Regarding the Tencent controversy

[Favesoe™]

I decided to make this post as a way to help people know what is going on, and to avoid any kind of misinformation in any threads of such. So let's begin.

Edit: It turns out I am a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot so some notes were changed.

As we know, Tencent recently adquired part of Klei, where they announced in their forums. The original post and the entire thread can be found here: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/126355-studio-announcement/

Obviously people ain't happy with this decision, neither I am, however, most users here and on the Klei foruns are taking hasty conclusions about this situatuion, including but not limtated to: Stating that Klei supports massive genocide of minorities on China, because apparently they do now just because of Tencent.

It should be noted that we don't have too much informations about this and the future of Kleu, thus I must assume Bigfoot will update this on a FAQ, until then, EVERY assumption should be taken with a huge ammount of salt. Klei still owns the IPs they make as well as creative control, according to Bigfoot himself, although we have seen this story before, and there's a big possibility DST may be affected by Tencent's and the CCP's decisions, but again, we should not take hasty conclusions. Bigfoot mentioned that they took this decision due to monetary problems.

Tencent just owns 80% of Klei, and they chose this one due their help with Chinese market. Only time can tell what may happen. As I don't buy DST skins and haven't bought an item from Klei in over three years I don't plan on boycotting this game. If my data being collected was an issue, other american companies such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft already do that and also probably have better things to do with it. Just because Tencent is a monopoly that already owns a wide selection of games does not mean that this should be disregarded.

Boycotting this game wont do anything because regardless, Don't Starve Together will die either when Tencent consumes it's soul or when it's niche of "Uncompromising Survival" finally gets muddled up for good and it is remembered as yet another unremarkable "Play God" sandbox survival with every challenge waiting for you at a setpiece.

EDIT: You mfs are still overreacting.

[Lord Ainz]

Owning 80% of a company means you can pretty much dictate what that company can and cannot do. No amount of PR talk will change that simple truth

[Magnate]

Publicado originalmente por DeepDarksama:

Do I have to mention most of the time when klei promises stuff or announces stuff it never comes true.

I bet if they announce it was fake or they didn’t do it, the earth’s seasons would change because all that sigh of relief would push it and change its orbit!

[DeepDarksama]

Publicado originalmente por Jackpot:

Publicado originalmente por DeepDarksama:

Do I have to mention most of the time when klei promises stuff or announces stuff it never comes true.

I bet if they announce it was fake or they didn’t do it, the earth’s seasons would change because all that sigh of relief would push it and change its orbit!

I meant by monthly reworks or monthly updates
but ok lmao

[Retrolicious]

Of today DST is still #65 in most played online games on steam. I guess your boycott doesn't have much effect yet. Ironically beaten by trash reycled online games like Fifa or RdR2 online lol. So that list can't be that significant...

Also why it's still 96% in rating? Does steam mess with the statistics / reviews?

And some individual players defending klei & their addiction no matter what, heh i guess people are really just hedonistic and don't care what publisher / companies are behind their fav addiction game

I can just say that steam and even other platforms have marvelous talents & indie studios and there really is no point in supporting something malicious. In this century players have so many options to game, you really would need to be clumsy to stumble into a shady developer on purpose lol ...

At least the message is transparent out there and anybody can decide informed how they wanna continue.

[Reeva!]

Err, accepting a few business propositions does not mean you take the proposers beliefs and adopt them. That mindset should actively be purged from the internet, it's just low IQ. HOWEVER, What Tencent has done in the past is inexcusable, the fact Klei were so eager to sell to a company that is infamous, if for nothing else, the ruination of multiple game titles for the sake of a cash grab, that says to me the ship has taken on enough water to safely make our way to the lifeboats.

I don't care what Klei's beliefs are, I don't care who they support, I'm looking at the (currently 10%) shareholders who will inevitably ruin my experience by doing what they do with every game, I'm not listing everything they do here for the sake of brevity, but I will use some keywords: Paywalls, Microtransactions, Content Locks, etc.

They are literally the meme corporation that buys a fully released game and adds paywalls to features that were always available in the first place.

Edit: meaning no offense, I cannot stress how naive it is to say "Google and facebook probably also collect my data, I'm fine with Tencent doing the same." No. Just- No. You have no idea what Tencent does with your data and you don't wanna know. You have no clue how much data they collect, and where they draw the line. They have broken the law multiple times on this very topic and still haven't been prosecuted for it properly, meaning they have 0 reason to stop. You should be worried if this is your stance.

