I know everyone is currently very upset with the update and the situation in general, myself included, but I feel like a large chunk of the community is not looking at all the facts at this time, so I thought I'd share my thoughts as someone who's been closely following the situation since the very beginning. Do keep in mind that I am just as distraught as everyone else and I’m not trying to defend the company or really anyone in the situation, this is all just food for thought.
The main thing that a lot of people are disregarding is the involvement of the Chinese government in the whole situation. While it is true that we don't know the full extent of their involvement as none of us work at infold, I do have a possible perspective to share. Their government is very strict with their media and censorship, so after antis started reporting the game to them, they obviously started looking into the game and keeping an eye on it, I have no doubt about that. And considering how many lies were made up about Valko that could potentially have some consequences with the law, it is possible that infold had no choice but to (temporarily) remove Valko in order to be able to keep the game. I’m not saying canceling him the way they did was the *right* move but it may also have not been the wrong one. It is also important to consider that all of his content is still up on x, at least as of about 30 minutes ago it was, as well as some other snippets of him on other social media, including his song on Spotify.
I truly don’t think that anyone at infold and paper games *wants* to get rid of Valko, I’m sure many people spent countless hours of time and passion on developing his story and character so I firmly believe that they will continue to try to find a way to release him somehow. However as of right now with them being under a close eye they may not be able to. So what I suspect they are doing is rerunning a banner which has Chinese cultural representation in a positive manner in it, to show the positive aspects of the game, the fact that they’re showcasing Chinese culture on a global stage. They may be doing this to calm the waters and buy themselves time to change some things that need to be changed in order to be able to release everything they’ve worked on in a way that won’t cause any legal trouble for them. This is being reflected in some parts of Xavier’s story being temporary removed for a rework. This could also mean potentially changing some minor parts of Valkos story in the meantime (ie changing the balcony scene), and then releasing a slightly tweaked version of him a little later down the line.
If I am correct and this is what they’re trying to do in some constellation, it makes sense that they haven’t given us a statement, they can’t exactly say “hey, we’re calming the waters so they stop breathing down our necks so that we can then release him”, as that would kind of defeat the purpose of what they might be trying to do.
Now you might be asking, “if they’re trying to bring him back why get rid of the “coming soon” text”, and I do have a potential answer for you. I think that is because they’re *trying* to bring him back, but are not certain they can, so as to avoid further backlash due to false advertising it may be better to remove that text until they are sure they’re able to fulfill that promise. Like I said this is speculation, and I may be delusional but I don’t think that a company would throw away all that work and money in its entirety without trying to figure out a way to adjust it first, and I truly don’t think that just 9 days is enough to fully figure all that out. I’m not saying he’s coming back, I’m also not saying he’s not, but I’ve been seeing a lot of us at each others throats for the past 2 weeks when ultimately we’re supposed to be sisters, I think it’s time we start acting like it again.
Everyone, stay kind, stay beautiful, and I’m sure the rest will fall right back into place before you know it. Stay safe out there!
