On Hogwarts Legacy's Early Success [Feb 10, 2023, 11:51 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
CNN Business reports on the strong early success of Hogwarts Legacy
despite the facts that the game has been embroiled in controversy and its
official launch won't arrive for another couple of hours. But the Early Access
release for Digital Deluxe Edition customers began
on Tuesday,
and reportedly "already broke a record on Twitch for being the most-watched
single-player game." The article also has a summary of the background
controversy, and efforts by the creators of the game at distancing it from J.K.
Rowling's rhetoric:
Part of the game’s expectation is based on controversy surrounding Harry Potter’s creator — J.K. Rowling. The author has repeatedly made anti-trans comments, and some of the movies’ actors have spoken out against them. Some gamers also are boycotting Hogwarts Legacy over the controversy.
“It’s not a commercial risk so much as is a cultural one,” van Dreunen said of the game’s release.
The game features a trans character, a first for the franchise. Though the Hogwarts Legacy character Sirona Ryan does not explicitly say she is trans, dialogue in a scene suggests it: “[It] took them a second to realize I was actually a witch, not a wizard,” the character said.
Warner Bros. Discovery said creating diverse characters was a high priority in order to encompass all people who play the games including the LGBTQIA+ community.
The company says J.K. Rowling is not involved in the Hogwarts Legacy game. But she does stand to make licensing royalties. Some fans have been turned off to the franchise because of Rowling’s comments, others say they won’t let that get in the way of experiencing a new world of Harry Potter.
Quinn wrote on Feb 11, 2023, 01:45:
Thanks for taking on this fight, man. I just can't deal with the way some people think, anymore. You don't know it, but you've been the proxy of my calmer thoughts this entire thread. I'm just fucking done with the idiocy to be civilized about it.
At the risk of sounding sentimental, I really appreciate hearing you say that, Quinn. It's easy to feel like we're alone in this when the other side has such a monopoly on the discourse, when they have on their side the entirety of the mainstream media (obviously including the gaming press), academia, institutions both public and private, the medical establishment, the federal government, etc. But we're not alone. It just feels like that because we don't have their megaphones, and because there are a lot of people IRL who see what's wrong but just want to keep their heads down. To keep the digital mob from their door. To keep from losing their jobs. But silent or not there are still more of us than there are of them and it's important to remember that, so we don't feel isolated or cut off. And I do think we should try to keep our cool. We're never going to win over the fanatics, but there are a lot of other people who never get to see our side of the debate presented in a reasoned and considerate way. Not that I always live up to that ideal. Far from it. Having said all that ... I told Blue I would take a break from posting (see the "etc" thread) and stop engaging directly in the gender debate here altogether. It is obviously making it a lot harder for him to moderate these threads and I do feel bad about that. Yes, I know the opposition likely won't adopt the same attitude, but ... let them. The truth will come out eventually and then it won't matter what they say. At least I hope so. Anyway, I'm signing off for a bit. (You should check out this thread about the media and the Hogwarts "controversy" on Neogaf. A few more kindred spirits there. https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ign-afraid-of-reviewing-hogwarts-legacy.1651631/ )
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