Second-game players are opposed to men and women, can building a cyber wall solve the problem?
This year's two-dimensional is like a minefield. Not only are the new games launched one by one like a catastrophe, and if they can't get over, they will become corpses, and even the old games that have been launched will not want to escape. The influence of the rhythm that began in March continued to expand, and Xishanju's "Dust White Forbidden Zone" issued an announcement at the end of March, deciding to delete all male NPCs in the game. (The game has deleted a round of male characters before, and this time it is to be completely deleted) On April 1, the linkage between "Sparrow Soul" and "Azure Archive" triggered a scolding war between the two sides. This seems to be the rhythm caused by the linkage, but the essence is still the turmoil around "there are men who don't play", but this time it is a group of fun people against some extreme "men don't play" players (ML immortals) A reverse team building. Among the many rhythms, I noticed another game that has been in operation for more than a year and has not been spared, and that is Infinite Lost. Compared to the above-mentioned games, which are "male player civil wars", the situation of "Infinite Lost" is closer to "Genshin Impact", it has an equal number of male and female players, and the contradiction also comes from this. In the eyes of male players, it is undoubtedly a "betrayal" that the official of "Infinite Lost" is increasingly "taking care" of female players and ignoring their needs. Male players angrily denounced the game as a "second tour of northern Myanmar", saying that the official was "tricking pigs into coming in and unloading the mill to kill donkeys", and that female players were organizing to "expel male players". Taking advantage of the momentum in March, male players of "Infinite Lost" also launched a Krypton Withdrawal Campaign, hoping to regain the dominance of the game. All of a sudden, the game was at the forefront of male and female players. Now that the storm of the quarrel has passed, perhaps we can take a closer look at what really happened and how much of an impact it had on the game. In this regard, I found a few players of Infinite Lost to understand the ins and outs of the game's rhythm. I can't say that this is the whole picture of the incident, but at least it can give us a glimpse of the leopard in today's second-tour environment.
Male gamers, where did the controversy over the betrayal of Infinite Lost come from? From the perspective of player Xiao A, the main reason is that the official makes him feel betrayed. "Infinite Lost" is a tower defense gameplay game published by Ziyi Network. In the early days of the game, it was mostly "big sister with a distinct personality" as a selling point, and chose an urban ability theme that was rare at that time, and played a difference in art and theme, plus the game ate the dividend of the suspension of the version number in 2022, which attracted a lot of pan-users. According to the data of "Second View", the revenue of Game Light in 2022 will be nearly 500 million yuan, and it has accumulated a user disk of considerable scale. In the eyes of many male players represented by Xiao A, "Infinite Lost" was positioned as a "male-oriented game" from the beginning. He gave examples to prove his point. For example, during the in-game beta, the player's own character gender can only be selected male, and the female protagonist is added later. Many settings in the game also make Xiao A feel that this is a male-oriented game. In particular, he mentions that there is a "moderation" system in the game: players have to open the hearts of NPCs through a series of dialogue options to increase their favorability. Xiao A mentioned that he once swiped a screenshot of a game advertisement - a scantily clad female character is bound by chains, which is obviously suggestive. He sees this as proof that the game is positioned as male-oriented. However, as the game operates, male players find a change. This change exploded in a concentrated manner during the 2023 anniversary celebrations. At that time, some Weibo players unpacked the art resources of the new character owner Coco Rick, thinking that the character was scantily clad and disrespectful to female players. In this regard, the official first modified the character painting, and then removed the character after the November update, and the reason given for the removal was to comply with the rules. In Xiao A's opinion, the official removal of the character neither gave enough compensation, nor did he give a sincere apology. In the face of male players' voices, they always respond in this way of "playing dead", which is in stark contrast to the attitude of apologizing eight times a day when the server is opened. In contrast, the official revision of female players has reacted quickly, which in Xiao A's view is a kind of discrimination. Taking this takedown as an opportunity, male players no longer trust the official. Subsequently, the new characters and new costumes launched by the official also made male players feel that the official was more and more biased towards female players. The proof of this is that there are fewer and fewer home-oriented elements in the new card pool, and the characters are becoming more and more gender-neutral. In this regard, Xiao A's idea is: since "Infinite Lost" was positioned for male players from the beginning, it should continue to serve male players well, and should not stop taking care of the needs of male players halfway through and turn to serving female players. Such an official operational transformation gives people a sense of "use up and discard", which is tantamount to betrayal.
