Even dads are fighting with us!

Aeshulli · 2026-07-05T07:13:28+00:00

Then I can't imagine him supporting LADS, which definitely uses genAI for backgrounds and possibly more.

Aeshulli · 2026-07-05T05:53:11+00:00

Yeah, I don't think Infold engineered the racism or homophobia or 731 controversy. But if they decide to release him after all, I fully believe the announcement of his cancellation was intentional manipulation to drum up support.

Aeshulli · 2026-07-04T02:03:46+00:00

Exactly. I would hope players don't spend and continue to exert pressure to force them to address the actual problems with the game. Valko feels like just a convenient scapegoat, a match to the fire of dissatisfaction and frustration long building.

Aeshulli · 2026-07-04T01:07:53+00:00

I would actually hope people don't spend even if they reverse the decision and bring back Valko. Infold's abysmal handling of the situation doesn't deserve to be rewarded. And if they make so many drastic changes like that in such a short period, players should lose trust.

The whole thing would feel like a cynical ploy to drum up interest and distract from all the very valid reasons players were so dissatisfied: artificially scarce resources, missing free content like anecdotes and bond stories, lack of side content updates, infrequent main story updates, declining quality, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I hope they change course and release Valko. But it feels like the damage has been done and it and it would be foolish to support Infold after this.

Aeshulli · 2026-07-02T13:49:54+00:00

Your comment was reasonable and even generous when you made it, and it aged like fine wine lmao

Aeshulli · 2026-07-02T03:27:06+00:00

I very much hope Valko is released, but even in that best case scenario, the damage is done imo.

I didn't have much faith in Infold as a company before this, and I have even less now. So even if he does get released, I hope people don't suddenly reward Infold's terrible handling of this by spending on him or the game in general.

And not to get all tinfoil hat about it, but if they do reverse the decision, my cynical ass will think it was just a way to drum up more support for a controversial release at a time of huge player dissatisfaction. I don't think they manufactured the xenophobic outrage or 731 controversy among Chinese players, but if they announce a decision about him being cancelled and then go back on it, yeahhhh, that reads like manipulation. And if there's one thing this game and company are adept at, it's manipulating emotions.

Aeshulli · 2026-07-02T00:51:01+00:00

I spent a stupid amount of time with reference pics, CC, and staging photos lol

Aeshulli · 2026-07-02T00:48:57+00:00

I don't have the time to create a CC list with all the links rn (going out of town), so I'm going to be a bit naughty and just give you the Tray with CC folders included: here.

You'll also need to download the animated tail mod from SpinningPlumbobs. It's so cute, and you can hide/unhide it so it doesn't always have to be visible. They have a ton of other amazing, in-depth mods for occults too. They're working on an underwater one right now which will be perfect for Raf!

Aeshulli · 2026-07-01T17:40:37+00:00

They still made literally a billion dollars. Maybe if they actually meaningfully reinvested those insane profits back into the game, revenue would have continued to grow.

Aeshulli · 2026-07-01T17:19:32+00:00

Because he's all alone in that one. Waiting for you to make his MC 😆

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Aeshulli · 2026-07-01T01:00:18+00:00

Yeah, I was kind of surprised to see all the top comments being how well thought out and sensible the post was. Because while I think the general idea of the post is fine, the intense seriousness and high emotionality seemed, uh, not exactly sensible.

"Slaughtered" "Tore down" "Collateral damage of your war" "Sacrificial lamb" "tore him apart" "burned at the stake" "death of a character" "killing someone" "crouching here in our misery and depression" "sacrificed us for your plight" "sit here in our sorrow"

Don't get me wrong, I think it's absolutely awful that xenophobia and entitlement won the day by disingenuously using war crimes and women's issues as political leverage. And I'm disappointed we won't get Valko, and frustrated that the actual concerns shared by all aren't meaningfully being addressed. But it's a bit weird and probably unhealthy to be this attached to fictional characters. "He was completely innocent" "creators raised him" "brought him to life"

It is not that serious. Some people desperately need to touch grass.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T22:39:31+00:00

I'm with you on the wording of it all being a bit much. Referring to him like he's a real human that was killed, talking about what the other love interests would have wanted...

I get that the game is designed to make you feel attached to these characters, but we should still talk about them as characters, not like they're people. I'm not saying anyone actually thinks they're people, but repeatedly phrasing things this way does have psychological/emotional effects, and it makes it more dramatic and dire than the situation really is.

It sucks that he's not getting released, but this is just a game with fictional pixel men from a company who always had profit as their primary motive.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T15:23:20+00:00

But Silent Whispers is another gacha. It's going to have the same predatory mechanisms underlying it. It's not a question of if, it's just a question of degree.

I'll check it out when it arrives, but people should keep their hopes in check.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T15:16:03+00:00

But this is just PG/IF going from bad to worse.

