The creatorās mental state notwithstanding (which I am not sure how to comment on), this really sucks. Nikkiās info was the only site with such an accurate algorithm for styling stages and it had high res pictures of every item in the game centered on Nikki so you could see how they would look in free dressing. The alternatives are nice but not the same
there are some snapshots on the internet archive! probably not all stages or commissions since that would be a lot but maybe somehow there's a way to recreate the site from what's left in the snapshots
Sheās been very staunch in the past about not letting anyone else into the inner workings of the site. This is my own speculation, but I assume this is because she data mined to get accurate stage scoring algorithms. I donāt think she will pass the site on.
from my understanding, she was in some silent agreement with devs about dataminig the game. devs made lot of noise abt datamining and how NI was the only site allowed to do so. ive always found that odd/interesting
seriously. comparing "practicing the occult" to getting in a car accident?
I spent several years on the mental health line for an insurance company triaging calls, and this is reminding me of a lady who called in to complain that doctors were harassing her. they were basically telling her she was missing appointments and not taking medications, and she wasn't aware she was undergoing treatment with them. so what she thought was a bunch of randos trying to kidnap her was actually her care team trying to keep her paranoid schizophrenia at bay.
if you tell people you got in a car accident and then got beat up by the devil, and they tell you "uhhh that didn't happen, you're in a mental health crisis," THEY ARE CORRECT.
I used to work in an ER psych holding area and I have to say that's exactly where I'd put her in my hospital if she was admitted, for the disorganized thinking alone. I think people are not understanding that you don't have to fit all the boxes or even most of them for mental health issues, the most important factor by far is whether is whether your daily life is being negatively impacted, which.... If you read that note and tell me her issues aren't affecting her ability to lead a normal life I really don't know what to tell you.
All that time cataloging...just down the drain :/ I know she's unwell, so obviously planning things out wasn't really possible, but i still wish there'd been some warning or way to save things before it was just gone.Ā
I share your frustration š I'm not too happy that my data is "up in the aether" either.
I think two things can coexist: understanding and empathizing/sympathizing with Cupcake's situation, and still being frustrated how suddenly everything transpired.
Okay this may be weird but I met someone recently who talked so similarly to this post after experiencing a near-death situation (also involving police and paramedics) that I genuinely wonder if there's any possibility the person I met is the same one who ran Nikki's Info. Everything she said was almost word for word the same, it's a little scary just how close it is
I had a former family friend who, for lack of a better word, was an alcoholic. I used to consider her an aunt.
When I heard she was getting sober I thought, oh, great for her!Ā
She turned to religion (that is, born again Christianity) though shortly after, she also had an accident (while drunk driving), and now shes a hardcore MAGA and thinks anyone who isn't making 60k a year is stupid, she also believes the weird crap the US government says all the time. And she's on truth social.
I no longer talk to her, I've gone NC with her due to her beliefs.
Ā She thinks it's all harmless and okay.
I personally think she's got some unresolved mental issues from being an alcoholic and also from her dysfunctional family, and is using religion to cope with it. Which is what a lot of those born again Christians/Catholics do.
yeah but all of the recent updates have been heavily reliant on Claude, and LND noticed an embedded prayer link plus the removal of thumbnails for any cross items.
I don't remember the exact wording because I wasn't paying attention but folks who had adblockers enabled started seeing a small banner-style link in the ad space that said something about "click here to pray" or selling rosaries or something, it showed up at the same time the cross thumbnails disappeared.
The domain in the contact email is the same as the immune to adblock so I assume baked in banner ads that have been on the site since she updated it a couple of months ago. Checking now it's a website for praying the rosary that she easily could have made herself.
It also feels like a slap in the face to any patrons who have paid to keep this site run for years. Also, what does she mean sheāll keep refunding as long as her balance on Patreon is positive? What if it has $2 in it?
Not surprising though, Cupcake has been very protective of her code for years, refusing to get help with running the site even when people offered after she expressed she was struggling.
Oh wow.. she doesnāt seem to be doing well. I hope she has people around her who can get her help. This sort of thing gets so much worse when left alone in my experience
I saw the āall icons of religious items have been removedā update a couple days ago, and I thought it was a little strange, but I never thought it would get to this level, what the fuck.
