It's been 37 days as of writing. 37 days of tears, yearning, and an international campaign from Love and Deepspace players begging developer Infold to restore peace and release Valko, who was supposed to be the romantic RPG's sixth love interest. His launch was canceled on June 30, and Infold decided to never release a new boyfriend again. Over 251,000 Love and Deepspace players have been ignored while praying for Infold to reverse this ruling, so I've joined them in deleting the game.
Infold buried Valko due to concerns, primarily from Love and Deepspace's Chinese fanbase, that the chiseled werewolf boy was a sex pest due to his tendency to swoop in through bedroom windows, or a spy for the Imperial Japanese Army, and other conspiracy theories I never subscribed to. To me, Valko was simply exciting – decidedly not a threat to my womanhood, which is the fear at the center of nearly every Love and Deepspace controversy. Many Love and Deepspace players are, understandably, protective about the fact that the game featuring sparkly dresses, dates with a benevolent mafia boss, and a period tracker is unrepentantly designed for and by women.
But I've been devotedly playing Love and Deepspace for nearly two years – it launched at the start of 2024 – and tech CEO wolfman Valko never made me worry. He just inspired me to consider Team Jacob after all this time. But Infold quickly crumpled under pressure from a group of Valko-negative Chinese fans, who poured blood and left cakes of cow shit at its Shanghai office while demanding more attention for Love and Deepspace's existing companions.
The Chinese government ultimately deemed Valko morally appropriate after initially investigating the character for his breaking-and-entering habit shown in promotional material, but Infold hasn't mentioned Valko once since condemning him to a farm upstate. Earlier this week, I received an email from someone identifying themselves as "A supporter of the international #BringValkoBack campaign," who shared the community's petition with 251,000 signatures, and a Change.org plea with currently nearly 100,000 signatures.
They told me, "Supporters have also organized a coordinated month-long spending boycott and continued contacting Infold. Campaign participants say repeated requests for a substantive response have gone unanswered." GamesRadar+ likewise reached out to Infold multiple times for comment and did not hear back.
Cemetery Gates
"The room was a graveyard of shadows, the only light a pale sliver of moon that cut across the floor like a blade. Valko lay perfectly still beside you," says one harrowing piece of fanfiction imagining Valko's anguish on the despondent r/loveanddepression subreddit. "He knew you would hurt you if he left and even the very thought of it made his wolf howl."
"I feel like a widow," says another post on the sub.
"They don't care about us. They don't care about the boys," decides a writer of one of the subreddit's many "goodbye" posts, who's also frustrated with Times Square's recent rejection of another protest billboard in Manhattan, citing new restrictions on Love and Deepspace content.
"Please... bring me back my peace. Let me go back home with them. I miss them. I miss their voice, I miss their warmth, I miss their presence," adds an especially tormented Love and Deepspace protester.
Estimated revenue data site Gacha Revenue approximates Love and Deepspace's earnings have plummeted $28 million since June, and its downloads are down by 100,000. People are grieving, and they want Infold to grieve with them. Personally, I deleted my Love and Deepspace app this month – though it hurt to recall all the precious hours I spent in the game's character creator, perfecting my main character's nose for ideal making out with my stepbrother Caleb. To me, the War on Valko has been about more than a handsome man with seemingly two pairs of ears (the wolf ones and the human ones).
Between Love and Deepspace and its dress-up RPG Infinity Nikki, Infold has earned itself the reputation of being the lone developer that prioritizes its female player base. But this whole Valko saga has made me realize they really don't get it. Women aren't a fanged monolith – we're as prone to ideological disagreement, clashing interests, and different thresholds for paranormal romance as any other demographic. Rather than submit to the harassment, the stalking and cow poop, Infold should have held its ground and remembered that what some women want is not what all women want.
Ultimately, I deleted Love and Deepspace because I was exhausted with Infold for conflating womanhood with being spoiled. I was frustrated with other players for making the developers feel like they had no other choice but to give in. Womanhood is nuanced, and I once believed Love and Deepspace reflected that in its sometimes provocative, sometimes sweet gameplay. But everything's changed now that Valko's dead, and Infold decided to react to women with fear rather than progress.
