• ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Reminder that

    • Epic Games, unlike Steam, is subsidizing sales. So instead your own money, it’s some Chinese oligarch’s money, that will go into Joanne Karen Rowling’s TERF war chest, who’re betting on Epic instead of Steam.
    • Joanne is also anti-porn, and Collective Shout are TERFs, so there’s a good chance that the TERF war chest also funds the war on porn, and by extension, war on human self-expression.
  • SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    Don’t give Epic your time or money. Putting aside Fortnite and their pro-AI stance, they forsake the Unreal Tournament series. That’s just unforgivable.

    As for Hogwart’s Legacy, the game is decent and even fun at first but gets repetitive quick. Bully from 2006 is a similar game minus the magic and lucrative IP attached. A shame it didn’t get a sequel.

    And as for J. K. Rowling, forgive me but she’s a cunt. I wasn’t huge on Harry Potter when growing up so I don’t have any nostalgia about the series - be it the books or movies- but I know many of you are. I also know that many of you are LGBTQ+ so how you decided to reconcile with the series is up to you. While you can separate Rowling from your affection to the series, don’t give her any more your time, money or attention.

    • drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Plus Bully did it so much better with social interactions with staff and students, having a schedule and generally feeling like a school. HL came nowhere even close to that to the point where I wondered if the devs even tried to make it like Bully and we all just assumed they did because what other game makes school life the focus and does it even half as well? I don’t even think there is an indie game that tries it.

  • DupaCycki@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Just pirate. Do not inflate Epic Games’ numbers. All corporations are evil, but I think we can all agree that Tim Sweeney is leagues above Gabe Newell in terms of being an utter piece of shit.

    Want to support the developers? Guess what. They already got the money from Epic, so whether or not you claim the game doesn’t make a difference. And even if it did, none of that would go towards the actual devs.

    • amino@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      JK Rowling has openly said that she also sees piracy as an endorsement of her fascist views. She looks at the download numbers and thinks to herself “trans women have finally lost”

    • Mwa@thelemmy.club
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      2 days ago

      the paid option:
      or just buy it on Steam with a discount,will supports both developers and Valve depending on the price.

      • fishy@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        The point is not to buy it because Rowling is a piece of shit. A penny in her pocket is too much.

        • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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          Unfortunately we’ve already lost. Even if she had no investments and had to live off her current billions she’d still be able to inject £100,000 of caviar and racehorse semen (oh sorry, printer ink is actually more valuable) into her veins every night and still be good for the next 30+ years. In one sense, whether she makes money off you or not changes nothing because she’ll still be able to fund all the anti trans shit she wants with her current empire.

          Billionaires are a mistake of society and she’s a garbage person but whether one person or 500,000 people buy Hogwarts is quite literally meaningless to her wealth because she already won capitalism.

        • BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          so one of the gals at lesbian board game night really enjoys the potterverse. there was no way she wasn’t playing HogLeg. our group’s solution was to buy one copy of the game but share it, and let our extended friends groups know so we could share the one copy between like 50 people.

  • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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    But hogwarts legacy is actually a really good game, the whole problem was that it might lead to jk rowling getting more money. Though they never did clarify if she got a cut or a flat fee that would have already been paid. Either way, this should nullify that, but the team that made the game did a great job, and made it more in-line with the spirit of the books instead of the author. Went specifically against her current wishes. The trans inclusion and positivity was pretty well done. Even if it was put in to spite her, they didn’t draw attention to it, it just is there, and no one bats an eye.

    Edit: I should mention that I played it in VR, I can’t speak to what the game is like without VR. But I really enjoyed it. UEVR with a motion controls mod, there is also a voice casting mod, but I didn’t personally go that route.

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
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      Even if she doesn’t get a direct payment per copy sold, which I’m not sure I believe considering you know her negotiating power, there are still benefits for her. Increasing the brand increases future payments. Increases her bargaining power later on. And I’m sure allows her more creative control which means that any trans inclusion would probably be nullified in future projects.

