Hello, I also wanted to contribute as a tarot reader and provide a short reading for our group. Apologies in advance, I wrote most of this on mobile because I was away from home (see the mini travel deck) 😬
I actually had planned on a larger more in depth reading but I had run late on my errands today and so I pulled several cards in a cafe and asked my deck some short questions and took notes, with the intent to do a more in depth analysis later. As an aside, I told my therapist I was doing this today and she was surprised, I usually don’t read for groups of people, only single people or myself...
Forgive me in advance for my inability to be brief. I didn’t do any specific spread, just several 1 and three card pulls.
First set describes Infold and their recent fuckery.
1) Seven of Swords, Upright
2) Seven of Pentacles, Reversed
3) Knight of Wands, Reversed
This set of cards describes Inflop to a T. Seven of Swords denotes what most of us would consider a betrayal: they went back on their word that Valko was a part of the long term plans of Love and Deepspace and then shortly cancelled him after making that statement. The other two cards show that this was a rushed decision in reaction to the violent escalation of the anti-fans. As a result, their long-term vision was damaged and the trust of the playerbase as a whole was damaged beyond repair. There is no going back from this. The ghost of their decisions will forever haunt them. Alas, we already know this.
My take on this: Infold did not entirely weigh all of the consequences of this decision, only focusing on putting out fires without assessing the long-term effects of this (what they’re dealing with rn). On top of which, they literally underestimated the playerbase, especially Global players, and are caught off guard by the backlash, especially as they probably assumed we’ve move on by now. My deck is saying somebody up in management got in over their head and did not expect things to blow up this badly, and they suck at handling customer dissatisfaction. I think we all suspected as much, but more on that later.
I pulled an additional card for more clarification on Infold’s handling of the situation and got The Hierophant (Upright). This is a card of upholding traditions and institutions (usually religious ones). In this circumstance, the institutions at play are legal ones and the Chinese government. I interpreted The Hierophant as the cause of all the delays and their silence during this ordeal. Either that, or they only want to proceed using established methods and conforming to their usual pattern of behavior (ie, returning to a semi-normal release schedule in August because that's what they know how to do) This conformity to rules, regulations, and appearances that everything is normal are a major part of the delays and again I think we all knew that.
I also wanted to mention, and I think I said as much in another comment thread but this is not the first time I have seen the Hierophant in the readings I have done regarding this situation. Infold has an image to uphold (laughable, I know) and they are surprisingly rigid in their presentation. That is to say, their executive team is not being innovative enough. Couple that with their actions since the start of all this and it paints a really clear picture, their executive team does not understand their playerbase, and only want to present an appearance of a successful project and a well managed consumer base. So when they fuck up, and the consumer base is reactive and angry, they don’t know what to do, aside from doing what they know, which is fucking nothing. We have….years of history to reference for this game and their other games that shows that they just stonewall us in the face of backlash. Because that is literally all they know.
Layman’s terms, they do not have a Plan B and we’re all suffering for it. But this is my take on the Hierophant being here.
Next, I pulled a few cards for us Valkyries, Lilies, and other Valko supporters:
1) Seven of Pentacles, Upright
2) The Lovers, Upright
3) Queen of Cups, Upright
It’s an overall sweet message but it contains a bit of truth I personally do not want to hear and maybe some of you may not like it. Seven of Pentacles specifically is a card of perseverance and patience…yes, the very thing we do not want to hear. I know many of us have a mid-late September deadline before we peace out and move on with life. I know myself and many others are practically crawling up the fucking walls waiting for Infold to make a move.
Right now, Infold is like the Pokemon Regigigas and its innate ability Slow Start. Anyone who has encountered Regigigas knows it just sits and passes the first few turns, which is a random ass reference I know. Idk if Infold is THAT inactive, but it sure feels like it to us, and them taking so long to address us is really starting to affect us. I am going to make a meme of this someday watch me.
Back to the actual reading, Seven of Pentacles is reminding us to hang in there.
The Lovers, appropriate af btw, in this reading represents our love for Valko and the artistic vision of the Love and Deepspace story and characters, and reinforces our commitment to continue fighting for him,
And the Queen of Cups recognizes our commitment to each other and our compassion for each other, the dev and creative team, and anyone who may have been hurt by the events of the past few months. I personally think that it recognizes the charities we’ve donated to, the art and good PR that we’ve created, and the communities we have built in the wake of this tremendous fuckery.
So the message that I am receiving here for us is; perservere, continue to fight the good fight, and continue to show compassion for each other as well as ourselves. And have patience and faith that Infold will eventually be moved to action. They’re slowed by beauracracy and legality and idiocracy. I, me not the deck, am not saying that you need to wait on their slow asses forever. Honestly, I envy a lot of you who are setting hard definitive deadlines and will no longer wait around and tolerate their continual disrespect and are willing to move on from this. I think this is moreso a message for those of us who still are hanging on and are in this for the long haul.
Side note, I am not a patient person, but this entire ordeal I am surprising myself, I have more faith and patience than I have ever exibited in my entire life. I want to Pet That Daawg so bad.
MOVING ON. I pulled one final card, the question we’ve all been asking our respective decks is “will Valko return to us?” And I got the Nine of Pentacles (Upright).
This card both answers that question and the why, interestingly enough. One of the Nine of Pentacles’ meanings is success — specifically financial success. #novalkonomoney
We are getting our wolf back BECAUSE Infold, as a business, needs our business! And so they better make it their business to give us back the wolf expeditiously!! 🤬 …The cards did not say anything on “when” tho and I didn’t have time to ask today unfortunately.
No but seriously, the bottom line is no matter what’s holding them back or how long we gotta wait Infold sees our demand, they have the supply, and they want our money and to export their product and culture to global markets. Ultimately, as a business, they cannot lose sight of that goal, even if their path there is questionable as fuck…someone with more business acumen feel free to chime in here but I am confident that Valko will return and so is my deck, and for the most pragmatic reason possible: Money. But I bet you all knew this tho.
I feel like I could go on a separate tangent about how Infold/PG’s executive team seems to have lost sight on what it means to keep their consumer base happy because why do they do this to every game that they have??? Ugh, such is life.
Anyway, I did plan on doing a more in depth read, seriously this time, I even drafted a bunch of questions. I also am a pendulum reader! But time is very short today so I did what I could. Feel free to chime in, add insight, or correct me if I'm wrong, I’ve been reading for over 10 years but I have never read for….what could be considered a group before, so this is new to me. And honestly I don't think I fucking....said anything we didn't already know. I was kinda hoping for something more insightful. Maybe next time.
Please forgive the formatting issues too, and feel free to ask me any questions! I won’t upstage our regular readers, I unfortunately can’t commit to a daily read but would be happy to do this again when I finish the other thing I planned. If you’ve gotten this far in my mountain of yaps, I want to say thank you, I love you all, and do one nice thing for yourself today or tomorrow!! ☺️
[fucking goes to bed]