please im being genuine, I've loved the franchise since like 5 years ago and have been playing DL2 for years and I haven't had any personal qualms with Techland. I genuinely, for real, want to know in-depth why you don't like them if you have the time so I can form myown opinion about this stuff because I've never really looked deep into techland's activities.
Sorry🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️I’ve been gathering info and writing this so it took me a while to prepare. Tho I cannot say I have captured the full scope of this, a lot of the older stuff has been lost and I encourage anyone who’s seeing this to add to it with any info they would like.
⚠️⚠️⚠️disclaimer: I DO NOT hate Techland. I am just very upset with how they are function as a company and have a lot to say. You are free to form your own thoughts however do NOT treat my PERSONAL rant as hate campaign/a post to stir up drama.
First of all I would like to preface this by saying I have been an active fan of the franchise for a few years and have a combined playtime of 1000+ hours on both games. I have also spent thousands of dollars on this franchise with the purchase of skins, dlc, multiple copies of the same game, merch, even ordering my own merch. I am not lying when I say I loved both games and the characters. However in the past few years my gratitude and fondness of this company and by extension the franchise came to a sudden halt because I bear witness to this company going downhill as they get very greedy.
I really tried my best defending them while a lot of the people are criticizing them but I just cannot find the strength in me to continue that ever since the first trailer of the new game dropped. I have no problem with the direction of the game as I would also like to see what happened to my past favorite protagonist. I just CANNOT agree with the fact it was done at the expense of dying light 2. I would be more than happy if the game is a new installment but the fact it REPLACES the actual DLC we were promised is upsetting. It feels like all the fans were shafted and we all had to begrudgingly make room for something we didn’t expect while slowly watching the game we all love and enjoy cast into oblivion because when’s the LAST time, and I mean it, Techland mentions anything new about DL2? And I mean just the cast of DL2 and specifically Aiden. It almost feels like they are intentionally “hiding” anything regarding because we have never seen any new update since their new title dropped. I’m sure they have their plans but isn’t that just a little weird how the PROTAGONIST of their franchise disappeared overnight and wasn’t even shown in any of the new announcements? It’s just an awful, depressing way to treat anyone who’s a fan of the game as they continue to act like this. My problem right now isn’t the overly aggressive way they are becoming a sellout for money it’s the way they appeal to certain parts of the community while neglecting the others (Oh and I will mention it later). Almost as if they are making a shift to…dare I say grift towards a group of people. It’s no secret that money is their priority right now ever since the DL point system dropped. First of all we need to establish an ingame micro transaction is a scam through and through as you mostly see them in gachas or live update/pvp games while DL has always been solo player focused with occasional coop updates. So may I ask WHY this was ever a thing? It’s a very predatory way of making cash and I will show you
Not only is this currency very overpriced because a few bucks for a bundle is the greed they mention in the Bible and Ub*soft headquarters but if you would look at the prices of each individual purchase most of them are just above the first top up (around 550 DL points) and under the second. Which means if you were to buy one bundle you would have to buy specifically the second, more expensive one with 450 points to spare and waste (Which, is not enough to purchase anything else and you would have to spend money on yet another set). This is a very predatory and aggressive way of designing their system and some you only see in gachas so I was very surprised when I saw them chose this direction (Again I am very guilty for defending them at the time for being a diehard fan but we all grow right). Which is made even worse because, oh, they chose to cut out the DLC as its own entry which means not only all the money you spent on the accessories cannot be redeemed or transferred the hundred of hours you spent on getting better at the game and gathering materials preparing for the dying light 2 followup game is now wasted. (Coming from someone who spent WEEKS gathering ammo in preparation for the new game and now it’s just. Ugh). Continuing.
And I have to ask, why? Not to mention the power creeping and pay to win features a few of the bundles include. This is a SINGLE PLAYER focused game so a company that prides themselves on being “a few of the good ones” really really really shouldn’t be doing so.
(If you want a more in depth explanation of why this is yucky here’s a video by oni a very trustworthy member of the community explaining it and I highly highly recommend it, just watch the first couple minutes and you’ll see)
This really was the slow beginning of a fast death and the first sign they were not really what they promised. Speaking of which, a lot of the promised feature they still haven’t fulfilled, and it’s already the 3rd year of the game. So it really wouldn’t be too unreasonable for us fans who love the game to feel disappointed, yes?
I would also like to mention the big oof I have with a lot of the ways they are managing their people and how they hosted a contest in march and some friends and I still haven’t received our prizes and the new manager have been taking weeks to respond but these are either personal or confidential so I don’t want to discuss it here but
I’ve been hinting at it for a while but. Here. This is the REAL reason why I have such an issue with Techalnd.
I have debated holding everything because I thought it would all be unnecessary drama/useless info but I do think it’s a very important matter to address.
The whitewashing and mistreatment of Lawan.
If you are outta the loop, in January of this year Techland dropped a new “skin” for Lawan that is weirdly enough…not obtained by any means but a free “gift” automatically sent to every old and new player’s inventory. This is weird. And I will explain why.
First of all we should take a look at the skin itself. The description says it’s a celebratory item for Chinese New Years and Lawn is Asian here. But. Here’s the actual thing. ITS STILL WHITEWASHING!!!