      Maybe it’s a good game, but at a certain point you got to nut up or shut up. Are you going to take a stand and boycott something or not? Yeah you miss out on things with your boycott, that’s the point. If you’re not willing to sacrifice at all, and we’re talking a very minimal sacrifice here aren’t we, then what are you even doing?

      Though why we are even talking about paying for it I don’t quite understand. There’s always other ways.

      • RogueBanana@piefed.zip
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        You are certainly allowed to boycott it for the principle, that’s perfectly fine. But calling the game shit (Screenshot) just because it’s from harry potter and attacking the devs and it’s players was not warranted at all. I am obviously not implying you or OP did but many people did that and called it a boycott, that’s what I didn’t like. And a disclaimer, I am also not a harry potter fan, never tried the game myself and absolutely hate the author. Just felt bad for the game devs.

        • Best_Jeanist@discuss.online
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          attacking the devs and it’s players was not warranted at all.

          Nobody was attacked just for playing the game, people were only attacked for talking about or streaming the game. Word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing, and we only wanted to stop the word of mouth marketing. If you played the game and didn’t tell anyone, nobody attacked you.

          • LwL@lemmy.world
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            Which is just as bad lol. Feel free to boycott people for streaming it or giving it publicity if you truly think it matters, but personally attacking them over giving a spinoff of an already extremely famous persons work that actively disagrees with the main reason everyone hates said person a slight bit of exposure is honestly unhinged.

            You probably cause more harm by buying a single product on amazon than by buying and streaming hogwarts legacy.

            • Mniot@programming.dev
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              This is like voting for US Republicans like, “what, Trump already controls the country and this dude disagrees with him.”

              Rowling has said that (1) she will spend all HP profits on hurting trans people and (2) she registers all HP support as support for her agenda.

              • deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                2 days ago

                Source? Genuinely curious. I don’t follow all this as I try to seperat art from the artist but still interested in what the deal is here.

              • LwL@lemmy.world
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                It would be minus the part where the entire republican platform is unhinged far right shit so I’d judge people for that.

                1 I and likely the vast majority of people have never seen stated anywhere because I prefer my sanity intact by not following everything some terf says (and I’d agree that is a better reason to not buy it, though I’d still say she’s almost a billionaire anyway so a lot of other things people do have just as bad of an impact), 2 is honestly just delusion on her part and kind of irrelevant, she would find different reasons to continue her bs.

                Also to be clear saying “I think you streaming this game is morally wrong” to a creator you already watch/in other relevant contexts is of course completely fine, harrassment is not.

    • TheJesusaurus@sh.itjust.works
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      I have to disagree, it wasn’t a particularly good game. Everything felt off. I was days into the game and it felt like I was still doing tutorial missions. Basic mechanics weren’t unlocked until 3 quarters through the game. And I can’t imagine it has much replayability at all beyond trying to hunt down every trinket.

      It never granted you the feeling of being a wizard or whatever made Harry Potter special, it made Wizards feel ridiculous. 90% of the game is spamming a generic unnamed “attack” spell

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        I was days into the game and it felt like I was still doing tutorial missions. Basic mechanics weren’t unlocked until 3 quarters through the game

        Oh wow. That’s fucking heinous. Even if there was nothing else objectionable about the game, that’s a definite dealbreaker.

        • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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          You basically hop on your broom, fly directly to the thing you need, hop off, spam three buttons and kill everyone one by one, then get back on the broom and return. Repeat.

          I thought it was interesting to fly around and see how they built the world but that isn’t fun for long.

          The whole thing sort of doesnt make sense, but then again harry potter doesnt make sense as a book series so maybe they nailed it.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            If only they actually made flying feel good. It’s impressive how boring it feels to fly in the game. I’m assuming that’s why Quiditch wasn’t included.

            • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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              Leaving out quidditch was a huge mistake in my opinion. I don’t usually read about games ahead of time, so to find out quidditch wasn’t included some hours into the game was really deflating for me. Thats really the one place they could have taken a huge swing at something interesting and they just decided not to swing at all.

          • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 days ago

            There’s skills and then there’s basic game mechanics.

