Regarding Hogwarts Legacy and the transgender community · 10:13am Feb 13th, 2023
So, here I am, with a tiny platform and someone who's hardly made themselves that known at all for about the year I've had an account on this website. As people are aware, Hogwarts Legacy is a hot button topic. I'm a transwoman so this puts me right into the heart of the issue. For several years I've felt like I have little to no place in the transgender community because quite frankly, they have been far left and I don't like extremisms.
There is the Transgender Bronies group on this website. I use it to find transgender stories on this website. I could join, but I'm straight up scared of the transgender community. This isn't a baseless fear. I had issues both in person and online with other transgender people. But now I am all but convinced that I'll have no room in the Transgender Bronies group, a group I should by all means have a place, but after reading the following thread, I think it's very clear I won't.
Seemingly no one is being challenged on calling the game a TERF piece of garbage. It's one thing to hate JK Rowling, the author of the franchise. But to then shit all over the game of all the hard working devs who made the setting more inclusive is something I don't like. It's the usual talking points that if you buy or play the game you're a terrible person. No middle ground, no room for any other views. You're either with us or against us. I could join the group and post in that thread but I'll probably get dogpiled and kicked out. Yeah no, I'm not putting myself through that.
Honestly, the transgender community is its own worst enemy sometimes, doing far more harm to themselves than any transphobia could have. Hear me out. Just because you say you fight for a good cause doesn't mean any means is good.
- r/gamingcirclejerk tried to change the tags of the game on Steam to things like capitalism and villain protagonist. Because you always gotta have the token anti-capitalism stuff brought in for whatever reason.
- There was briefly a website to find out if anyone livestreamed the game. It was taken down quickly but it still shows that someone took the trouble to make a witch hunting tool. Furthermore, the website itself wouldn't even call the game by its name, but rather "THAT wizard game". They're so scared to say the name of the website, just like how in the books most characters are scared to say Lord Voldemort's name so they call him "He Who Must Not Be Named". The website done the same with that game.
- Girlfriend Reviews, a pretty wholesome gaming channel, was harassed on livestream to the point of her crying. People were harassing her while typing #TransRights. Did those people really think "if we bully people, they'll support transgender people"? If anything that's going to have the opposite effect, completely ruining the point.
- thegamer posted an article acting like transgender people and allies could do no wrong in this situation and that the bullying of people were not a problem. It's basically said that if you're an oppressed minority, you can do no wrong.
- Wired gave the game an 1/10. The "review" was done by someone who generally doesn't review video games but sex toys. The "review" talked little about the game and mostly about the author's personal experience with the franchise including the movies. They called the game meh, yet a meh game is not 1/10, that's more like 4-6. 1 is saying the game is downright broken and nearly unplayable, among the worst games ever made. This was seemingly done to try to tank the game's Metacritic score which thankfully, the site did not count Wired. It's possible the game needs to score a certain amount for the devs to get a bonus salary. Devs, need I remind, worked really hard on making this the best Harry Potter game they could in spite of Rowling's views. But no, all the devs should suffer for daring to not cancel the game and cut their losses the moment Rowling opened her mouth about transgender people. "We're not telling you to give up Harry Potter, but..." yeah, no.
- People are using the #HogwartsLegacy hastag on Twitter to spoil the game in an attempt to get people to not play the game. Come on, isn't this just really pity? And this is somehow supposed to get people to side with the trans community?
- One of the developers threw the game under the bus on Twitter. He probably blacklisted himself doing this. Who wants to work with a guy that'll throw his coworkers under the bus for some social justice brownie points on Twitter?
- ResetEra banned all discussion of the game. I'm not surprised since it's by far the worst "gaming" website out there, the wokest of the woke, the leftist of the far left. Yet at least one of the moderators got caught playing the game and it was for several hours too, I think 9 in the screenshot. Just yet another example of moral grandstanding yet having skeletons in the closet.
Do transgender people and allies not realize how awful of a look this is for them? You chosen a video game to make this grandstand for transgender people. People have been harassed for merely playing the game. People have threatened friendships over this. People think they can cancel Rowling which is impossible because she's insanely rich. She'll barely even notice the sales from this game. The boycott failed long ago. The boycott led to the Streisand effect. People don't like being told by moral busybodies, regardless of political side, what they can and can't do. I myself have been called not an ally and a terrible person for wanting to play this game. All because Rowling gets a tiny amount of money from this game.
