r/ValkoHQ

hi everyone! i am a cn player and i have been participating in the bring valko back movement as soon as the cancellation announcement was made. i have been seeing how the fandom in both global and cn have united together for our lovely wolfie, and i am incredibly moved by our determination. so many people are on our side and we have been rallying hard to save him and this game.

i know some people are starting to lose hope and feel burnt out by infold’s silence, but please view their silence as a positive thing! this means they are busy working on a solution and also wanna keep it quiet ahead of the sensitive date of july 7th. we won’t hear anything from them until the 7th has passed so please be patient and keep the posts and hashtags going. the 7th is entertainment blackout day in cn so please refrain from posting on cn social media platforms that day, take a little break and take good care of yourselves. we have been working so hard and we cannot let all this effort be destroyed by one wrong move.

another thing i noticed is that when i contacted my cn vip CS before, their response was “the wolf has gone back to the forest, leaving shallow paw prints in the story”, but when i spoke to them today, they changed their rhetoric to the standard “we will pass on your concerns and suggestions to the devs team” even though i explicitly asked for valko to be brought back. this might be a sign to internal changes in their decisions too. hope is not lost at all!

however, we cannot celebrate as if we have won yet until valko is sitting in destiny cafe with his big ol booty. the antis will definitely try new things before we get any definitive answers, so let’s stay united and vigilant.

let’s BRING VALKO BACK!

I made an account on XHS (RedNotes) a few days ago, because I saw some posts and comments saying to go support CN girlies who also want Valko back.

There is an option to make an auto translation of most things that are written on the app. It’s very practical, but the translation made some posts a bit robotic.

The first thing I notice is that, indeed, Valko was truly hated by numerous people. The post that was criticizing him made tens of thousands of likes. While the ones loving him were at maximum a few thousand. I think I needed to see it with my own eyes to actually believe that they were thinking he was gay for being “too muscular” and simply what they think gay men would like. But what I didn’t really saw on the global side, is that for many Chinese people, he was seen as some kind of self absorbed man, with no manners, gross etc. I think it’s more of a cultural thing, but for them, he was acting like a child (many of them were comparing him to their undisciplined younger brothers). That's probably why many thought that he was made for a more western audience in mind (which might be true, but for them, it’s like forgetting their roots).

Then, I saw many posts about the controversy about “boiling in hot pot”, but also with “inviting a wolf to our home”. In the comments, most were also referring to the 731 incidents. Starting from this moment, his upcoming release on the game wasn't a LaDS players only issue. There were some more officials press releasing news on those matters, claiming problematic behaviors against women. And as a national sentiment grew over the 731 incident, a massive number of players decided to boycott the game, dropping their notes, spreading the word etc.

But what I've found, is that actually, many people who were supporting all of this weren't actually LaDS players. I saw an enormous amount of people from other fandoms (outsiders, as they call themselves) supporting “Miss Hunter” on this battle. When we know that, it’s also clearer why the situation grew bad this quickly. But this also means they have less leverage than we thought, because if they are outsiders, it means they didn’t initially spend on the game. We, global players, also made between 40 and 50% of the total revenue. And most of us are boycotting.

When the official letter from the Love and Deepspace team was released, the reaction from the CN side wasn't good either. They could have felt like they won, but from my understanding, it was far from the truth. There were a few concerns that were not addressed, like:

- The fact that LaDS was for all sex orientation (yes that's one of their main concerns, and yes that's homophobic). Especially the fact that they now call global players “Hunters” and not “Miss Hunter”

- That Infold was removing content about cultural traditions and moving away from their roots

- Properly apologizing for the 731 incident

- Properly apologizing for insulting women and undermining women's safety (I often saw comments saying what the main things they need to apologize for are rh and rn, which I found could mean rŭ huá = anti-China and rŭ nu = misogyny. For them, patriotic sentiment and protecting women's safety are the most important things)

So actually, the boycott wasn't even only about Valko, but a few things that escalated and for some, were a concern since quite some times, but they took advantage of the Valko situation to address what was annoying them. They are not logging in, giving bad comments on LaDS, sending mails to newspapers, and also involving the government. Which means that we are not the only ones who are boycotting, they are too, but for completely different reasons (and in opposition to Valko return, unlike us).

Now though, many silent CN players who enjoyed Valko are now speaking up. Before, they didn’t dare for the most part, because they were heavily bullied. I saw many posts saying they will not be silent anymore. They also call themselves “normal players”. Most of us who want Valko back and share our love for him use the hashtag #loveandtheplateau, which currently have more than 200 millions of views et 2,4 millions of notes. Many have thousands of likes, but it mostly doesn’t reach the previous hate for Valko and some posts that are continuing to boycott him.

So now, I don’t really know what will happen, because on the global side, the backlash is massive; people are uniting for Valko in a way I never thought possible in the LaDS community (and even outside of it). Most are boycotting, signing petitions, commenting etc but on the CN side, there is also a good portion of people who are hating on LaDS by all means possible, many of whom are not even players. They also might use bots or “paid commenters” since I saw so much comments being identical.

