Ludia, come on now . Bring them back!!! Savatore came back today and you literally do one mini date with him and he is back offline. After waiting months. Stefan and Julien have been offline for weeks now, we literally just got Colt, two dates and he is offline. Dr vile has been offline since March of last year. Wtf!!!. No other profiles are worth it. 🙄🙄🙄
Real Heavy Talk - Something happened in LoveLink :(
So something serious and heavy happened in LoveLink.
I love this silly little game and I love ALL the characters, to different degrees, save for 2 now: the BDSM CEOs - Stefan Silver and Oliver Black.
I've never really been a fan of them but I know the (truly authentic, responsible and accountable) BDSM lifestyle and I was curious to see how LoveLink was going to handle it -- and, I had hoped, make it much better than 50 Shades from which it is inspired.
Before placing the cut below, I urge you to please continue reading and take action by the end of this post.
Trigger Warning: I will summarize what happened in Stefan/Oliver date and subsequent conversations (physical harm, abuse of trust and gaslighting), the various reactions to them and what harms this has done to a community of players who don’t only play to kill time but have also invested emotionally in those characters and stories.
Disclaimer: I haven’t played the date because I am still reeling from how Ludia went about it and I don’t want to put myself through this. Stefan is still in my chats and I left it hanging. However, players have extensively explained on Reddit’s LoveLink sub, so you can read more there:
Stefan/Oliver invite MC in their playroom again for a session and they remind MC again about the contract and the safewords (Yellow - slow down/be careful and Red - hard stop). Safewords are taken very seriously in BDSM lifestyle because they convey intent and consent. They are the only thing a submissive or bottom has in their control to keep them safe (assuming that the Dominant/Top are extremely considerate and trustworthy). They play with various toys, depending on the choices. However, safewords chosen by the players are ignored by Stefan/Oliver several times and they even cause MC to bleed by breaking skin while biting them. After these, MC is shaken (and traumatized by the breach and abuse of their trust) and they leave.
The Aftermath
In the conversation following this disastrous date and to what literally amounts to sexual assault, Stefan/Oliver “explain” (read: justify or excuse) their lapse of self control over stress caused by the death of their father, the public exposure of their relationship with MC and the handling of their businesses and shareholders. They question whether MC used the safewords and whether they are ready for this lifestyle. The dialogue options for MC are meek and they eventually reportedly forgive Stefan/Oliver. They go offline saying they need to think about what they want out of the relationship.
Ludia’s Response
The only tangible and documented response from Ludia is to add a Content Warning notice at the beginning of the date following an immediate outcry and revising Stefan/Oliver’s few lines of dialogue right after the date to feature a more apologetic tone.
The Harm Caused
First and foremost, survivors of domestic and intimate violence and people who experienced other forms of violence who were not warned about this content relived past traumas and emotionally suffered from playing this date. Adding insult to injury, the follow-up conversation is textbook gaslighting of the survivor by the abuser. So survivors also have to relive a most damaging behavior of abusers that often prevented them to report or to leave the relationship.
Second, players who have grown attachment to these characters because of the care, consideration, trust and affection they bestowed on the MC were hurt by how their beloved characters transformed into abusive monsters.
Third, having Stefan/Oliver not acknowledging their fault and the abuse of trust they committed, having them “excusing” their behavior on stress, having them questioning the MC over their own “lack” of action and fitness to this lifestyle and relationship and having the MC not holding Stefan/Oliver accountable for their actions and worse.... FORGIVING THEM is NORMALIZING ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS.
And last, presenting BDSM lifestyle and practices without holding practitioners accountable for their grave mistakes is putting people who do not know what they are entitled to expect from responsible, genuinely caring Dominant and Tops in the lifestyle at risk of being abused by irresponsible people under the cover of BDSM.
What you can do
I urge you to let Ludia know that what they did with Stefan/Oliver’s latest update is normalizing sexually abusive and gaslighting behavior on their platform, even if it involves fictional, virtual characters, this is unacceptable. You can do this by sending them an email, rating their game with 1-star reviews and CLEARLY and ONLY writing that you are against normalization of sexually abusive relationship by Stefan Silver/Oliver Black.
If you write anything else, like you love the game but ... or that you're grateful they put a Content Warning notice, they will only read that and respond to the positive part.
They have to clearly, unequivocally understand that they are contributing to the normalization of abusive relationship and gaslighting behavior and that they have to take a stance against this.
Thank you for reading to the end!
And I hope you are safe and sound if you have played the date and completed the update.
I would like to add that in addition to having vampire, super villain, and prisoner boyfriends, I am now involved with a bdsm billionaire, a musician who is lost in the woods, a virologist, a horny af tattoo artist and a magical centaur.
And a cat is hooking me up with his lonely hooman.
