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Happenings [CODE CCP RED] massive censorship of CN gacha games affecting GFL and azur lane maybe more happening in CCP crackdown

News and big events. It's happening boys
Thread Description
CCP is going after the shipifus and raifus

NretsewThePerv

varishangout.com
Regular
1617902649169.png


I've just been tipped off to a massive censorship wave happening over in China. it seems Azur lane has been hit by the CCP after getting reported and other gotcha game companies are getting spooked into primitive self-censorship

someone on Reddit said

/alg/ said it's because of CN Arknight and AL player base flame war on social network, and CN AK mass report AL to CCP.
It's 4ch, you can believe it or not

right now reasoning is speculative so take this as a rumour until more info can be gathered

I don't have an exact timeline as of right now but I'm going to try and post the info I have on each game I know is affected

Update 9/4/21

found an unconfirmed screencap of a 4chan post attempting to explain what is going on. going to put it here but should be considered speculation until proven

unknown-104.jpg

extra links to Billi Billi posts visa a Reddit post indicating this AK and AL shit fight has been a thing since 2019

link/archive


GIRLS FRONTLINE

as of now, ALL DAMAGE ART HAS BEEN REMOVED FORM THE GAME IN CN below is a link to the Reddit thread and a statement made by GFL2s director

Reddit thread/archive

the post from the GFL2 director/archive

2.png



translated by someone in the Reddit thread
From the GFL2 director
(Weibo translation)

I feel like I should argue in favour of damaged art for the removal of the damaged art, everyone knows it's unavoidable, and there isn't much we can do. But seeing people saying things like "It's good that it's removed" "It should be removed a long time ago", its pretty heart-wrenching. The themes for GF's damaged art is pretty broad, in terms of "lewd combat", there isn't a lot of it, there is handsome dolls, heroic dolls, crazy dolls, angry dolls, confident dolls, serious dolls, graceful dolls, there's clumsy dolls, sad dolls, nervous dolls, panicked dolls; there are designs that put focus on a realistic scene, there are designs that focus on pure aesthetics, there's the traditional "battle damaged" style, there's also akintight designs. I feel that GF is trying to show that a "Girl" doesn't need to show off their figure to have value in life, neither do they need to be stoic and independent strong women. Someone with several diverse and a variety of traits, that's a "girl".Normal art for the dolls is pretty much more of a "profile" than an artwork, while damaged art is a good place for an artist to show their character. Showing the players a different side of the doll in a fixed scenario, for the artists, they can put more interesting ideas into the damaged art, and more importantly showcase their own design skills. As a whole for the game, damaged art lets the game showcase things that the story is unable to show, and in a way, expand the world-building of the game[Of course for GF, some skins are so out-of-character that they're basically AU]

I reckon damaged art will return soon, but if such damaged art is gone, I feel that this is a sad thing and not something to be clapping your hands I can't believe this blew up, so I'll be explaining some stuff to avoid misunderstandings.

  1. The removal of this feature is not permanent. The reason for this was because Azur Lane was reported to the authorities multiple times, leading to our current predicament.
  2. This article was mainly directed towards those who cheered at such closure. The subsequent regulations placed by the government are unjust too in my opinion.
  3. The point is that Girls Frontline is not an IP that solely sells itself by fanservice. Around 40% of the dolls in the game are fanservice heavy (311/779). This is nowhere near the proportion that Azur Lane has, and even truer for later dolls where we allow our artists to exert more creativity on their art.
  4. The pics that I chose are picked specifically to strengthen my point, and I think it speaks for itself
  5. Fanservice is not inherently bad, even if this happened because of fanservice. Coom or no Coom, both have their own unique qualities.
  6. How the damaged art comes out is dependent on the artist, and dependent on what we the devs need. The result is the hard work of both parties, containing the design philosophies from both sides of the aisle. This is something that should be applauded and not derided.
  7. As I said before, we had to close this function temporarily due to necessity, and unfortunately, we might have to tweak some existing art after it opens again
  8. We understand there are many complaints players have for Girls Frontline, and the same players also very well understand the game's defining strong points.
take this with some salt as I think it an MTL

reading some of the opinions on Reddit (yes Reddit's shit) are mixed with some being apathetic and others taking the anti-censorship stance

this is the end of the GFL part unless new info is posted

AZUR LANE

as of the April 8 Maintenance, THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE GAME WHOLESALE

1617873425872.png


it is not known why it was these characters or if they will come back. I have less info on lane as all I have to go off is this post/archive


if anyone has any news or updates regarding this please post and ill try to update the OP with new info when I can. this is a massive case and I want to try and have it well documented

wake the fuck up samurai, its time to use this subform for its intended purpose
 
Last edited:

immahnoob

varishangout.com
Regular
Patron of the Forums
Now this is NEWS.
I wonder what'll happen from now, finally, the vocal gacha consoomers are getting their wish, no more fan service.
Slowly, we're sliding into a puritan, anti-erotic society / government.
These are fun and scary times.

