I love Valko so none of my issues with the update surround him but…
They didn’t truly acknowledge the discrepancies in content for Sylus and Caleb. Much of their storyline is still missing in a very dissatisfying way. There’s still a gap in terms of cards and certain content in comparison to the Original three characters. Which is not me saying that I have a problem with the original three. I have known of LADS since it was in beta in China which is years before it was available Globally. And I say that to say, obviously, I love Xavier, Zayne, and Rafayel, but loving them doesn’t negate that the other characters are treated much differently.
They didn’t offer better ways to farm or updates to current ways to farm for f2p (which I am not a f2p player but I do know that business wise it is always better to treat free players as best you can to incentivize more players to consider paying to play. Economically their lack of commitment to that does not make sense in the long term. (A great example of treating your customer base well yielding great profits and brand loyalty is Steam.) I also do not think that any player, f2p or not, should take this lying down. If there is never united pushback then there is never any effective change. And for a company that is only interested in the bottom line, as Infold/Paper Games clearly is, the only language they understand is loss of revenue.
The lack of acknowledgment of the sizing problem completely is also a gigantic red flag to me. I have well over 100gb of space on my phone over all and the game currently takes up almost 70 gigs as is. And that’s with some resources not downloaded. Right now I have to consider quite literally deleting every single photo and almost every app I have to be able to keep this game in the long run. I have stated many times in posts across social media and in their surveys that they NEED to have PC/Console Compatibility. Many players will not be able to continue purely because they do not have space and at this time as stated in my last point they have not done a very good job of creating brand loyalty based off of how they treat their players.
Overall, I think the only thing that’s creating profit for Infold/Paper games is the fact that we love these characters so much. They have done a wonderful job of not only making sure their appearance and most animations are as realistic as possible but they have also done a fantastic job of creating personalities and little quirks that are so realistic that it’s very easy to become parasocial with them. The only problem with this in my eyes is that they seem to be using that to cop out of creating an actual GAME with actual STORY. And even when I think of the greediest gacha games, they put story first, and even if there is a long time In between they give you ways to farm if you’re will to grind. I typically avoid grindy games but for LADS I would work my ass off.
I would be remiss if I did not bring this up. As a black player, I am incredibly uncomfortable with the amount of racism I saw toward Valko from Chinese players and global players alike. I find it strange and disheartening that it has not properly been acknowledged either. While I am disappointed, I am not at all surprised, considering that there are no truly varying skin tones for darker tones, the lighting (at least within my game, because I have seen others saying was fixed) is still very poorly done for darker tones, their is absolutely NO varying hairstyles even though they did make an Afro as a sticker that was meant to seem funny and goofy, which I found to be disrespectful. Again, not surprised because racism and colorism on a global scale is a rampant issue that feels to be worsening by the day, but it is extremely hurtful that in a game that is meant to be a relaxing escape for women, I am unable to fully immerse myself as people of lighter tones would more easily be able to do.
And as a side note the light issue for tones seems to be tied to the lighting issue with the at home feature. I have a million and one lamps in my villa purely because the lighting emitting from one lamp is not at all effective and at times does not appear to be on unless you stand at a specific angle so for those not convinced to give a fuck about the black player experience, it would be beneficial for you to care about lighting because it would help the aesthetics of your villa as well.
Obviously, I have to state this because unfortunately reading comprehension and critical thought is in the toilet globally: EVERYTHING I STATE IS OF MY OWN OPINION. I AM SHARING MY OWN PERSONAL THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS OF INFOLD/PAPER GAMES AND I AM NOT SAYING YOU ARE REQUIRED TO THINK THIS WAY OR EVEN LISTEN TO WHAT I SAY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, YOU DO NOT LIKE IT, OR ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT I SAY OR HOW I SAY IT RUBS YOU THE WRONG WAY PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SACRED, FUCKING BLOCK ME.
Normally, I keep my thoughts to myself within fandom because I every fandom I’ve been in ends up being toxic because a lot of people lack empathy or critical thinking and take a lot as a personal attack or are just bad people who enjoy harassing others but the longer LADS continues like this the harder it is for me to keep my mouth shut. And I think the more people that speak their mind regarding actual critiques of the game and business model, the more likely it is they will actually listen. So this is me putting in my two cents hoping that it will aid in affecting change.
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