Hogwarts Legacy - Not as good as Dog Kid University

[Strafe]

Butter beer. That sounds disgusting. Is it beer made with butter? If it is, why would you do that? If it isn’t, why would you call it that?

[dreamylittledream]

17 minutes ago, Strafe said:

Butter beer. That sounds disgusting. Is it beer made with butter? If it is, why would you do that? If it isn’t, why would you call it that?

It’s a Butterscotch drink.

 

Well the version that actually exists is anyway.

 

The iced version you can get in the Universal parks is rather nice. The standard stuff they sell at the studio tour less so (it’s very, very sweet).

[Kryptonian]

A streamer I’ve watched quite regularly for the last 18 months is playing this now. I might have missed a bit at the start saying about the controversy and issues with JKR and what they would/wouldn’t allow in the stream (or she might not have said anything) but I was surprised from the 8-900 viewers, I only saw one comment saying “you shouldn’t be playing this” which was swiftly deleted. However, there were 100s of comments about the character creator and how they would be making their fanfic characters & it’s the game they’ve dreamed of etc so for that particular audience it’s really hit the spot it seems. I stopped watching at that point as I was just looking at the comments to see what was said and if it was deleted but didn’t want to boost the viewing figures further myself.

 

I did feel a bit sad that this streamer who’s previously talked about inclusivity etc seems to have put that to one side to play an early gifted copy from the publishers. 

[Transient Curse]

1 hour ago, Strafe said:

 

I really laughed at the follow up tweets: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[footle]

1 hour ago, Kryptonian said:

but I was surprised from the 8-900 viewers, I only saw one comment saying “you shouldn’t be playing this” which was swiftly deleted. However, there were 100s of comments about the character creator and how they would be making their fanfic characters & it’s the game they’ve dreamed of etc so for that particular audience it’s really hit the spot it seems.

People choose to watch what they watch, rather than hate watch, or do some kind of weird boycott watch (which would have the wrong effect in any case).

 

I don’t really see why you’d be surprised, unless you think there’s a load of activists with time on their hands and absolutely nothing better to do (for their mental health) than stalk twitch streamer comment sections waiting to be auto-modded.

[thesnwmn]

And even regardless of people watching stuff they're interested in rather than hate watching, anyone expecting this to not be big seems a little naïve.

 

This was always going to be a smash, even if the game was poor or average. And so in my opinion accepting it meant JKR's views were supported because of it was self defeating. She will always think her views are supported regardless.

 

Not to say it's not disappointing overall or anything, just that it isn't surprising.

 

---

 

Anyway, I hope those who want to play the game from here can get on and discuss the game itself. I think it looks like a lot of fun.

[The Mighty Ash]

Interested to see some switch footage, shame it's such a wait.

[Kryptonian]

6 hours ago, footle said:

People choose to watch what they watch, rather than hate watch, or do some kind of weird boycott watch (which would have the wrong effect in any case).

 

I don’t really see why you’d be surprised, unless you think there’s a load of activists with time on their hands and absolutely nothing better to do (for their mental health) than stalk twitch streamer comment sections waiting to be auto-modded.

 

2 hours ago, thesnwmn said:

And even regardless of people watching stuff they're interested in rather than hate watching, anyone expecting this to not be big seems a little naïve.

 

This was always going to be a smash, even if the game was poor or average. And so in my opinion accepting it meant JKR's views were supported because of it was self defeating. She will always think her views are supported regardless.

 

Not to say it's not disappointing overall or anything, just that it isn't surprising.

 

---

 

Anyway, I hope those who want to play the game from here can get on and discuss the game itself. I think it looks like a lot of fun.

I didn’t mean ‘hate watch’ or anything like that, she usually plays fortnite and does Pokémon TCG stuff but plays random games every now and again too. She has a regular audience and her own community and you get to know everyone’s names etc 

 

It’s a post I maybe didn’t have to make but I think I expected something different was all but I forget this place isn’t reflective of the average gaming community.

 

I love a good character creator and it did look impressive 

[jonny_rat]

10 hours ago, g wings said:

If you want to make a difference (beyond keeping your wallet in your pocket) why not use the time that you would have spent playing the game contributing directly to a trans cause. There will be plenty of organisations that would love your support and would bite your hand off for 30-40 hours of your time and energy. 