By the way, that director is BASED.
 

NretsewThePerv

varishangout.com
Regular
Now this is NEWS.
I wonder what'll happen from now, finally, the vocal gacha consoomers are getting their wish, no more fan service.
Slowly, we're sliding into a puritan, anti-erotic society / government.
These are fun and scary times.

By the way, that director is BASED.

the main concern right now is if/how this could trickle down to the other servers such as EN, in the past CCP censorship has only affected the CN client with other servers being able to patch it out (GFL EN case) or in lanes case, it just not being there in the first place. the worry is since this is such a massive change it could be enforced on the other servers. its a sad wait and see

there is also how this will affect game design choices in future projects like GFL2 and how it could lead to self-censorship

IMO these companies need to move their HQs the fuck out of china and start setting up permanent residences in more liberal countries like japan. China is only getting more and more tyrannical by the day
 

salty_apollyon

varishangout.com
Regular
Patron of the Forums
man this shit is dissapointing to see, but also not surprising, at least these two games have the best devs that care about the games they are working on so they'll probably try to keep doing what they love, even if it has to be done through some unconventional ways
my main issue is that if it comes to EN it will become a big issue because we already know what filthy westerners think about fanservice
 

Fennec_fox

varishangout.com
Regular
Jesus
I guess now not even fanservice will be the excuse to play gacha games anymore really. I guess RGE was right
Also, we can't even have some fanservice in our gacha games lol. Where the fuck is it going to go now? Steam is pretty fucked now, other platforms are even worse now this shit.:seething::seething::seething::seething::seething:
And guess what, there will be fucking cucks clapping to this carb-stomp china cencorship and saying that it's fine because iT dOeSn'T aFfEcT tHe gAmEpLaY gOyS. What a fucking joke.:hibiki-pain::hibiki-pain::hibiki-pain:
 

TheHiddenPurple

varishangout.com
really hope this doesn't affect any future content planned for EN and JP
sad for the folks that were planning to get some of those milkers on CN
 

Rye

varishangout.com
this doesnt surprise me in the slightest, with them keeping their HQ in china and not moving it to HK or any number of other places around that dont have shit censorship laws like this

they got whacked with chinas censorship bat
nothign will probably happen with to yostar themselves but theyll have to do what they did with KR and just make the art a silouhette
 

Cayhr

varishangout.com
Artist
Regular
Complete removal of some characters... wow. At least from what I've seen, Taihou and Graf Zeppelin are two of the most popular AL girls (especially the former). I see them all over Pixiv, and I definitely enjoy their booba. I never invested time or emotion into these games, but it really does sucks for everyone that did (esp. if they invested money). As great as the waifus are, gacha games really ruined the art medium in the long run. Hopefully they restore the characters, since it would be the best outcome amidst all the censorship and freedoms being taken away. Also as what @immahnoob said, that director is surprisingly based and wants that fanservice. But regardless, this topic segways perfectly into a broader issue I think everyone should be aware of, because I am very certain this particular instance will creep to other regions at some point, and then extend to other meida you love. It won't be today, it won't be tomorrow, but it will happen.

My primary fear of how the CCP incentivizes operation under its governmental watch is becoming true. The CCP has one goal: world domination, and they know that the way to do it is to take over through the culture.
  1. Invest in the entertainment industry and incentivize companies to base themselves in China for profit, creating a centralization effort.
  2. Tin foil hattery: play politics with other countries such that it becomes undesirable to base in those companies' homelands (e.g.: US companies leaving to base their HQs in China due to taxes and labor costs).
  3. After enough congregation and they own everything, the CCP strong arms censorship and policies to very slowly erode freedom.
  4. Due to the fact that humans -modern first-world country humans in particular- are extremely engrossed and invested in entertainment, they will continue to accept the slowly restrictive state of things to retain that escapism.
  5. Over time, we just accept and consume until they own us physically, emotionally, and financially.
Remember: the future they want is the one where you will own nothing and you will be happy. Nobody that pays for the .pngs in these gacha games have any real stake in the business, and instead invest emotion and time, all the while being key factors in the culture. This goes true for the future of media, what with the push for streaming and live services of everything, including video games (fortunately it's shit; look at deadass Stadia, but there are more attempts at this). It is so sooo lucrative, though...

