Talks about otome games, drama cds, and occasionally provides advice? Running away endlessly from my backlog of hobbies.

Ilinox

I'm honestly surprised because I was expecting the better-than-average effect to take place, like how everyone says "ladstwt stay away" when they're literally part of ladstwt LOL. If everyone disavows ladstwt, then what is ladstwt? It becomes the convenient boogie monster for people to label anyone they dislike.

Anyway, that's what I was expecting here (and the out I was giving them) because you can easily say "Yes, I'm one of the rare sane/innocent Qin Che stans". You're the minority! You're even more special! You can claim to be that special rare unicorn and feel great about yourself! Win-win, right? Apparently not, because they would rather claim sisterhood with the entire collective, including the extremists.

People have jokingly called them a cult, but after this experience and seeing more and more people become "radicalized" ("I only trust Qin Che mains" "I only believe Qin Che girls") I think they check off enough characteristics to be called a cult in earnest.

They have a zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader. Qin Che is the leader, because this doesn't need to be a real living person.

Subservience to the group requires members to cut ties with other groups. Discourse was literally started a couple weeks ago by a Qin Che stan who said "you can only have one main". To be part of this cult, you have to main Qin Che.

The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself. "Qin Che redefines the definition of romance". "Qin Che's story transcends all otomege plots". "Qin Che is the only otome male lead who has combined all these magnetic traits." No other group speaks in such grand absolutes except for Qin Che stans. Every other day they're finding things to compete in that no one cared about just to say he's the First Otome Man To Ever [X]. His idol song is streamed the most! His videos are viewed the most! His merchandise is resold the most (why would you be proud of this? LOL)! His stans celebrate him with projects at a frequency and scale much larger than others!

"We're just celebrating our love for our man, why are you guys persecuting us." I really wish they had enough self-awareness to read the way they word any of their "celebrations", there's an overt tone that puts down the entire otome genre and other characters.

Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished. Anyone who says anything bad about his cards, even his own mains, get dragged over the coals. There was a recent example with his promise card where wine is being poured over him.

The group has a polarized, us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society. To be fair, the Love and Deepspace community as a whole has pissed off every other community out there LMAO. However, within the CN otome community, I'm surprised by the sheer amount of "DNI Qin Che stans" that I see in people's usernames, profiles, giveaway rules, doll maker rules, etc. My comment on this phenomenon, because it's the first time I've seen this in my 7 years of being in the CN otome community, was what started the dogpile LOL.

Its exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. In defense of Qin Che, they can and will dox people and spread misinformation. Of course you can find extremists in other groups, but we're talking about doing any and all of this at a frequency and scale that makes people start to give the group a wide berth.

They have their own symbols and language. Technically, this happens in any community (which is why it's important for multiple characteristics to be checked off and not just one) and it's what strengthens the tribal mentality. For them, it's crows, cars, feathers, "kittens", etc.

People higher in the hierarchy induce feelings of shame and/or guilt. I haven't gone deep enough into their community to see this, but I've heard people comment on how Papergames' communities are unique for their custom to make people post how much they spent before they can say anything. You have no right to speak if you cannot prove you spent [x] amount of money on the game. Supposedly, they also spread an air of anxiety before every banner to incite people to organize spending at certain times of the day to get their man to top the charts. If I'm not wrong, Love and Deepspace is the first otome game community to use the word "substitute top-up" where someone with an Android account gets someone who has an Apple account to spend for them so that their spending counts towards iOS revenue to help top the charts.

Most loyal members feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. This is probably the saddest characteristic, because it's a positive feedback loop that gets taken advantage of. Someone on the fringes of the group feels ostracized (especially as the group's actions become more extreme) and so they get pushed harder into the group. Like I mentioned earlier, we can see this in the comments of "I only trust and believe Qin Che mains" "Only Qin Che mains understand Qin Che mains".

In this situation, the stars aligned at the worst possible time. See, every CN otome love interest gets accused of plagiarism whenever a game releases, I can bring up examples for all the games that came after Love and Producer. Hell, even Love and Producer went through being compared to Mystic Messenger. However, Qin Che brought an enormous amount of tourists who have no experience in fandoms or the otome genre, they experienced this "persecution" and decided to make it their entire identity, and unfortunately Qin Che himself as a character is poorly written and unable to cast off the plagiarism claims that other CN otome love interests were able to do (and so repeated clashes with other groups create a positive feedback loop of feeling persecuted and strengthens the tribal mentality).

In the end, I can understand the reasons why people might act the way they act, but that doesn't mean I have to be sympathetic. Anyway, the reason I wrote this is for myself to be like "Damn, they really are a cult, I'll adjust my interactions with these individuals in the future accordingly".