            Assassin’s Creed Valhalla didn’t introduce the series signature Leap of Faith until early in the second act, which understandably pissed off longtime fans who had been using it as a fundamental part of playing from during or just after the tutorial in previous AC games going back DECADES.

            Now imagine a similarly crucial gameplay mechanic in Harry Potter (let’s say a spell that demeans a marginalized group more thoroughly than you can otherwise do), but it isn’t introduced until well into the THIRD act.

            THAT’S heinous game design.

            • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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              Idk I haven’t played the game, you’re clearly not coming from any objective standpoint though nor do you seem to have any idea what the actual skill unlocks would be.

              It’s just an extremely silly thing to call heinous when there’s actual heinous things happening in our world all the time.

              • TheJesusaurus@sh.itjust.works
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                My guy, heinous is just a word to describe stuff. The basic mechanics of your character are locked behind what feel like endless tutorial missions. It’s bad game design. This is independent of any ongoing genocides

      • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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        Ah, I should probably mention that I played it in VR with motion controls, so combat was alot more fun than what the flat version of the game probably did. And just riding a broom or looking around at the really detailed environments(those that were) was worth it being very videogamey otherwise.

      • uncouple9831@lemmy.zip
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        No, no, they are goblins not Jews. By the end of 10th grade this 16 year old has killed like 1000 goblins and 1000 “dark” wizards, all extrajudicial, and everyone is just like “good job on your homework”. It’s pretty fucked up.

        • Best_Jeanist@discuss.online
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          Hook nosed greedy goblins who control the banks, huh? I’m sorry, I was clearly mistaken. I’m sure there’s no subtext in that.

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            Wow did you just say Jews are greedy, bank controlling, hook-nosed people? What a racist.

            I do actually wonder where the nose thing came from tbh. I know some people who do but I wouldn’t say that group is prominently Jewish. I know the bank stuff is historical and caused by oppression then used by oppressors to further opress.

      • EldritchFemininity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        Not only that, but it also makes reference to multiple attempted genocides against Jews with the dates of other goblin rebellions and item descriptions such as a Jewish religious horn being described as a “goblin war horn used to annoy wizards” that is filled specifically with a non-Kosher type of cheese.

        Then there’s also the fact that the lead dev resigned from the project after it came out that he ran a white supremacist YouTube channel, and made a statement about how he “felt at home” with the other people working on the game.

        • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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          I don’t think they were slaves, but wizards are very racist to other species and do consider them second class citizens.

          I’m not sure this made it better…

          • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            Goblins are canonically considered by wizards to be subservient to them, along with most of the other magical races. They’re not like house elves, who love being slaves, they’re like a rung above them on the hierarchy of fantasy races in Joanne’s fictional universe.

            They are universally regarded with mistrust because of a founding myth that states they unjustly stole a historic Wizarding artifact, one of the only weapons that can kill basilisks, from the most courageous wizard about to fight the most evil wizard who commanded a basilisk.

            The lore of the seventh book also pretty much paints them out to be communists who believe that the crafter of an item rightfully belongs to them and not the person paying them.

            They’re money obsessed, untrustworthy, regarded with suspicion over their loyalties, painted functionally as communists, and have a foundation myth about betraying maybe the most famous and revered wizard in history. Make of that what you will.

    • HarryOru@lemmy.zip
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      It’s an insanely boring game with no depth. To each their own, but calling it a “really good game” is as much of a stretch as calling it “shit”. To me it felt like a Hogwarts walking simulator with a bunch of basic unrelated minigames stuck onto it, marketed as an open world action rpg. The combat was insulting.

    • Switorik@lemmy.zip
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      It is a good game but I despise that they axed mod support to advertise crappy mods downloadable in game. This could’ve been the next Skyrim if they embraced it. Very disappointing.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      I don’t agree. It’s not a good game. The only reason people may think it’s good is because it’s Harry Potter stuff. It’s yet another boring open world game about wasting your time.

      It was alright at the beginning in Hogwarts, but the open world segments, which are most of the game, suck. I think the biggest most glaring thing that shows they’re just copying other formulas to waste your time is the lockpicking. They have a spell to open locks, but for some reason it has a lockpicking mini game you have to complete? Not only that, but the person who teaches the spell is the groundskeeper?

