder just how fucked things are in cn for them to do this??????