A seemingly 'objective' investigative report by TouchGameplay (触乐), one of China's established gaming journalism outlets, just nuked the Girls' Frontline 2 subforum on NGA. The article featured insider quotes from Sunborn Network employees claiming 'every single leak from online insiders is false,' while framing the player backlash as 'conservative' behavior that 'skips the questioning phase.' The intention was damage control — the result was pouring gasoline on a fire.
The OP shared screenshots of the ChuApp article and added a pointed commentary: the piece was 'extremely objective,' but its own metaphor — 'once the firework explodes, it'll set the tree on fire' — was inadvertently prophetic about what would happen next.
The comments section erupted instantly. The top reply (Floor 2) went straight for the jugular: 'Objective my ass — fvck your 'conservative' framing. This is a blatant whitewash for Yuzhong, acting like it's the PLAYERS who are the problem.' Floor 3 piled on: 'Skipping the questioning phase? Trending conservative? Give me a break.' Two phrases plucked right from the article and thrown back in its face.
Floor 7 delivered the most concise gut-punch just eight words: 'Still attacking the players. Still. Attacking. The. Players.' Two sentences that capture the core fury — when things go wrong, instead of holding the developer accountable, the narrative pivots to blaming consumers.
Floor 11 posted what might be the most devastating rebuttal in the entire thread: 'The entire article is about what players think, what players did. Not a single mention of how Yuzhong blew off player feedback during the third and fourth closed beta tests. Not a word about how the original IP's influence shaped expectations. According to this piece, everything is the players' fault — oh poor Sunborn, you're the real victims here!' This reply nailed the article's biggest flaw: selective narrative.
Floor 8 had a clever logical trap: 'If this article gets taken down by PR, then I'd believe it's somewhat objective. If it stays up, then I think it's a cover piece.' Using the article's own survival as a litmus test for bias — crude but oddly compelling.
Multiple commenters pointed fingers directly at suspected PR orchestration. Floor 10: 'The PR team is going all out, huh? You say it's objective so it must be?' Floor 13: 'Looks like the PR machine is really cranking — the shills aren't even using alt accounts anymore.' Floor 15 was the kill shot: 'Instant identification — certified enlightened-centrist fence-sitting. They doubled the PR budget and THIS is what we get?'
Floor 16's comparison to Hu Xijin (胡锡进) — China's most famous fence-sitting media personality known for 'both-sidesing' every controversy — was the chef's kiss. Floor 18 went deeper on the rhetoric: 'This is called objective?! "It appears to be betraying these users" — explain what APPEARS means? "Beautifully designed everywhere" — has this person seen the Xing Jie (星姐) characters? This is textbook loaded language: surface praise, hidden attacks. So objective indeed.'
Floor 14 seized on the Sunborn employee's blanket denial with a devastating one-liner: 'Not a single one is true — is that about Yuzhong's promises?' A double-edged joke that hit just as hard as a serious critique.
Floors 12 and 19 represented two distinct player attitudes. Floor 12 was exhausted: 'In this environment, we don't need bystanders to come observe. Stop trying to lecture us.' Floor 19 took the cold, data-driven approach: 'Let Yuzhong's PR machine do its thing. When the holiday passes and revenue hasn't budged — oh, how professional.' The implication: if the PR blitz works, show us the numbers.
The ultimate irony is that TouchGameplay's attempt at an 'objective report' to calm the waters ended up proving players right — that media and developers are in bed together. Not a single comment in the thread sided with the article. This is textbook 'PR backfire.' As for that tree the firework is about to ignite? Grab your popcorn.
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