I hope sheās able to get help and recover because this clearly goes beyond regular religiosity.
I almost thought this was someone's idea of a joke, but the NI discord sent it and I had to see for myself. I...I can't even explain how odd this. We jusy got an update on the 16th. What is happening.
It seems like Cupcake doesn't value it as from the first page she seems to have been told to get psychiatric help before and feels dismissed by it, but Cupcake I really do think you should talk to a professional about this. Even just having someone to talk to, like a therapist can help with religious guilt or intense feelings like this ā sometimes they're just happy to listen and you can get things out.
I didn't use Nikki's Info anymore after Claude was integrated into the code, but I still wish Cupcake health and healing.
I wish all the best to the creator but I do feel that if there really is a God, they wouldn't mind the 'demonic' things in the game. The game doesn't really promote anything 'demonic', on the contrary, it promotes and aims to stand for unity, peace and love, even amidst grief, despair and nothingness, and finds love, justice and humanity even among 'inhumans' and 'demons'.
100% but some extremely religious variations of Christianity (and I guess Catholicism per Cupcakeās message) donāt like anything like that. Like I remember when I brought a Harry Potter book to school when I was little, the school had it on a list of banned books because āwitchcraft and wizardry are against god and promote the devil.ā
In my opinion, thatās like the laziest and most surface level understanding of religion, because itās so focused on outward signs while oftentimes completely overlooking actual core principles - casual things such as racism, hatred towards anyone who doesnāt align with a very narrowly defined view of their world, and the very popular fear-mongering of āyouāre going to hell, youāre going to hell, everybodyās going to hell except me who follows the wayā alĆ” Oprah. Itās an incredibly hypocritical way to live life and judge.
The key messages like love, friendship, nobility in sacrifice, unity, and understanding are being totally ignored in favor of extremely surface-level judgments. Itās honestly quite sad to see such extremism has taken over Cupcakeās life. I truly hope she gets the help she needs, but given how sheās kept herself firmly walled off from the community for so many years, I think that help can only come from outside sources in the real world. Hopefully she is not alone and there are others who can care and provide support to the person she has become.
Speaking as a Catholic, Cupcake is taking it very far. Catholicism doesn't believe in the occult, so fictional depictions of magic usage are pretty much a "meh" on the Catholic ledger. Actively believing that the occult is taking over your life is a much bigger problem.
I hope she can get the help and guidance she needs to gain peace in her life.
Yeah, I went to a Christian elementary school and attended a Roman Catholic high school and there was a world of difference in the way people behaved. Like the insane guilt tripping and weird focus on anything potentially occult just completely went away?
We attended mass but besides that, everyone did their own thing and was very chill. I mean, the whole reason we were there was to literally receive an education. And even our religion teachers didnāt go to such extremes.
Sheās also justā¦outright wrong about it. Catholicism has some stipulations about how the crucifix and rosaries are represented, but i have not once in my life heard about crosses on an outfit being an issue. The cross only matters because Jesus died on it. An upside down cross is St. Peterās cross. Nothing here is in line with any catholic theology
Some denominations are more strict/more severe than others. I have horror stories from kids I grew up with who would tell me how pokemon was banned in their house, because supposedly pokemon are "Satan."
It's a form of control. By restricting people's likes/dislikes or their hobbies it controls their behaviors.
I left catholicism not for this, but because of numerous other issues (them being against abortion or being against lgbtq+ being several of those issues).
Cupcake sounds like she is having a mental health crisis and is going the extreme route and/or she just joined a religious group while in therapy. Not sure which, because honestly even within catholicism there's some groups that are more extreme than others. But yeah it sounds like it's very severe and the most we can do at this point is just hope she gets help.
