Last month I pointed out the controversy over a coming Harry Potter video game called Hogwarts Legacy. Some trans activists were pushing for a boycott and video game sites were drawing lines about whether or not they would even review it. The game finally comes out later this week and Axios is reporting on all of the controversy.
In a deviation from standard pre-release coverage, many outlets are putting caveats in their Hogwarts Legacy reviews, while others are sidestepping the game entirely…
- IGN, the most popular video game media site in North America, ran a rave, but included a sidebar labeled “concerning J.K. Rowling” that states inconclusively: “As critics, our job is to answer the question of whether or not we find Hogwarts Legacy to be fun to play and why; whether it’s ethical to play is a separate but still very important question.”
- British gaming outlet RockPaperShotgun is counter-programming with a series of articles about magic-based games with a “special emphasis on magic games made by trans developers.”
- A Canadian outlet, TheGamer, is among those that won’t review Hogwarts Legacy. The publication also won’t create online guides for the game, a greater source of revenue, editor-in-chief Stacey Henley tells Axios. “This is not because of any issue with royalties or monetary support for J.K. Rowling, but because we feel the continued popularity of Harry Potter only provides her with a larger platform and further legitimizes her views, which we in turn feel are harmful to trans people.”
Trans activists are probably not happy about the IGN review which places a little box about JK Rowling in the midst of a much longer glowing review of the game (They gave it a 9 out of 10). And that’s not an outlier:
Hogwarts Legacy Reviews #PS5:
Carole Quintaine 10/10
MeuPlayStation 10/10
Glitched Africa 10/10
PSU 9.5/10
TierraGamer 9.5/10
IGN 9/10
IGN Spain 9/10
PSX Brasil 9/10
Press Start 9/10
PlayStation Lifestyle 9/10
PowerUp! 9/10
Geek Culture 9/10
WellPlayed 9/10
FingerGuns 9/10 pic.twitter.com/twixnPXB5j— GermanStrands (@GermanStrands) February 6, 2023
At least one reviewer is clearly feeling guilty about enjoying the game:
Now 30 hours in with no end in sight, Hogwarts Legacy has a firm grasp on my brain. I’m thinking about zapping dark wizards with gratifying blasts of Confringo when I should be preparing dinner. I’m pondering what scarf goes best with my new favorite coat, which plant I should grow to brew invisibility potions quicker, and whether or not the game will ever stop hitching when I move between Hogwarts’ many towers. I’m also, unfortunately, thinking about JK Rowling.
Usually it’s an uncomplicated thing when games are good. We like them, they surprise us, I write about it, it’s fun. But the fun of Hogwarts Legacy forms a unique set of conflicted feelings: I’m enjoying a game that’s an extension of JK Rowling, an anti-trans bigot(opens in new tab) who has spent the last few years applying her wealth and fame to promote an ideology that rejects and further marginalizes one of society’s most vulnerable communities…
It’s so rare that we get a licensed, blockbuster game like this. One that so far delivers on a very specific fantasy and then some. Which makes it all the more unfortunate that something this exceptional is haunted by a bigoted creator who stands to profit from it. What could’ve been a moment of celebration for a series that’s overdue for a great videogame is instead destined to be one of the most divisive games in years. Every fan will be faced with the choice of which side to pick in the 2023 Harry Potter Culture War, including those who just want to play the cool new wizard RPG.
Another reviewer who clearly loved the game was worried that writing a positive review could lead to being attacked:
I’m currently about 15 hours into Hogwarts Legacy and I’m just barely scratching the surface; I’m having an incredible time. This feels like the RPG that Harry Potter fans have been waiting for, rich and alive and absolutely packed with magic.
It’s slightly frightening to write that down, knowing the condemnation I could receive. It’s an extra-light version of the dread I felt while publishing literally anything during Gamergate, but this time it’s more personal: The hate would be coming from people I actually care about.
I’ve been a video game journalist for the past 13 years, I’m a bisexual woman and I have a big ol’ Harry Potter tattoo next to an anti-TERF tattoo. I feel uniquely positioned to care about this particular topic…
Credit for honesty, I guess. Probably all of these reviewers are aware that there a mob online who may decide they’re part of the problem after today. Fortunately, I don’t think most people playing this game, I’m guessing there will be millions of them, will care.
The site that seems to be leaning into this the hardest is Gamespot which currently has republished a year-old anti-Rowling screed by Jessie Earl. This piece was originally published last March and has been slightly rewritten and republished today. In the previous version, Earl admitted that she still has all of the books and the movies and still loves them. But after she was mocked online by JK Rowling as insufficiently pure, she’s deleted all of that in the new draft.
Deeply disappointed @jessiegender doesn’t realise purethink is incompatible with owning ANYTHING connected with me, in ANY form. The truly righteous wouldn’t just burn their books and movies but the local library, anything with an owl on it and their own pet dogs. #DoBetter 1/2 pic.twitter.com/LqANqab8Km
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 17, 2022
So I guess Earl ultimately agreed with Rowling that she wasn’t pure enough. I wonder if she burned the books or just became too embarrassed to admit she still has them. Gamespot is also running this on the front page today instead of a Hogwarts Legacy Review:
Of course, Hogwarts Legacy isn’t going to harm anyone and neither is JK Rowling. Some sites are able to admit that, at least privately to themselves, and carry on with a review. Others, like Gamespot, are not able to do so.
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