If you’re unfamiliar with the controversy surrounding the release of “Hogwarts Legacy”, a video game based on the Harry Potter universe, it’s pretty straightforward. Some people have convinced themselves that Harry Potter author JK Rowling is transphobic, in spite of her very clear, balanced, and compassionate views on the subject (you can find one of her essays on the topic here). As a result, Twitch streamers who are playing the game have come under fire:
So someone came in to stream to tell me and my viewers we are bigots for streaming/ playing Hogwarts Legacy, and RashHeero gifted him a sub so he deleted the account 🤣😭
— Melonie Mac ✝️🎮💛 (@MelonieMac) February 7, 2023
The Harry Potter franchise is a juggernaut, and anything officially licensed by it is going to be a guaranteed success. So what do you do if you want to stream this game, but also want to support communities that are strongly against it? This seemed like a fair compromise:
We will be playing Hogwarts Legacy early today thanks to a code we got cuz we're real big time reviewers https://t.co/8qTOhv3U7A pic.twitter.com/aUSF70qdOX
— Girlfriend Reviews (@itsgfreviews) February 6, 2023
Hey guys! I see a lot of you are not feeling this choice! If you go to our stream you’ll see we are raising money for the Trevor Project while we play this game we spent no money on. We’ll play it (again, for free) so you can know how it is without having to!
— Girlfriend Reviews (@itsgfreviews) February 6, 2023
Not fair enough, apparently:
Twitch chat bullies streamer for playing Hogwarts Legacy to the point of making his girlfriend cry pic.twitter.com/bod3A5DvMz
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) February 7, 2023
More details: https://t.co/2WBZZ1UVCV
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) February 7, 2023
From the linked article:
Streamers are already being hit with abuse online just for playing the game. In a recent stream, content creator couple Girlfriend Reviews hopped on a live broadcast to play through some of Hogwarts Legacy early. However, during the stream, Matt and Shelby were being verbally attacked in the chat to the point where Shelby had to step away from the stream, clearly upset and sounding as though she was on the verge of tears.
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And there is always this:
The Hogwarts Legacy stuff is so terminally online it’s amazing. If you wanna play the wizard game, play it. If not, don’t. Harassing people for streaming it only serves as free advertising and makes your complaints look insane.
— Chris Ray Gun (@ChrisRGun) February 7, 2023
Terminally online. How perfect.
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