Amid existing controversy surrounding Hogwarts Legacy, the game's official Discord server has gone under fire after gamers alleged that moderators have been telling them to not talk about trans rights or mention it. The game is currently in early access, but there were already streamers calling to boycott Hogwarts Legacy as they equated it to showing support to Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who made anti-trans comments in the past.Developed by Avalanche Software, Hogwarts Legacy is a single-player action game that lets players experience life as a student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although it's set in the Wizarding World, the game doesn't feature the original Harry Potter characters as it's set in a different century from Rowling's novels, nor was the author involved in the development of Hogwarts Legacy or its story. However, many gamers have still been divided about buying and playing the game.A few days before Hogwarts Legacy's release date, an official Discord server was upped where they could meet fellow fans and talk about the game. But it seems to have gone awry as many players reported on social media that they, or other people in the server, got told by moderators to not talk about trans rights as the server has rule that prohibits discussions related to politics or religion. As reported by TheGamer, a Discord mod named M3GAN~ responded to a trans rights post, asking people to "cool it" with the topic. In a series of screenshots from Twitter user sillygal42, it featured the same mod saying they're working on blocking the word "transphobic" from being used in chat. Meanwhile, chaoticgaythey on Twitter alleged that mods have started banning posts that contain the trans flag, "and calling it hateful."
While there were netizens who seemed to have gotten banned for purposefully spamming the Hogwarts Legacy Discord server with trans flag emojis or go as far as post derogatory statements to mock the game and Rowling (both spamming and posting inappropriate content are against the rules), many still accused the moderators of allegedly silencing trans supporters. There was a similar situation recently where the Hogwarts Legacy subreddit banned any discussion about Rowling, specifically, emphasizing that players should stick to talking about the game.
Despite the ongoing controversies surrounding Hogwarts Legacy, Avalanche Software still made sure the game had inclusive options, like introducing transgender character Sirona Ryan and giving players transgender character creation options. There have also been predictions that it could stand a chance at being one of the best-selling games of this year. But regardless of its potential successful, Hogwarts Legacy's reputation might have already been permanently tainted by Rowling's actions.
Hogwarts Legacy is scheduled to release on February 10 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, April 4 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and July 25 for Nintendo Switch.
Source: TheGamer