Forum Troll Banned Ahead of Phantom Blade Zero Community Vote
Phantom Blade Zero (影之刃零) has drawn intense public attention as the second Chinese buy-to-play, single-player AAA title to secure an official license after Black Myth: Wukong. With the game’s release drawing closer, activity in its main community forum surged. Earlier, the forum’s original moderator was removed by the platform for prolonged inactivity, which had let spam posts and troll threads take over. Officials then launched a new moderator election to restore order. That routine process unexpectedly became headline news, because one of the two final candidates was a notorious forum troll known as “Mianxian Shan” — who was permanently banned before the vote concluded.
The race produced two finalists. The first was “Da Fan Ge,” the sitting moderator of the “Phantom Blade” forum — notably without the word “Zero” in its name, yet still the primary gathering place where players discuss the game. He is described as a genuine fan of Phantom Blade Zero who regularly shares perks with forum members, earning him a strong reputation. The second was Mianxian Shan, who published a campaign manifesto promising to lead the forum to glory. Observers noted that shortly before entering the race, he had posted adversarial, trolling content about Phantom Blade Zero, which undercut his claimed sincerity.
Mianxian Shan’s reputation rested on years of contrarian posting. According to the source, he targeted Diablo, Hearthstone and Black Myth: Wukong, and even took aim at digital PC platforms. His most persistent fixation was Elden Ring — his forum signature reportedly still asks when the game will “return” the Game of the Year award he believes it stole. In 2023, after Tears of the Kingdom leaked early, he claimed to have reported the game and boasted that Nintendo had apologized to him by phone and invited him to its headquarters — a story undercut by the fact that late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata passed away in 2015.
Rather than simply accept the outcome, community members mass-reported Mianxian Shan’s account, which was permanently banned for severe historical violations. He never appeared for a scheduled interview tied to the election. Da Fan Ge won unopposed and, together with his moderation team, cleared out most of the inflammatory and troll threads, returning the community to normal. Our take: the ban is welcome, but the fact that a single troll operated for years through repeated bans and un-bans is itself worth reflecting on. As long as attention-driven incentives remain, another figure will likely take his place.