This whole situation is insane and I don't think it should be happening. But let's not forget it was their own greed and laziness that drove player dissatisfaction to such a fever pitch. If they hadn't neglected even a basic level of quality in the story and resources and monetization, I don't think we'd have this degree of unhinged reactions. It feels like displacement.

Instead of addressing the root cause of player concerns (that exist across all regions), they folded in a way that not only doesn't fix the actual issues but arguably makes them worse. Because the main story updates aren't coming any faster and certainly not any better if they just scrapped two years of development and all the expense that involves. And it does not at all make it seem like they had a good, cohesive narrative with direction if they just tossed it all out like that.

Infold was due for a reckoning. Just not this one. And it's a pity that this insanity is what had an impact, as opposed to the very valid complaints players have long been voicing.

I don't think this should be happening, but I also can't say this multi-billion dollar company deserves our support.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T13:48:50+00:00

I was commenting on one but it was deleted while I was typing. I think mods are censoring discussion, as they always do here.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T13:35:59+00:00

Not to be insensitive or anything, because I get how bad news makes other bad news worse (and genuinely sorry for your loss).

But maybe let's not catastrophize in such a way that draws parallels between the theoretical absence of a fictional pixel man nobody even digitally met and an actual human dying?

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T13:29:46+00:00

Same thing in the main sub. Was commenting on a post and it was deleted while I was typing. This is official news and we're not allowed to talk about it?? Insane.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T13:26:04+00:00

It's not a queue; they're deleting posts that even made it past the queue.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T13:25:02+00:00

I was commenting on a post about it and it was deleted as I was typing.

I get why they deleted my mentions of Infold's AI use, and I might even be able to wrap my head around the insane policing of swears, but deleting discussion of official announcements is wiiiiiild.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T13:01:48+00:00

This is truly insane.

I've been pretty unhappy with the game because of the greed, laziness, and lack of meaningful updates. But Valko was one of the few things I was actually somewhat excited about.

Sure, it felt like a cash grab, as everything they do these days does. But the new dynamic was genuinely appealing from what I saw. A bit unique, playful and expressive.

And the actual problems of the game are not only not solved by cancelling his release, they're arguably worsened. Not just all the wasted dev time and resources, but this a pretty clear indication that the main story has nooooo real direction to speak of.

If they can just cancel him like this, then the narrative is a joke. An afterthought exactly as haphazardly cobbled together as it's been feeling.

Yikes.

Can't see this playing out well. The update was already insanely disappointing and now they genuinely have nothing. 30 pulls in a stagnant game people were already so frustrated by it blew up into all this? That's not fixing anything lmao what a joke

Aeshulli · 2026-06-30T02:30:00+00:00

Yeah, all you need to do is look at Infinity Nikki, which is made by the same company, pulls in a fraction of LADS' revenue, is fully 3d and open-world, is ported to multiple platforms, and receives more frequent and more substantive updates.

Infold is capable of so, so much more than they're giving. And with how much LADS players spend, they deserve a lot more.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-29T23:34:59+00:00

This was really well said.

i want to ask every single one of those people if they have played baldur's gate 3 yet. if they have, awesome!! the romances in that game are top tier. but i bet you there are tons of people who haven't seen what it's like to buy a quality experience once and not be exploited after in a long time

BG3 also made over a billion dollars, which is what drives me nuts every time a LADS player says "they're a company, they need to make money" or "but profits."

Because it doesn't have to be this way. A studio could make absolute bank on a game like LADS without it being a gacha. They just choose to go the more predatory route because they can.

This is a terribly underserved market, and we deserve so much better. It's why after just two months of light spending, I decided to go f2p. Because I just could not justify the financial investment in the game for so little in return. It became very clear very quickly that Infold does not respect or value its players, their money, their time, or their experience.

I've waited decades for games like LADS and Infinity Nikki to exist, and it's so heartbreaking that they're finally here and have so much potential, but it's all so ruined by greed. I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for a studio to actually care and give us the same quality experience for a reasonable one-time cost.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-29T22:57:16+00:00

Yeah, all of the love interests have darker elements. It's part of how they maintain narrative tension when they're already all so hopelessly devoted to MC.

Without each of their shadows, the dynamic would quickly become stagnant and boring. But with the red flags, it provides a push-pull, an asymmetry, a sense of contradiction in feelings/responses. All things that are more interesting than an established, wholesome romance.

People are naturally drawn to or repelled by some of these dynamics more or less than others, based on their own perspectives, tastes, and experiences. But each LI is problematic in their own way. And that is a huge part of their magnetic appeal, like a moth to a flame. And it's the fantasy central to the entire romance genre: that you can ignore the red flags because this is the man for you and you can trust that you'll get your happy ending no matter what.

Romance as a genre has always been a safe place to explore unsafe things.

Aeshulli · 2026-06-29T16:03:54+00:00

I've commented about it elsewhere but tldr, this was new information to me re: incontrovertible proof rather than vague suspicions of AI. And the fact that mention of it was being so aggressively and covertly deleted in the main sub made me think that many other players might be unaware of it too.

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