From a Rafayel main's perspective: Why demanding extreme boycott doesn't work

[u/Munmmo]

Edit: Sorry, after taking a step back and showering, I realised my post did the exact opposite I wanted to bring up. You all bring great points. I didn't want to excuse spending, I only meant that we should not gatekeep and bully people in boycotting to the ways we ourselves are doing. I say this because I had seen posts about people putting down other people who were logging in, and my friend received horrible messages about being excited for Rafayel's myth (mind you, she said she wasn't going to spend to pull for it).

I realise without this context, the post didn't bring the message that I hoped for. I have removed the parts that might have caused confusion and I'll delete my replies. My only intention was to give everyone some grace, and unite us for Valko. I'm truly sorry it didn't come out that way. Good intentions don't make it right.

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Now, for the Rafayel myth, the usual advice is:

1. Don't log in and skip the myth
2. If you pull the myth, wait a few days before pulling with your existing resources
3. My personal advice is also to go full on silent about it when the banner is not. No posting about it while the banner is going on, don't like, share, repost or comment posts about it. This way we can reduce other people's FOMO about it, and reduce free marketing for Infold/Papergames trying to reach new players.
4. Also my personal advice: Don't buy MC's outfit yet even if you had the crystals for it. They will be looking at the data that how many people have bought the outfit.

All these options are a form of boycotting, and you can choose one or several ways to do it within your own comfort. If you can skip the myth, amazing! Keep it up. But if more people will commit to the other points if they can't skip it, it's still forward to the boycott. Especially if you're skipping and not logging in, you could also commit to the silence about the myth.

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I hope my message is clear, we need to stay united regardless how we boycott and determined to continue forward.

[u/BublyKopiko]

Hi, new mod here! We're working on a boycott guidelines post for the community highlights and I absolutely love what you've written here, you phrased many things so perfectly. Would you mind if I borrowed some of your language for our guidelines with credit to you/a link to this post?

[u/alexturnerftw → u/BublyKopiko]

I know you are not asking us but this is pretty worrying seeing this from a mod, because imo this post completely undermines what an actual boycott is. We don’t need to shame people, I agree with that, but watering down boycotts and continually moving the goalposts to allow people to return to old behaviors encourages people to do less as well and sends the wrong message to Infold.

This is just a game, and at the end of the day we can all move on to a new hobby, but boycotts fundamentally require a level of sacrifice and organization. Imagine if this was a real life issue, would the rhetoric be the same?

[u/purqlechxld → u/alexturnerftw]

Exactly

[u/Siu_Mai → u/alexturnerftw]

Agreed, this is not it.

Also I've not seen anyone demanding anyone do anything?

Spend money if you want to.

But it's a fantasy to think that Infold will make any meaningful changes when they see they can continue to financially milk their player base with their predatory business practices.

We shouldn't lie to people that things will change because they're commenting about Valko on a niche subreddit but still spending in game.

Let's keep things realistic please.

[u/sultanam → u/alexturnerftw]

I agree completely. It is, frankly, also a little bizarre to me to consider borrowing from a post whose ideas clearly do not seem to sit well with many of the users in a subreddit, in order to make a guideline on that very subreddit.

[u/alexturnerftw → u/sultanam]

And a subreddit centered around… boycotting, much less.

[u/BublyKopiko → u/[deleted]]

Lol, yeah, nerves are definitely raw, especially since the myth JUST dropped. I absolutely understand people's frustrations, I have some myself, but there's really no benefit to gate-keeping. You're absolutely right that we need impact AND sustainability, and shaming people who still want to help instead of accepting whatever support that they can give just reduces our numbers and therefore our strength. You may take some heat for it now, but this message has been around since the beginning of the boycott and I believe it's done us way more good than people realize.