Since July 1st is indeed a sensitive date in China, and because I’ve never posted about otome games on my domestic social media accounts, I’m coming here to vent. (The reason I’m afraid to post now, despite never having posted about otome games before, is that in China, once you speak up, people who disagree with you will dig through your profile. They claim that you must disclose how much money you’ve spent on Love and Deepspace to have the right to voice an opinion on it. If you haven’t posted any Love and Deepspace content before, you’ll be dismissed as a paid shill for Papergames. But in reality, even some players who like Valko and have shown proof of their spending in the game still get attacked and are not allowed to speak. I absolutely hate this toxic environment in Chinese online communities.)
From the very beginning, those who wanted to escalate things because they didn’t like Valko have shown no basic respect for other players. Whenever someone posts that they like Valko, or creates fan art for him, they get insulted as having a “fetish for ugliness” or are falsely accused of “taking Papergames’ money.” Some artists, wanting to avoid attacks, only post their fan art on X (formerly Twitter), but those who dislike Valko will track them down and spread claims in domestic communities that they must have taken Papergame's money and feeling guilty.
Yes, the community discussion environment in China is exactly this pathological.
Next, I’ll explain two points of contention from my perspective: “misogyny” and “disrespecting China.”
Those opposed to Valko mainly put forward two arguments:
① In the promotional PV, Valko enters the MC’s home through a window. They claim this disregards the safety of women living alone.
② The name of a Valko card that was leaked contains a phrase with the same pronunciation and similar characters as “同妻” (tóng qī, meaning “wife of a gay man”). So they claim Papergames is implying that players are “tongqi.”
These two points I’ve listed are relatively based on some objective evidence. Beyond that, even before Valko’s actual story was released, those who hated him spread rumors that he would rape the MC in his card stories, and even attacked those who spoke up for Valko, saying they like being raped and are wives of rapists. Frankly, cursing other female players like this just because of rumors about a fictional character—that is the real misogyny.
Now, regarding the two points I listed. First, in other LIs’ stories, there have already been instances of LIs monitoring the MC or drugging her with sleeping pills. If you truly care about women’s safety, why do you only care about Valko climbing through a window, while being so tolerant of what other LIs have done? Second, card stories and home system interactions are premised on having already built an emotional connection with the LI. If you don’t like him, fine—don’t watch his card stories, and don’t choose him in the home system. That way, he won’t affect the romantic relationships you have with the LIs you actually like.
There’s also another point tied to a specific incident in China. In the promotional PV, there’s a mildly horror-themed line: “Don’t take a bath in the pot.” In the first half of this year, there was a brutal criminal case in China where a wife was killed by her husband, who held her down in boiling water. Some players connected the PV’s narration to this case, claiming Papergames was trivializing a real-life crime and whitewashing domestic violence. Because of this connection, they labeled Valko as a “domestic abuser.” But in my view, without any story details being released, it’s very unfair to automatically place Valko in the position of the perpetrator. Moreover, the case itself doesn’t actually resemble the promotional line that much—more people would associate it with the fairy tale of “The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.” Casually linking real-life tragedies with fictional creations is itself a disregard for the victims’ suffering.
Now, about the “tongqi” issue. From the very start, after Valko’s PV was released, those who didn’t like him claimed, “He’s the type only gay men would like.” This not only reflects their stereotype of gay men, but also offends the female players who do like him. They refuse to believe that others have different aesthetic preferences from theirs, and even spread rumors that Valko is the type favored by Papergames’ male CEO, photoshopping the two of them together as a couple. People who like Valko are also insulted with “you like being a tongqi.”
Meanwhile, the Chinese name of one of Valko’s cards contains two characters that literally mean “to live together,” but when pronounced, they sound identical to tongqi, and when written in traditional characters, they look very similar. This has also been used against him. Some people ignore the original meaning of the characters and claim Papergames is implying that players who like Valko are tongqi. I’m not sure how the English-speaking community views tongqi, but in the Chinese context, “tongqi” usually means a woman trapped in a forced marriage with gay, unloved, and treated as a tool for bearing children. Love and Deepspace is supposed to be a game about female players falling in love with male LIs—so why would anyone, just because they’re unhappy with a particular LI, curse the players who like him with such maliciousness?
