Hogwarts Legacy - Not as good as Dog Kid University

[ryodi]

2 hours ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

I really just can't get my head around this. She's actively running a hate campaign against a minority group. Every penny she earns helps her find the time to fart about and spew hate speech on Twitter. Why would ANYONE be okay with funding this? It's not even indirectly, she gets paid from the earnings of this game. Imagine if you knew that the next Call of Duty would donate part of its profits to Donald Trump's reelection campaign where drags his fat racist ass on some stage everyday to spew vile things - would you be like, "I dunno the game looks really fun so I'm going to buy it regardless"?

 

I might be more emotionally invested than most because I have a trans friend and I have been the victim of racism myself a few times, but I just can't get my head around it. Why would you want to give someone so who's openly evil a single penny?

I’m sure that any sales of games from big US publishers has resulted in some money being donated to the GOP. Bobby Kotick has donated significant amounts of money to the GOP through two Super PACs including directly funding Mitch McConnell who is just as bad as Trump.

 

https://kotaku.com/bobby-kotick-activision-blizzard-microsoft-mitch-mcconn-1848558100

I really enjoyed the EA Chamber of Secrets game back in the day and haven’t played a HP game since. This looks like an average license cash in that will be on sale faster than a Codemasters F1 game. I also expect the big game sites to treat it like a big release because the brand will drive clicks even if interest is diminishing and Rowling’s popularity is going down every day.

 

 

 

 

[deerokus]

9 minutes ago, ryodi said:

I’m sure that any sales of games from big US publishers has resulted in some money being donated to the GOP. Bobby Kotick has donated significant amounts of money to the GOP through two Super PACs including directly funding Mitch McConnell who is just as bad as Trump.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kotick is one of the most evil people in the game industry. I don't think that comparison helps the morality of this one much.

[moosegrinder]

44 minutes ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

Well, that answers my question I guess.

 

Told you.

[bradigor]

1 hour ago, PaB said:

I’m fine with funding it if it’s a good game. My only criteria for buying games is do I want to play it or not.

 

On the other hand. I will straight up not buy a game if I knew I was funding hate like this, even if it was the thing I craved the most (say a Droplitz remaster). 

 

I will always argue for piracy in these cases. Play the game but punish the hate mongers.

[ryodi]

10 minutes ago, deerokus said:

Kotick is one of the most evil people in the game industry. I don't think that comparison helps the morality of this one much.

I know that but Call of Duty was the example used which is why I referenced him and I’m fairly sure it is not morality of the buyers that is causing the games sales to drop year on year. 
 

Rowling is never going to sell the IP So the brand isn’t going to get the clean slate Minecraft did when Microsoft bought it so games if of varying quality will keep being released for it. 

[Mr. Gerbik]

41 minutes ago, moosegrinder said:

 

Told you.

Humanity never ceases to disappoint.

[SM47]

Didn't loads of people on here rate Shadow Complex, a Metroidvania based on the writings of Orson Scott Card, a bloke who makes JK Rowling look like a rational, well adjusted egalitarian by comparison? 

[jonathanhoey]

I don't know if you're trying for a gotcha, but it's not actually a bad example.

 

Yes, many people on here liked Shadow Complex a lot. Some of those people bought it, but were uneasy about the fact it's derived from works by Orson Scott Card, an avowed homophobe who, amongst other things, donates money to gay cure organisations and the like. Some were aware, but didn't care. Still others deliberately avoided the game, even though they were interested in it, in order not to give Card any royalties. 

 

I'd contend that JKR is many times more harmful than Orson Scott Card. Yes he's a bad guy who does horrible things, but really no-one has heard of him. Everyone in the world knows who JKR is and she's continually, actively putting herself front and centre of this really hateful culture war. 

[bradigor]

I will admit to being more naive and not knowing who he was/is. Had I known more at the time I would have not bought it. 

