BBC misrepresenting Rowling (yet again…)

[NitroNine]

This time - just for a change - it’s in an article about Baldur's Gate 3, Lego Fortnite, and 7 other games that defined 2023. Now, even if you’re not a gamer, the game you’d expect to see namechecked is Hogwarts Legacy - as the article grudgingly admits, once you reach the section on said game,^ it was the highest-selling physical game in both the US & the UK this year.

The article refers to Rowling as being “kept at arms' length from this project” - that’s simply untrue. Had she wished to be involved she’d have been all up in that game’s narrative. Rowling choosing not to personally oversee the gaming side of things means that Hogwarts Mystery uses US English not UK English (& Magic Awakened does so too, but mercifully to a far lesser degree) but if she she took it into her head to get involved, involved she would be, as evidenced by the forthcoming TV adaptation of the Potter books. (Why am I not surprised by the BBC struggling with the concept of a woman having agency?)

On top of that they’ve:
• implied Rowling is transphobic rather than an advocate for women’s rights
• talked about streamers refusing to review it (but not mentioned the ones who were mercilessly harassed for doing so)
• mentioned the boycott, but not the behaviour that went alongside it
• given imbalanced slant/weighting of reviews
• not mentioned TRAs abused the trans voice actor

And while it was a short piece they managed to repeat their bit about “nobody wanted to review or play it because JKR is a big transphobe” so they had space to write something, oh, what’s the word, accurate? 🙄

Absolutely stunk of desperation not to include the game & to try to downplay its success (no mention of it breaking records on Twitch, for example). You’d hope this many months on reviewers & journalists might have done some reflecting on this Atlantic article & the implications thereof; but certainly not in this case.

^it’s seventh & I don’t think that’s because in the Potterverse seven is a powerfully magical number

It’s the only new release I knew about!

I didn’t know it wasn’t get reviewed.

I was just wondering whether to buy it and i will now on the back of the BBC's nonsense.

“how do you sleep at night knowing you've lost a whole audience from
buying your books”

“I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.”

Thanks for posting that OP. All the hand-wringing over Rowling when the games industry is absolutely rife with misogyny, sexual harassment, lack of opportunities for women players and leaders. Such hypocrites.

The only thing I've ever read by JKR are her clever, witty replies to insulting tweets, and that's enough to make me a huge fan☺

Well... I'm also a huge fan of her brilliant pro-women activism too, obviously, but I love, and envy, her ability to compose the perfect, witty, unruffled reply to insults.

“I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.”

I remember how much this financial untouchability upset the TRAs, complete with a lot of scolding of those who were on the right "team" but wanted to keep on buying Harry Potter stuff.

Culminating in the words 'let's pretend the Harry Potter books were written by Daniel [Radcliffe]' appearing on Twitter. That was quite a moment.

My OP should have included that while it did prompt me to read an article I normally wouldn’t have bothered with; sadly I don’t think that omitting Legacy from the article title was a cunning journalistic trick to boost readership. What with the total lack of balance & accuracy.

Totally different tone to the reviewlets which are all overwhelmingly positive: there’s a mention some people thought Spiderman was too short; & that Starfield had sold well but was getting some poor reviews on Steam however game updates were expected to turn things around. That’s it. Marked contrast to “transphobia, boycott, transphobia, everyone thinks it’s rubbish apart from the ones that keep buying & playing it, boycott, TRANSPHOBIA.” Or something like that, I couldn’t bear to re-read it, it might sully The Christmas Pig when I look back at it.

yep, Gamergate was A Thing and nothing has changed. So they can all get in the sea and the bbc with them.

For those wanting to read the Atlantic article, it's by Helen Lewis and is archived here:

https: //web.archive.org/web/20230513100734/https: //www * .theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/hogwarts-legacy-game-jk-rowling-transphobia-accusation/673583/

It's an example why I'm a fan of Lewis in the gender identity debate.

Edit: the MN software wrecked the link above and to use it copy the link and then delete the asterisks and the spaces on each side of them.

'Let's pretend it was written by someone who was primary school at the time the first book was written'? I suppose it's not more ridiculous than 'let's pretend some women have a penis'.

