The Video Game Industry

Rather interesting, though I fear that certain folk will try to somehow attempt to tie this to Sony's censorship/"anti-weeb" policies.

For context (as this is a pagetopper) I'm responding to an IGN article that mentions that Sony's reorganizing its JAPAN Studio and I think, folding it into their global branch

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Feb 25th 2021 at 6:43:59 AM

Japan has its own term called the "Sony Check" that shows even Japan's own citizens don't like Sony's recent policies with third party games from the country.

EDIT: Epic is acquiring Mediatonic (Fall Guys).

Bloomberg: Hogwarts Legacy devs pushed hard for trans inclusion by having body, voice, and gender separated.

Edited by tclittle on Mar 2nd 2021 at 12:07:20 PM

I'm surprise the Hogwarts Legacy devs were even allowed to get that far considering the accusations against Leavitt.

I definitely respect the dev team for this push

I...think that Hogwarts Legacy decision might backfire.

I just wonder if what's explicitly a gendered boarding school, with the majority of its source material explicitly in the 90's, in a society that seems perpetually stuck decades in the past, is really the place to throw that in in isolation.

Hogwarts Legacy is 100 years earlier then the books, so the late 1800's.

The game is actually set in 1800s, so a lot of the source material isn’t going to come into play.

I think that only exacerbates the problem if it's just done for token inclusion and/or needling other involved parties.

Edited by RainehDaze on Mar 2nd 2021 at 7:40:59 PM

I appreciate the sentiment in terms of gameplay, but it really stretches my suspension of disbelief in terms of the setting, especially since even today, transphobia is baked in the culture of UK. It would have been even worse in the late 1800s.

By the sound if it’s they’re not so much engaging in representation as they are allowing character customisation. I don’t think they’re putting in trans background characters, they’re just letting you have your character be female with a voice that would traditionally be considered masculine (or vice versa).

If your character is trans or not won’t get referenced in-game as best I can tell, as your character will simply have their gender, with there being no reference to what gender they were assigned at birth.

I am just concerned cuz' that'll just empower the trolls to make the most effeminate looking woman possible and give them the deepest gravest voics possible, and its opposite. More than a tool for players it will become a tool for trolls. For representation's sake, it'd be better served with well written characters and inclusive, respectful dialogue, or even third gender options with access to either of the customizations, really.

Thats fine too. Still comes accross as a bit reactionary, though.

If there's anyone in the team at the studio thats Trans that legitamately tries to push for it, I'm fine with it, but if not, well.......

It’s a single-player game, the trolling opportunities are pretty limited.

Oh. I thought I read it'd be a multiplayer game? My mistake, then.

A setting where it doesn't really make sense and a story where it will never be acknowledged, seemingly as a way for the devs to get at the project lead/Rowling, just annoys me more than anything.

It lets players make a character that’s like them, that seems like a worthy enough reason in of itself.

I would assume that they’re including racial options beyond white despite the fact that a private British boarding school in the 1800s would realistically be very white (and white English/Scottish, no Irish allowed).

Hell if all it did was piss Rowling off I’d consider that a win in of itself, upsetting bigots is a rewards in of itself.

Just an FYI, the guy who people said was a project lead apparently isn't one, he's a producer on the game.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Mar 2nd 2021 at 5:57:24 PM

Oooooh, can we get non-English voice actors as well? Since not being British disqualified you from getting a role in the films because Rowling said so. Let's upset her on this point too.

Ehhh, on this point, I'd rather stick with authentic British actors. The Fake Brit trope always upsets me when I find out about it.

I think the push to stop the entire franchise being dominated by Americans was a pretty reasonable one. It wasn’t really about keeping anyone else out.

Particularly when you were going to be working with a lot of children.

Edited by RainehDaze on Mar 2nd 2021 at 1:12:59 PM

They could always just include some non-British (fake or real) voices. it’d actually be period-appropriate, as you could easily imagine Hogwarts educating wizards and witches from across the Empire.

Don't mistake me for a bigot, but if it's from other traditionally commonwealth countries (like India, Australia, Ireland), sure. Otherwise, no (and yes, I know technically the US and Canada were commonwealth countries, but when I say commonwealth, I mean from English-speaking nations with some spice to it).