We can sit, complain, and lament the losses, but what can we do? At the moment, I think we are in a low point where the legacy media is holding on strong via normies and desperately lacking alternatives. If somehow we can retake the culture by creating new IPs and staying safe from centralized platform efforts, things will make a turn around. Of course, we need to pray that someone with actual power can also influence the legal/political sector. This may be harsh given the circumstances, but this is still true even with how much power the legacy media and corrupt governments have: you deserve the industry you subsidize and promote. Keep playing/investing in gacha games/media you don't truly own while throwing money at them and you will continue to have this situation. You play the game, you give it download stats. You talk about the game, you get other people to play the game. You whale on the game, you directly finance it and future games like it. It really, really sucks, but that's the reality.

Unfortunately, we can't stop the normies, but we can establish a competing culture. Think back to how geek culture started. The most popular things were the jocks' interests. Clothes, glamor, sports, etc. (still are popular, but the true culture lies in entertaiment). Geeks were laughed upon and even called satanic (remember Dungeons and Dragons' humble beginnings?) while we played our GBAs and table-tops in the corner. Over time, the normies discovered that there was a whole separate culture that was invisible to them that was gaining insane momentum in popularity. To combat this at our average-Joe-position, this may be our only way of demonetizing the shit media monopoly that currently exists. The only thing we have to be sure of doing is not failing to gatekeep like gamergate did. FOMO is incredibly powerful; when the normies find out that we have the superior media (reality will prove we're not -ists and -phobes), they'll be discouraged from supporting the legacy media, but will need to be gatekept to ensure no bad actors. Break up the existing shit media's monopoly and maintain our many, decentralized cultural castles simultaneously. In fact, this very forum is probably one of many new competitors to the existing legacy culture that parasitically took over the one we know and love. So far, things are good.

If you're a creator, create and softly compete by developing new (underground) communities and fandoms until we have widespread momentum. If you're not a creator, invest in the things that will compete, and improve yourself in the meantime (we are a very highly consumerist society, and it's taking a toll on people's mental and physical health).

(!) Here is an important paragraph, especially for those of you that think I'm telling you to let go of everything on the spot (hint: I'm not). Let's say you really, really can't let go of AL/GFL or similar media that you know is under the threat of censorship. You can still contribute to change by at least diverting some or most of your effort to supporting alternatives and competitors that aren't compromised/woke/predatory. If you were going to whale on a gacha, maybe give half of it to alternative IPs being developed, so you can have a hand in changing the culture but not lose out on what you love. It's unrealistic for me or anyone to demand total withdrawal, but you can at least divert support. Look away from the mainstream! For the western scene, I am keeping up with the comicsgaters that scorn Marvel and DC (two examples are Ethan Van Sciver's "Cyber Frog" and Raging Golden Eagle's "Blade Devil"), and getting involved with the cultures they are developing. For eastern media, support good media, cautiously engage in F2P games (especially out of Korea and China), and make fun of idiots like Sony abandoning their homeland. If there's nothing, just hold out, improve yourself, enjoy what you can to get by with moderation, and things will (hopefully) turn around with enough hard work and support.

It will take a lot of time and will feel impossible for us when it comes to changing the way things are, but again, we're in a culture war. And war is long, slow, and arduous.
 

Minty

varishangout.com
View attachment 2623

I've just been tipped off to a massive censorship wave happening over in China. it seems Azur lane has been hit by the CCP after getting reported and other gotcha game companies are getting spooked into primitive self-censorship

someone on Reddit said



right now reasoning is speculative so take this as a rumour until more info can be gathered

I don't have an exact timeline as of right now but I'm going to try and post the info I have on each game I know is affected


GIRLS FRONTLINE

as of now, ALL DAMAGE ART HAS BEEN REMOVED FORM THE GAME IN CN below is a link to the Reddit thread and a statement made by GFL2s director

Reddit thread/archive

the post from the GFL2 director/archive

View attachment 2622


translated by someone in the Reddit thread
From the GFL2 director

take this with some salt as I think it an MTL

reading some of the opinions on Reddit (yes Reddit's shit) are mixed with some being apathetic and others taking the anti-censorship stance

this is the end of the GFL part unless new info is posted

AZUR LANE

as of the April 8 Maintenance, THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE GAME WHOLESALE

View attachment 2607


it is not known why it was these characters or if they will come back. I have less info on lane as all I have to go off is this post/archive


if anyone has any news or updates regarding this please post and ill try to update the OP with new info when I can. this is a massive case and I want to try and have it well documented

wake the fuck up samurai, its time to use this subform for its intended purpose
Please God don't let this bleed over into the other servers...
 
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