We’ve all heard of this huge game, Hogwarts Legacy. The discourse between “to stream or not to stream” has only gotten louder over the past month. If you play it – you’re transphobic. If you don’t play it – you don’t support the developers! Additionally, there is the discourse on “doing what is popular on Twitch!” (To read more about Twitch discourse, check out these posts here and here)

Does playing Hogwarts Legacy make you a bad person? No, not necessarily. Does it make you transphobic? No, not necessarily. But it does show you don’t listen to the marginalized people that have a horse in the race.

What is Hogwarts Legacy?

If you are in the gaming community, you know this is the big Harry Potter game that was announced in in September 2020 at a PS5 event, though the footage leaked 2 years earlier in 2018.

The game is a RPG set in the 1890s and is following a fifth year student. Your character you play as is starting school much later than the rest of the other students, so you get a deus ex machina “wizards field guide” from the Ministry of Magic. The player character hold “the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the wizarding world apart,” can manipulate a “mysterious ancient magic,” and will need to help uncover why this magic has shown its face again.

Avalanche Software and the Legacy of Developement

The developer is Avalanche Software, which had been acquired by Warner Bros from Disney in 2017. Their most famous game to date is the now defunct Disney Infinity. Warner Bros was very busy in 2017, acquiring Avalanche and launching Portkey Games (if you’re familiar with Harry Potter lore, you would remember a “portkey” is a form of portal). Portkey is specifically a subsidiary for Warner Bros Games dedicated to the licensing of Wizarding World aspects of gaming (Wizarding World is the catch all for anything Harry Potter related).

It has been directly stated that the author of the Harry Potter series is not directly involved in the development of the games.

At this point, the people who have made the game – have been paid.

J.K. Rowling and the Distance of WB

Warner Bros has been trying to get some distance between Rowling and the game because of the major discourse between trans allies, transgender people and over all people who are critical of the game. They have repeatedly stated she was not directly involved – but she will receive royalties from Legacy. She also will profit from the success of the the Wizarding World brand.

The game director Alan Tew has been on the record saying, “I think for us there are challenges in every game we’ve worked on. This game has been no different. When we bumped into those challenges, we went back and refocused on the stuff that we really care about. We know our fans fell in love with the Wizarding World, and we believe they fell in love with it for the right reasons… We know that’s a diverse audience. For us, it’s making sure that the audience, who always dreamed of having this game, had the opportunity to feel welcomed back. That they have a home here and that it’s a good place to tell their story.“

It’s a… non-statement statement. “We promise that there is a diverse audience and that a lot of you are part of the LGBT+!” Tew doesn’t say anything with that statement. Tew has been on record as saying that “The team made Hogwarts Legacy for everyone.” That’s all well and good – but that’s not a denouncement of Rowling’s piss-poo behavior towards people who have loved this series since we were young. People who have grown up and seen the side-by-side comparison of Nazi-era propaganda vs. the goblins in Rowling’s work, seen her statements of “gender critical” ideology and seen her double down by “not knowing” her specific pen name “Robert Galbreath” was also the name of a well known gay conversion therapy scientist.

The website for Legacy advises that Rowling is not involved – but “her team” are.

Streaming and the Discourse around Legacy

A major part of the discourse is that a lot of streamers are blocking those who want to play Legacy. You also have people who claim to be allies who are “worried about getting bullied for playing a game.” Like Hasan Piker.

Boycotts are not “fruitless” when you have whole development teams trying hard to distance on their website Rowling from a game. We (read: allies) are aware this game will be selling well. Harry Potter is one of the largest IPs known to the fictional communities. The fandom (“the state or condition of being a fan of something”) across many fanfiction websites is easily over 1M entries (that is over 2 sites, not counting the numerous just HP sites).

The information and message was meant for people who see themselves as allies (or at the very least aware of the LGBT+ struggles).

When people bring forth an issue – specifically about a group of people who have seen persecution in the past – it is to educate.

Hogwarts and the call back to #Gamergate

Many people take the words of people who are transgender as “you just don’t want people to have fun!” When that is not what this is about. This is about people not listening to the voices this is about.

