Iโm seeing a couple posts revealing that Valkoโs trademark finally went through.
My guess is that this is yet another piece of the puzzle as to why he got delayed. Most likely because if other companies found out that he wasnโt trademarked, you bet a competitor would snipe that wolfโs ass the second he got released in game with all his deets. Then this shit would happen.
I want to go on the record to say that this was a speculative joke and I did not have insider information.
And for clarification here is Wikipediaโs definition of the two for people who donโt know the difference between the two.
This does raise another big question thoughโฆ
Why did they delay his trademark?
More than likely those posts about Valko being a risky move because he wasnโt being mentioned in-game by name before his big release AND because Infold managed to keep him under lock and key until from I recall just mere days before his reveal stream on 6/22 (I could be wrong about this) are true.
Disclaimer: This order of events is all speculation from the crumbs we have been given and my own deductive reasoning. Do not take any of my speculation as fact.
They knew they were taking a risk and if the general public didnโt receive well to him, then they could just cancel the trademark before it got approved and scrap the whole project entirely with no baggage of having to be forced to use Valko. No trademark? No problem. He could become another companyโs issue with no repercussions on Infoldโs part whatsoever.
I do have to applaud Infold for doing this because in this day and age of all the companies sticking to โplaying it safeโ or โdoing bad things to scrape a profit and we canโt do a damn thing about itโ is getting old.
And honestly? The way they closed the story in January left a kind of โwhat now?โ kind of situation, which left it open to endless possibilities. Albeit, they really should have left a teeny tiny nugget of foreshadowing then and there of where it was going and it would have left players itching for more.
I bet money because of the very loud anti-Valko fans in China and the smear campaign, they were gonna move along with the cancellation.
I think the very loud anti-fans were just fuel for the fire (or they could have been bribed by the competitors - who knows) and was coincidence.
OR the competitors already knew/found out he wasnโt trademarked THEN ran the smear campaigns to pressure Infold to cancel Valko altogether THEN they could fight in the pit for his trademark.
And when the antis got involved and when the harassment against Infold started by going to their front door and doing the opposite of peaceful protesting to the point they had to hire security to protect themselves, THAT was when the CCP had to step in and take control of the situation to prevent this whole thing from getting out of hand and to investigate on whether or not the allegations that the public were saying about Valko was true.
(This part of the story happened within a span of a couple of days, IIRC).
The gag order was put into place to protect Infold (the LADs team specifically) from promoting anything. They were allowed to post about big issues and delays, but they had to be extremely objective about it. No fluff or sugar to persuade old and new players to download the game.
I say the LADs team specifically because Infinity Nikki, another Infold IP, has been consistently posting new videos on their Youtube channel about a new update for the past week or so.
If the allegations were true, the LADs team would have been fucked.
If the allegations werenโt true, anyone who promoted the falsities were fucked.
Turns out the latter was true and all the people involved that got found out will most likely be answering to Infoldโs legal team in the near future, if they havenโt already. I have heard that there might be a possibility that some of the people involved are minors so good job on ruining your entire life over a pixelated wolf man.
But still, the negative feedback might have been loud enough to tip the scales into cancelling Valko and LADs most likely was in the mindset to cancel the project.
However they got blindsided by something - the power of the global players.
Boycotts, spamming everything about where Valko is, continuous emails and feedback to Infold, petitions with an overall signer total of possibly near to or in the MILLIONS, positivity posts, donating money to wolf conservation instead of spending it on LADs, art, fanfics, voiceover ASMR work, an adult pleasure toy (yes, this one is real), cosplayers, plushies, merchandise, zines, and everything else in between. In the span of three weeks we were all pumping out fire content like we were in overtime.
Our positivity was so strong, I was seeing people drop works in the span of 24-48 hours after the reveal that looked like it would have taken weeks to make. And that is honestly an accomplishment I have to give a standing ovation to.
It was so strong that it warranted a mention from the CCP to Infold and the LADS team and nudge to rethink the cancellation because if they didnโt, the game was going to die.
The numbers donโt lie. The game has tanked in the last few weeks (shoutout to @cairoblair for tracking this information twice on a daily basis) on both CN and global servers and everyone agrees. If Valko isnโt released, the game is going to die.
And if they decided to release Valko after the gag order is lifted, most of us will flock back to our wolf boy, but we will never forget what happened and what we fought for.
We didnโt fight just for Valko, we fought for the gameโs existence. We were fighting for the other five too.
This is just fan theory, but I believe that despite being in their own separate bubbles with you, at the end of the day, the LADs will fight and protect each other. And if one of them was to fall, the other five wouldnโt hesitate to take a bullet for them.
Iโm not a business person, but I am a logical one. And if my money making machine stopped making money, I would definitely put the thing in the machine to make me money especially if people wanted to have it in the machine to put money into said machine.
And if Infold and LADs comes out with a statement at the end of the month when the gag order is lifted that they will be sticking to their guns and not moving forward with Valko, they are not shooting themselves in the foot with this one.
No, no, no. Keeping Valko cancelled will become a suicide mission for Infold.
