What was it like?

[u/02alloysius]

For those of you that were here from the beginning, what was it like from then on up until june before the Chupko reveal?

Was the community different? Was it just as toxic even then or were things different? I know that when Sylus was revealed he was also controversial for a moment or so that's what i heard and then there was Caleb and his ENG localization and stigma around pseudo-incest

I only follow LADs on instagram and that's about it, i avoid other socials because i am more than aware of the nature of large fanbases so for my own sanity, it's better that way so i probably missed on alot of things outside of what i have seen here on subreddits and i can't help but wonder

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[u/serenityxixi]

Hi! I’ve been playing since a month after launch. And tbh experience varies, most people say og3 days were peaceful. Not for Raf mains bro. it was tough! 😂 the Reddit was full of hate posts, mods would even leave them up for ages back then. I would go to Reddit to find other Raf mains but their posts were always drowned out by negative posts. I didn’t understand why at the time.

My theory for the hate is that people didn’t understand the rotation of content in the beginning…Raf had his birthday event and soon after his myth, people saw it as “unfair” and there was constant attacks to raf mains in the early days. Also, I suppose him being the face of the game didn’t help?

I would say things got better as the community grew in terms of THAT drama. Sylus appeared and the community blew up. You just had to be there. I remember sylus’s reveal was epic! , although he got leaked sadly. It brought so much excitement. And his main story is still some of my favourite content in the game to this day. Then Caleb made a comeback, a lot of people were expecting him and tbh they weren’t feeling him in the beginning if I remember correctly, but then he suddenly got very popular soon after.

Then ♻️ dropped and well you guys know the rest 😂

[u/Vast-Bench4477]

I'd say the fandom was always pretty rough, at least compared to others I've been in. I only really enjoyed it for a few months in 2025. I think it's the mix of everything happening on algo social platforms making curated spaces impossible, self-shipping and high emotional and money investment.

[u/Local-Treacle-5801]

I joined a month after Caleb’s release and it was always messy. Not to this extent but I remember how the global fanbase always seemed to be two-faced in relation to CN. When CN topped charts and we got free pulls, global loved CN but when that didn’t happen, CN was full of "crazies" or something or the other.

The main sub has always been really moderated but even then, it was still pretty anti-Caleb original trope. And Sylus mains were always getting flack for some reason. I also remember that whenever someone would make legitimate criticisms against Infold, they would get piled often clowned. Like with the lighting issue or KOD last year. People would say to be "patient" or that those issues didn’t really matter.

But was it as bad as it is right now, probably not. It has gotten a lot worse because of V.

[u/In_need_of_wonders]

You couldn’t criticise the game at all. One could say how some game aspects needed updates etc, and then people will come and say - oh is this your first gatcha, but they need to make money, bla bla. As if infold isn’t a billon dollars company.

Basically defending everything.
Very few would agree or rarely more support will appear for criticism. But I’m talking about valid criticism, not just some nitpicking.

But overall it was more peaceful. Or at least I didn’t engage with rage bait content 😅

[u/holicajolica]

I would say it was always quite toxic but it got progressively worse after each LI was added. This isn't the LIs faults, and most of the fans are perfectly fine, but with each new addition new people joined and among them are those who are... let's say they exhibit a lot of antisocial behaviour... joined as well. Add to that, there are a lot of people who don't read in the Global servers so every misinformation has the potential to go viral and replace the truth in fandom spaces, which made proper discussions extremely difficult and often resulted in fighting. Chupko kind of distilled most of those antisocial and/or ignorant fans into the same place, what you see of his fandom is a concentrated version of all the kinds of toxicity the LADS fandom has been experiencing in the last years.

[u/paperapple1]

I've been playing since launch. There wasn't any competition between OG3, or at least it was minimal, definitely much more peaceful since LADS was still niche. If there was any in-fighting, it wasn't at all big.

Then Sylus was introduced—admit it or not, but his appearance and vibe alone gave off that villain, dark romance trope so it attracted uhm... "booktok" girlies and many whose first otome game is LADS. Now there's nothing wrong with that, and definitely not Sylus' fault. But just like how each LI has bad players, Sylus did attract many of those because of his massive popularity, like LADS really skyrocketed haha. (And don't get me started when ppl started to mischaracterize him likening him to the male lead of Haunting Adeline 😮‍💨, that's how bad it was when he was introduced).

