r/gachagaming • u/blueberryandvanilla • Jun 28 '26
General Extreme Chinese players send cow dung, funeral chrysanthemums, curse banners, and ritual items to Papergames/Infold office as Love and Deepspace controversy escalates. LADS Chinese social media accounts have reportedly lost around 1 million followers
Love and Deepspace has been facing one of its biggest controversies after the official reveal of its sixth male love interst, Ao Yin/Valko. Since the teaser was released, the game's official Chinese social media accounts have reportedly lost around 1 million followers across platforms.
The controversy has also drawn attention from Beijing Daily, which published a commentary arguing that the backlash reflects a growing crisis of trust between Papergames and its core player base.
The backlash has also spread offline.
As part of Ao Yin's promotional campaign, Papergames installed a giant Valko wolf-print display and a large themed balloon outside its office.
According to reports circulating on Chinese social media, some extreme players placed cow dung inside the company's delivery lockers, with visitors claiming they could smell the odor.
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Others left white and yellow chrysanthemums, curse banners, glutinous rice, and pomelo leaves around the promotional display outside the building. Some visitors also posed outside the office while making middle-finger gestures for photos.
In modern Chinese culture, white and yellow chrysanthemums are closely associated with funerals, mourning, and paying respects to the deceased. Sending these flowers to a person or company can be interpreted as wishing death upon the recipient.
Meanwhile, glutinous rice and pomelo leaves are traditional folk items used in spiritual cleansing rituals to ward off evil spirits. Some protesters used them sarcastically to suggest that Papergames had been "possessed" after introducing the new character and need to ward off this new evil spirit.
One protester also reportedly delivered a banner reading "The new male lead is a wild boar" to the company's office and later claimed that Papergames threatened to call the police. Online, some players also joked about destroying the giant Valko balloon, although there is no evidence that anyone actually attempted to do so (now).
Following the protests, Papergames reportedly increased security around its headquarters. While visitors were previously allowed to enter the building to take photos, recent reports claim that public access has become more restricted, particularly to prevent provocative photos or obscene gestures inside the office.
According to the article by Beijing Daily, the issue goes far beyond Ao Yin's appearance. While some players criticized his more Westernized character design, the main source of frustration is that many longtime players feel the existing five love interests have been neglected. Main storylines of a love interest have reportedly gone over 500 days without updates. Many fans believe the company's resources have been redirected toward introducing a new character instead of continuing content for the existing cast.
Beijing Daily noted that Papergames' global expansion strategy is commercially understandable—Love and Deepspace has seen strong overseas revenue growth—but argued that otome games rely on a "trust economy." Players invest not only money, but also years of emotional attachment. When that trust is damaged, commercial success alone cannot easily repair it. According to the editorial, Ao Yin became the catalyst for frustrations that had been building for years rather than the sole cause of the controversy.
Papergames issues a midnight apology
At around 12:00-1:00 a.m. (China time) on June 27-28, Papergames released an official statement responding to the backlash.
The company stated that:
- Ao Yin (Valko) will remain the sixth male lead.
- The main story updates for Caleb and Sylus are currently in development.
- All players will receive compensation consisting of 10 Limited Wish Tickets and 10 Standard Wish Tickets (20 pulls total).
However, Beijing Daily published a second commentary shortly afterward titled "Six Questions for Love and Deep Space."
The article argued that the statement failed to answer several key concerns, including:
- Where was the apology?
- Why did the company only respond after millions of comments and tens of thousands of complaints?
- Was the 20-pull compensation a genuine apology or simply an attempt to reduce player loss?
- How will Papergames fulfill its promise not to neglect existing characters?
- Has the company truly changed its attitude, or is it merely responding to public pressure?
The editorial concluded that the controversy is no longer just about Ao Yin, but about whether paying players can still trust that their time, money, and emotional investment will be respected, but about whether paying players can still trust that their time, money, and emotional investment will be respected.
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Ao Yin is scheduled to officially release on July 9, and his performance may determine whether this controversy has a lasting impact. However, many observers believe the situation has already become about more than a single character—it reflects years of accumulated frustration over story updates, resource allocation, and communication between Papergames and its longtime player base.
Image sources:
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u/Sabrac707 Jun 28 '26
Indeed, however, I do find hard sometimes to sympathize with the dev companies when they are the ones fostering this extreme parasocial relationships their audience tend to develop with their games.