Given your previous posts in this thread I suspect you're being glib here, but for anyone who does want to follow this advice, you will likely struggle to find a trans-supporting org near you that has in-person volunteering roles available. (While I suspect there may be people who look at, say, Mermaids, and see that their waiting list is oversubscribed, and see that as a sign that these orgs are getting all the help they could possibly need, this isn't the case: volunteering roles, especially in orgs that work on sensitive issues, have a cost per volunteer recruited, checked and trained which limits their numbers.) Online volunteering isn't as widespread as it could be yet either.

 

The comparison doesn't really work anyway. Playing games is a leisure pursuit, so a direct analog would be leisure volunteering. That 30-40 hours needs to be found in a person's leisure time (that is, around regular work) - not only will this make it MUCH harder to find a volunteering role, but will be much harder on the volunteer too to balance it with work.

 

(I feel a bit bad saying this, but what would really help those orgs right now is £47.99 or whatever the game costs)

 

Edit: forgot to say, another good course of action would be volunteering for an organisation that supports general poverty, as those might indirectly support those groups of people.

[TomatoConvenienceStore]

Didn't realise that the PS4 version will be such a wait, I'm still waiting on PC parts so will have to put a pin in this for later

[Floyd]

15 hours ago, yakumo said:

 

It sort of reminds me of the ridiculous situation regarding Mr Beast recently and him helping people with  blindness calling his action demonic:

 

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kelseyweekman/mrbeast-helping-blind-people-youtube-stunt-philanthropy

 

I just find it ridiculous that you remove someone because they played it, that is some next level Idiocracy?.

 

I don't find it ridiculous. I find it strange but again, anyone has the right to do that.

[jonny_rat]

Thinking about it, there's one very easy way for the studio to take control over the narrative around this: just donate a fat wodge of cash to a trans supporting charity. It's so obvious that they MUST have thought of it. So I wonder what's standing in the way of them doing that: is it the feeling that they don't need to ("they'll buy it anyway") or is there something/someone blocking it?

[thesnwmn]

2 minutes ago, jonny_rat said:

Thinking about it, there's one very easy way for the studio to take control over the narrative around this: just donate a fat wodge of cash to a trans supporting charity. It's so obvious that they MUST have thought of it. So I wonder what's standing in the way of them doing that: is it the feeling that they don't need to ("they'll buy it anyway") or is there something/someone blocking it?

 

Business is stopping it.

 

The studio here is basically Warner Bros right? Who will want to keep the Potter licence. As much as they might not like  JKR's views and want to separate the Potter brand from her they will be wary about upsetting a set of Potter fans by ostracizing her and that leading to a fall in the brand's value.

[Isaac]

Yeah, WB won't donate to a trans charity as it is a tacit admission of guilt, which might damage the brand further. 

 

So instead they will stay silent and do what they currently are doing, which is try to separate the brand from JK as much as possible in people's minds (removing her name from the titles of the films, for example). 

[ulala]

And yet in the UK media you cant call JKR a terf without a lot of pushback.

 

What JKR has done to this tiny number of people, very vulnerable people, is utterly disguising.

 

Enjoy your game though. I'm glad you get to play things you like, and exist.

 

 

[Unofficial Who]

27 minutes ago, jonny_rat said:

Given your previous posts in this thread I suspect you're being glib here, but for anyone who does want to follow this advice, you will likely struggle to find a trans-supporting org near you that has in-person volunteering roles available. (While I suspect there may be people who look at, say, Mermaids, and see that their waiting list is oversubscribed, and see that as a sign that these orgs are getting all the help they could possibly need, this isn't the case: volunteering roles, especially in orgs that work on sensitive issues, have a cost per volunteer recruited, checked and trained which limits their numbers.) Online volunteering isn't as widespread as it could be yet either.

 

I didn't want to get political again in this thread but I'm afraid I must.

 

I've found some of @g wings posts a bit challenging too with the sort of "put up or shut up" attitude. But I feel I have to defend @g wings here as his attitude is likely informed by him having actually walked the walk.

 

He mentioned this last week and I hope he doesn't mind me quoting this.

