Why Hogwarts Legacy Was Almost Banned

[IMPress Polly]

Now if you're a normal person, you might think that the most controversial title of the year would be perhaps something like a "Lolicon" game, which is one of those interactive romance novels involving heavily sexualized depictions of under-aged girls. (The term is shorthand for "Lolita Complex".) Or some ultra-violent, Adults Only-rated shooting game, perhaps. Something like that. BUT YOU'D BE WRONG! Instead, the most controversial title out there by a million miles this year has been a mediocre, standard-issue open world Harry Potter spin-off title called Hogwarts Legacy. Why? Because, though she had no involvement in the creation of the game, it's part of a franchise that was created by J.K. Rowling who, in 2019, came out as a trans-skeptical feminist and receives royalties from the game's sales. Trans activists made every effort to get the game cancelled from the outset for that reason and if not but for key distributor Steam's refusal to remove it from their platform, they might well have succeeded like they often do. Consequently, the wizard game went on to sell 12 million copies in the first two weeks after its February release, becoming the top-selling game that month and one of the fastest-selling video games ever released.

These things said, I just want us to reflect for a few moments on the fact that THIS is the controversial game out there right now. When there are straight-up pedophile games like this on the market. I wanted to recommend Sydney Watson's video on this subject because it's quite thorough (yet not over-long) and satisfying...and frankly the kind of material, for the most part, that a decade ago one might've associated with the likes of feminist gaming activist Anita Sarkeesian, creator of the famed Tropes vs. Women in Video Games web video series. (Not that Anita was ever exactly a trans-skeptic, but I meant in the sense of its depth of gaming analysis in the service of women's interests.) That this type of analysis now instead falls to a conservative influencer is an indictment of the mainstream of the women's movement today.



I make a special note of the "Terfenstein 3D" game that Watson highlights about midway through. That's what an ACTUAL hate game looks like, people. It reminds me of the infamous Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian game that angry man-children created in response to the original announcement of the Tropes series. (The first video in that series had not yet dropped before a game promoting violence against its creator appeared.)

Anyway, it's an excellent commentary that largely sums up my thoughts. Except that, as a lifelong hardcore gamer, I'm afraid I actually find Hogwarts Legacy kind of boring, non-innovative, and rather generic myself. Guess I'm too old and jaded to be charmed by its resolute commitment to commercialism. Yet I'm glad for its commercial success anyway for the social implications that accompany it. I guess that's all I have to say. Watson covered the rest pretty well. Check out her commentary.

[RMNIXON]

I have always been somewhat torn about J K Rowling because I am a fan of her books and the films but not her politics. Yet this treatment over a very traditionalist feminist stand for women's rights is alarming.

Not being a fan of women's sports I do get that it is their thing and should be treated as such with respect and even admiration.

[Thfan132]

My kid bought Hogwarts on my PS5, it was fun for about 10 15 hours then began to get repetitive and boring. Never finished it.

[Standing Wolf]

I somehow knew before I clicked the link that the "straight-up pedophile games" you referenced were going to be in the "anime" style. Those kinds of images and stories have been widespread and culturally tolerated in Japan for a long time. Not only that, but I remember walking into a record store in a small town in northern Japan in the mid-'70s, looking through a poster rack and seeing one of a teenaged Caucasian girl with a younger girl sitting on her lap, both of them completely nude.