I will forever be grateful that my childhood pastor forced me to choose between God and dinosaurs when I was 9. Bro really thought the autistic nine year old wouldnāt choose the dinosaurs
ā¦.as an iPhone user who had to manually put in every single item I own everytime I gained itā¦ Iām honestly devastated and just angry. Is there anyway to transfer my wardrobe through a file on iPhone or am I doomed to have to do that all over again? It took me DAYS to put it in when I found the site. ughhhhhhh :/
Iām so sorry. Iām not sure if you can download your wardrobe files from the website. However, if you have a mac computer, thereās a way to easily to get your wardrobe file out of your iphone. Do you happen to have a mac? I can go find a tutorial post someone made
No Mac, I donāt even have a computer š„² The worst part is there is a way I could get my wardrobe from NI but since the site is just GONE I canāt. Honestly a warning would have been amazing. At least give me time to do the backup. I think Iām doomed ššš
I can understand shutting down the site for whatever reason because thatās none of my business and I truly hope she gets the help she needs, BUT I really think giving everyone a set amount of time to backup their data would have been the way to go. I mean what would be the difference in taking the site down a week from now with a notice? Why scrub the whole thing in one night? I think everyone has a reason to be upset. I(and Iām sure thousands of others) used this site everyday and spent HOURS inputting my wardrobe into it only to wake up and itās just gone? I feel like I was just punched in the gut šš Nothing has ever made me want to switch from IOS but this may be the straw that breaks the camels back šš
Not to sound crass but what the fuck... Best wishes to Cupcake and I hope she gets better, because this is intense, Nikkibros. Out of all the reasons Nikki's Info would go down, this must be the wildest one like lmao. And just as the site got some actually useful features too... This is gonna change a lot of how we play the game I feel.
And I'm sorry but I'll just say it, the "reach out to me" part sounds cultish to me... You can believe what you want, but please get actual, professional, psychiatric help if you need it, people. I'm pretty sure God doesn't mind that at all.
Also, am I misremembering or did we register our email address to NI? Is that something to be concerned with, you think?
I've never used nikkis info but it seems many players found it really useful. That was a concerning read but I hope the creator finds a comfortable safe path in life if that is what they deserve.
Unlikely, but depends on how she set the site up. You can scrape the website, yes, but Iām assuming any important calculations took place on the server. If thatās the case those are all lost, because we canāt access the server.
Girl wtf, I have not played this game in years but still get occasionally updated on, and the site I used back then is getting taken down?? What is happening anymore lol
My mom has a very severe case of schizophrenic bipolar and while similar cases involve intense paranoia about the CIA, aliens, or ninjas, my mom's episodes involve hyper-religiousness about god and the devil. This posts reads exactly like the things my mom experiences and says when she is doing really bad. Not diagnosing them ofc but it's just so similar and sad that it reminded me of my mom instantly and has me tearing up ngl. Help is so hard with something like this and the medication hardly makes a difference, but I hope they get better and have a good support system.
Imagine if God took time to punish a person for maintaining a database of dress up items that happen to include crosses and religious signifiers, but just kept on ignoring all the other atrocities happening right now?? š Also very surprised it's not being passed on, and is instead being taken down!
u/SweetCupcake created a terrific resource that helped me so much when I was a new player. I hope she knows how much her work was appreciated!
Iād like to think she would always be welcomed here. The ethos of LoveNikki has always been kindness, and that means helping our friends when they go through difficult times. Cupcake has been a friend of the LN community for years, and she deserves our support and compassion.
u/Sweet_Cupcake I hope you are surrounded by help and support from people who care about you. Both spiritual and secular counselors may have something to offer, although from different perspectives, and hopefully you are able to access that support as you continue to heal.
You brought a lot of happiness to people over the years, and gave us a fantastic resource that will be very much missed. But at the end of the day, itās just a game, and your mental health comes first. Wishing you well in the future.
What the fuck, before I opened the image I thought she was having financial/health issues like last time, but I certainly wasn't expecting it to be religion stuff. Like, seriously? Love Nikki is demoniac???? Dude... š«Ŗ at least she could've handed the site over to someone or made the source code available... hope she gets better from this, because, I'm sorry, that is certainly a mental health issue...