 

Quote

And to be clear; I’m very supportive of the cause. One example;  For two years I have led pro-bono support for Minus18 (an organisation supporting LGBTQI+ youth here in Australia). I formed a team of contributors, some specialists and some just passionate supporters and advocates. Together we helped enable governmental lobbying change, funding reform, a new model for engagement and support for remote youth. Everyone who supported did so because they were fed up of this kind of discussion changing nothing. 

 

You won't know Minus18. Most people outside Australia don't.

 

Here's a link. https://www.minus18.org.au/

 

But in Australia they've done some fantastic work defending young LGBTQIA+ people people in Victoria and in Australia as a whole. This is despite constant attack from the Tories, the still influential Christian Lobby and the press, especially the Murdoch press. I think some of the tone people are detecting is the tone of someone frustrated at a lot of concerned posters who don't do anything beyond the keyboard when he's done the hard yards. I don't think he's saying it's easy to volunteer, and from what I know of Minus18 they've had to deal with (and still deal with) aggressive push back and threats. 

 

So yeah, there's a few people that have been glib here. He's not one of them. When he says he's done more here than most he's not lying. If he's being glib (and I suspect he isn't) then he's earned that right. Minus18 have essentially had to deal with slings and arrows for almost a decade now, both in the lead up to the same sex marriage plebiscite and post that with repeated attempts by the right and conservative interests who've attempted to use Minus18 as a political football plenty of times.

 

It's fair that none of you know this, it's very local. It's on the other side of the planet. But now you do.

 

 

43 minutes ago, jonny_rat said:

(I feel a bit bad saying this, but what would really help those orgs right now is £47.99 or whatever the game costs)

 

Edit: forgot to say, another good course of action would be volunteering for an organisation that supports general poverty, as those might indirectly support those groups of people.

 

Both of these are good too.

[thesnwmn]

8 minutes ago, ulala said:

And yet in the UK media you cant call JKR a terf without a lot of pushback.

 

What JKR has done to this tiny number of people, very vulnerable people, is utterly disguising.

 

Enjoy your game though. I'm glad you get to play things you like, and exist.

 

 

 

Who are you even talking to?

 

If it's myself and Isaac then you understand we're just explaining why a business is doing this right? It in no way means we agree with that. It's possible to discuss motivations and reasons and allow people to act and react to it. (as well as expressing views in-between sometimes).

[deerokus]

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Dev team have donated like that privately. They won't be allowed to do anything public or 'official', and Rowling would probably sue them.

[g wings]

53 minutes ago, jonny_rat said:

Given your previous posts in this thread I suspect you're being glib here, but for anyone who does want to follow this advice, you will likely struggle to find a trans-supporting org near you that has in-person volunteering roles available. (While I suspect there may be people who look at, say, Mermaids, and see that their waiting list is oversubscribed, and see that as a sign that these orgs are getting all the help they could possibly need, this isn't the case: volunteering roles, especially in orgs that work on sensitive issues, have a cost per volunteer recruited, checked and trained which limits their numbers.) Online volunteering isn't as widespread as it could be yet either.

 

The comparison doesn't really work anyway. Playing games is a leisure pursuit, so a direct analog would be leisure volunteering. That 30-40 hours needs to be found in a person's leisure time (that is, around regular work) - not only will this make it MUCH harder to find a volunteering role, but will be much harder on the volunteer too to balance it with work.

 

(I feel a bit bad saying this, but what would really help those orgs right now is £47.99 or whatever the game costs)

 

Edit: forgot to say, another good course of action would be volunteering for an organisation that supports general poverty, as those might indirectly support those groups of people.

No, I wasn’t being glib at all. Most of the organisations I’ve supported have been very proactive in seeking out ad-hoc support. That’s not to counter your point though. 

[jonny_rat]

10 minutes ago, Unofficial Who said:

 

I didn't want to get political again in this thread but I'm afraid I must.

 

I've found some of @g wings posts a bit challenging too with the sort of "put up or shut up" attitude. But I feel I have to defend @g wings here as his attitude is likely informed by him having actually walked the walk.

 

He mentioned this last week and I hope he doesn't mind me quoting this.

 

 

You won't know Minus18. Most people outside Australia don't.

