Some famous game creators are streaming Legacy of Hogwarts unrestrained. The gamer known as Asmongold told him 3.4 million followers on Twitch that streamers should “not immediately … anyone who complains about playing the game.” Felix Lengyel, known to his 11.6 million followers as xQcsaid, “People accumulate all kinds of evil in their daily purchases in worse ways than you can imagine.”
Beth, who describes herself as a “trans rights enjoyer” in her Twitter bio and streams as pickle_bee on Twitch to 200 followers, disagree with those views. “Rowling really changed how many people saw the franchise,” said Beth, who did not give her full name. “I love the universe, but now unfortunately I can’t separate that from how Rowling wants to remove the rights from me and my siblings.” Beth, like everyone else online, tweeted spoilers for the ending Legacy of Hogwarts.
Others have taken more serious actions. Sam Gibbs, an audio engineer for the Yogscast gaming collective, put together a website that checks if a creator is streaming Legacy of Hogwarts. Just a day after the site went viral on Twitter, it was taken down. (Gibbs did not respond to a request for comment.)
Some streamers are boycotting Twitch entirely, feeling that there are even ads for Legacy of Hogwarts shown in their stream is too much. “The trans community specifically is forced to deal with so much hate, that forcing us to consume ads for a transphobic franchise is cruel,” Veronica Ripley, a Twitch streamer who goes by Nikatine and now leading the boycott of the platform, said. BuzzFeed News. “I think it says a lot about a person’s conviction when your ally ends up in a video game.”
Molly Mae, a cosplayer and Twitch streamer with 8,800 followers, did not join the boycott. Instead, he hosted a charity event on Twitch to raise money for Mind Out, an LGBTQ+ community mental health service. “Twitch has a large community of cis, straight creators who seem to channel their own nostalgia, selfish desires, and unwavering loyalty to a game that means something to them,” said BuzzFeed News is. “I think trans life is more important than gaming.”
The shouting seemed to have an effect. Hasan Abithe top political commentator on Twitch, said on stream that the only reason he wasn’t streaming the game was that he “didn’t deserve to be bullied and called transphobic forever.”
However, in the end, many streamers want to be able to play Legacy of Hogwarts and acknowledge their love for the franchise. “Consuming a product made by the hands and minds of hundreds of people does not mean that you share the bigoted views held by one of the creators,” ArielJadeLive, a cosplayer and streamer with nearly 17,000 followers, told BuzzFeed News. “Playing Legacy of Hogwarts DOING not make you transphobic or even a fan of JK Rowling. It makes you a magic or Harry Potter fan – or just a gamer.
As for Kay, he said he’s “all for people making noise about this topic.” He added, “It’s important to fight for change in the things you believe in. A lot of big advances in what’s acceptable in society have come from people standing up — gay rights, women’s rights — an, and racial equality. I think the reason why people Boycotting the game is more important to society than literally boycotting the game.”