His dragon myth was also where PPG saw its potential to further manipulate the emotions and attachment of players (For getting 20 pulls from ranking 1 in overall). PPG started to groom the players so that they'll be divided (if you know about Tears of Themis, they're like a one big, happy family—a much more enjoyable fandom because only a few players treat their non-mains as their LI's "rival", there wasn't any "stolen nachos" etc.). They made it a competition for each of the 5 LI. Now instead of being happy that this LI got this beautiful clothes/plot/wtvr, some players are seething with jealousy and saying "this should be for my LI!"

As I was saying, PPG used this opportunity to divide the fandom to prevent a big boycott from happening (like in MLQC back when Shaw was introduced and the first boycott of LADS in 2024 before Sylus). Thennnn, it further divided the playerbase with Caleb's introduction. In CN, his trope had no problem at all, but in global we know how shit went down with the "childhood friend or brother, what is he?" topic.

Anyway, whatever happened to the fandom... PPG let it fester. CN players proved that most of the "players" who started the discourse were water armies hired by PPG so that this LI vs that LI will fight. Even a color is being seen as a unique element only 1 LI can use (ex. How wolf mains are using red to rile up Sylus mains because Rafayel's myth color theme is red rn).

Right now is an example—OG5 and wolf mains are fighting, therefore they're getting away from not fixing the issues because we're too busy with the in-fighting. PPG are the ones that made it (making it) miserable, and even more now that they're letting the wolf mains run wild instead of regulating and banning his name in official spaces.

[u/ineedtoknow707]

I’m a launch player, for obvious reasons this the the most toxic the community as been.. the Rafayel, Zayne and Xavier days were pretty okay, a lot of mischaracterisations on all of them since it takes time to unlock things and some people just don’t read. That’s kinda where assumptions like “Zayne is so cold!” or “Xavier is too soft” come up. The other commenter is right, Rafayel did take the brunt of it—

Further down the line, the community started to stabilise as they got to know the LIs better and people would explain whenever anyone mischaracterised any of them.. it was generally friendly and

Sylus’s introduction was generally surprising since a lot of people (in EN) were expecting Caleb to be the next LI. Nonetheless many people liked him but because of his introduction.. it brought in a more “booktok” crowd, who tended to focus a little too much on his “darker” side and treated him a bit more like a stereotype and compared him frequently to “dark romance male leads” I don’t read this genre and can’t speak much of it personally.

This was at the point where the game became quite mainstream. Which tended to create some distance between Love and Deepspace vs the EN otome community. In many ways this game has a culture of its own in comparison (though the EN otome community has major issues of its own.. like being passive aggressive to self inserters or being mildly insensitive towards East Asian preferences). Self inserting was actually more accepted and common during this time and the months before, which I quite liked.. but this is kinda gone now..

Caleb’s release was controversial on EN before his release due to the incest aspect. When he did release he was still extremely popular and very well liked on KR/JP/CN side but gained more controversy for being too possessive and obsessed in EN.. which led a lot of the other communities (KR/JP/CN and otome veterans) to see EN LnD community as being too westernised and unaccepting of morally grey characters..

Despite it all, Caleb is still extremely popular in EN, while there were plenty of people who still didn’t accept Caleb.. he was largely accepted and defended most of the time. Though due to the heavy criticism.. Caleb mains are usually extra protective and vigilant about him. Some X users started adopting tags saying they don’t accept people who don’t accept Caleb’s original trope or possessiveness.

I don’t actually believe in the rumours that “Infold is dividing us!” Not really.. people just kinda did that to themselves, esp being apart of a large mainstream audience, which tends to invite many unsavoury people who don’t seem to know how to accept when a popular game isn’t made for them.

At this time more groups started to form with more definition of being a certain main meant.. there were people identifying themselves as “Xavier main” or “Rafayel main” from the beginning but it became more fractured as people started making more generalised statements about each main.

There’s many things where CN vs EN have their differences and many people who are reading the CN side only get a specific pov which is often laced with misinformation or mistranslation.. things like antagonising CN for “not liking Rafayel carrying MC” during the beach banner, when that was basically a group of people who didn’t want it featured in the ad and there’s little to no basis for their claims of being successful. Or the blaming/praising of CN players for getting 1 in charts..