Second, disrespecting China.
The argument here is that in one part of the story, Love and Deepspace labeled an experiment with the number “0731,” which reminds people of the notorious Japanese Unit 731 that harmed Chinese people during the war.
First, I also don’t think it was a very appropriate choice for Papergames to use that number. Because the story quality of Love and Deepspace isn’t strong enough to handle allusions to historical events, and casually using a number that evokes historical trauma does show a lack of political sensitivity. It would be good if they changed it to a less sensitive number. And in fact, Papergames did change it—to “0611.” But after that, people searched and found that June 11th is also a date on which a massacre occurred, and continued to accuse Papergames of disrespecting China. But in reality, during the long history of the World Wars, almost every day has seen some tragedy. Some people even went as far as to check the birthdays of other LIs, and found that there are war criminals who share those birthdays too. June 11th, besides being a date of a massacre, is also the day China’s Shenzhou 10 rocket launched in 2013. I think we should avoid commonly known sensitive numbers that are taught in textbooks, like 731 and 918 (the start of Japan’s invasion of China). But we can’t look at every single number and try to find some connection to national trauma just to pass judgment.
What’s ridiculous is that as soon as Papergames issued a statement saying they would not release Valko, these same players immediately celebrated and said they wouldn’t quit the game and could go back to playing. The “0731” number had actually already appeared in the story months earlier and had nothing to do with Valko originally, yet they twisted the narrative and even contacted the media to create public opinion, linking Valko to Unit 731 just to add more fuel to their attacks on him. From start to finish, they just didn’t like a character, but they dragged serious historical trauma out to bolster their case. It’s clear that those who used “domestic violence,” “misogyny,” and “disrespecting China” to attack Valko and his fans don’t actually care about women’s safety or national honor. Rather, they’re using these serious issues as weapons to attack those who disagree with them, draining these issues of their gravity. They’ve fallen into a self-indulgent frenzy, as if having a high-sounding justification gives them the right to bully anyone with a different opinion.
Even now, in Chinese online community, when those who like Valko are feeling sad for him, those who hate him still mock them. When English-speaking players post about their love for Valko, some people go and belittle those players’ spending power and aesthetic taste. I’m hate this selfish and foolish behavior, of people praise themselves superior and to look down on other players. And I'm tired of this culture where the right to speak is measured by how much money you’ve spent. Why should dissatisfaction with Papergames for not providing enough story and content for the first five LIs be taken out on a new character and the players who like him?
Oh, and I don’t know if you’re aware, but some displeased Chinese players even mailed feces to Papergames? They do this just to vent their emotions, with no real help toward solving anything. None of it ever reaches the producers or the CEO—only low-level employees end up being inexplicably harassed.
As early as a few months ago, or even a few years ago, similar situations have appeared in ACGN-related topics in China. Some people, simply because they disagree with others’ creative preferences, will doxx them, report websites, elevate the issue to political stances, and use serious topics as weapons against those with different hobbies. I don’t understand why some people can’t respect others when it comes to fictional creations.
Even though I haven’t played Love and Deepspace for a while, I still feel sad for Valko this time. Not just because of the attractive qualities he showed in the PV that moved me, but because this whole incident reflects the disgusting pathological trends in domestic online community: if you’re in the minority, your preferences and feelings are destined to be trampled by the majority; and as long as you make enough noise, even if you’re being unreasonable, you’ll get what you want. I don’t have high hopes for the future of Love and Deepspace, or even for the broader Chinese online community, or the future of creativity in Chinese female-oriented games. But at the same time, I hope that genuine, different voices can reach Papergames, and can be acknowledged by those selfish bullies.
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