Call to boycott new Harry Potter game over JK Rowling trans comments fails

*Super.

I'll send a donation to Stonewall right now to balance the scales.*

I'm buying a copy for each of my kids and my eldest is buying herself a second copy of the game in a different format so she can choose whether to play on the PS or the XBOX. I hope you've deep pockets Marg

Sorry for previous derail, and in advance for this one :)

Some people use phrases like 'get woke go broke', which is a bit of an emotionally charged slogan, but I've seen a very good argument recently that's made me think that the phrase should be turned around. 'Going broke, get woke'. There are many examples of organizations doing poorly financially and it looks like their response is to hope that hopping on the progressive bandwagon will help turn their fortunes around. A standout example of this would be Disney. Across their entire business they are down half a billion dollars in annual revenue and their share price cap is down approaching 200 billion. Disney leadership sackings shenanigans are currently playing out like one of those spoof murder mystery movies were there is another fresh murder each scene. It could be argued that they would have done just as badly even without getting involved in real life politics in Florida, going woke etc... Perhaps going woke was a response to, not the reason for going broke.
My point of the above word salad is that there does seem to be some connection between going woke and financial difficulty, even if it might be getting misrepresented; which is the chicken, and which is the egg.

Mainstream/legacy media has had a really tough time financally since the start of the internet. When I was a kid every house on my street had papers delivered. Kids had paper rounds. I had one, I covered the rounds of other kids when they went on holiday. That was a very stable practically guaranteed income for the papers. I still see physical papers in small shops, but I cannot remember the last time I saw a kid on a paper round. I see websites in the names of the papers, but they are crawling with ads and beg for money continually. Competition is fierce on the internet. Mumsnet itself is a competitor to MSM for your eyeballs and time. There is so much choice. The MSM gets a lot less money than it used to. They have to hire cheaper people because that's all they can afford. I believe activists are probably a lot more willing to work for peanuts if they get a chance to push their agenda.

Trying to get back on point.
We all know how badly JKR is treated in the mainstream media. I remember the recent story of the journalist told to write a story about how transphobic she was who couldn't find any tranphobia from JKR. People have lost faith in the MSM and I think the MSM know this. They have much reduced credibility, and their special status of arbiters of the truth of old is long gone. Most are just activism now, just look at the BBC. They are activist organisations.
That the Harry Potter game is selling so well, number one on Steam ( ranked by money coming in ) right now, without the support of the MSM demonstrates how little people rely on the MSM. They are irrelevant. They are dinosaurs in their death throws, and as everyone knows, the only dinosaurs winning right now are the dinosaurs that hoard their rights like eggs.

I preordered 3 the other day for my DC’s (ages 21, 18 & 16, so not middle aged rights hoarding dinosaurs) on their various consoles so you’d better add a bit more cash to your side of the scales….

“You're not a gamer are you?”

Oh Margarita, you’re letting yourself down! Who are you to tell someone they are a gamer or not? If they identify as a gamer …

MargaritaPie · Today 14:12

I'll send a donation to Stonewall right now to balance the scales.

Hopefully, they'll fall from your eyes.

Wow

The game looks great.

Wish I had the time to game. Would definitely buy it.

Well it's showing that it hasn't worked. (You can go on a lot of websites and when searching for articles on the game the search results are pretty sparse).

But what it shows is the bias inside the media, recent articles called LGB Alliance a hate group, and articles that deal with these new identities tend to go to extraordinary lengths to describe and "educate" what they are. And we're talking about websites about computer games!

It also shows a well trodden pathway of how many teenage boys suddenly express a wish to transition, because just about all the media that they consume has been affected by lobbying from activists.

Gaming is an industry that sees a high amount of MtF trans people.

Do you want to send another donation because I will be buying the game too for my grandchildren? They love HP.

Unless you have a spare couple of million I'm not sure you'll be doing much in the way of balancing anything

I think that is pretty reasonable. Amazon is pretty corrupt. I think if it were just one or two companies it would be fine. But for awhile it felt like there was a new boycott being proposed every month.

It's so ridiculous. Fair enough don't agree with her viewpoints, don't buy the game but websites whose role it is to review games etc should not be censoring. Pretty ridiculous when they promote games like grand theft auto!

