Harry Potter (Wizarding World Universe) Book • Page 22

This kind of posting is not welcome here. Reported.

 

I should be the one reporting this quite honestly. They’ve really upset me.

 

playing a Harry Potter game does mean you support one of the worlds most outspoken and powerful transphobes though, so if you’re okay with that it’s not a huge leap to assume you might be transphobic

 

If you assume someone playing a Harry Potter RPG is transphobic over just being either:

a) a Harry Potter fan
b) a mainstream franchise gaming fan

you are probably looking to be offended. Grow up.

 

I think this person comments in here have been dumb as hell and clearly toxic for the sake of being so, but I don’t agree with that. Buying a copy of the game? Sure, you are, in fact, supporting them and their beliefs, financially speaking. There’s no disputing that. But just playing the game? Say I buy a used copy in a month, play it in my free time and don’t parade around my support for it in a public forum, that means I’m supporting her? I can’t get on board with that. She has no idea that I’m even playing the game or that I own it, and she certainly hasn’t seen any money from me.

 

I mean if you buy the game used you're still contributing to a person who bought the game. You're just adding another middleman to the process. Is that really all that different? I don't feel like it is. At the end of the day, the money is only one part of the equation. Sure, if five people buy a game and share it / resell it to each other that is less revenue than if they each buy their own copy but you're still overall contributing to the success of the game and the franchise when the best way for Rowling (and society as a whole) to not embrace transphobia would be for the franchise to die

 

Oh my god can we just fucking enough? Where is this going? What contributions is any of this making to anything? Make the decisions you make, own them, and move the fuck on.

 

Sequels to games and the success of game franchises are dependent on sales (unless a game also has microtransactions, I don’t know if this does but I wouldn’t be buying them anyway). I disagree that someone buying a used copy of a game and playing it is in any way contributing to the success or longetivty of the franchise. The initial sale was made regardless if I or another thirty people after me play it. No more money is being made.

But this whole thing for me goes way beyond just this game, and it’s where I’m struggling to figure out where the line is actually drawn. Am I doing the same thing by going to a universal theme park? Are my trans friends?

 

Game sales aren't the only thing that contributes to the success of a game. I'm sure they also have metrics and consider how many people are playing it. Even if your game sold 5 million copies, if three months later it only has 10,000 daily users there is definitely room for worry that people would care about a sequel. Whereas even if it sold less, if still it has 100,000 daily users that is a good sign it has a healthy player base that would definitely be interested in a sequel.

As far as the theme park stuff and other things like that goes... definitely a lot of grey areas there. Personally for me I'm currently drawing the line at supporting the franchise itself. Like I'd still go to a universal park, give them money in other ways, I just wouldn't go to harry potter world or actually watch harry potter stuff on a streaming service or otherwise show support for the franchise. But maybe that's a copout? Like I was never super invested in the franchise to begin with so maybe that is a convenient spot to draw the line where I don't have to really make any changes.

 

I know a lot of streamers that were going to stream the game and fundraise for trans charities, likely outweighing the cost of money going directly to JK for a single purchase of the game. The bullying and blacklist site kept a lot of people from doing that so I mean, I honestly think a lot of this outcry is overblown and damaged a lot of good coming from the games release instead.

 

lol it’s possible to donate to trans charities without playing the game that benefits the famous terf lady

 

Lol it’s possible to play a video game about witches and wizards that has deep meaning to peoples childhood and adolescence without being transphobic lol

 

Who even has $60 to blow on a video game? My god

 

All that’s being done is people playing a game from a lore that means something deep to them, and they are getting bullied, harassed, and called transphobic, because their purchase of the game is like tossing a penny at a stack of billions. How are people supposed to react or take that?

 

If saying your actions are transphobic and taking offense to that, there needs to be self reflection. If someone cannot disentangle their childhood memories and current violence/rhetoric against trans people, that’s on you to explore whether you’re putting yourself and non-basic needs above others.

In the United States, there is a growing pushback and hatred against trans and queer people. It’s become a fucking major platform point of the Republican Party for the next election cycle. If we can’t expect someone to not play a game in solidarity, how the hell can we expect others to show up when we are literally being targets of violence.

 

there have been several points made about how much more there is to this than simply money. if you can’t grasp the concept that the social acceptance of JK Rowling’s work emboldens her views, which she has come out and said verbatim that it does, then there’s really nothing more left here to discuss.

 

oh shit, I just watched a movie with Mark Wahlberg in it and now I’m questioning whether I’m a racist or not.

 

Like, even putting all reasons why you maybe shouldn’t be playing it aside: if you do not want to get called out for playing this game, why not just fucking read the room and not post about it here, where it clearly isn’t appreciated by a large amount of people?

 

I’m going to post about a Harry Potter game in the Harry Potter thread. My understanding was people aren’t in the larger video game thread which I think is a good idea.

y’all are the ones coming in here.

 

With “here”, I meant this whole forum, because clearly the idea of it being fine when it is in this thread has collapsed

 

So I half agree with that. If you're playing it, by not purchasing it new, not supporting JKR financially and just not making a big deal about playing it socially I think you could just try to enjoy it for what it is as a game.

However, I've come to realize tons of people are completely incapable of doing that, at least online. They're trying to use memes like "this game is transphobic, are you listening to me? STOP HAVING FUN?" as a way to "own" people who are trying to make a legitimate stand against someone who is vile and actions that are cruel to a group of people who are already attacked quite often.

Instead they could just be in their own little corners of the internet talking about how fun the game mechanics are or whatever, but they aren't. They just have to show how much better they are for being able to "separate the art from the artist" and how non transphobic they are.

Listen, I get it. Harry Potter was so influential to so many kids/people. I know of people who went through a lot of shit and Harry Potter helped them through it. That's great. And I understand that feeling like something that's important to you is being attacked is hard to deal with, but just flat out ignoring other people's pain and social issues and the damage something does to others is pretty shitty.

My honest hope was this thread was just going to be people talking about being a wizard and doing dumb, fun things in the game, but the fact is the franchise is tained now and that makes it extremely difficult. Especially when so many people on this site are passionate about trans rights.

I agree that people coming into this thread, which was made separate for a reason, and then antagonizing people isn't good. But I also think that playing and supporting a game which makes others feel threatened and antagonized isn't good. I don't think you're automatically transphobic for playing the game, but that doesn't mean you're not supporting transphobic people/culture.

Like I said before, it's on each individual and I wish that people could just exist in their own little bubbles when just discussing having fun playing a game, but this is what it devolves into online when you're showing support in a public space.

 

I popped into the thread because I was morbidly curious about who was justifying playing the game at launch and why. Because sure I admit, if you buy a secondhand copy or pirate it (when possible) down the line it’s not quite as bad but still not something I would do or publicly parade around because that’s still tacit support. I mean I listen to cancelled bands in the privacy of my own home but I don’t post on twitter or here that I’m doing so as some kind of “look, I can listen to this and not be a bad person” because the obvious point is that it’s not about you. It’s really about a larger movement of accountability and giving powerful, dangerous people a platform and support financially or otherwise. Yeah it all boils down to a personal choice, but personal choices aren’t always above reproach

 

I think it’s fine, people can post they’re playing all they want, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t expect push back to the justifications behind it. No one called for anyone to be banned until a clear line was stepped with making an overtly transphobic joke about assuming gender.

 

Also thanks to @sophos34 and others for sticking with it for making me realize that I still had some more reflecting to do. While I may not fully agree with the approaches sometimes, I do appreciate making me realize I've been naive in some ways.