Female players are also dissatisfied, but on the other hand, female players of "Infinite Lost" also have their dissatisfaction. The reason why the two sides did not clash when the server was launched was only because they were in different communities and were in a state of "invisibility" to each other before the incident fermented. Female players of Infinite Lost are mainly active in communities such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu. Their dissatisfaction with the game is not that the game has male characters, but rather that the characters are designed to please male players, such as overly revealing clothing, inappropriately proportioned figures, etc. As to whether "Infinite Lost" is a male-oriented game, player Xiao J has different opinions. She doesn't think it's a male-oriented game. She thinks that the fact that there are many female characters does not mean that the game is male-oriented, and the so-called "house advertising" is only the result of information flow push, which does not explain the position of the production team. In J's opinion, the biggest charm of the game comes from the characters. As Adepts, the female characters in the game have great abilities and show more subjectivity. In contrast, many female-oriented B games mainly portray a large number of male characters. If you want to see female characters with distinct personalities active, "Infinite Lost" has become one of the few objects to choose from. The community atmosphere of the game also confirms J's statement, and character development is an important reason for its appeal. Of course, female players who are attracted by the plot will naturally give opinions on character design, especially for some kitsch designs. In this regard, Xiao J feels that it is normal to give opinions when he encounters a character he doesn't like. If you put forward an opinion and let the official be biased, then the problem is not their players, but the official. When I mentioned last year's removal of the Karma Mentor character, J didn't think it was caused by their female players. She cited games such as "Blue Route" as examples, pointing out that it is common for domestic two-dimensional games to modify character drawings and remove characters from the shelves, believing that this is the normal operation of the official to circumvent Tekken. Instead of targeting female players, male players should target that "rule". As for the male player's suggestion that the game's offline activity "female players are organized to expel male players", Xiao J doesn't think it's a problem for female players. She feels that it has long been the norm for female players to organize offline events to reject men, and it is not a phenomenon unique to the Infinite Lost community, nor is it specific to male players of Infinite Lost. As for what some male players pointed out, the official character design has become more and more pleasing to female players recently, Xiao J feels that this is a subjective judgment: it can't be said that male players will dump the pot on female players when they see a character they don't like. J doesn't think that those "female characters who draw like men" will appeal to all female players. Xiao J emphasized that her thoughts only represent her personally, at least for her, playing this game is for the personality of the big sister, if you want a handsome guy, just go directly to play the otome game, there is no need to find a man in this game. How other players don't know, anyway, she doesn't have the need to find a male character in this game.
After the above combing, it can be seen that the controversy of "Infinite Lost" has always been a struggle for the right to speak for male and female players around the character design: female players feel that there are a large number of flattering house designs in the game that make them dissatisfied, and male players feel that it is a betrayal for the official to abandon them under the influence of female players. This kind of controversy is obviously different from the controversy of "men don't play" in other second games. It's just that under the influence of a series of rhythms in March this year, the male players of "Infinite Lost" saw the hope of regaining the dominance of the game. So from March, male players took action, calling on everyone to attract official attention by stopping krypton and brushing bad reviews. On April 1, a player with the ID Xia Xia Ou Qi _ posted a post announcing the deletion of "Infinite Lost" and the download of "Dust White Forbidden Zone", which attracted the attention of many people and pushed the heat of the incident to a small high. Some male players believe that this event represents a stage victory for themselves. On the one hand, "Dusty White Forbidden Zone" has been recognized due to the official statement of actively deleting male characters, and has become a benchmark for "actively responding to the demands of male players". On the other hand, male players are also encouraged by the abandonment of Infinite Lost by Krypton players. They believe that the action of stopping Krypton will make the official face up to the existence of male players, so as to change the original operation strategy. In the face of the movement initiated by male players, female players did not back down. They didn't start a campaign to stop the game, but they were happy to see male players quit the game as soon as possible. There are also some female players who have made a lot of remarks in the community expelling and attacking male players. Some of these extreme statements have been disseminated and have caused dissatisfaction among male players, and the smell of gunpowder on both sides has become stronger and stronger. With the end of many forces, the pace of the game continues to expand. The content of the discussion also gradually deviated from the game itself, and began to spread in the direction of more and more generalized opposition between men and women. Once the topic enters this field, there are basically no facts to talk about, only a battle of positions. In the female gamer community, a group of women who may not otherwise play the game have emerged, using the Infinite Lost incident to attack the entire male gamer community as a way to vent their frustration with men. And the goal of this group of female gamers is not just "Infinite Lost", but to eliminate all male-oriented games in one fell swoop. In the male player community, a group of "men don't play" players who also don't care about "Infinite Lost" also took the opportunity to jump out and mock all male players who have played this game, saying that they are traitors among male players licking dogs, and they are to blame for being abandoned by the official. The goal of this group of "Men Don't Play" players is also not just aimed at Infinite Lost, but for all general games. In the end, only the world where the injured players of "Infinite Lost" was reached. Fanatics and Funzavos will leave the field in search of their next hunting target when the heat has worn off, leaving them with nothing to do with the mess they leave behind. Judging from the game's turnover in recent months, both sides of the dispute feel that they have won, because the game turnover has indeed not grown. In the face of controversy, the official did not update the latest issue of the developer log until April 8. If there is no recent controversy, this would probably be a normal development log. The official responded to the problems that players were concerned about, such as "censorship of missing voices", and also proposed a plan to update the character's clothing in the future. Subsequent updates to the game have largely followed this log, which contains a lot of rework. Obviously, the official judgment of the game will bring a large number of new users because of the controversy. However, unlike "Dusty Forbidden Zone", this brawl on the cusp did not bring many new users to "Infinite Lost". At least not from the turnover statistics. The reason for this may be due to the ambiguous attitude of the officials. In the past two months, no player has seen the most desired statement - is your game male or female, and which side does it serve? For players, not taking a stance is trying to take it both ways, or they may betray at any time. The risk of continuing to play the game is too great.
