The new game in the Harry Potter universe, Hogwarts Legacy, is already causing heavy controversies a month before release on Steam: Although there are no reviews yet, angry users are finding new ways to criticize the game. They attach extreme tags to the fantasy RPG to show how critically they view the Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
How are players expressing their protest against the game?
- When people have a specific, ideological problem with a game on Steam, they usually write numerous negative reviews – this is called “Review Bombing.” For example, in 2020, the excellent “Monster Hunter World” was heavily criticized in reviews because Chinese players found a scene from the movie featuring Mila Jovovich to be truly terrible, even racist.
- However, since Hogwarts Legacy is only being released on February 10, 2023, the reviews on Steam are still closed.
- Thus, Steam users took the opportunity to now assign “tags” to a game on Steam, i.e., labels. This is also possible before release: If enough people select a tag, it appears in the game’s short description on Steam.
What kind of tags were these? Among the tags that Hogwarts Legacy received, in addition to relevant tags like “Adventure, Magic, Open World, Fantasy, or RPG,” there were also extreme, negative tags:
- “Transphobic”
- “Transphobia”
- “Psychological Horror”
- “World War II”
- “Villain Protagonist”
- “Capitalism”
- “Antisemitism”
Steam has apparently deleted these extreme negative tags, but some of the earlier tags can be seen through the Internet Archive “Web.Archives.org”.
Protest Against Author J.K. Rowling Expands to the Game
Why is the game being labeled this way? The background of these negative tags against Hogwarts Legacy is the ongoing controversy surrounding Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
Critics see her as a “transphobic, radical feminist” – Rowling vehemently denies this accusation, the situation has been escalating for months.
Many of her critics state that Harry Potter is a beloved part of their childhood – but J.K. Rowling does not belong and is ruining their joy in the universe. She should not make any more money from Harry Potter.
Individual hashtags reference parts of this controversy:
- “Villain Protagonist” apparently aims to make it clear that J.K. Rowling is seen as the villain
- With “Capitalism” it means to cut off her money supply
- “Antisemitism” refers to a criticism of Harry Potter: Some see the goblins there as a malicious caricature of Jews
Despite this negative criticism and boycott calls, Hogwarts Legacy seems to be selling exceptionally well on Steam:
Update January 13, 12:28 PM: We have slightly adjusted the title – the verb “schmähen” has been replaced with the more neutral “markieren.”
