Over the course of the last weeks I really have to say how impressed and surprised I am by our community.
We've faced so much hate; we've been ignored, ridiculed, and insulted. We would have every reason to lash out, but instead, I keep seeing us take that hate and transform it into something positive.
Donations, petitions, mutual support, appreciation for artists and developers and now, when antis use the recycling symbol to mock Valko, what do we do?
We embrace it and use it to promote environmental protection and recycling! We clean up forests and share information about organizations dedicated to the environment!
To some, this situation might just look like some drama in the gaming world, but the way our community reacts and acts is impressive. It goes far beyond just a game.
It shows that people from all over the world can come together, it reveals the good in people, it demonstrates that we can support one another and leave a legacy of positive action rather than tearing each other down.
In times when it's easy to lose hope in the world and humanity, for me our community is proof that things can be different!
I am not saying that hate doesn't exist or that we don't sometimes go too far or make mistakes. We are human, we aren't perfect and emotions can outpace our reason.
But the fundamental concept of transforming something negative, something meant to hurt, into something that helps people, animals and the environment is an incredible principle upon we are built and I deeply appreciate every single one of us for that!
Keep Howling for Love and never forget that we're already making a difference 💛🐺
I know many of us are disappointed with Infold’s break in silence without any update on Valko, but it is worth pointing out for those that don’t know that this is very much within Papergame’s playbook.
The cancellation scandal of their previous otome game, Mr. Love Queen’s Choice, resulted in the loss of the game. Infinity Nikki has undergone several changes, the biggest being the massive retcon of their base lore, which caused major uproar - but also passed without comment. There have been no major consequences for the company through either of these scandals. Infold likely will not break unless they are forced to.
This post isn’t meant to upset or monger fear for those of us who are still hopeful: it’s to set expectations. While I still believe Valko has a chance to return, it is worth taking the time to acknowledge that he may not, and what that means for those of us who will no longer want to engage with Infold’s properties afterwards.
In the meantime, a friendly reminder from your fandom elder: money is the loudest form of action. The Infinity Nikki boycott went on strong for FOUR MONTHS throughout Infold’s silence. We’ve already seen reports of July’s revenue, so we know that the boycott is making a heavy indent in their profits. 70% is not nothing. Even if you are not personally putting money into the game, you still have the power here.
So remember: if you want to see change from Infold, the change starts with you. Don’t log in. Don’t spend money. Make sure none of the widgets are running on your devices (this reflects activity whether you log in or not and activity = calculable potential revenue). Keep posting with the relevant hashtags on social media, and don’t be shy in discussing false advertising/fraud. Share that you are still boycotting, and be loud about not returning to the game if there is no change.
A boycott is rarely ever a sprint, but a marathon.
Just a reminder to my fellow LaDS players: if you see a post without an avatar or no other posts or if they're brand new, be very weary. We've been hearing about how antis and water armies are trying to goad those boycotting into lashing out in the worst way.
Don't respond to them. Block them instead and move on. They're trying to break in because all the news and everything has been going our way instead of theirs. Do not engage with them since that's what they want us to do; starve out their flames instead.
Stay kind. Show that love can conquer hate. Keep up with the boycott if you're doing it. Focus on the charities involved. And if you're feeling overwhelmed, drink some water and step away from the screen for some time. It'll be okay, there's a lot more of us than them here.
Look, I'm not going to pretend I wasn't in fandom spaces I had no business being in back in the wild west of early-aughts internet — but I at least had the self-awareness to shut the fuck up and lay low.
Minors invading adult spaces have gotten way too bold about policing ADULT content.
TLDR: Keep boycotting, uninstalls and reviews will not lead to immediate EOS. Do not believe anything not from a reliable source.
I'm seeing a LOT of misinformation going around about the boycott. This always happens in boycotts for various reasons, especially if they are as big and successful as ours. Because of this, I wanted to make a big post outlining why you should still uninstall and boycott the game.
You will hear a lot of people telling you that you should log in and keep the game installed to "support Valko" and prevent the game from going EOS. They will say things like "you'll hear big news in 2 hrs that I can't tell you about" to get you riled up or make big claims like "he will be back in 2 months, so keep logging in!"
Do not believe these claims unless they have an actual reliable source. I have seen so many people blindly liking posts that are at best rumours and at worst blatant lies. The most annoying lie I have seen is if you review bomb the game, it will EOS. This is false.
This is not the first time Infold has ruined a game. They have ruined many. The most recent example was Infinity Nikki, in which they completely retconned the beginning of the game and gave us the Sea of Stars update, better known as the Sea of Shit update. We don't need to get too into specifics; all you need to know is this: it got review bombed HARD. To this day, these are the current ratings of the game on both app stores:
Again, these are just what they are now, they were of course much lower at the actual time. When was this? Over a year ago and the game still gets updated just like normal. Why? Because the app store doesn't terminate games based on bad ratings. That is not a thing and has never been a thing. Anyone who says otherwise is misinformed. Do not fall for that fear mongering.
