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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 23, 2023

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TERF WARS

Hogwarts legacy, a high budget Harry Potter video game releases in a few weeks, and discussion around it has quickly evolved into another highly charged political issue for many within the gaming sphere.

As background, Harry Potter was created by J.K. Rowling, who in the last number of years has gotten a vitriolic amount of criticism by hard coded members of the blue tribe. Rowling is what is referred to in leftist spheres as a “TERF,” a Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. In other words, she is a traditional third wave feminist, but does not acknowledge trans women as being equally legitimate as biological females. Criticism of Rowling began in 2020 when she exposed criticism of certain linguistic tendencies that she had progressively seen engross within her social circles. An article was posted on Devex with the headline…

Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate

Rowling took to twitter to attempt to point out some of the inconsistencies in reasoning that she believed these social beliefs couldn’t reconcile with established feminist/progressive worldviews. She began by explaining that ‘people who menstruate,’ used to simply just be called women. And after receiving a bit of criticism herself she extrapolated on the details of her argument.

“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hated to speak the truth,”

“The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women—i.e., to male violence—‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences—is a nonsense.”

After the obvious storm of vile that came as a response to this, she then went further in extrapolating her views in an entire blogpost that went into fairly meticulous detail around the entire trans issue as well as major problems that she sees may come as a result of it. I highly encourage you to read it, if not for the argumentative qualities than simply because of the sheer balls of the entire debacle, It wouldn’t be out of place if it was placed on this very culture thread.

https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/

Instead of being silenced or somehow intimidated by threats from these cultural forces, she points out that this is primarily one of the motivators of her immediate dislike of the community in general, including their constant use of hyperbole and slurs. The bitter criticism she received did not in any way overwhelm her, but instead made her far more resolute and ingrained to her worldview. She had become more fervently anti-trans since then, to points which are often hilarious. One may lose sight of the grievances often expressed by the left towards public figures, simply due to the sheer amount of it that is consistently thrown into public discourse. But it is important to point out that J.K. Rowling is a legitimate opponent of transgender ideology. Her most recent books have delved into themes that are consistently similar to the themes she has espoused. One book is literally about a detective trying to solve the case of a male serial killer who dresses up as a women in order to fool and kill biological women. Rowling gives extremely large donations to many charities who are their ideological enemies, as well as essentially banning transgender people from using any of her own charities that help victims of female abuse.

Before delving into the responses to this and the subsequent reactions, it is important to give context to what J.K. Rowling encapsulated during the prime years of her Harry Potter authorship. While harry potter is just popular in general, Blue Tribers LOVE Harry Potter, and at one time they >LOVED J.K. Rowling. Rowling’s influence in the early to mid naughts and 2010s cannot be overstated. In fact in many circumstances and social circles people began to read her novels because of her political affiliations, to support those who seemed to have blue coded interests in mind. Harry Potter had become synonymous with feminism and leftism in general, and as a result also became trumpeted by many in the early transgender movement. It isn’t simply because of her opposition to these ideas that she receives the amount of backlash that she does, but because of who she is. She at one point was one of the most influential feminists in the world and was a huge contributor to the cultural power that allowed it to influence so much of society, even in places like academia.

The responses to this given that context is frankly hilarious. It has been quite a long time since the progressive cultural zeitgeist has had such institutional opponent, particularly one that had for so long been such an icon of their movement. It is like if Luke Skywalker had joined the empire at the end of ESB.

This debate is continually devolving as it nears its release, and discussion about the game has been banned on multiple websites for its divisiveness.

https://www.ign.com/articles/hogwarts-legacy-discussion-banned-from-resetera-forum-site-over-jk-rowling-controversy

It had led to an incredible amount of confusion towards that side of political isle, as regular attacks they are so used to employing, that are usually widely successful, seemingly have no effect on Rowling in the slightest. All they can resort to leading up to the release has been reputation destruction and hostility to those who plan on buying it. The most popular tactic used is guilt by association, who claim that if one buys Hogwarts Legacy, they are therefore inherently transphobic. Another important distinction you may notice is the difficulty many are having with disassociating themselves from what was probably their favorite intellectual property. There seems to be a desire to remove Rowling, but still somehow retain possession of the franchise itself, something that is frankly impossible. Take this for example, where fans removed Rowling’s name from her books before reselling them.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/13/reseller-removes-j-k-rowlings-name-from-harry-potter-books/]

Of course, everyone knows this is impossible. Rowling was wise enough to retain full possession of her intellectual work, and anything, and I mean anything relating to Harry Potter must be directly approved by her and she receives a good sum of the profits as well. Amusement parks, toys, video games, streaming sales, everything. Rowling is Harry Potter. Many now are used to franchises they once enjoyed being influenced in one way or another by these cultural elements in their favor, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the rings, etc. It is highly ironic that a property is receiving so much backlash not for expressing any pro-red views, but simply because the creator does not agree with one of the fundamental viewpoints that have become synonymous with the left.