 

Here's a link. https://www.minus18.org.au/

 

But in Australia they've done some fantastic work defending young LGBTQIA+ people people in Victoria and in Australia as a whole. This is despite constant attack from the Tories, the still influential Christian Lobby and the press, especially the Murdoch press. I think some of the tone people are detecting is the tone of someone frustrated at a lot of concerned posters who don't do anything beyond the keyboard when he's done the hard yards. I don't think he's saying it's easy to volunteer, and from what I know of Minus18 they've had to deal with (and still deal with) aggressive push back and threats. 

 

So yeah, there's a few people that have been glib here. He's not one of them. When he says he's done more here than most he's not lying. If he's being glib (and I suspect he isn't) then he's earned that right. Minus18 have essentially had to deal with slings and arrows for almost a decade now, both in the lead up to the same sex marriage plebiscite and post that with repeated attempts by the right and conservative interests who've attempted to use Minus18 as a political football plenty of times.

 

It's fair that none of you know this, it's very local. It's on the other side of the planet. But now you do.

 

 

 

Both of these are good too.

 

2 minutes ago, g wings said:

No, I wasn’t being glib at all. Most of the organisations I’ve supported have been very proactive in seeking out ad-hoc support. That’s not to counter your point though. 

 

Good stuff you two. Anyone who tells me that a derailed thread can't be interesting and informative is wrong! Apologies for reading the wrong tone in your posts there g wings.

 

 

[jonny_rat]

10 minutes ago, deerokus said:

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Dev team have donated like that privately. They won't be allowed to do anything public or 'official', and Rowling would probably sue them.

 

I mean.. if that were the case - there was actually some kind of contractual provision against the studio publicly donating to a charity and giving rowling grounds to sue - that would probably be a bigger deal than anything so far. I don't think there's anything legal preventing WB from making a donation; just, as has been said, business decision-making.

[Giddas]

28 minutes ago, ulala said:

And yet in the UK media you cant call JKR a terf without a lot of pushback.

 

What JKR has done to this tiny number of people, very vulnerable people, is utterly disguising.

 

Enjoy your game though. I'm glad you get to play things you like, and exist.

 

 

 

You will be pleased to know I have not bought the game and have thus improved the lives of the trans community immensely

[g wings]

13 minutes ago, Unofficial Who said:

 

I didn't want to get political again in this thread but I'm afraid I must.

 

I've found some of @g wings posts a bit challenging too with the sort of "put up or shut up" attitude. But I feel I have to defend @g wings here as his attitude is likely informed by him having actually walked the walk.

First, a sincere thank you for taking the time to post about this. 
 

Second, I’ve honestly never meant to post in a way that implies expectation or superiority. It’s simply that I read a lot of passion here and just think how impactful it could be if used the right way.

 

To be clear; I’ve ignored lots of  opportunities that I could have stepped in to. I don’t feel especially bad about it because I know you can only support if you’ve got the energy/time/ passion and I often don’t, especially at the moment. I also get people thinking that they can’t contribute even though I think there are so many ways to do so.

 

Sincere apologies to anyone I’ve offended. Truly.

[Rex Grossman]

It's classic Rllmuk that even a person who devoted a huge amount of their free time and professional expertise attempting to improve the lives of trans people will get shit in this thread from people on the same side of the debate.

If only @g wings spent more time screaming into the abyss in this thread he'd get the respect he deserves.

[g wings]

Just now, Rex Grossman said:

It's classic Rllmuk that even a person who devoted a huge amount of their free time and professional expertise attempting to improve the lives of trans people will get shit in this thread from people on the same side of the debate.

If only @g wings spent more time screaming into the abyss in this thread he'd get the respect he deserves.

In fairness i’m a miserable idiot and spend most of my time getting angry at people for very little. 

[Rex Grossman]

Just now, g wings said:

In fairness i’m a miserable idiot and spend most of my time getting angry at people for very little. 

 

That applies to most people on here, myself included. Unlike the vast majority of us you made a valuable contribution to the world in your non-working hours.

[Unofficial Who]

4 minutes ago, Rex Grossman said:

It's classic Rllmuk that even a person who devoted a huge amount of their free time and professional expertise attempting to improve the lives of trans people will get shit in this thread from people on the same side of the debate.

 

I think it's more classic Rllmuk that sometimes we shout past each other before realising we've more in common than we think and come away with a better understanding of each others views.