From my understanding, there will probably be a bigger loss on the global side if they don’t bring Valko back than there will be on the CN side if they let things like this, since they are still boycotting despite their announcement. Meanwhile, the involvement of the government is a completely different matter, and I have trouble predicting what would happen. If we are strictly speaking from a financial and reputation point of view, bringing Valko back is way more logical. But from a political and cultural side, I am not sure. Because of that, many CN players are asking global players to share their cultural appreciation for Chinese culture and how they learn more of it through Love and Deepspace. The government needs to understand that there is much more positivity involving the game than what is spread right now and that if they decide to let down Valko, or worse, EOS the game, they will lose soft powers.

Very recently, more Chinese are speaking up against the original claims, saying that they were trivializing dark past and history, and many “outsiders” didn’t know where they are standing for. I also saw some people saying the whole thing was suspicious because of how the topic trended and skyrocketed while it was on a working day and hours. There might be more than this. The opinions are shifting and people are speaking up. The next days will help to clear the fog concerning the situation, especially after the 7th of July. I think the fact that authority is speaking up against the slandering campaign, the usage of bots and AI, makes more Chinese people switch side. Also, I saw many people being deceived by news coverage, saying they were just following the trend but didn’t make a true journalist job.

Note : I'm not a native speaker, sorry for the typo.

Reason is bc that’s the anniversary of the Marco Polo bridge indecent! If any type of talk or conflict about valko happens on those platforms, antis will use it against us. Use that time to engage on Twitter, TikTok, and instagram. Keep flooding their comments and emailing them!!

Hello, I would like to help, but don't have a Big following on my socials and they give a little of anxiety. I can't either use my gaming Channel because It failed and people around me don't give a f about they game.

I was thinking on making simple vroid clothes with they hastag but not sure how many vroid tubers are in they fandom.

How can I help beside not playing they game? I already downvoted they game.

Even writing this is giving me anxiety, don't have good experiences on reddit...

As a black player, this is one of the many problems want the problems with the game that should get fixed along with Valkos return!! Emailing them, flooding their comments and flooding the servers when we get back into the game about the skin tones and lighting could help!!

I would like to clarify this is kinda vent post (also if you think I should or should not do this lmk.) and I'm not even apart of this fandom, I always found a interested in maybe exploring the game but overall the fandom (especially the CNs) had given be a overall bad vibe and I decided not to. But when I saw the trailer I genuinely did get very interested in the game and wanted to get it. Anyways,

I’m genuinely about to make an OC that’s basically a carbon copy of Valko at this point.
I’m not even part of the fandom, but the second I started reading why people were trying to get him removed, I was baffled. One of the complaints was literally that his skin was “too tan.” That’s not a normal character critique at all that’s fucking colorism. Then there were people throwing homophobic complaints on top of that saying how "gay" he looked MY BROTHER IN CHRIST A GAY MAN IS NOT GONNA RUB THEMSELVES ON A WOMAN LIKE THAT.

Imagine demanding a character be removed because you don’t like that he’s darker (MIND YOU HE WASN'T EVEN FUCKING TAN💔) or because he doesn’t fit your personal biases.
And LAD folding that easily? That’s just pathetic and fucking spineless. If you’re going to make a global game, then actually listen to your global audience instead of immediately caving to the loudest, most intolerant part of one section of the fanbase. A worldwide playerbase means worldwide feedback matters, not just whichever group screams the loudest with the most IGNORANT critiques known to man fucking kind.

What’s even crazier is that people were apparently more willing to defend or accept an incest-related character than a tan (NOT EVEN FUCKING TAN.) Werewolf male character. That’s an absolutely bizarre set of priorities. You got a fucking alien but God forbid a werewolf right🫩.

So honestly? If LAD is going to throw away a character because a vocal group couldn’t handle a fucking character who they can literally just IGNOREEEEE in the game existing, then I'm this close 🤏 to just making my own version. Not because I’m trying to “replace” him, but because I’m tired of seeing interesting characters get tossed aside over prejudice and developers who won’t stand by their own work and are just fucking pussies.

If your response to a character is “his skin is too tan,” or "he's gay" or "omfg he's a werewolf wah" maybe the problem isn’t the character maybe YOU'RE JUST WEIRD 💔

In these times, I'm really consuming any Valko content in my free time, be it the official content or fanart, and I remember this one fanart I don't have saved because reddit didn't save it because I was in an area with poor internet at the time. It's Valko looking on a device and crying, Sylus(?) looks over and sees himself in Valko's shoes, so Sylus puts away the device and hugs Valko.

Anyone know what fanart I'm talking about?

You don’t need to read the whole post, basically just dm them on instagram with a little creativity if you can and link the petition and retweet the post. Tomorrow ill ask for more people join.

Shoutout to knoxulla from Discord for creating this Google Doc and tracking all of the wolf adoptions made in Valko‘s name!

It was actually a random small asteroid! Different deal than an outright star... But it happened to be yellow/orange-ish in color, like his eyes 🥺 I am trying to post the source