To judge a creation purely by itself merits is often lauded like a fair and positive method of review. Why must a bad game be praised, just because it comes down from a normally brilliant creator? Why must a good one be vilified, simply because your brain that inspired it is ignorant and hateful?
If something is nice, we should be in a position to enjoy and endorse it, even when we acknowledge the faults of their progenitor. Perhaps even moreso when that creation takes steps to distance itself from those now-tainted roots, while offering support to the people who have been wronged. A goal stance could be only fair, don't you think?
I bet it would feel nice to become 'fair'. To evaluate Hogwarts Legacy by its merits alone. To look at the strides the developers make to offer inclusivity, and distance themselves from hatred. To understand they aren't responsible, and to just enjoy a franchise that when held such important intending to me. It might be easier to be fair, trust me. To show from the discourse, ignore context and consequence and merely explore something I used to love. What a privilege – to invest a few bucks and play a game in one of the formative worlds of my childhood, choosing to not consider where those funds goes.
I need to make it clear to you at this time that like a transgender individual, I've no real interest in that sort of 'fairness' or objectivity when it comes to Hogwarts Legacy.
I feel a moral imperative to oppose Hogwarts Legacy.
Hogwarts Legacy cannot and cannot be judged solely on its own merits, since the end result of supporting this game financially and socially isn't just a few how much you'll relish it, or how nostalgic it may be to experience the planet of Harry Potter.
If you buy this game – if you praise its qualities and encourage others to 'support the developers' or 'treat you to ultimately a guilty pleasure' – you're making an option which will harm the transgender community, whether you need to be honest or not.
This statement may appear like a significant stretch initially, as well as the sake of clarity, let's break it down. If you buy Hogwarts Legacy, you do three significant things;
- You're directly supporting the royalty checks J. K. Rowling will receive for use of the Harry Potter intellectual property (IP).
- You're financially signaling towards the wider market that the Harry Potter IP is really a profitable space, likely worth investing in with future titles. The greater profitable the IP, the more money Rowling makes.
- You're socially engaging with the IP and potentially broadening its audience, encouraging others to engage with it as well. This inevitably results in more people coming in contact with Rowling's hateful beliefs, and potentially adopting it themselves.
GamesHub has detailed a little sample from the extensive transphobic rhetoric that Rowling spreads to her audience, along with the comfort and support she draws in the royalties accrued through the Harry Potter IP. It's true that they leverages her wealth and platform to aid transphobic legislation, which hate groups use her name to muster support for openly transphobic movements. I do not have to prove that she's a 'trans-exclusionary radical feminist' – she has openly identified using the label.
Buying Hogwarts Legacy gives Rowling financial support, and risks broadening her audience. These actions are generally harmful for the transgender community. Economic influence is very real, and growing more and more overt in the video game industry. Think of how many microtransactions we're seeing stuffed into games with no need on their behalf. The number of companies tried to make NFTs, only thwarted by massive outcry and financial refusal from consumers.
The money spent comes with an impact. How you behave have consequences. You purchase Hogwarts Legacy, you provide support that harms the transgender community.
I did take part in the review copy of Hogwarts Legacy I received. What I found would be a competently-made, semi-open world action RPG having a fairly linear storyline, basic character progression with very limited build expression or variety, and a combat model that was absolutely functional, but ultimately felt one-note and grew swiftly repetitive.
I experienced no major bugs, but nor did I find much to make it stand out in the plethora of action RPGs available. If you choose not to buy Hogwarts Legacy, you won't be missing out on any huge gameplay innovations, or perhaps a new paragon from the action-RPG genre. It is extremely clear while playing that the Harry Potter IP may be the star of the show, and every gameplay decision has been made to facilitate and showcase the IP to its fullest.
I remember once the Harry Potter fandom would be a sanctuary for LGBT+ kids who felt isolated, like outsiders. There is a beautiful idea I read once about the stairs of Hogwarts, specifically the girl's dormitory stairs that would allow girls to ascend although not boys, and the other way around. A closeted trans girl, lonely and desperately craving validation, would make an effort to enter her assigned (dreaded) dorm, just for the stairs to deny her since the stairs knew that her gender wasn't what the world said it was. Magic, pure and objective without bias or prejudice, knew their identity just like the child did themselves. The gendered staircase concept provides extensive problematic elements that may be unpacked (the binary nature, etc.) but magic like a force of validation? Beautiful.
Of course, that isn't the reality of the Harry Potter IP. Rowling has made it very clear that the trans girl would find no validation in her own world. No love or support. The more I played Hogwarts Legacy, and the longer I put in the classrooms and grounds of Hogwarts, the sadder I felt at how tainted the franchise is becoming. That sanctuary is finished – n't i longer are available for us.
Does buying Hogwarts Legacy make you a transphobe? Is one bad action enough to make you a bad person? In the end, one bucket of sand doesn't make a beach, and one tree doesn't make a forest.
But if you buy this game, you're making a choice. You're choosing to support J. K. Rowling, even when just in a tiny way. And when you knowingly weigh the costs and decide that your personal enjoyment of the gaming may be worth supporting a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, that indulging your nostalgia is much more valuable than supporting the transgender community?
-well, one tree may not make a forest, however it sure is much more than none.
Trans Rights are Human Rights.
The PS5 version of Hogwarts Legacy was deliver to the needs of this article.