 

Unfortunately I can't retroactively go back. Same as my conundrum with Scott Parker vs the World. The kids heard I loved the original release and surprised me with it. I also didn't want to break their hearts and reject it despite my personal boycott of Ubisoft. But you have to just do your best at the time with each situation.

 

[TehStu]

2 hours ago, SM47 said:

Didn't loads of people on here rate Shadow Complex, a Metroidvania based on the writings of Orson Scott Card, a bloke who makes JK Rowling look like a rational, well adjusted egalitarian by comparison? 

Never heard of him, just in case you're wondering how many people bought it despite knowing what you said.

[SM47]

I didn't play it myself, but it was pretty popular. Just seems interesting to me that a decade ago people were willing to give a game the benefit of the doubt based on gameplay but today people are the opposite. Taking a look at the thread from 2009, there is a fair amount of discussion about Card's abhorrent views, and I spotted this spooky corker: 

 

 

[Fry Crayola]

3 hours ago, bradigor said:

Same as my conundrum with Scott Parker vs the World.

 

You lose one game of football 9-0, and suddenly everyone's out to get you!

[bradigor]

27 minutes ago, Fry Crayola said:

 

You lose one game of football 9-0, and suddenly everyone's out to get you!

 

My favourite typo yet.

[Hamus]

I started reading the first Harry Potter book and thought it was really badly written.

 

How did it do so well?

 

Do, predominantly, young women enjoy imagining a child locked under the stairs? I thought it was weird and stupid and gave it up pretty fast.

[Lying Cat]

31 minutes ago, Hamus said:

Do, predominantly, young women enjoy imagining a child locked under the stairs?

Yeah definitely. They love it, almost all of them. The majority of the massive, vague cohort that is “young women” are at this moment thrilling to the idea of child/stair/lock interactions.

 

 

[deerokus]

Her new book seems pretty bad.

 

 

[jonamok]

Lol.

[bradigor]

42 minutes ago, deerokus said:

Her new book seems pretty bad.

 

 

 

His new book.

[ZOK]

54 minutes ago, deerokus said:

Her new book seems pretty bad.

 

 

I refuse to believe anyone will read that for pleasure.

[Festoon]

The article he links to here: 

 

Is excellent.

[Camel]

2 hours ago, Hamus said:

I started reading the first Harry Potter book and thought it was really badly written.

 

How did it do so well?

 

Do, predominantly, young women enjoy imagining a child locked under the stairs? I thought it was weird and stupid and gave it up pretty fast.

That’s just how fiction works, right? I mean, who likes Batman but isn’t massively into parents of small children being brutally murdered?

[Talvalin]

I would have said that Card is still pretty well known within the SF genre for his Ender Wiggin books - "Ender's Game" is still featured prominently on gateway SF and YA SF lists, or at least the lists written by people who are unable to comprehend that there is plenty of good SF that written after the 80s and will immediately suggest Heinlein's juvenile novels when asked for SF books that teenagers might like - but yes, he is nowhere near as well known as Rowling.

 

I admit that I was aware of his views and that I still bought Shadow Complex when it was first released. In my case, I was either completely ignorant of Card's involvement or I knew and didn't care because at the time I wasn't particularly engaged with politics nor trying to actively avoid giving money to people with shitty and harmful views. Nowadays I would not give Card any more of my money (something that prevented me from getting the remastered edition of Shadow Complex) nor any other people with shitty and harmful views like Rowling. Fuck both of them.

 

I know that I shouldn't judge anyone who decides to buy things that Rowling et al are involved in, but at least have the decency to admit that you are contributing to deeply fucking problematic people who are actively causing harm to oppressed groups eh?

[Broker]

I struggle with the voting with your wallet thing. I try not to think too hard about where my money is going because there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism and I’m constantly funding awful things just by being alive and existing. My technology, clothes, food etc are all produced in deeply unethical ways and there’s very little I can do about it whilst still being able to feed my kids and carve out time I enjoy. Also I fundamentally don’t believe that it works or has any impact what I decide to do with my tiny pittance. 

