Culture The Hogwarts video game with trans barmaids and in which J.K. Rowling does not appear

Sooner or later, all students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry learn the Obliviate charm, a spell that allows you to erase any memory from the victim's memory

Culture The Hogwarts video game with trans barmaids and in which J.K. Rowling does not appear

Sooner or later, all students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry learn the Obliviate charm, a spell that allows you to erase any memory from the victim's memory. It is a useful resource, for example, for Muggles - human beings who lack magical abilities - who have seen a wizard or witch in action to continue their lives as if nothing had happened.

It's the spell, too, that game studio Avalanche and distributor Warner Bros. would love to cast with their wands. Last Friday, February 10, they launched the most ambitious game set in what has come to be known as the Magical World, the shared universe in which the Harry Potter novels or the Fantastic Animals film saga take place, created by the author British J.K. Rowling.

Dubbed Hogwarts Legacy, the title allows the player to step into the shoes of a fifth-year student at Hogwarts. Technically not a Harry Potter game because it takes place a century before the birth of the famous bespectacled wizard with a scar on his forehead, but all the elements of the novels, from the four houses students can belong to to the wand shops magical Ollivanders in the town of Hogsmeade, are there, recreated in exquisite detail.

The game has everything to become one of the most successful releases of the year. Although at the close of this edition there is still no official number of copies sold, it has been the most played in recent days on Steam, an online community of players and video game store, and the best seller in the Epic Games Store, the community rival.

It has also garnered excellent reviews from players and the specialized press. It is not the first game in the Wizarding World but, until now, most of the titles could be classified as mediocre, generally second division games released with the intention of taking advantage of the pull of movie releases and little else. Hogwarts Legacy is framed as something very different. It is an open world RPG, which means that although there is a main plot, the player can explore the world at will and deviate from the objectives with side quests that expand the story.

But the main problem he faces is the burden of being associated, even indirectly, with the figure of J.K. in the year 2023. Rowling. Controversy has surrounded the British writer since, in June 2020, she posted several comments on Twitter about her view of her transgender community. Although she claimed to support trans people, Rowling believed that many of the community's demands were causing "great harm" to women around the world.

The reaction was so intense that Rowling was forced to clarify her comments. Many figures in the entertainment industry, including actors and actresses from the Harry Potter films, raised their voices against the writer, and the fan community of the saga has since been somewhat fractured.

The number of people boycotting the Harry Potter franchise and refusing to buy any product associated with Rowling has also multiplied, and this game is no exception. Rowling has not been involved in the creation process but will profit from each copy sold as the creator of the Wizarding World.

Both Avalanche and Warner Bros. have tried to salvage the situation. Following Rowling's comments in 2020, the studio decided to add more diversity to the game. Hogsmeade tavern owner Sirona Ryan is now a trans woman, for example. During the creation of the characters, witches and sorcerers can have male or female voices without distinction and at no time is their category associated with a specific sex. In English, moreover, Hogwarts teachers address the player with the neuter pronouns they/them.

But it remains to be seen if these changes are enough to appease part of the fan community that in recent years has ignored the Harry Potter phenomenon, not because they no longer enjoy the universe created around it, but because it is difficult for them to do so. knowing who is behind each character and place in the saga.

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