i've lived through multiple project cancellations.
every single one felt like losing a future i had spent years believing in. a project isn't just work.
it's years of your life and a piece of yourself. please don't dismiss the sympathy people have for the team behind it.
This whole situation with Valko seriously is unbelievable and perhaps unprecedented in this industry. I have never seen a gaming company actually bend the knee to fan backlash before, and the saddest thing isn’t the fact he’s not releasing, but that real human creativity and work is affected.
All the resources spent creating him, the entire development process the voice acting auditions and actors involved, music composed, and then trickling down to marketing, finance, legal, etc.
There’s just so many people involved that are affected, whether they still have a job with the company or not. That is the saddest part in all of this, to know that those who weren’t part of the executive decision making process still have their lives impacted by this decision.
My Chinese friend explained the current situation to me, and I used ChatGPT to translate it into English.
If you’re interested, feel free to read it. Please note that this is just one person’s perspective.
※ She already gave me permission to share this here.
Hello! I speak chinese, but i am not sure if they’ll listen to emails that are global, but when you do submit in the chinese emails directly to their HQ, you may use this alongside with your english email!
主题:关于敖尹的玩家心声——恳请重新考虑
亲爱的恋与深空团队:
感谢你们在这段艰难时期倾听玩家的声音。我知道过去几天对所有人来说都不容易,也很感激你们的团队愿意直接回应玩家的反馈。
我想以一个对取消敖尹这一决定感到非常心痛的玩家身份,给你们写这封信。从他第一次公布的那一刻起,他的设计和身世之谜就深深吸引了我。在长时间等待新角色之后,他重新点燃了我对这款游戏的期待,我一直很期待了解他的故事,看他如何融入这个世界。
我理解大家的不满。已有角色的长期未更新剧情确实需要被重视,这些诉求是合理的。但我不认为敖尹本身是问题所在,取消他并不能解决这些问题,反而让另一部分期待迎接他的玩家感到失望。
我也想到了所有为他付出心血的人:编剧、美术、动画师、程序员、音乐制作人、配音演员们,他们投入了大量时间和精力才让这个角色得以呈现。如果这些努力最终无法让玩家体验到,实在令人惋惜。
恳请你们考虑除永久取消之外的其他方案。哪怕他的上线需要推迟,等现有角色得到应有的剧情更新之后再说,我也愿意等待,相信很多玩家也是如此。
恋与深空一直以来都致力于为玩家创造难忘的回忆,而敖尹在我们真正与他相遇之前,就已经在很多人心中留下了意义。无论你们最终做出怎样的决定,我都希望你们能记得,有许多玩家曾经为他感到期待,也仍然希望有一天他能在恋与深空中找到属于自己的位置。
感谢你们读完这封信。
A lot of ppl have asked if I'll keep drawing Valko. I've thought abt it a lot, and I've decided I will!
It'll probably lean more toward my own headcanons
right so 4 VAs lost their jobs, valko's dev team watched a large group of people tear their creation down in vile ways, and the people who were hyped for him are now heartbroken. right.
As a Xavier main, I honestly don't even know what to feel right now.
For the longest time, I've believed that this game already had so much unfinished potential with the existing LIs and that what it needed most was time, consistency, and proper development!!not necessarily more characters. So yes, a part of me feels relieved reading this letter.
But another part of me genuinely feels sad for the people who were excited about Valko. Because at the end of the day, nobody wakes up wanting their favorite character to get canceled before he even gets a chance to exist in game.
This whole situation just feels... bittersweet.
I got the direction I wanted for the game, but I wish it didn't have to come at the cost of other players' heartbreak.
I hope everyone takes care of themselves today. And I really, really hope PPG learns something from all of this.