The Controversy in Hogwarts Legacy

ALLISON BILLIE ALLISON.BILLIE.22@CNU.EDU

Hogwarts Legacy is a video game that has been hyped for over two years ever since its announcement in September 2020, however; it was only just released on February 10 of this year. It’s a game that focuses on the nostalgia of any Harry Potter fan. It takes place at Hogwarts, a magical boarding school where your character starts as a fifth year transfer student. It’s set in the 1800s, before the timeline of the Harry Potter books, with a goblin rebellion imminent. The game has an open world aspect and graphics that do an amazing job to bring the whole game together with the storyline. There is no doubt of how well made this game is, however; no matter how much the creators of this project want the focus to be on the game, there is something else stealing the spotlight.

The creator of the Harry Potter universe, J.K. Rowling has been under fire for a while because of her hate speech against the transgender community. Her favored social media site, Twitter, is littered with comments that disparage those who identify as transgender. As a result, a large group of gamers have been encouraging people to boycott this game by either not buying it, watching streamers play it, or endorsing it on social media because supporting the game is seen as supporting J.K. Rowling in many minds. Although Rowling had no part in creating the game, from the storyline to the gameplay, by giving the game its inspiration through Harry Potter, it is a guarantee that she will earn money from this endeavor. In the game itself, the creators included transgender individuals, though this has been seen as an intentional attempt to try and separate the game from Rowling.

So should you buy this game? If you look hard enough into any game, you will find a controversy, whether it be an allegation against one of the creators, or derogatory undertones in the game itself. That being said, buying a game shouldn’t be about supporting the people who made it, it should be about actual content itself. Learning about what goes on behind the scenes of a game, movie, or book you love shouldn’t change the way you feel about it. If you’re interested in the material, there is nothing wrong with buying a game, as buying a game doesn’t automatically mean you agree with everything in it or the creators themselves.