On the right, this has had an equally hilarious reaction. While certainly not as fervent or significant of a response, many have taken to supporting Rowling and expressing a desire to purchase Hogwarts Legacy as a form of protest. This includes everyone from Neo-cons to White nationalists.

It seems as if hardcoded Blue Tribe members are learning certain facts about modern cultural society that red tribe members have slowly learned throughout the decade or so. Cancel culture does not work on legitimate financial elites. It does not matter to what ends you try to smear Rowling with, she is and will always remain extravagantly wealthy and beyond any real financial or cultural danger. It is my guess that Hogwarts Legacy will sell extraordinarily well, for it looks to be a genuinely good video game, to the point where even those who are not familiar with Harry Potter may be attracted simply due to its quality. It is already the most pre-ordered game on Steam at the moment has no sign of slowing down. I suppose now that I am not making any particular argument in any way, but It is interesting to see a political force that is usually so successful seemingly work overtime for years on one particular target and see nothing but a proverbial scream into the wind.

it looks to be a genuinely good video game,

The whole rest of the content of your post aside, can I ask what you're basing this on? I haven't seen any information one way or another regarding its quality. Both the prospects of the actual gameplay being either very good or very bad would be very funny/entertaining.

From the trailers I've seen they've applied most of the good AAA features like good controls and well considered progression systems. The ip has always been a good fit for games and even the low budget ones were generally well received. They'd need to really fuck it up for it not to be a hit.

That means nothing. Look at Cyberpunk 2077. You have no reason to believe that it's a good game until it's actually released.

I mean Quidditch World Cup has better reviews than Philosophers Stone on metacritic and that game is severely hampered by a bad but IP mandated ruleset and meaningful lack of content compared to the book/movie story games.

severely hampered by a bad but IP mandated ruleset and meaningful lack of content compared to the book/movie story games

How so?

The rules are straightforwardly bad from a game design perspective. 3v3+keeper gameplay works all right, the passing combo meter is a nice touch but small number of players with limited angles and the controls are not necessarily the best. The beater minigame does as well as it can but it's just controlling/dodging a circle (and strategic play of using it to force the quaffle holder into your own chasers is kind of pointless since they're AI controlled and won't tackle very well). The other special abilities (automatic turnover, team special to score automatic points, chaser boost) are fine but have very little reason not to use at first opportunity. The biggest design problem is the snitch. The point value plus ending the match makes it generally more important than anything else. They did their best with progress on the catch meter being influenced by play on the pitch so upsets are not that common. The race minigame is fine. Overall it's like a gimmicky NBA jam game but everyone has the same gimmicks.

Content wise it kind of falls off. Win 3 matches with any of the school teams to unlock world cup mode and all but one of the world cup teams. Grind away through an 18 round tournament (skipping two rounds) to win the cup to unlock a special exhibition only stage (that plays like every other stage). The teams do play differently but only minorly (appropriate for a sports game) and have different cinematics but the gameplay blends together a lot. The most interesting variation is how snitch meter gain from team special is balanced by whether it scores 1 or 2 goals. Matches run pretty long so winning a cup with any one team is something of a grind and the unlockables are one more team, a special location and collectibles. Collectible grinding is mostly rerunning and winning a cup with each team plus some special condition ones. Aside from achievements, meaningful unlocks are completed pretty quickly. In game moments of greatness are slim as is expression space so not much memorable about matches themselves. Outside of core gameplay doesn't carry it very far either. The cinematics/voice clips (x team player did thing) layered on top per stage visuals is thoughtful but becomes noticeably repeated. The announcer victory quote is the same every single match. There's not the type of story or characterization you'd see even in something like an older character racing game or fighting game.

It's a neat game but there's a reason it was more commonly found in the bargain bin than on a shelf. I feel like more team variation, some way to speed up play and characterization beyond names and different 3D models of the players could have made it better. Actual sports games like FIFA have more player choices in terms of passing and how the players are arrayed on the pitch affecting play up and down the field. They can be further carried by fans of the real life sport with an interest in the real stats and facsimile players from the real teams which doesn't really apply to Quidditch World Cup.

The book/movie story games have entire books worth plot events to use and can use many different kinds of challenges to control pacing, make the games interesting. Quidditch is just quidditch and doesn't have much to carry it besides the idea of the game.

I mean obviously i can't decisively say its going to be a great game before its even released, but from the extensive gameplay trailers that have been released I can say that it's the most expensive Harry Potter game that has ever been made for sure. Regardless of the virtue of its gameplay it seems to encapsulate what so many people love about the universe, and that in of itself is enough reason it will probably sell like wild. It's almost like Star Wars, where regardless of the quality of the content, most people feel a draw towards simply existing in the world that it encompasses.

There's a lot of really expensive crap getting released, even and maybe especially specific to licensed works, while gameplay trailers are known for being misleading.