 

However I do think that it’s much harder to ignore when there’s a single repulsive person attached to it. I’m not paying to see Kevin Spacey movies anymore, and I feel the same about JKR. I was just the right age for HP and grew up with those books. Despite finding them to be quite poorly written when as an adult I read them to my kids, I have a lot of residual affection for the world and characters that’s hard to shake. But also I’m literally handing money to someone who is filling the world with hate and I can’t stomach that.

 

Might pirate that new book, it seems like it would be a fascinating insight into the kind of someone who is losing their grip on reality. 

[Festoon]

8 minutes ago, Broker said:

 

Might pirate that new book, it seems like it would be a fascinating insight into the kind of someone who is losing their grip on reality. 

 

You could just read some Glinner posts for free.

[PaB]

5 hours ago, Talvalin said:

 

 

I know that I shouldn't judge anyone who decides to buy things that Rowling et al are involved in, but at least have the decency to admit that you are contributing to deeply fucking problematic people who are actively causing harm to oppressed groups eh?

“Have the decency” on your bike.

 

it’s my money. I don’t owe anyone an apology or explanation or comment on how or why I spend it . 
 

If the game is good I’ll buy it. If it isn’t I won’t . I don’t have to admit anything further than that. 
 

I spent a grand on going to see HP and the cursed child last year. The fact it was related to JKR did not even enter into the decision to go. Me and my oldest have talked about going for ages , and we took our respective partners and had a really good time. 
 

I don’t care what Rowling writes on Twitter. I genuinely couldn’t give a shit. And that’s not because I am some bigoted monster that supports her views. It’s because I don’t care what she thinks. In the same way I don’t care what Bobby kotick thinks or what Nintendo of america’s working conditions are. It’s not enough for me to stop buying the products I want to buy . 

 

if people want to boycott certain products or media because of who is involved or company practises , then That’s fine, more power to you. But do not think for one second that anyone that doesn’t decide to join a boycott owes you any form of apology or admission. They don’t. 

[Lying Cat]

7 minutes ago, PaB said:

if people want to boycott certain products or media because of who is involved or company practises , then That’s fine, more power to you. But do not think for one second that anyone that doesn’t decide to join a boycott owes you any form of apology or admission. They don’t. 

 

Man insistent that he doesn't care what people think dictates what people can think.

[PaB]

2 minutes ago, Lying Cat said:

 

Man insistent that he doesn't care what people think dictates what people can think.

Lying .

[Festoon]

They call 'em scabs, for short.

[jonathanhoey]

Pete I generally have a lot of time for you, but respectfully I think you're simply wrong here.

 

What's more, reading your post makes me think you do actually know that, yet you're digging yourself in. Which is understandable - everyone gets defensive when we feel like people are judging us for our choices, it's natural and near-universal. 

 

Probably not least because of the sunk financial costs. A thousand pounds is an amount of money that JKR wouldn't notice even if it hit her in the face, but to the rest of us it's real and significant and again, no one likes being made to feel like they've (a) wasted their money, and even worse (b) willingly handed it to the bad guy. 

 

I know the "separate art from artist" argument has been going on for as long as there's been art and it will never end. Fuck knows I'm a hypocrite myself - I like extreme metal and that's got a real white supremacy problem. I try not to listen to overt neo-Nazis, but there are certainly bands that I know are shady but the music is so good that the temptation is to convince oneself "oh maybe they're not that bad, it's just rumours". 

 

Anyway I can't tell you what to think and I won't lecture you any more. 

[bradigor]

@PaBi respect your reasoning. May I ask though. Is it purely because it doesn't affect you? 

 

You appreciate the damage Rowling's comments do yes? If one of your family were to come out as trans or NB, would that change your stance? 

 

It's not a call out, so sorry if it sounds like one just curiosity over anything. 

 

I will let things that don't affect me really eat at me and can't get my head around for others can do the opposite. Which is a me thing not a you problem.