 

Have you looked on social media? Larger gaming forums? I think we have it pretty good here.

[Darren]

43 minutes ago, g wings said:

First, a sincere thank you for taking the time to post about this. 
 

Second, I’ve honestly never meant to post in a way that implies expectation or superiority. It’s simply that I read a lot of passion here and just think how impactful it could be if used the right way.

 

To be clear; I’ve ignored lots of  opportunities that I could have stepped in to. I don’t feel especially bad about it because I know you can only support if you’ve got the energy/time/ passion and I often don’t, especially at the moment. I also get people thinking that they can’t contribute even though I think there are so many ways to do so.

 

Sincere apologies to anyone I’ve offended. Truly.

 

I don't think you've offended anyone, I think you've just innocently fallen foul of a common pitfall in online political discussions - that of making a point sincerely that is often made insincerely in bad faith. We used to get it all the time in The Corbyn Years^TM - people who really were just asking questions would often get short shrift because there were so many more "just asking questions" and so on. In this case your genuine suggestion for people to do some real good for the causes they care about based on your own experience was very easy to interpret as yet another "why are you talking about it here instead of doing something out there?" attempt to close down discussion, which I know wasn't your intention at all.

 

I know there are lots of us who do all sorts of things out there in the real world for this and other causes but like you we don't like to bang on about it. We're not American! (Sorry nice non-performatively-altruistic Americans!) And of course it's not either/or, real work and online discussion aren't mutually exclusive (especially as the latter is MUCH easier to do while pretending to do your actual job, volunteering not so much). And I do think that this sort of online discussion is valuable in itself - I hope we've given a few people pause for thought even if they have still gone ahead and bought the game. It's not a one-off battle to be won and lost right now, it's an ongoing discussion in our culture that has become weaponised by powerful interests who are opposed to granting equal rights to trans people (whether sincerely due to their actual beliefs, like JKR, or cynically because they think it appeals to people who might vote for them, like politicians all over right now) and so I think it's important to put the counter-arguments wherever a relevant opportunity presents itself. And thanks to JKR, this game (unfortunately for everyone else involved with it or who wants to play it) is very relevant.

 

The important thing to me in this ongoing discussion is to keep reminding everyone that trans people are just people, they don't want to take over the world or even just the public toilets, they just want to live as they are, in peace, same as we all do. JKR uses her platform to campaign against them being allowed to do that. She's the equivalent of a white supremacist or homophobe of 50 years ago. And hopefully soon her views will be generally accepted as regressive and hateful as those bigots are now. But we're nowhere near that yet, so the conversation continues.

[Rex Grossman]

6 minutes ago, Unofficial Who said:

 

I think it's more classic Rllmuk that sometimes we shout past each other before realising we've more in common than we think and come away with a better understanding of each others views.

 

Have you looked on social media? Larger gaming forums? I think we have it pretty good here.

 

I think it's a common issue with online interactions. 

People who do the most to help for genuine reasons are often not forthcoming because they aren't eager for the attention. Meanwhile people feel that shouting louder and louder is what really defines a contribution. I find it frustrating and counter productive.

[Graham S]

27 minutes ago, Rex Grossman said:

It's classic Rllmuk that even a person who devoted a huge amount of their free time and professional expertise attempting to improve the lives of trans people will get shit in this thread from people on the same side of the debate.

If only @g wings spent more time screaming into the abyss in this thread he'd get the respect he deserves.

That’s really not what happened. He made a good point about what he’s done, which I took on board politely. He did (politely) imply that those of us who are talking about trans issues on rllmuk should be quieter and instead do something as laudable as he has done, without knowing what’s going on with us in the real world (for clarity I personally haven’t made a deep and meaningful change to society, although I do my bit in my immediate vicinity). Understandably, some people must have rolled their eyes a bit at that, and someone suggested he might have come across as a bit glib. Further discussion and apologies ensued, we’re all on the same side, and are grateful for his work. 
 

I don’t think the people who are speaking up for trans rights here are hysterical, despite repeated claims we are. 
 

At most you’ll see a few people affected by this, who are a bit stressed, voicing their distress. No need to police their tone. Just listen to them and wonder why they seem so upset. It’s easy to appear calm and rational and above the fray if you don’t have skin in the game. If you do it takes more effort.