Your entire argument collapses on a completely false assumption.
The political controversy was never inside the game. The game itself contains no political content, which is why the volunteer translators dedicated their time to translate it in the first place. No one knows in advance that someone they helped is going to pull out a knife and hurt them.
The issue arose because the developer chose to broadcast hostile political statements on external social media after receiving and releasing the completed translation.
Blaming the volunteer translators for the developer's post-release betrayal is pure victim-blaming. They didn't "know all of this"—their free labor was exploited by a hypocritical author. Get your basic facts straight before calling others "dumb."
You’re literally attacking a citizen of another country for using their own country’s map and making statements that don’t even violate their own laws. Lmao, bro, I called you dumb for a reason — and I still stand by it.
She may not have broken her own country's laws, but Xiaohongshu is a Chinese platform.
When a foreign citizen chooses to register, operate, and build an audience on a Chinese platform, they are legally and ethically bound to respect the laws and territorial sovereignty of that country. You don't get to use a country's localized platform to gain traffic while openly disrespecting its sovereignty.
Ignorance of basic platform compliance and cross-border respect is nothing to brag about.
Replying to Cloudi6 below as direct reply is disabled:
Sure, any developer is free to hold their own political stance, but there is a clear line between personal belief and cross-border disrespect. When a developer chooses to register, operate, and build an audience on a country's localized social platform, they are bound to respect that country's laws and territorial sovereignty. You don't get to use a host platform to gain traffic and then openly attack their core national interests on that very platform. That isn't "standing by her country"—that is bringing hostility directly into the host community's doorstep.
Let's talk about "free." Yes, the game is free, but the translator's labor was free, the traffic brought by fan creators was free, and the local community's support was free. In the indie game industry, exposure, traffic, and community momentum are the most valuable assets. A "free" price tag does not grant a developer immunity to violate a country's sovereignty, nor does it erase the fact that she used unpaid labor to build her game's reputation.
Furthermore, your timeline logic makes no sense. A person’s national stance doesn't magically pop into existence overnight. She didn’t suddenly "realize" her political stance only after the volunteer spent countless hours translating the game and driving traffic to it. Before the Chinese translation, this game had barely 10 comments. The author was enthusiastically replying to Chinese users when she needed localization—only to pull a political stunt after securing that initial audience and traffic.
Saying "she might delete the game anyway when it's outdated" just proves my point: after reaping all the free benefits from Chinese volunteers, she can simply wipe the slate clean and walk away. That isn't innocence—it is pure exploitation and hypocrisy.
Isn't it given that the dev would stand by her country's stance? You keep saying her accepting free translation is exploitation of the uninformed people but didn't that support stop the moment she announced her stance? It's a recent incident so she wouldn't have thought of it when she first came in contact with the translator. If anything she didn't remain silent just to continue receiving support? She made the game free to everyone so even with the added translation and popularity from your side she didn't get money. Do you think a small indie developer wants more discussion filled with hatred? Do you want the translation removed from the game? If you're concerned about its growing popularity then 1. the support that came with the translation stopped, and current discussions come from other languages 2. the game is free and might be deleted when the dev thinks it's outdated anyways