I guess transgender people are not allowed to enjoy Harry Potter. Rowling may own the franchise, but it doesn't mean she's 100% the franchise. Look at fan fiction for example. While Rowling may say Dumbledore is gay but then not show it in any way, fans have been writing the cast as gay. Granted it's way safer for them than it was for Rowling in the 2000s. But still, the point is fans have made the franchise their own in a way. Much like how we're on a My Little Pony fan fiction website where people have all kinds of takes on it, including LGBT shipping which even I do instead of only sticking to the very few possible canon gay or bi characters.
Let's talk ethical consumption. People argue that it only counts for optional things like entertainment. Alright then, let's focus on that. Since the people against people playing this game tend to be on a moral high ground grandstanding how "good" they are, let's test that. How can you be sure that you never ever sent money to someone who holds bigoted views? Sure we know about Rowling's views, but think about all the other people we don't know. Did you know ticket sales for Universal theme parks gives Rowling a cut of the profits, even if not used to go on Harry Potter rides? Do you want to boycott anyone form entering Universal theme parks? Are people who go there to say, go on Nintendo rides, suddenly evil awful people because Rowling profitted from their trip?
Did you know certain gaming companies like EA, Activision Blizzard, and Ubisoft have all been guilty of sexual harassment of their employees? Hell, I bet a lot more companies are guilty of this. Anyway, do you think anyone that buys a Call of Duty game are okay with this abuse? Do you really think putting money, even a tiny amount, in someone's pockets, is automatic endorsement of everything they stand for? Have you even brought anything from Disney, including Marvel and Star Wars products? Did you know Disney thanked detention camps when they filmed Mulan? That's a huge human rights issue violation. Or how about for the posters of The Force Awakenings and Black Panther, they downplayed the black characters on Chinese posters? My point is, we're all guilty of putting money into the pockets of bigots, even if we don't know they are such. That's why I can't stand the moral high ground, because the people who claim to have it often don't.
The majority of people buying Hogwarts Legacy is because they want to play the game to have fun, not pick sides in the cultural wars. But the far left want to assign everyone who plays the game as bigots. This game is a top seller across every platform it has been released on, including upcoming releases. Are you prepared to call millions of people bigots, regardless of reasoning for buying or playing the game? Are you willing to cast a net that wide over people? And how about transgender people like me who don't agree with your methods? Is it any wonder people are pushing back against you? There's a time and place for everything.
Think about your actions, please. Harassing people and sending them death threats isn't making the transgender side look good. Many of us don't want to get involved in this. I sure as hell didn't, but my hand was forced because of this. I heard of other LGBT people who are scared of what should be their own communities over playing this game. Transphobic people are going to continue to remain so with or without this game's existence. How are you helping transgender people and rights by having such extreme reactions to anyone who wants to play the game? Do you not think there are bad ways to fight for causes? Does the ends really justify any means? Well, I'm saying as a transgender person that you so badly want to defend the rights of, knock it off. If you personally want to boycott the game, that's fine. Just don't try to force everyone else into it or call them horrible shitty bigoted people for just playing a fucking video game. The boycott has failed, you can't stop people from playing this game so please stop trying. This behavior is justifying people's comments about the LGBT community being bullies. I don't want fuel to be added to the fire. Who wants to stand up or ally with people who will treat you like absolute shit? If it were up to me I sure as hell wouldn't. Why bother putting in a transgender character into Hogwarts Legacy when they'll find a way to dismiss that as lip service?
I can separate the artist from the art because the setting of Harry Potter itself isn't transphobic. I can like Lovecraftian stuff despite Lovecraft being a massive racist even for the time. Sure he's long dead and Rowling isn't. Plus he may have put racist stuff in his works, I'm not sure. That's much harder to separate the art from the artist. Perhaps Rowling's other books contain transphobia stuff, but I don't care to buy them anyway. I'm not defending her views. I can say I like the setting she has made and that's the extent of my praise for her. Otherwise never meet your heroes. I didn't held her to a high regard so I wasn't taken off guard when her views came out.
Man, I posted all of this and I'll probably get like 50 views at most with one or two people replying. Who am I kidding? The people causing problems will keep doing so and deem me part of the problem.
If I could thumbs up the blog I would even if I know it isn't much
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Same here.
I wonder if this comment will get downvoted also.
Wait... Rowlings is anti trans? If yes then...
...
Why am I not surprised? I've been let down by so many of my heroes: LenTotally, Hatsumi, Sawtooth Waves and I think even what happened to Wubcake! Who's next? Stuff like this keeps happening! If this happens again... what's the point of looking up to anyone anymore?
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This is why I don't have heroes. I can't be disappointed that way. These days I hardly look up to people beyond my family and online friends. I made the very big mistake of looking up to one of my online friends years and years ago only to become very disappointed and even had a nasty break up.