“Oh but she’s Asian!” Sure, a minority. But you are very much erasing the presence of a BLACK woman. And the skin is much lighter. Which, they also erased all of her BIPOC features and gave her snow white skin and thin lips with petite nose.
And I really didn’t want to show a pukefest on my blog. Yet. Look at this. An official art. It’s just a fucking Caucasian woman. The features. The facial structure. So please save the “she’s erm still woc!” because this is NOT what representation is
But this isn’t even scratching the surface because guess who this skin is actually made for? Yes! The Chinese! And particularly, a group of specific people.
And here’s where I take a detour to explain the background (it’s going to be a long read but trust me this is very important) and I will have to mention a trigger warning for the upcoming themes of racism, colorism, and misogyny.
So…coming from a Chinese girly myself I have a lot to share. The Chinese gaming community is deeply problematic. And the average male gamer is miles worse than any right wing twitter dudebro gamer’s wet dream. They are serving casual racism when their more advanced east Asian counterpart are in the competitives. Ever since the beginning of the game DL2 has been gathering a lot of hate from the Chinese male player base. Not because of the game itself, but why?
Ever since the game launched the netizens have been gathering and parading their hate boner for the woman lead of the game. Because 1. She’s black. 2. They all think she’s hideous. 3. They claim she’s a DEI feminist politically correct insert which apparently justified calling her “ape” “monkey” “n word” or EVERY slur under the sun.
(Translation: searching term Lawan Ape with a lot of results)
If you were to search up “Lawan” in the Chinese gaming community, the very top results are ALL exclusively about how UGLY she is, and if fact, she was so “famously” disastrous that so, so many people who don’t even PLAY the game knows and hates on her. In fact, I’d argue this is what the game is most known for in the Chinese gamer community. It even became a meme at one point (“Character so ugly we’d prefer the volatile”). Her name has been synonymous with “female volatile” (say that specific phrase to a Chinese DL gamer and they would instantly know you’re talking about her). And they are so fucking disgusting and racist. If you’re Asian you would know and experience this. Sidenote: if you want proof then look no further than steam reviews on this game. Don’t believe me? Put the language filter on Chinese and experience it for yourself.
(The video shown in the pic raving about how she’s worst than a volatile has almost one million views and sitting at the very top of the search result when you look up videos on dying light 2.)
Again I’m sorry for the over explaining but this is significant because I’m certain none of you are really aware of how BAD everything is over there. The context is very important. Because this is not just the minority but the loud, malicious and majority of the community. The problem is rampant. And I do NOT for a second believe Techland isn’t made aware of all this.
(Comparison of data. The profiles are of the official Techland account on the social media where all the racist comments are from and you can see they are clearly very active on there and for reference here’s is CDPR’s numbers and you can see they have almost twice as much followers as them).
So…here’s my problem. Techland. Techland. Look at her. You clearly made the reskinned white girl with the Chinese gamer community in mind. IS THIS REALLY THE DEMOGRAPHIC YOU WANT TO APPEAL???
You not only are mindful of the bigoted player base you are now actively grifting towards all of them. With successful results too because of all the people who say they will “finally” give your game a chance now that Lawan isn’t ugly and evident by the spike of positive reviewing when the skin was launched, around this specific time.
And this is abysmal to see as someone active in both communities. There are better people you could attract. I remember when I made a joke about how this skin coincidentally announced two days after the orange man sits in office but there are clearly a lot of people who unironically thinks like that.
(Comment posted: “should we be thanking old Trump for this?”)
All the bigoted players loudly celebrating and “thank god for trump” and relishing in this historical moment as if this is some triumphant moment of them “winning” as they relish in their chants of “fuck the feminists”, tell me, is this really what you want as your core audience?
See this is why I have a problem with this. Rosaria Dawson, the main actress for Lawan, was very much unfairly hated in the community. And Techland…well Techland never defended her much. You are a fucking huge gaming company with influence, and it boils my blood when I see them do absolute jackshit to protect her from the rampant fans being disgusting to her when the game first launched. And now they are even replacing her presence from the game. She’s your fucking lead actress ffs. I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist but it just feels like now they are saying well, beats me. And moves on to something that brings them money.
If you read up till now I believe you are invested in the specific topic. And I guess I’ll post the full pic. Warning for obvious reasons. I know most of you haven’t seen this or is made aware of its presence because it’s an event item SPECIFICALLY limited to Chinese players and is not available oversees and has never been posted to any English based platform (I am not going to argue they don’t have any chemistry in the story but. Gosh. They were never this close. This whole art of “randomly selling manly guy and pretty lady relationship” is weird). So again, I must ask, why are you bootlicking these people???
I’m very sorry for getting so heated and I’m sure this isn’t what you’re looking for. But I must, I really have to shed some light on this discussion. I was and still am hesitant about posting this because it concerns a lot of infohazard and stuff behind the scenes. I am not calling them deceitful in anyway but. This has been an ongoing matter for a while and I don’t think anyone in the English speaking part of the community is aware of what this is. I am just very disappointed they are in a way appealing to a group of deeply hateful people and I believe anyone who loves the game deserves to be aware. But right now as for the question you asked, why I have such an issue with them. I just can’t find my self in any good conscience to support a company who is not only aware of parts of their very problematic fanbase but is actively grifting/benefiting off them. And for now, as for myself a once very loyal fan of the franchise I am no longer interested with seeing their future endeavors.
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