One activist launched a website that tracks which video-game streamers are playing the new Hogwarts game.
The industry conflict over a widely anticipated Harry Potter-themed video game escalated Monday when a progressive activist launched an online witch hunt to expose professional and recreational streamers of the product.
On Twitch, the popular video-game streaming platform, some prominent players with millions of followers and hundreds of thousands of average views were given an early copy of Hogwarts Legacy, scheduled for official release on Friday, and broadcasted themselves playing the game.
Social-justice activists have boycotted the game over its affiliation with J. K. Rowling — the author behind the wildly popular book series that inspired the video game — who has spoken out in recent years against the more extreme demands of the transgender movement.
On Monday, a progressive U.K.-based web developer unveiled a custom website which like-minded gamers can use to find out whether certain Twitch channel owners have streamed the game. Designed by Sam Gibbs, the website is titled, “Have They Streamed THAT Wizard Game?”
On the website, viewers are directed to “search channels you follow.” While any visitor can use the feature to type in channels ad-hoc, people with Twitch accounts can directly see if any channels they follow have streamed the game.
In addition to putting pressure on individual streamers who dare play the forbidden game, Gibbs’s website might also serve to pressure Twitch to stop running ads for the tainted product, given that “many of their larger and partnered creators oppose it,” Vex Electronica, a former Twitch streamer, told National Review .
Some creators vowed to abstain from streaming to Twitch, period, until it discontinued the ad campaign for the game.
“On Saturday, I was made aware of the extensive and blatant ad campaign for Hogwarts Legacy on Twitch, utilizing and interrupting streams to promote the offensive product, Veronica ‘Nikatine’ Ripley, an ambassador for Twitch who founded a group for transgender gamers, said in a statement.
Ripley is also the owner of a company that provides an “immersive roleplay experience” for the adult video game Grand Theft Auto, which regularly features drug use, brutal violence, and prostitution.
“Hogwarts Legacy is a product ultimately funding J.K. Rowling, whose well-documented stance on trans people remains firmly rooted in a callous disregard for human life,” Ripley said. “Therefore, I will not be streaming to Twitch while this ad campaign remains active. I call on every streamer to join me in taking a stance against bigotry, hatred, and those who support such views.”
While Ripley decried the pro-Hogwarts Legacy ads flooding Twitch, some players who aired the game had their streams disrupted by angry commenters.
A channel by the name of Girlfriend Reviews was bombarded on Monday with people calling her a bigot, transphobe, etc., Vex Electronica said.
The latest digital witch hunt comes after Kara Lynne, also a Twitch streamer, was fired in January from a boutique video-game publisher in response to pressure from a transgender activist. Purple Tinker, an account run by a transgender woman who goes by Jessica Blank, seized on a tweet in which Lynne signaled her support for Hogwarts Legacy. Blank then decided to dig through Lynne’s history for further evidence of thought crime and found that she followed some conservative personalities and in 2009 criticized transgender-inclusive bathroom legislation — that was enough to get her summarily fired from job as a community manager at Limited Run Games.
Popular video-game reviewers have also gotten in on the act: IGN, North America’s most popular video-game site, published a positive review of the game but added a disclaimer insisting that praise for the game should not be interpreted as approval of Rowling’s stance on social issues.
“As critics, our job is to answer the question of whether or not we find Hogwarts Legacy to be fun to play and why; whether it’s ethical to play is a separate but still very important question,” the sidebar notes.
Canadian outlet TheGamer told Axios that it refused to review the game because doing so might elevate Rowling’s allegedly toxic views.
“This is not because of any issue with royalties or monetary support for J.K. Rowling, but because we feel the continued popularity of Harry Potter only provides her with a larger platform and further legitimizes her views, which we in turn feel are harmful to trans people.”
This is despite the fact that the game includes a not-so-subtle gesture of support for transgenderism by allowing users to make trans characters.
The pressure campaign hasn’t been entirely successful, though: Canadian Twitch streamer xQc, who is ranked No. 3 in the world by Twitch Tracker, played Hogwarts Legacy on Monday for a virtual audience of about 100,000.
While there were some supporters of Gibb’s initiative, many Twitter users denounced it as intimidation.
“And while I totally understand wanting to protect your space . . . And I’m sure it wasn’t your intent, but this website (and clearly the comments here) target Streamers,” a Twitch streamer named Cali wrote. “Just seems like a tool that will be used to harass others. How is that productive?”
Melonie Mac, a YouTube video game streamer, told National Review that the “woke hive mind” is endemic to gaming streamer culture.
“People have been scared to stream the game because they will lose friendships, connections, and may even get a hate raid sent after them while playing the game,” she said. “Enough of us who have been cancelled by this mob already aren’t afraid of them, and we’ve collectively been uploading videos, tweets, and memes about how ridiculous their antics are.”
She said the boycott backfired, as the game has been a success so far in reviews and sales.
“They can only call us bigots so many times before we quit caring any more — hopefully this will turn the tides in the gaming industry and companies will eventually stop pandering to this loud mob that has no power,” she added.
Youtuber and occasional Twitch streamer Ryan Kinel agreed that the critics’ silencing efforts have so far flopped, as the fantasy game is raking in a fortune prior to hitting the GameStop shelves. A week before release, Hogwarts Legacy topped the pre-sale charts for multiple vendors including Amazon, Steam, and Epic Store, Forbes reported.
“It’s no surprise that woke activists, who failed in their boycott attempt, are now trying to pressure everyone into not playing the game through fear. That’s what this is,” Kinel said. “But these people have no real power, as evidenced by the MASSIVE sales for Hogwarts Legacy, and the backlash they are getting for creating this website.”
When asked about his ultimate intentions for his website, Gibbs did not immediately respond.