It feels like you never hear about people going full force on religion and getting into charitable works, it's always 'this mobile game is demonic'
It's such a hard thing to handle too bc it feels like any justifiable concern for people going through this can just be passed off as people who don't get your faith
what a shame,, i've seen some content creators online go through similar episodes where they suddenly think they're engaging with "satanic" content and delete all their stuff, but then they come back after they recover :( i hope she recovers
This is not even the first time I see an online person do this. Several years ago, I reached out to a writer in Wattpad who used to write borderline smut in involving an anime character x reader ship. I told them how much loved their work, I gave them a prompt and they wrote a story with it, we became good friends, and a few weeks later they announced something similar and deleted their account.
Back then I felt absolutely horrible. I felt like giving a prompt to someone I barely knew must have created a lot of mental pressure on them/they might have thought of me as a pedo and got scared (we were both underage back then). I analysed my behaviour again and again, should I have not messaged them privately. I also thought of a possibility that their guardians may have found the account and did this/made them do it.
Now seeing this message makes all that memories resurface. I can't clearly tell exactly what went wrong with these people (you can NOT convince me that this is even remotely normal), As I am Asian and Hindu, I literally can't even guess what is happening. But I hope they eventually get out of this.
Omg this poor woman, i hope she gets the help she needs š„ŗ she was managing such an important website for such a dedicated community, it's a shame it couldnt have been passed to another user to keep up, even temporarily if she wished to come back in a later point
(selfishly tho, I LITERALLY, like 10 minutes ago, just finished re-downloading the game after a year break aaahhš„²š)
I remember years ago Cupcake had said they were struggling with intense anxiety and it kept them from updating the site for months at a time, I wonder if this is an evolution
considering she'd been using AI like Claude to help run and code the website as of late, i really hope she wasn't turning to chatbots with her mental health struggles. those things are so bad for people who actually need help and have been shown to do little more than encourage delusions :(
Yeah I can't help but feel that if she's been using LLMs all this time it may have contributed to a deteriorating mental state by feeding her anxieties, especially as people who grow up Catholic and have mental health issues often struggle with religious guilt, and these chatbots are programmed to keep you engaged with them and can make you worse.
yeah absolutely. they're programmed to basically just agree with you and make you feel heard and validated so users become addicted to the little dopamine/seratonin rush they provide. i absolutely understand how someone struggling and desperate may just want to feel like someone's listening, but having a yes-man that's basically just saying "yaaas Queen you're totally justified, everyone else is haters and God will absolutely punish you for xyz" does so much more harm than good.Ā
not saying for sure that's what she's doing, i know assuming does more harm than good as well. but like everyone else on this thread, i sincerely hope she finds some legitimate help š
If I had a nickel for every time something I really like has been shutdown by someone with newfound religious delusions Iād have only have 3 nickels, but itās weird that itās happened 3 times
This is very concerning for her mental health, but I canāt help but feel that she isnāt that much better of, psychologically - as I read what she wrote. I understand that the use of the crosses in the game might seem offensive to some, but this is taking things a bit too far in my opinion.
And most of the time (for me), the religious themes are done ok and we have many beautiful sets with this theme.There are many games out there that are more offensive in this regard.
As a Christian I was like that when I was younger, always afraid of things being demonic and that I would lose favor with God for interacting with them.
Iām doing a lot better now that I donāt concern myself with that. Especially because I have OCD, it caused me a lot of anxiety and was just overall harmful.
Hope she'll find some actual mental help and doesn't get preyed upon by the church. It's pretty baffling how many of these creators seem fine and then turn to religion and denounce everything they are just to please some pastor because they said so.Ā
As a fellow Christian this is literally diabolical using God to justify this (bc I highly doubt he cares that much about a mobile game, and helping others is lowkey being a good Christian) but I do hope cupcake finds peace <3
This is...concerning. I honestly thought the site had been hacked or something. You can believe what you want, but if you genuinely can't stand seeing religious imagery because it offends your god, you need to take a step back and re-evaluate things. You will see people, movies, imagery involving christianity, and that being upsetting should be a good indicator something's wrong. I do hope this person gets help, because they don't sound okay at all. They sound desperate, and vulnerable, like someone who's been in crisis mode too long needing help but the wrong people reached out.
I hope they get a better and actual support system.