Let’s talk about Jessie Earl (AKA online as “Jessie Gender”). Jessie is a transgender creator who has actually sparred with Rowling about “gender critical” talking points, to the point where Earl had to take a break from the internet because of all the hatred that was thrown at her.

But let’s talk about some voices that have tweeted or commented on her videos – people that allies have been trying to show exist:

This is one of my personal favorites to show – because it shows the exact behavior any allies try to show people. Now, this could just be a shitty edgelord troll who just wanna comment stupid words on people’s content because that’s what they do. But there are people out there that exist like this.

That’s not all – there’s also people who come out and discuss “Gamergate” as “ethics in gaming journalism” with “leftists like Chris Ray Gun and ShoeOnHead” calling out “social justice in games.”

It’s semantics – but Chris and Shoe at the time were “anti-SJW” youtubers part of the “skeptic community” who have bad takes in general. As far as arguments go – they both appeal to bad fallacies and their arguments cannot stand up to actual facts and information.

Additionally, “Gamergate” was not solely about “ethics in journalism.” It was an attack on women through online media. From a journalistic stand point “#gamergate” started out as an attack on Zoe Quinn. At the time, Zoe went by she/her pronouns and an ex-boyfriend of hers posted a bunch of scathing blogposts accusing Quinn of fucking her way to the top for good reviews on her game Depression Quest. And it went from there.

These attacks spread like wildfire through the online community – to the point where Kelly Marie Tran deleted her social media (you may recognize her as Rose from Star Wars: The Last Jedi) after months of shitty behavior by angry men who backed the “gamergate” false narrative.

The harassment also went on to include doxing (providing personal identifying information), rape threats, and even death threats on a variety of females in the geek/nerdy culture. The people pushing the “Gamergate” narrative were claiming to “promote ethics in gaming journalism,” “protecting the gamer identity” and “opposing political correctness in video games.”

Since the 2014-2015 timeline of Gamergate, there have been many books and studies done on the crossover of bigotry and what was believed about Gamergate.

Does playing Legacy mean that you are not an ally?

No. It doesn’t mean that at all. Some people want to play games to play games. The ratings on the games also make people want to play games.

There is a caution to if you play the game: it may cause some of your friends to think a specific way of you. There are no surefire ethical ways to play this game without having people think a specific way of you.

I want to play the game, myself, but from a critical perspective. I want to play this game and discuss the discourse as a whole. There is supposedly a transgender person in the game named Sirona Ryan. Additionally, the character creation lets you pick your voice, your look and then what dorm you live in… despite the fact there is no non-binary choices. It’s almost like the developer is trying to retcon the whole “girls can cross into the boys dorms, but boys can’t go into the girls dorms.”

Which we can absolutely discuss Rowling’s inherent distrust of men in general. (Example, Hermione was able to go in to Ron/Harry’s dorms in Order of the Phoenix, Ch17 but the dorms will sound alarms if the perspectives were opposite).

Another critical perspective to take is the goblins as a whole. It is no secret that Goblins are often described as “bald, pointed nose, and pointed nose,” (Philosopher’s Stone Ch5, Goblet of Fire Ch24). Additionally, they almost all work at Gringotts and are often selfish over their items. They are often seen as subservient in the minds of wizards and are forbidden to carry wands – often leading rebellions. You can see these parallels to a specific “not so nice” group of Germans in the late 1930s to mid 1940s and their opinions on a specific group of people.

But even from a critical perspective, I may lose many friends and fans. Which is frustrating, but I understand that as a whole, my money going towards an IP so closely related to Rowling and her bigotry is a sign of support.

Streamers Blocking people

Many streamers and content creators are blocking people and anyone associated with the playing of Legacy. It is to protect their communities from people like the aforementioned comments above. Many of these streamers are LGBT+ or allies of the LGBT+ and transgender communities. It is understandable that many people may be upset about this, but it is in order to maintain the peace of mind between creator and community.

We do what we can to protect our communities from the hatred we do not want to see in the world.

Your thoughts?

Despite the fact I want to play this game from a critical perspective, I will more than likely not play it. Additionally, the only “ethical” way to buy this game would be pre-owned, as Rowling would not get the money from my purchase. But, all in all, having heard and seen some of the insane things regarding the discourse, it is better that I just not play it.

What are your thoughts on the matter?