[Quineloe]

Publicado originalmente por Naomi_chi:

Err, accepting a few business propositions does not mean you take the proposers beliefs and adopt them. That mindset should actively be purged from the internet, it's just low IQ. HOWEVER, What Tencent has done in the past is inexcusable, the fact Klei were so eager to sell to a company that is infamous, if for nothing else, the ruination of multiple game titles for the sake of a cash grab, that says to me the ship has taken on enough water to safely make our way to the lifeboats.

I don't care what Klei's beliefs are, I don't care who they support, I'm looking at the (currently 10%) shareholders who will inevitably ruin my experience by doing what they do with every game, I'm not listing everything they do here for the sake of brevity, but I will use some keywords: Paywalls, Microtransactions, Content Locks, etc.

They are literally the meme corporation that buys a fully released game and adds paywalls to features that were always available in the first place.

Edit: meaning no offense, I cannot stress how naive it is to say "Google and facebook probably also collect my data, I'm fine with Tencent doing the same." No. Just- No. You have no idea what Tencent does with your data and you don't wanna know. You have no clue how much data they collect, and where they draw the line. They have broken the law multiple times on this very topic and still haven't been prosecuted for it properly, meaning they have 0 reason to stop. You should be worried if this is your stance.

So long post short: You don't care about the cimes of the CCP, but microtransactions are where you draw the line?

[Mary]

Publicado originalmente por Naomi_chi:

Err, accepting a few business propositions does not mean you take the proposers beliefs and adopt them. That mindset should actively be purged from the internet, it's just low IQ. HOWEVER, What Tencent has done in the past is inexcusable, the fact Klei were so eager to sell to a company that is infamous, if for nothing else, the ruination of multiple game titles for the sake of a cash grab, that says to me the ship has taken on enough water to safely make our way to the lifeboats.

I don't care what Klei's beliefs are, I don't care who they support, I'm looking at the (currently 10%) shareholders who will inevitably ruin my experience by doing what they do with every game, I'm not listing everything they do here for the sake of brevity, but I will use some keywords: Paywalls, Microtransactions, Content Locks, etc.

They are literally the meme corporation that buys a fully released game and adds paywalls to features that were always available in the first place.

Edit: meaning no offense, I cannot stress how naive it is to say "Google and facebook probably also collect my data, I'm fine with Tencent doing the same." No. Just- No. You have no idea what Tencent does with your data and you don't wanna know. You have no clue how much data they collect, and where they draw the line. They have broken the law multiple times on this very topic and still haven't been prosecuted for it properly, meaning they have 0 reason to stop. You should be worried if this is your stance.

+1

[Mary]

Publicado originalmente por Quineloe:

So long post short: You don't care about the cimes of the CCP, but microtransactions are where you draw the line?

So ONLY Tencent is where you draw the line when it comes to the crimes of the CCP? Look around your room. Look in your games library. Look at various other software on your computer. Anything having done with the production of your phone or even your shoes. What else was made in China, and how do you know it doesn't have a similar relationship to the CCP as anything `by` Tencent?

You should just get rid of it all!

EDIT: Hell, more pressingly than our entertainment, look in Higher Education (In America). How many professors have been bought off by the CCP? I'd actually say that that's WAY more pressing than whatever concerns we have as the End User of a videogame product, but y'know. . . Who really has time to think about that in the modern day unless literally everyone starts thinking that way?

[Reeva!]

I specifically wasn't referring to the crimes of the CCP because people are so tonedeaf it literally doesn't matter. You could say "So just because the CCP are evil that means Klei deserves to be punished for it?" The death to minorities thing... that's not Klei's fault. I don't give a hoot about Tencent, their CEO's wife/husband could turn inside out tonight and traumatize them to hell and I'd sit here laughing my socks off, but Klei is making a very stupid decision by getting so directly involved with them. It's Klei I care about, though those concerns will diminish rapidly if Klei doesn't listen to their fanbase or their common sense, I like Klei, I don't wanna see em burn.

[Quineloe]

Publicado originalmente por Honey Mary:

Publicado originalmente por Quineloe:

So long post short: You don't care about the cimes of the CCP, but microtransactions are where you draw the line?

