For heavens sake, you don’t have to play the fucking wizard game!

Hogwarts Legacy, one of the most anticipated video game releases of the year, came out a few days ago. The game, in which a player controls a child wizard at the school of magic made popular by the Harry Potter book and film series, is bound to sell a whole lot of units, though I won’t be one of them. For starters, I don’t own a video game console unless you include my phone, of which there are several games I often pass time with. Also, I think there have only been a few great video games, and the last one may have been Halo. There is no better video game, to me, than Burger Time. That being said, I understand that this boy wizard franchise, created by J.K. Rowling, meant a whole heck of a lot to a whole bunch of people and that sentimentality is going to be huge for sales.

Even if it means that people are supporting something that’s really gross.

Yeah… it’s one of these pieces.

---

This is going to be a quick piece, but I feel like I have to provide a little bit of context for those people asking, “Why are so many people mad at a game based in the universe of a children’s book?” If you are one of those people, I’m amazed you’re still reading. So I’ll make it quick.

Outside of the game, J.K. Rowling has been linked to many transphobic comments. Some of them were made on twitter, some in interviews, some I imagine were just horribly upsetting things she murmured to herself throughout the day. And I’m not gonna write any of them here because I don’t think doing so will do any good. Just know that they happened and many, many people were upset.

Such comments have led to online outrage, calls for boycott, and were probably the reason Rowling only appears in archival interviews for HBO’s 2022 Return To Hogwarts special. Now, Portkey Games, Avalanche Software and Warner Brothers Games have wanted to make it very clear that Rowling was not directly involved in the game’s development. But, the more reporters have looked into it, that doesn’t seem to be entirely true. And even if she wasn’t, she owns the property, so she is directly profiting from how well the game does.

And all this would be bad enough. Unfortunately, inside the game, there’s also some really gross shit.

Part of the game involves, as was seen in gameplay trailers going back to last March, a plotline involving a goblin rebellion. And while Goblin Rebellion sounds like a badass metal band, in the game, it’s hard not to create direct ties to common anti-Semitic tropes which have gone back as long as people have wanted to find reason to not like Jewish people, which sadly is forever. In Hogwarts Legacy, goblins are portrayed as greedy bankers with hooked-shaped noses, and it’s hard not to think the developers didn’t understand what they were doing. Furthermore, a game of this size had to be seen by a lot of eyes, and it’s almost impossible to believe that two of those eyes weren’t connected to a mouth that didn’t say to someone, “Hey… this feels kinda gross.”

All this being said, I cannot help but giggle because there is a wonderful dichotomy for conservative shitheads who love when people make anti-semitic and LGBT-bashing comments but also are afraid of Harry Potter because they think liking a book about witchcraft is the equivalent to endorsing Satanism. I imagine if Alex Jones’ children ask if they can play Hogwarts Legacy, his head will explode.

---

I will now present a one act play based on so many depressing conversations I have seen happen online lately…

STRAIGHT LIBERAL PERSON (SLP): I am an LGBT ally! If I can ever help, let me know and I will fight alongside you in whatever war you ask!

LGBTQIA+ FRIEND (LF): Cool. Love this. Hey, can you not play this one game? I feel any more exposure given to this Rowling lady is really harmful to societal acceptance of people like me.

SLP: Well… shit. I mean, isn’t there something to be said about separating the art from the artist? I mean, people are gonna play this game anyways…

LF: Ok, well maybe some people will play it. I’m just asking YOU not to play it.

SLP: Well, what if I buy it second-hand?

LF: I really don’t think you understand what I’m asking. And you did say that if you could ever help…

SLP: WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME FEEL BAD?

---

Before I get to the point, I want to go on a mini-tangent.

When people like Rowling or Dave Chappelle make transphobic comments, there is often a movement to attack them as artists. People will say things like, “I never found Dave funny ever!” or “Rowling is a hack and I always hated her books!” And I get what argument these people are making, but it’s not a great argument and here’s why.

Making a statement like that is, although probably unintentionally, linking the art to the artist. So it would be easy to say, “If these people made better jokes or wrote better, would that excuse their behavior?” And, of course it doesn’t. Rowling can have a way with words and stories that captured the globe. Chappelle, at his best, is one of the best to ever get on a stage.

It still makes their comments horrible and reprehensible.

---

Maybe nothing about Rowling or Hogwarts Legacy offends you. Awesome. Good on you. Here’s the thing though:

THAT MEANS YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE OFFENDED!

The ability for Rowling to have a powerful platform, and the fact that many politicians (both in the US and UK) is directly tied to her popularity. It’s also directly attacking trans rights, which are human fucking rights. If you’re playing Hogwarts Legacy and there is a voice telling you that people are upset with you, there’s a reason why: that voice is your conscience. Listen to it. Understand it. Be the ally you want to be, even if it means sacrifice.

Go play some Burger Time instead.