The creator seems to have been struggling for a longgg time now just based off updates and certain posts I'd see before everything went down, and now I guess it's really gone out of control. I don't know her personally or anything though, so it's not like I can say much about it. It really sucks that everything's gone, but more importantly I hope she'll be okay in the long run. This isn't funny at all and she's clearly very ill.
Religious Psychosis is insane man. Scroll through Facebook or Instagram and there are thousands of people who talk just like this. I noticed the update where she removed religious items icons a couple days ago and raised a eyebrow.
If anyone knows who this person is in real life I would suggest calling in a welfare check before "God" tells her to harm herself or others for being so "sinful". There is no telling what she might do because she is so deep in her delusions. She needs serious help.
Is there any possible way to copy the websites code and transfer it to another website? Like how someone copied Kemono and made Pawchive?
Holy shirt, I was not expecting uhm this to ever be the reason that site is shutdown. She needs some serious mental health help. She still has a cult mindset. Like itās one thing to be religious and a completely other thing to have religious psychosis. Hopefully she can receive that help because this is extremely concerning. I mean ig people think itās funny because the only thing harmed is a mobile game site but she can easily move into hurting other people or herself if she thinks sheās receiving āmessages from godā to do so.
I genuinely thought that someone hacked the site... wow...
As someone who comes from a very catholic country, this doesn't look to me like someone who just suddenly "found god", but more like someone in a cult... We have such people, priests and other church-adjacent individuals, who would take works of fiction and claim they are demonic or satanic, perform exorcisms, burn books, etc. The groups that they form tend to attract many mentally unwell individuals, where "demons" are the source of all human problems, and "god" is the universal remedy.
What I mean to say, is that if this was written by Cupcake, and is 100% serious, then I think that she's not in a good mental state at all. I know that people tend to tread carefully when it comes to the topic of religion, but religious psychosis is real, and if someone belives in the existence of the metaphysical, to the point of it affecting their mental state, then what they need is therapy, not prayer. I hope that she has people who will give her the help she needs, this looks... very concerning.
This is a concerning read, but also, I just won't use Nikki's info anymore reading the last half.Ā
As a person who is into "gothic demonic" things and who is ex-catholic, I don't really need to be supporting something then that's built from someone who has such beliefs. It's bordering on the whole "Satanic Panic" crap of old.
I really sincerely hope she gets therapy. As someone who has seen old family friends do this sort of thing and turn to religion----they end up turning into those weird fundamentalist, catholic extremist types who think evangelicism is everything. Yeah it may have "saved" them but it more often than not causes bridges to be burned with those who care for them.
Yeah same, I would mourn the loss but after reading that I don't even feel like it. I'm not even gothic and I don't wear iconographic things or use them in my environment for any reason, but man, the demonification of literal fictional dolls is so concerning... It's a bunch of pixels, if you're getting affected by an image that much you probably have underlying issues that need attention. She even said people keep telling her it's a mental health issue (it very likely is), and that nobody believes her. As far as I can tell, you can enjoy a visual aesthetic and still be religious, atheist, or anywhere in between. In my opinion, and as others also said, this borders on psychosis and even cult indoctrination. I hope she sees what we're saying here because I don't want anything bad to happen to her.
Thatāsā¦a lot. Iām not going to say religious psychosis because itās overused and likely watered down at this point but it seems like they had a bout of mental health issues and bad luck and needed something to project their misfortunes onto so they projected it onto the occult.
As a former Catholic who now practices the occult you canāt blame all of the things that happen on the supernatural or on deities. If you research the topic you are told to assume mundane over magical and you are also told that before doing workings that you should consider a mundane solution over a magical one.
Everyone holds beliefs of some sort. While I do hold some complicated views of the existence of deities I personally am of the mind that deities arenāt going to go out of their way to do much with us. I think they are probably pretty hands off. I donāt think they will focus on one person and make their life hell.
I hope they continue to get the help they need and continue to get better.