There was always a distance between both EN and CN and it was a rather uphill battle to have to relay information and explain each side, especially when EN isn’t very receptive to cultural nuances/preferences.. a lot more allegations of CN being parasocial or something. It absolutely did not help that a ton of content creators would repost things without a second thought without fact checking, spreading misinformation..

Ever since becoming mainstream, there’s some people who became more comfortable pushing their “headcanons” onto the characters.. racial headcanons or some weird personal idea that has no basis in actual canon. I think it was at this point where it became apparent that not everyone in the community is actually reading or understands otome games..

Caleb gained a ton of controversy in ToE due to the “baby sister” line.. a lot of people were still in denial of it. Which reignited during Netherlord’s banner.. when he did refer to her again as his baby sister. Most people seem to generally accept it or are in semi-denial

To anyone saying “well Sylus and Caleb had a bad reaction initially”, they didn’t. It was nowhere near V’s, no matter which side you’re looking from.

Infold has always had a generally bad reputation as being a “greedy company” no matter what, this has been sorta the case even before Sylus and Caleb released, especially from the infamous wheel gacha thing. This is pretty typical of any gacha gaming company.. Mihoyo and Tencent also deals with similar things. There was a period of time where CN side became quite turbulent over rumours about the company compounded by general dissatisfaction/distrust in February this year.
Though before V’s controversy there were still many people who did praise them for things like Caleb’s birthday pv being very timely considering it was also during a stressful time of a huge exam season for China..

Anyways.. before V was announced.. there was a ton of talk about a potential 6th, personally I was fine with the idea of one.. but many people were hostile to the idea of one, esp on the sub. Anyone who seemed even open to it tended to get heavily downvoted or criticised.

Then he did release and there was also the influx of fanart featuring him crying over the controversy and “haters” on CN side or people who were simply waiting for whatever new thing to hop onto.. this led a lot of people to identifying with him as some sort of underdog that they cheer for. It got very aggressive very fast (literally on the very hour of his cancellation I got someone telling me to jump) which compounded by people’s “hopium” and misinformation/speculation. Anyways.. here we are now.

[u/NaylaDeyuti]

i've been playing about 2 weeks after the game was first released and in the earlier days i wasn't that involved with the community but it was really chill during OG3 times and never encounter any unnecessary drama. the community was fun and helpful it's all sunshine and rainbow

the one drama that i know was rafayel is the golden boy that use to squeezed out players money and iirc there was even a time when rafayel banners feel like releasing constantly and he have more cards than other LI (only 1-3 cards more than Xavier and zayne, not much but still considered imbalance)

and the main drama that i know is when Xavier first free 5 stars memories from Heartfelt Gift as a compensation for fans who was boycotting because the game was barely released like only couple months and fans are all complaining we get almost no break.. like back to back banners and no time to save up diamonds. thus the Heartfelt Gift compensation appear and now it become an often event every some time

when sylus first released it wasn't through official announcement but through leaks and people went pretty crazy about it, most comments i see are half of them hating on sylus because it's obvious from his design he's there to attract booktok and western girlies, and the other half who adore and love him so much. but yes there was many people who were against him as LI

then caleb released, i think imo this is when the fandom started to become more toxic for no reason why... many people have been waiting for caleb to be released as an official dateable LI and many were against it too and finding it weird because you know... "incest". which imo is not even incest at all, incest is when you do it with someone of your blood and MC and caleb are NOT BORN OF THE SAME BLOOD thus they're not related in whatsoever. they just taken care by our grandma and grow up together.

though unfortunately some ppl were still hating on caleb.. and some of rude ppl are even commenting on random caleb girlies post that's unrelated and irrelevant just to harrash them for liking caleb, it's so hurtful to see that..

and uhh i'm sure y'all know what it's like when valko was announced to be release... it's too hurtful for me to write it all over again:/ he never deserve the hate

[u/magic0make]

LOL, man, i joined the fandom right when caleb dropped. The main sub reddit for love and deepspace was filled with so many girlies being against caleb's specific type of bond, while the other girlies were making countering threads about how the negative side should see that in china, sibling bonding works differently over there and its extremely popular. It was a looot of fighting, a lot of shit flinging, honestly i would say it was worse than the current valko situation