So ONLY Tencent is where you draw the line when it comes to the crimes of the CCP? Look around your room. Look in your games library. Look at various other software on your computer. Anything having done with the production of your phone or even your shoes. What else was made in China, and how do you know it doesn't have a similar relationship to the CCP as anything `by` Tencent?

You should just get rid of it all!

EDIT: Hell, more pressingly than our entertainment, look in Higher Education (In America). How many professors have been bought off by the CCP? I'd actually say that that's WAY more pressing than whatever concerns we have as the End User of a videogame product, but y'know. . . Who really has time to think about that in the modern day unless literally everyone starts thinking that way?

Yeah, we know that argument. You can google its resolution with "yet you participate in society! Curious!"

[Mary]

Publicado originalmente por Quineloe:

Publicado originalmente por Honey Mary:

So ONLY Tencent is where you draw the line when it comes to the crimes of the CCP? Look around your room. Look in your games library. Look at various other software on your computer. Anything having done with the production of your phone or even your shoes. What else was made in China, and how do you know it doesn't have a similar relationship to the CCP as anything `by` Tencent?

You should just get rid of it all!

EDIT: Hell, more pressingly than our entertainment, look in Higher Education (In America). How many professors have been bought off by the CCP? I'd actually say that that's WAY more pressing than whatever concerns we have as the End User of a videogame product, but y'know. . . Who really has time to think about that in the modern day unless literally everyone starts thinking that way?

Yeah, we know that argument. You can google its resolution with "yet you participate in society! Curious!"

Alright, you know the argument. But does what you say invalidate it?

Like, really, the only way to avoid any kind of backend corruption with ANYTHING is to oversee the production of everything yourself. Why not just live in the woods with no internet or anything provided by anyone else? Hell, even regular utility companies have all sorts of shady business practices that not everyone knows about; it's better to **pick and choose** what you morally grandstand over, and not obligate anyone to feel the same way even though they probably `should`. At some point, we all have to come to terms with the fact that we're all inherently terrible people who benefit from the suffering of others; but that's just life.

That said, I just had a bigass meal. Should I feel bad because I don't donate food to charities (Which have their own shady business practices as well.)?





EDIT: Infact. . . Read the actual comment instead of retorting with lame overused internet jargon and give me a real answer. As adamant as you are about this whole thing is pretty silly if you think about it; just leave the game and don't make a big deal about it if it conflicts with your moral values. Hell, I haven't played this game in like a year and was about to come back until I noticed they got bought out or so! XD Because like the one above me who mentioned Mickrotransations mentioned, that's all that's likely coming in the future from now on. And that's how that affects me as the End User, and gives me more reason to dislike Tencent in the future. Aside from just their ties to the CCP, which is just gonna happen if they're the government where you live.

[Visualvengeance]

I won't get into politics here, since its against Valve tos, but let's just say Tencent is good friends with the Chinese government as this post will highlight.

Let's have a look at Tencent's "shadey" history, I won't post links to resources cause then this post would be a link fast and I don't want that, but this is freely available and can be find easily.

let's start:

In 1999 Releases messenger product OICQ a blatant rip-off of AOL's messenger ICQ. which later got renamed to QQ.

In 2010 Qihoo 360 vs Tencent, the former being accused of bundling spyware with their QQ doctor anti-virus program which was bundled with QQ messenger. Irony being Qihoo 360 was accused of doing the same thing.

in 2015 Riot games another game company Tencent has their hands in developed league of legends, one of the most famous video games ever. Tencent owned stocks in Riot games and they came in and tried to milk it as much as possible to the point where they turned it into a mobile game, sounds familiar? Nevertheless, unlike Klei, Riot games refused to make a mobile version for league of legends and then Tencent went behind Riot game's back and made a clear and blatant rip-off of league of legends without Riot game's consent. When the mobile rip-off of league of legends made it's way to the west under the name of Arena of Valor some Riot devs were even shocked that Tencent went ahead and did this without even telling them,Tencent even used some league players to promote their mobile rip-off, nice business move Tencent, nice business move...

