So, as we all know, our puppy isn't in this update.
However ya girl is delulu enough to have THOUGHTS (tm)
First of all, we are going FULL FORCE with the boycott & tomorrow is going to be a blackout for valko
Second off, I don't actually see this banner rerun as bad news per se.
Rn infold is likely putting out a few dozen fires.
-the 731 issue and the ccp lowkey breathing down their necks
- canceling their bilibiliworld appearance
- the cyber bullying issue, which seems to be currently getting dealt with if we go by posts circulating around xhs and weibo
- the potential corporate espionage with silent whispers. No hate to the game and devs, however they have a sylus copy with his blue eyes and his hairstyle mirrored and their werewolf character. It's possible they someone at the silent whispers group saw concepts for valko and combined him with 1 or more of the boys to make Theron. I have no proof, but things just seem a little sus since they are now posting official Theron stuff with the guy having yellow eyes when he previously had green
- potential corporate sabotage and smear campaigns. Tencent had a 17% stock in silent whispers and had a history of fabricating online smear campaigns. Archeon games has a legal history with infold where they were marketing their game 'life makeover' using infinity Nikki, shining Nikki, and Nikki hashtags in their marketing. Infold won that case. It wouldn't be hard to take advantage of a large update for infold and the known issues players have with LaDS to comeplelty fuck over the game. Ngl if I was a game dev company with questionable ethics, I would use any weaknesses my competition had to eliminate or weaken them, and reporting them to the ccp for anti-Chinese sentiments for traces of historical events they (very stupidly and insensitively) left in the game would get the job done.
- legal issues of dealing with the threats and delivery of cow dung, curse objects, and funeral flowers wishing got the death of their employees (OVER A FUCKING GAME)
- the new legal issue of someone WALKING INTO INFOLD OFFICES WITH A FUCKING KNIFE
- the other new legal issue of someone PUTTING RAZER BLADES ON THE BIKES AT INFOLD HQ
- the other issue of complying with government standards for whatever they have to do to no longer be on the ccp's active radar
- customers demanding refunds for money spent on LaDS in preparation for Valko's debut
- potentially legal issues with contracts regarding cosplayers, voice actors, mocap actors, ads for valko
And these are just the things we know about.
From my perspective, infold is in damage control rn and likely under a gag order from their legal team and likely understands the gravity of the situation. Whatever statement they make rn, they need to make sure it is perfect, appropriate, and isn't going to have any empty promises or legal issues.
However, all things considered, I am still optimistic about valko coming back.
They see how popular he is. The official lads account has been seen checking the tags on weibo. Ain't no way they missed the amount of money donated to wolf conservation in China in Valko's name or the STAR NAMED VALKO. They are currently hemorrhaging money from this mess and they're comping players that had tickets for bilibiliworld just to see the LaDS booth and even comping hotel stays, train fare, and AIR FARE.
Now here's the hopium: Valko's song is still on Spotify and recently went live ok Chinese streaming platform(s). Valko's promo videos are still on their YouTube channel, just unlisted. If they were going to permanently remove him, those videos would have been deleted and his song would not have been released. Now it could have been scheduled, but as of now, Jul 8 est, it's still live. They still have some socials relating to valko up. The other night, what looks like a rave was happening in one of the infold offices. (This is lowkey giving me so much hopium bc they could be celebrating not having to delete him, just change some voice lines and promos to not be as controversial)
I think the current banner rerun - wander in wonder - is something they're doing to buy time while they do whatever it is that they need to do to make valko happen. I know infold spent a lot of money on valko and I know valko would make a lot of money back for them. And while I don't trust infold, I do trust they infold likes money.
Remember it has only been a week. I know it feels like forever, but it's just a week. I've followed fics for a decade. I've waited a month to hear back from job interviews. I'm patent. I know we'll get our puppy back.
I have 3 predictions on how this is going to go
1 - after rhe wander in wonder rerun ends, they'll make a statement regarding the valko situation- preferably that they will be releasing valko at a later/delayed time after reworking certain things. Subsequently there will also be a change in leadership in at the team that handles LaDS bc there is no way the upper managers of LaDS are coming out of this unscathed. They will also be posting a formal apology/statement about the situation and giving players codes/a fuckton of dias and pulls and probably rerunning the blue/yellow furniture around other 'we fucked up bad' gifts.
2 - theyre going to stealth release valko without any announcements until after the fact, then make a formal statement and apology for being a dumb company that does dumb things and promise to do better and listen more to feedback in the future. Then give players codes/dias and pulls and rerun the furniture as 'we fucked up bad' gifts
3 - going to double down on valko's cancelation bc they hate money and need to re-work all of the story they already had together to remove valko, thus making so much more work for themselves, throwing away thousands if not millions of dollars. Give players free pulls and diamonds to placate and continue to loose money on poor choices.
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