The 72-hour early access to Hogwarts Legacy has led to a literal witch hunt, with various people hunting down content creators who are streaming or even thinking of playing the game.
This incident comes right at the heels of Twitter's reactions to Hogwarts Legacy's gameplay. In that article, I mentioned that I would only be looking at the comments and criticisms that directly talked about the game's gameplay. This is because a vast majority of the comments on that tweet were all attacking either the game, the Harry Potter IP, JK Rowling, or all of them. It's no surprise that this is happening, as the controversies surrounding J. K. Rowling have been ongoing for quite a long time now. This includes her transphobic statements, the anti-Semitic and racist content of her books, and more. This has led to various people online openly going against Hogwarts Legacy, and in the most recent incident, those playing the game.
Twitch chat bullies streamer for playing Hogwarts Legacy to the point of making his girlfriend cry pic.twitter.com/bod3A5DvMz
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) February 7, 2023
A video that Dexerto uploaded featured GirlfriendReviews, a Twitch Channel that features couple Matt and Shelby. They were the victim of bullying and harassment, as people in their chat were verbally attacking them for playing the game. “I’m almost thinking of just going offline. I’m barely into the second combat here and every time I look at chat, the conversation is just bothering me,” said Matt, to which Shelby replied that they could go on a quick break. Matt then tells Shelby to take a break while he stops talking to go through the combat. Listening to the video, you can actually hear Shelby on the verge of tears.
This is not an isolated case. In his news show Things Vtubers Say, FalseEyeD briefly tackled something similar happening to Vtubers. He brought up famous Vtubers such as Hakos Baelz and Amano Pikamee whose tweets surrounding the game (in the case of Baelz, she mentioned learning all Harry Potter spells) were met with replies from their fans. These replies consisted of them telling the Vtuber to either not play the game, to play something else, or that they would not be watching them if they will. Granted, this is not as severe as the case above, but it is still nonetheless because of their plans to play the game.
The proverbial icing on the cake, however, is the fact that someone made a website that shows users who have played Hogwarts Legacy on Twitch. The site, aptly named “Have they streamed THAT wizard game”, lets users log in to their Twitch account, and see who in their Follow list has played the game. Granted, that's all the website does. However, you can't deny that this is a tool that lets people easily find streamers and content creators who are playing Hogwarts Legacy. As of February 7, 2023, however, the website has now been taken down. When trying to access the site, it will just lead to a notice that says “This service has been suspended by its owner.”
Anti-Hogwarts Legacy site tracking Twitch streamers playing closes down pic.twitter.com/zkX6391fDe
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) February 7, 2023
Let me be clear about something. This is not meant to be an article defending Hogwarts Legacy. Neither is it an article protecting and defending the series or its author. What I'm trying to say is that because of this game, various content creators are now in the crosshairs of various groups of people. While some of them are still amiable like in the case of the Vtubers, quite a few of them are more aggressive, as with the case of GirlfriendReviews. All I am saying is that it is up to you whether you want to support this game or not. It is up to you if you will watch content creators who are playing the game.
Just make sure that you aren't overstepping your bounds in doing so. Make sure that you are not harassing anyone in doing so.
For more gaming news from us, you can check out our gaming news articles.
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