Oh and for the people who are like "TenCeNt NoThInG tO dO wItH cCp" THEY MADE A PROPAGANDA GAME WHERE YOU CLAP FOR XI JINPING! For this game they literally partnered with the CCP and to be more precise with their communist party propaganda branch. This is not it though, Chinese gaming companies including Tencent revealed even more "patriotic" games which show-off "socialist values" at a Chinese industry meet named china digital entertainment expo & conference (ChinaJoy), some of the games promoted at this expo include games about domestic culture to others, recounting the country's history such as Homeland Dream a game on which Tencent collaborated with the state newspaper (People's Daily) and the game "Story of my Country" in partnership with the party's propaganda branch. From the descriptions, both of these games push strong communist values.

China pushes to cleanse online content to meet strict rules banning material that goes against communist party values. "Gaming companies need to seriously consider social effects... and always steer in the right direction in politics. value content theme and quality and never provide platforms and channels for wrong views and low taste" -- Guo Yiqiang, the head of the publishing bureau under China's communist party propaganda department said at ChinaJoy.

Tencent just owns too much in the video game industry, too much power and too much to say: 100% of Funcom, 100% Sharkmob, 80% Grinding Gear Games, 84% Supercell, 40% Epic Games, 20% Marvelous, 17% Netmarble, 15% Glue Mobile. They're are aiming for a monopoly in the gaming industry and that is clear from their actions, Tencent owns the Nintendo Switch and its games in China and thus they're region locking Nintendo Switch games require Tencent's servers to work. They're also greedy, their chat application, WeChat which blocked sharing of TikTok videos and no direct way to share links from Taobao, monopoly abuse at its finest. WeChat, the reason why a lot of Chinese people demand free speech from their government, they tried to censor a covid whistleblower for crying out loud. WeChat, owned by Tencent blocked covid related stuff as the situation grew. Tencent are controlled by the CCP and are actively suppressing free speech, I can't support such company and anyone related to them.

Tencent, cheating anti-virus tests, suing critiques, endangering lives by restricting free speech... So many things could be said about this communist rotting company that it's unbelievable but I will stop here.

Tencent are controlled by the CCP and are actively suppressing free speech, I can't support such company and anyone related to them. This acquisition of Klei by Tencent is a concern, Tencent's plans are unknown and the whole forum post Bigfoot wrote does not answer anything and just makes things really not transparent at all. DST brought in most of its revenue through DLC skinpacks and DLC Characters, which a lot of people seemed to buy and enjoy and a huge percentage of those bought said skins/characters to support the indie devs, the small guys Klei who managed to develop one of the most fun and entertaining games I've ever played. As for me, I won't support Klei in the future as I used and from what I've seen a lot of people are sharing the same opinion. Why should we support Klei now? They're not an indie dev anymore, they're part of the Tencent money printing corporation.

[Lord Ainz]

Publicado originalmente por Visualvengeance:

I won't get into politics here, since its against Valve tos, but let's just say Tencent is good friends with the Chinese government as this post will highlight.

Let's have a look at Tencent's "shadey" history, I won't post links to resources cause then this post would be a link fast and I don't want that, but this is freely available and can be find easily.

let's start:

In 1999 Releases messenger product OICQ a blatant rip-off of AOL's messenger ICQ. which later got renamed to QQ.

In 2010 Qihoo 360 vs Tencent, the former being accused of bundling spyware with their QQ doctor anti-virus program which was bundled with QQ messenger. Irony being Qihoo 360 was accused of doing the same thing.

in 2015 Riot games another game company Tencent has their hands in developed league of legends, one of the most famous video games ever. Tencent owned stocks in Riot games and they came in and tried to milk it as much as possible to the point where they turned it into a mobile game, sounds familiar? Nevertheless, unlike Klei, Riot games refused to make a mobile version for league of legends and then Tencent went behind Riot game's back and made a clear and blatant rip-off of league of legends without Riot game's consent. When the mobile rip-off of league of legends made it's way to the west under the name of Arena of Valor some Riot devs were even shocked that Tencent went ahead and did this without even telling them,Tencent even used some league players to promote their mobile rip-off, nice business move Tencent, nice business move...