Can the dilemma of the second tour be solved? As the best-performing product in the second game launched in 2022, the success of "Infinite Lost" that year can be said to be largely due to the fact that it attracted both male and female players and established a large enough pan-player market. It is popular with both male and female gamers, which in the past was a good reflection of the quality of the game, which is a benefit. But just a few years later, times have changed. In today's environment, this unclear attitude has become a landmine, and you don't know when the explosion will come. However, a change in the environment is a change, and the past cannot be traced. This year's various rhythms have shown that today's two-dimensional players are no longer the newcomers who used to be fooled around. It's no longer enough for manufacturers to just provide them with in-game product value, they have to provide them with additional emotional value beyond the product in order to pay the extra premium of "pay for love". The so-called emotional value here is no longer simply to send benefits and engage in interaction, but to require manufacturers to really stand in line and resist the scolding of the players who stand in line. To paraphrase the slogan of the movie 40 years ago: the current manufacturers need to be scolded for me, beaten for me, and punished for me. For example, in the case of "Infinite Lost". The requirement of male players is that the manufacturer should clearly stand up for its own position, serve itself, and fight back against the attacks of female players instead of themselves, and reject all the demands of female players. This is the only way to provide enough emotional value. The demands of female players are the same, hoping that the manufacturer will clearly support themselves, respond to their own needs, replace themselves to play against male players, and refuse all the demands of male players at the expense of running water. It can be seen that when it comes to the requirements of both sides, there is almost no room for reconciliation, and the manufacturer standing on one side means giving up the other. Of course, manufacturers can also choose not to stand on either side (commonly known as playing dead), and if you are lucky, the limelight will be business as usual in the past, but it may also evolve into a complete collapse abandoned by both sides at the same time. This makes today's general game operation like a catastrophe. Now, in the latest announcement of "Infinite Lost", the removed Coco Rick has also officially announced its return. Although a year has passed, players are still looking forward to this role. As for the reason for the removal at that time, someone happened to post such a picture on the website today:
Although the authenticity of this picture cannot be confirmed, judging from the return of Coco Ric, this matter may be over.
If it hadn't used "imprisonment", "censorship" and "revealing clothing" as advertising selling points to attract a group of male players at the beginning, and had positioned itself as a sassy female-oriented game from the beginning, would it not have fallen into the whirlpool of controversy today? But if it does, will the game's flow, volume, and influence reach the scale it has today? I don't have an answer. Has the future of the second tour been lost? I also have no answer. The only thing I can say is that I still have expectations for the second dimension. Because today's predicament of the second tour is not all caused by the second tour itself. It's the environment. When the general environment is good, everyone has a surplus, and the so-called cangli knows etiquette, even if there is controversy, it is a decent quarrel. And when the general environment is not good, life alone is exhausted, and people are naturally prone to become more aggressive. Some people blame today's two-dimensional environment for being harsh, players are becoming more and more extreme, and they are full of "I can't play, no one wants to play". But it's no wonder that the situation has turned out to be like this. Many of today's two-dimensional rhythms are actually just young people trying to find a place to export their emotions. It's not necessarily the game that players are angry about, it's something outside of the game. From this point of view, it is better to say that the second dimension has become a tree hole that carries all kinds of negative emotions, a buffer zone to alleviate the violent collision of all parties. If there really is a cyber wall, then the second dimension itself is that wall, and I don't know how much anger it has helped the society. It's a pity that even if it's such a two-dimensional, people don't appreciate it, and some people just want to wreak havoc on it. After all, in this world, "human beings don't thank Luo Ji".
This article is from Xinzhi self-media and does not represent the views and positions of Business Xinzhi.If there is any suspicion of infringement, please contact the administrator of the Business News Platform.Contact: system@shangyexinzhi.com