I'll be buying it, but alas it will take me a decade to complete around work.

@MargaritaPie
"That's fine. Most gamers don't visit computer game websites anyway."
You're not a gamer are you?

I am very very much a gamer. Have been since the 80s.
I don't know what criteria you are using to decide if another person is a gamer or not, but I'd consider getting a new one, the current one is very poor.

Super.

I'll send a donation to Stonewall right now to balance the scales.

This isn't anything new, people have been calling to boycott it for ages.

The coders/designers etc have already been paid so don't worry, they aren't going to lose out if the game doesn't sell well.

"That's fine. Most gamers don't visit computer game websites anyway."

You're not a gamer are you?

Surely lack of articles is irrelevant considering sales are still high 🤷‍♀️

I saw it mentioned on a games website where it was stated that some sites were not reporting on it.

I have noticed that on the majority of sites reporting on the game has been kept to a minimum. A big reveal of the game wasn't reported on by sites like Eurogamer and was picked up on by a number of readers, when the game was eventually mentioned again. The Sony State of Play event was strangely ignored by a lot of sites because the focus was on Hogwarts Legacy.

Even news that it has record pre-orders is strangely lacking on most websites that would normally report on such stuff.

That's fine. Most gamers don't visit computer game websites anyway.

Around 2014ish a similar thing to what's happening now with TRAs GC and the media being utterly biased and authoritarian happened in computer gaming. Gamers just ditched the traditional media and now completely ignore them. Fresh new outlets and media popped up to meet the needs of gamers, just like GC twitter, substack, you tube, even GB News etc.. have replaced the traditional media for GC people.

When Trump was elected, some mainstream media even blamed it on gamers. This authoritarian movement actively encouraged and supported by old media is a recurring cycle across many vastly differing cultural topics. The battlegrounds may differ but the methods used and the playbook are exactly the same every time.

Other cultural topics that have already been through this woke authoritarian invasionary process include ; heavy metal music, knitting ( yes making stuff from wool ), science fiction, young adult fiction, comic books, tabletop wargaming. Everywhere that a community of like minded people exist to share a hobby or ideas has been subject to an attempted invasive and authoritarian subjugation.

Women's rights are far more important than a hobby for geeks, but its the same playbook being used every time. The old media are complicit and call you a bad person for standing up for yourself. The way to win is to tell them to eff off and stop giving them money in any form, even advertising clicks from visting their websites.

Kellie-Jay Keen has the right idea, AND she never loses :)

Buying it right now!

My 7 year old watched Harry Potter for the first time the other day and has fallen in love with it all! Guess what's next on her reading list?
The children will keep it going no matter what people try to do.
Good pint @NancyDrawed

I boycott Amazon @BringerOfDoom . But I'm not going to make it a condition of friendship. That seems a bit silly .

This is yet more evidence that trans ideology is supported by a very small proportion of the population. These endless hysterical and angry calls for boycotts appear to have next-to-no effect. People keep on buying her books and watching the films.

Just to hammer home the point, according to the Daily Mail, last year JKR earned £18m in dividends from her Pottermore company.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11596645/JK-Rowling-receives-18MILLION-payout-Harry-Potter-publishing-company.html

Honestly another reason is that I used to be very liberal and it was very exhausting constantly being told to boycott something.

After awhile it feels like you're being told what you can and can't buy and when you're struggling to make ends meet like myself. The few times that you have cash to spare on something fun you just want to do something nice for yourself without feeling guilty all the time. I was once told to not buy a game I had been looking forward for years because of a payment disagreement one of the voice actresses had with the creators and I bought it anyways.

It was life is strange before the storm.

One of my friends acted like my decision would single handily destroy the industry and she actually unfriended me on Facebook after we had been friends for over 5 years.

It hurt my feelings but didn't surprise me. I think after that my decision to stop being caught up in stupid boycotts had been cemented.

If you want me to boycott something I'm going to need a much better reason to do it than "I don't like their opinions." Or "one of the voice actresses is mad at the company because of her paycheck."

The company is gonna have to be setting babies on fire at this rate. So far never had a boycott really change anything anyways.

Hear hear!

Harry Potter makes for excellent games, I so enjoyed the Lego Harry Potter. Congratulations on this success the amazing JKR.