Or use https://archive.ph/ockoe

Or copy and paste this link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230513100734/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/hogwarts-legacy-game-jk-rowling-transphobia-accusation/673583/

Don't click on the link though, that means you go directly to the paywalled article rather than going to the archived version.

TBH I didn't think the BBC article was unfair, because they have three paragraphs to give to each game and everything that is listed would take up a lot more space than that.

I read it, expected the game not to be mentioned (because I've become too accustomed to games outlets pretending that the game doesn't exist), they spoke about the game (which TRAs are probably now complaining about), and said that it sold massively well.

I used to read sites like Eurogamer, but now don't, because of the nonsense over this game. I got banned because I said that it was ridiculous to pretend that the game doesn't exist (much in the same way if a football publication refused to cover the World Cup due to Qatar's culture). I recently found out that the site had to ditch reporting on best selling charts because the game was topping the charts.

Spiderman was too short (I sat in the room as my DS played it)

Meanwhile Hogwards Legacy was too much - DS and I have spent days/weeks playing it (bought it when it came out) and are no-where near finishing it still!

They're never satisfied - there's even a trans character in it, with a fairly big role (runs one of the inns - you speak to him for all sorts of tasks/missions)

Apologies re: article - I didn’t encounter a paywall & am not a subscriber so not sure what happened there 🤔

This burn the books/games/art mentality is really worrying. Imagine if you only read/played/viewed art made by people you considered to be perfect saints, you'd be depriving yourself of so much.

On one level you are correct. Book burnings are horrific with their connection to fascist governments.

But on the other hand - it is rather funny. Every time some TRA goes and burns a Harry Potter then that is one less in existence. Maybe if they try really hard they could remove every single second hand Harry Potter in the whole of the UK! Hooray! Except people keep on wanting to read the books. And now there are no second hand ones available. Disaster! It’s ok though - those lovely people from Bloomsbury will print you a lovely new one. Hooray! And Kerching! For Jo!

Let’s not even go there about the TRA who rips off the front cover of the Harry Potter books, puts on a JK free version and sells it for £140. And then presumably sells it to a massive Harry Potter fan who already has (and loves!) the book and now has 2!

If Jo Rowling wasn’t too rich to care she would be rubbing her hands with glee!

Both my adult sons played the game and thought it was great

my dad was desperate to buy ds2 the game to show his support for JKR 😀

I love J K Rowling.

BBC editorial decisions on wordcount allocation speaks volumes:

Baldur's Gate 3 - 5 lines about the game
The Legend of Zelda - 5 lines about the game
Alan Wake 2 - 6 lines about the game
Spider-Man 2 - 6 lines about the game
Lego Fortnite - 6 lines about the game
Cyberpunk 2077 - 6 lines about the game
Hogwarts Legacy - 2 lines about the game, 3 lines explaining why JK Rowling's wrong thoughts disqualifies the game from being reviewed normally

HHMMM....what is it, BBC, that attracted you to wasting precious wordcount, which you could have spent on describing the game, on undermining a woman talking about women's rights?

And please do tell why only JK Rowling is singled out for this moralising treatment, but no concern whatsoever is shown about the moral standing of any of the other artists/authors/studios associated with all of these other titles over the years?

Yup, Helen Joyce is right; Gender Ideology really does break every institution that it enters - a site dedicated to gaming has stopped talking about best selling game charts. Bonkers frankly 🙄

From the article: "Some critics gave it low scores, arguing it was impossible to separate art from artist."

Interesting that the same problem of not being able to separate art from artist doesn't seem to have caused any problems when critiquing the Wonka film.

Isn't this the tactic that the BBC used earlier in the year with Hogwart Legacy (I think) and didn't that complete TRA incel who presents Radio 4 PM gave these rainbow warriors airtime. And it ended up with him having to apologise for failing to point out that JKR is not transphobic.

I am sure there was a thread about it.

But what is really duplicitous about this is that it is a Newbeat article.

Seriously, is there not depth to which they will stoop to try and poison young people.

I can see I am going to end 2023 as I started.

In a rage.

>:(

Our TV licence is due for renewal. Tonight.

The BBC has pissed me off so many times and in so many ways over the past few years that the form is sitting in my diary and looking at me, and I'm just thinking, nah....