A message to all players
https://wplace.live/?lat=24.56319150966043&lng=118.48245117187496&zoom=11.796228916106877
To all players: this is exactly what happens under this game’s brilliantly stupid rules now.
As shown in the picture, the lovely face of this character girl has been replaced with an ugly meme of some political figure. I’m one of the artists who worked on the original piece – I truly loved it, poured my heart into it, and it’s even my profile avatar. So right now I’m absolutely furious and heartbroken.
I already reported it in‑game for malicious overlay, and – surprise, surprise – the report obviously failed, or I wouldn’t be ranting here. Probably because our smart GMs decided that “painting over a painting” doesn’t violate the rules, never mind the vast difference in effort and time required. I watched with my own eyes as the vandal used multiple accounts and scripts to finish his “masterpiece” in just a few seconds (yes, he was also blatantly multi‑accounting and using auto‑draw scripts, but reports still go nowhere – wplace’s review system is just that perfect). Meanwhile, the destroyed work took me and many others weeks to complete, and the vandal only needs to ruin a few key spots to obliterate an entire piece. Many of the original builders have already left the game, and my own account doesn’t even have most paid colors, so fixing it on my own is extremely difficult – clearly unfair.
What’s more, the vandal keeps lurking around this area, and I doubt he’ll stop. Since those accounts were created, all they’ve done is draw malicious political images and crap all over other people’s work. I successfully reported him before, but apparently he easily found glaring loopholes in the rules (maybe intentionally left by the devs to stir up player wars?). Now he uses political memes to cover normal art, dodging reports with ease. And he seems to know exactly where he was reported last time – I guess when he gets punished, his first thought is revenge, not reflection.
If the officials keep classifying such malicious political graffiti as “art” and insist that this kind of overwriting doesn’t break the rules, then orderly players will only grow more and more disappointed in this unfair battle and gradually quit – and honestly, the massive player drain is already happening. In the end, the game will be left with nothing but trolls who get off on annoying normal people, and the whole canvas will turn into a warzone. Or is that exactly what the devs want – a battlefield? Their rules and actions have consistently encouraged players to attack each other. I refuse to believe that, with all the accounts they’ve banned these past few days, they still “don’t have the resources” to handle player reports.
If you, the officials, are not encouraging war and destruction, then please accept my sincere apology. If you do want to see chaos, well, I can’t criticise you – it’s your game. But I can only advise fellow players who, like me, just want to create beautiful things: leave this game sooner rather than later, so you don’t have to watch your favourite work get script‑destroyed in an instant, powerless to stop it, and lie awake at night furious and helpless.
These are the three accounts that the malicious player used to cause damage today.
SwiftTorch
#12378158
OddChair
#12415364
LuckyCam
#12372315
However, I am not asking for immediate official sanctions against them, as that would only offer a short-term solution. What matters more is the official interpretation of the rules; I need to decide whether there is any reason for me to continue playing a game I once loved so much.