(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . An Alt-right developer made "Hogwarts Legacy" even worse than you thought. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-09 Hogwarts Legacy is the latest entry into the Potterverse, a videogame reminiscent of a magic-only Elder Scrolls combat system set around Hogwarts during … some event. The reason why my knowledge of it is sketchy is because I’ve been avoiding engaging with J.K. Rowling’s entire transphobic thing, which is a good enough reason to not buy Hogwarts Legacy in the first place. There’s also been reports from IGN, a game review outlet, That performance is buggy, but that overall, 9/10. The bugs described sound pretty serious to me, but whatever, gamers put up with a lot of glitchy junk. AAA releases with lots of code issues at launch seems to be acceptable… but still, that’s not where the biggest problems with the whole game lay. Where things go really wrong is in massive anti-Semitic references. The one I found out about via twitter is a shofar used by goblins. x For those saying Hogwarts Legacy isn’t antisemitic, the game devs made it canon that goblins use shofar pic.twitter.com/5SCKLap64L — Yonah Gerber (@remembrancermx) February 9, 2023 x Here's the facts as they exist: - The object is a war horn - The artifact in the game is located at a place named after a pig & stuffed with dairy products to stop its music - The year of its most famous use is also the year major antisemitic pogroms happened in Germany — Yonah Gerber (@remembrancermx) February 9, 2023 x Not to get all academic about this, but the idea that Jewish music/instrument exists to annoy Christians is an antisemitic trope going back to the Middle Ages, per Ruth HaCohen's The Music Libel Against the Jews (2012). — Hannah Sparwasser Soroka (@TheGlintOfLight) February 9, 2023 That’s pretty bad. So, how could this sort of thing slip past the censors at Warner Brothers, who brought us the warning that old Looney Tunes could be racist as a product of their times? Well, by hiring a developer known to be sympathetic to Gamergate (which evolved into part of the alt-right movement), with an ‘Anti-social Justice’ focused youtube channel. More details here. Troy Leavitt went on record as saying that he made WB well aware of his youtube channel and they had no problem with it. He said he was glad they didn't seem interested in pushing a "social justice agenda". Not just Troy, though. A game of this size is not a solo effort, so each of the leads was fine with the anti-Semitic content. And so was Warner Brothers, evidently. “Leavitt said WB Games was a good partner during his time at Avalanche and said again that the management was aware of his YouTube channel years ago. After reports about Leavitt's YouTube channel began to make the rounds, management at WB Games did not pressure him into retiring or stepping away, Leavitt said. "Not in the least," he said. "I never felt like my job or my position was truly threatened." Whatever Harry Potter’s adventures may have meant before all the ugliness came out, I can’t in good faith think that Hogwarts Legacy is something worth buying or promoting. More than just flaws in the code, the real Legacy here is hatred. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/9/2152116/-An-Alt-right-developer-made-Hogwarts-Legacy-even-worse-than-you-thought Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/