Oh and for the people who are like "TenCeNt NoThInG tO dO wItH cCp" THEY MADE A PROPAGANDA GAME WHERE YOU CLAP FOR XI JINPING! For this game they literally partnered with the CCP and to be more precise with their communist party propaganda branch. This is not it though, Chinese gaming companies including Tencent revealed even more "patriotic" games which show-off "socialist values" at a Chinese industry meet named china digital entertainment expo & conference (ChinaJoy), some of the games promoted at this expo include games about domestic culture to others, recounting the country's history such as Homeland Dream a game on which Tencent collaborated with the state newspaper (People's Daily) and the game "Story of my Country" in partnership with the party's propaganda branch. From the descriptions, both of these games push strong communist values.

China pushes to cleanse online content to meet strict rules banning material that goes against communist party values. "Gaming companies need to seriously consider social effects... and always steer in the right direction in politics. value content theme and quality and never provide platforms and channels for wrong views and low taste" -- Guo Yiqiang, the head of the publishing bureau under China's communist party propaganda department said at ChinaJoy.

Tencent just owns too much in the video game industry, too much power and too much to say: 100% of Funcom, 100% Sharkmob, 80% Grinding Gear Games, 84% Supercell, 40% Epic Games, 20% Marvelous, 17% Netmarble, 15% Glue Mobile. They're are aiming for a monopoly in the gaming industry and that is clear from their actions, Tencent owns the Nintendo Switch and its games in China and thus they're region locking Nintendo Switch games require Tencent's servers to work. They're also greedy, their chat application, WeChat which blocked sharing of TikTok videos and no direct way to share links from Taobao, monopoly abuse at its finest. WeChat, the reason why a lot of Chinese people demand free speech from their government, they tried to censor a covid whistleblower for crying out loud. WeChat, owned by Tencent blocked covid related stuff as the situation grew. Tencent are controlled by the CCP and are actively suppressing free speech, I can't support such company and anyone related to them.

Tencent, cheating anti-virus tests, suing critiques, endangering lives by restricting free speech... So many things could be said about this communist rotting company that it's unbelievable but I will stop here.

Tencent are controlled by the CCP and are actively suppressing free speech, I can't support such company and anyone related to them. This acquisition of Klei by Tencent is a concern, Tencent's plans are unknown and the whole forum post Bigfoot wrote does not answer anything and just makes things really not transparent at all. DST brought in most of its revenue through DLC skinpacks and DLC Characters, which a lot of people seemed to buy and enjoy and a huge percentage of those bought said skins/characters to support the indie devs, the small guys Klei who managed to develop one of the most fun and entertaining games I've ever played. As for me, I won't support Klei in the future as I used and from what I've seen a lot of people are sharing the same opinion. Why should we support Klei now? They're not an indie dev anymore, they're part of the Tencent money printing corporation.

Summarized it all perfectly

[Necrius]

Publicado originalmente por Quineloe:

Publicado originalmente por Naomi_chi:

Err, accepting a few business propositions does not mean you take the proposers beliefs and adopt them. That mindset should actively be purged from the internet, it's just low IQ. HOWEVER, What Tencent has done in the past is inexcusable, the fact Klei were so eager to sell to a company that is infamous, if for nothing else, the ruination of multiple game titles for the sake of a cash grab, that says to me the ship has taken on enough water to safely make our way to the lifeboats.

I don't care what Klei's beliefs are, I don't care who they support, I'm looking at the (currently 10%) shareholders who will inevitably ruin my experience by doing what they do with every game, I'm not listing everything they do here for the sake of brevity, but I will use some keywords: Paywalls, Microtransactions, Content Locks, etc.

They are literally the meme corporation that buys a fully released game and adds paywalls to features that were always available in the first place.

Edit: meaning no offense, I cannot stress how naive it is to say "Google and facebook probably also collect my data, I'm fine with Tencent doing the same." No. Just- No. You have no idea what Tencent does with your data and you don't wanna know. You have no clue how much data they collect, and where they draw the line. They have broken the law multiple times on this very topic and still haven't been prosecuted for it properly, meaning they have 0 reason to stop. You should be worried if this is your stance.

So long post short: You don't care about the cimes of the CCP, but microtransactions are where you draw the line?

Bail out of US-based companies, they support Gitmo.

[Quineloe]

Publicado originalmente por Honey Mary:

Publicado originalmente por Quineloe:

Yeah, we know that argument. You can google its resolution with "yet you participate in society! Curious!"

Alright, you know the argument. But does what you say invalidate it?

Yes. No further reading of your drivel required.