I'm honestly surprised because I was expecting the better-than-average effect to take place, like how everyone says "ladstwt stay away" when they're literally part of ladstwt LOL. If everyone disavows ladstwt, then what is ladstwt? It becomes the convenient boogie monster for people to label anyone they dislike.

Anyway, that's what I was expecting here (and the out I was giving them) because you can easily say "Yes, I'm one of the rare sane/innocent Qin Che stans". You're the minority! You're even more special! You can claim to be that special rare unicorn and feel great about yourself! Win-win, right? Apparently not, because they would rather claim sisterhood with the entire collective, including the extremists.

People have jokingly called them a cult, but after this experience and seeing more and more people become "radicalized" (

"I only trust Qin Che mains" "I only believe Qin Che girls"

) I think they check off enough characteristics to be called a cult in earnest.

They have a zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader

. Qin Che is the leader, because this doesn't need to be a real living person.

Subservience to the group requires members to cut ties with other groups

. Discourse was literally started a couple weeks ago by a Qin Che stan who said 

. To be part of this cult, you have to main Qin Che.

The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself.

"Qin Che redefines the definition of romance"

"Qin Che's story transcends all otomege plots"

"Qin Che is the only otome male lead who has combined all these magnetic traits."

 No other group speaks in such grand absolutes except for Qin Che stans. Every other day they're finding things to compete in that no one cared about just to say he's the First Otome Man To Ever [X]. His idol song is streamed the most! His videos are viewed the most! His merchandise is resold the most (why would you be proud of this? LOL)! His stans celebrate him with projects at a frequency and scale much larger than others!

"We're just celebrating our love for our man, why are you guys persecuting us."

 I really wish they had enough self-awareness to read the way they word any of their "celebrations", there's an overt tone that puts down the entire otome genre and other characters.

Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

 Anyone who says anything bad about his cards, even his own mains, get dragged over the coals. There was a recent example with his promise card where wine is being poured over him.

The group has a polarized, us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.

 To be fair, the Love and Deepspace community as a whole has pissed off every other community out there LMAO. However, within the CN otome community, I'm surprised by the sheer amount of "DNI Qin Che stans" that I see in people's usernames, profiles, giveaway rules, doll maker rules, etc. My comment on this phenomenon, because it's the first time I've seen this in my 7 years of being in the CN otome community, was what started the dogpile LOL.

Its exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary.

 In defense of Qin Che, they can and will dox people and spread misinformation. Of course you can find extremists in other groups, but we're talking about doing any and all of this at a frequency and scale that makes people start to give the group a wide berth.

They have their own symbols and language.

 Technically, this happens in any community (which is why it's important for multiple characteristics to be checked off and not just one) and it's what strengthens the tribal mentality. For them, it's crows, cars, feathers, "kittens", etc.

People higher in the hierarchy induce feelings of shame and/or guilt

. I haven't gone deep enough into their community to see this, but I've heard people comment on how Papergames' communities are unique for their custom to make people post how much they spent before they can say anything. You have no right to speak if you cannot prove you spent [x] amount of money on the game. Supposedly, they also spread an air of anxiety before every banner to incite people to organize spending at certain times of the day to get their man to top the charts. If I'm not wrong, Love and Deepspace is the first otome game community to use the word "substitute top-up" where someone with an Android account gets someone who has an Apple account to spend for them so that their spending counts towards iOS revenue to help top the charts.

Most loyal members feel there can be no life outside the context of the group

. This is probably the saddest characteristic, because it's a positive feedback loop that gets taken advantage of. Someone on the fringes of the group feels ostracized (especially as the group's actions become more extreme) and so they get pushed harder into the group. Like I mentioned earlier, we can see this in the comments of 

"I only trust and believe Qin Che mains" "Only Qin Che mains understand Qin Che mains"

In this situation, the stars aligned at the worst possible time. See, every CN otome love interest gets accused of plagiarism whenever a game releases, I can bring up examples for all the games that came after Love and Producer. Hell, even Love and Producer went through being compared to Mystic Messenger. However, Qin Che brought an enormous amount of tourists who have no experience in fandoms or the otome genre, they experienced this "persecution" and decided to make it their entire identity, and unfortunately Qin Che himself as a character is poorly written and unable to cast off the plagiarism claims that other CN otome love interests were able to do (and so repeated clashes with other groups create a positive feedback loop of feeling persecuted and strengthens the tribal mentality).

In the end, I can understand the reasons why people might act the way they act, but that doesn't mean I have to be sympathetic. Anyway, the reason I wrote this is for myself to be like "Damn, they really are a cult, I'll adjust my interactions with these individuals in the future accordingly".

Seriously WTF is wrong with this people!!!! Is it brainwashing???

I know you have thick skin but take care please 🙏🏻 

Ilinox

PG brainrot