I would also like to point out that while Nikki is a franchise that does well for itself, it does not make 40 MILLION dollars a MONTH. Think about that for a second. Every month, Infold makes $40 million from LADS alone. Don't believe me? Good! Don't believe anything without a source, so here is mine:
There is a gacha revenue report every month. As you can see, they made $38 million dollars in June and they were the #1 gacha game in terms of income. I want it to be very clear that I did not cherry pick their best performing month with the most popular banners and events. This is from this last month. In fact, they made almost $50 MILLION in May.
Do you really think that the #1 gacha game in the world that makes $40 million a MONTH is going to EOS immediately if we don't log in for a bit? That would be stupid. You are being tricked into panicking when there is no reason to.
The only true fear you should have in regard to EOS at this point in time is if it is true they're being investigated by the Chinese Government. However, that is out of our hands at this point, and our actions do not have an impact on that. I also have seen a lot of misinformation about this that uninstalling and not logging in would affect this somehow. Tell me: why would the Chinese government care about how many foreigners are logging into the game? If the issue is that the game has "harmful" content they don't want in their country, do you really think that they'll look at high foreigner log-in numbers and go "oh wow this game is popular we can't delete it"? NO! They don't care; they want to censor content they deem "harmful" they don't care about our opinions. They banned AO3 ffs.
In summary, you are welcome to do whatever you like. I cannot force anyone to do anything nor can anyone else. However, if the reason you do not want to boycott is because you're afraid the game will immediately EOS, I do want to reassure you that is not likely to happen. Despite how stupid Infold is, they're unlikely to shut the game down over this if they kept Infinity Nikki going with a much smaller revenue potential. We deserve to be treated better and the way to do that is through boycotting and making noise, not by continuing to give money to a company that does not appreciate us.
Please keep fighting. The Valko antis got what they wanted from boycotting and harassing Infold for a week. We need to keep up a similar pace if we want the changes we want to see to happen. Not just the return of Valko, but also ways to farm diamonds, more story updates, etc. We deserve better. Do not give into fear.
found this on twitter, obviously the large majority of us do NOT want eos so please be mindful of how you conduct yourself on other platforms! i’ve also seen some people leaking in game models of the love interests which is both illegal and harmful to the development team! it goes against the support behind wanting valko back.
Since Rafayel's myth is kind of a hot potato right now....
I'm fully assuming now the next banner is the Rafayel myth.
If we assume they want to have the full 15 days for it to run, it should come out latest of 17th (ends at 1st of September as Zayne's birthday starts). This means that if we take the usual announcement time they have for myths (3 days for all other 3rd myths other than Sylus's myth), we should wait an announcement around at 14th of August.
But we can also assume that they might want to have 1 day in between of Rafayel's myth and Zayne's banner, so those dates would be 16th start, ends at 31st of August, and announcemend around 13th of August.
It still can be announced earlier, but 17th is really the last day the myth can come unless they really want to anger everyone with shorter myth banner duration.
It is not the end of world if the myth comes.
It just means that another time to Valko to get his spotlight is after Zayne's birthday.
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Full transparency, I have set my heart to getting R2 (R1 if it's looking too unlucky) from the myth with my existing resources that I have saved. But I do intend on waiting on pulling it for a few days as well.
I just want to implore to other Rafayel mains that feel skipping the myth is not possible, please consider these points:
Try getting the myth just with the resources you have currently
If you have to spend, spend as little as possible
If you can, consider waiting a few days to pull it
Wait on getting the MC outfit for the companion. They will be there forever, they aren't going anywhere.
Don't post gifs/screenshots/edits of the trailers, story or battle stuff while the banner is running, especially spoilers for the myth. This is a hard ask, but it will reduce FOMO for other people who are skipping the banner. Let's make it as easy as possible to skip for others who are holding out. They have my utmost respect. Also we will reduce the word of mouth marketing for the myth, which is extremely important for LADS.
In addition, don't comment, like or share any glorifying Rafayel myth posts. All of these will improve the reach of those posts, which can be meant to work against the boycott.
This way we can make our impact with Rafayel's myth, and get the myth to ourselves.
And to other boycotters, I ask not to shame people who want to pull the myth. Watching the myth from Youtube IS NOT THE SAME as watching it in the game. We lose possibly the strongest companion Rafayel will have to date, and have to wait for it for a year to rerun.
As a Rafayel solo main, this is THE highlight of the year for me, and I'm saddened if Infold decides to tarnish it by releasing it at a time like this.