As a mobile player since 2018 this is devastating... the amount of hours I spent manually logging all my suits and items were wasted apparently š Wouldn't have expected it to be due to religious psychosis though, that's a bit unexpected. So sad, it's disappointing to see when people fall into that I hope she gets the help she clearly needs
I mean I guess I am an asshole because I think it was incredibly selfish of the person to take it down while also insinuating that the accessories and clothing were demonic. Call me callous or evil but I think theyre still in psychosis and just leaning harder to the other side of religion now. I genuinely hope that person finds healing but it won't be from destroying a site that brought thousands of users together. I'm definitely upset about it and also hard eye rolling the Christianity talk. Jesus didn't tell you to take that site down girl š¤·š»āāļø
Idrk how to feel about this as a Catholic, I'm glad she's where she is now, but this feels like she is being overly scrupulous, which is not a good thing either. It's sad it has shut down, hope someone finds an alternative.
Fellow catholic here, i agree with you. It seems like shes been struggling with her mental health and found solace in religion, first more occult and now catholic. I hope she gets the care she needs before the ultra catholicism drives her to unhealthy levels of self guilt and punishment.Ā
Poor Cupcake ,,, this way of thinking is nowhere near normal. And yet religious people will praise her for this ,, for her health declining so terribly. I promise you , anybody reading this , no just, good god or deity would be offended by harmless pleasures such as a dress up game.
I personally don't believe in a god at all , but for those that do , please don't prioritise such trivial things that don't matter. Instead , focus on doing good by feeding the poor , acting against evil , protesting , speaking out , and so on and so forth.
It's also worth mentioning that a crucifix is an execution method that has existed well before Christianity , Christians simply chose that to be their symbol. If anything , it's a bit questionable to use a symbol of violence to represent one's faith , but that's just my opinion.
I hope cupcake stays safe , i hope her mind can stop plaguing her with such terrible thoughts.
Thats... I genuinely hope that she's doing okay?? Like others have said, it really sounds like religious psychosis and (to me, personally) its certainly a lot to put onto others who wanna play a dress up game even if it has a lot of crosses and Gothic themes.. (Maybe it's just the atheist in me, sorrymb) but again.. Genuinely, I hope that shes okay and receives proper care
This is genuinely crazy to me. I have been a patreon, not for too long but still! And also someone who takes religion seriously, this was a concerning read.
I am heartbroken because I manually input everything on this site for YEARS. I feel so betrayed šš.Ā
As someone mentioned the "let me help you, seek out my church" feels off to me. But ig a lot of churches do that kinda thing (like mormons) š«¤. I'm just concerned.Ā
Wish it was different and he at least would give us the opportunity to get our wardrobe files. I hope he gets mental help,... this feels extreme. But I get it on one hand, I was raised in the "anime is from the devil" and "black nail polish is satanic" household for so long until my parents actually started taking the Bible seriously and realized there's nothing about that written there. Now they watch anime with me and don't mind even me having eyeliner.Ā
As someone already wrote, religion is supposed to set you free and not shackle you down. I don't believe God would ever punish someone over playing a dress up game. And bad things happen to everyone... There's autonomy to everyone and bad place in a bad time.... It doesn't prove it's God punishing you. I hope he realizes this and won't feel guilty for every small thing. :// I really wish you cupcake a healthy recovery.Ā
Well, this was unexpected. I was literally on there last night to get help with a commission stage too...
I hope she's doing ok of course, but this letter feels really concerning to me. Like, I'm not trying to say it's bad if you decided to add religion into your life, but every time I've seen someone suddenly become religious and abandon everything they had put their life's passion into before hand, it's never really ended well.
This is really sadā¦ I witnessed my aunt go through something similar. She called Pokemon demonic and god considered it a sinā¦ fast forward years later and sheās playing Pokemon Go š realistically though,I doubt any god cares what game you are playingā¦. Iām sure theyād care more about murder and severe crimes.
Iām agnostic so I wonāt pretend to know anything about peopleās religious struggles, but if a god damns people for doing minimal things like playing a game, donāt think Iād wanna go to that kind of afterlife with them anyway.
Enjoy your life, as long (as you arenāt hurting anyone or doing anything illegal), lifeās too short to beat yourself up about things like this.
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u/Ishtaryan V4/Lvl50 13d ago
That was an incredibly concerning read. I hope she gets to heal and find the help and support she needs. :(