      There’s bones of an interesting game there, but they decided to make it yet another bland open world game that’s mostly empty. The entire point of 90% of the game is to just extend how long you’re playing it, which is bad design. They should create content you want to play, not boring crap they need to try to trick you into playing by making the game worse until you do it.

      It’s probably a fine game for console players who only ever play boring AAA slop like Ubisoft games. They’ve accepted this garbage as normal. For me though, I resented my time with it. I’m a fairly big Harry Potter fan (as much as I hate to admit) but I hated my time wasted on the game.

    • SharkWeek@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      Yeah, my wife got it super cheaply on PS4 (so if JKR got anything, it would be about 2¢) and enjoyed the game a lot … she’s gender nonconforming, and played using the male-coded body model with female-coded hair which looked like pleasantly non-binary combo :-)

      • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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        Yeah, my sister was pretty reluctant at first, she is ACE and wanted to support the boycott, but then when the game was basically a slap in the face to rowling, and rowling was trying to tank the game by tweeting that buying the game still supported her anyway, we took that as meaning that she actually wasn’t making residuals on it or she would have just shut her mouth and raked in the money like normal.

        I played the game in VR myself, but my sister played it flat screen. We both enjoyed the game. It is definitely very “videogamey” but, been playing videogames for over 30 years, so that is nothing new. The parts that were new to us were worth the parts that weren’t.

  • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.bascul.in
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    1 day ago

    Around one week ago the game was on sale on Steam for %85, if any of your friends have bought it during that time ask them to refund :)

  • kazerniel@lemmy.world
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    Joke is, I might actually grab it for free. So long as Rowling isn’t profiting from it, I don’t actively hate HP (despite its bad worldbuilding and unsubtle racism 😬). Especially that iirc there were a few small things in the game kinda flipping off Rowling, so the devs working on it probably didn’t like her either.

    I’m trans, and HP was a big part of my childhood, then Rowling got brain-mould and somewhat ruined it retroactively (tbh even before her current TERF saga she kept tweeting bollocks, like that whole “wizards used to shit in the corner and magic it away” thing 🤢)

    • Mniot@programming.dev
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      She absolutely is profiting from it.

      When a game is “free” the publisher isn’t just donating it for funzies. Either Epic pays them (Epic is spending money to get people to its platform) or the publisher is using the game to advertise other games, which has value to them.

      • retype@lemmy.world
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        Epic pays the publisher a flat fee for permission to distribute the game for free for the week.

        Your individual download doesn’t give Rowling any less or more, but shows support for her IP, and tells epic they made a good decision to support her.

        I’ve heard great things about the game, but for me the download does support Rowling, so it’s a hard pass.

        • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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          Its an okay game, its built in the same skin as dragon age inquisition. The story is okay, it feels dated though. I liked exploring and collecting stuff but they make you wait until half way through the story to be able to open certain doors, so you have to go back later.

          I never finished it, it felt very repetitive after a short while. The combat is super boring.

    • Chloé 🥕@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      if you’re gonna play it, just remember that your teacher dies at the end and can’t be saved, and that rockwood is the one that cursed anne

      • uncouple9831@lemmy.zip
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        For those worried these are actually spoilers, keep in mind this is a game for children which adapts the book series in to a bunch of fetch quests and Farmville stuff. All the plot points are pretty much predictable from the get go. Snape kills Dumbledore.

          • uncouple9831@lemmy.zip
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            No it’s not, but it is a chosen one story with story progression tied to traditional seasonal holidays, scenes and battles replicating key events from the books, and a mentor whose sacrifice triggers the defeat of the big bad and the conclusion of the story.

            I’m not saying every plot point is predictable, but the “oh wow the key was a portkey and saved us from being killed” was predictable long before the dragon appeared and it doesn’t really get more complex from there.

          • uncouple9831@lemmy.zip
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            No it’s not, but it is a chosen one story with story progression tied to traditional seasonal holidays, scenes and battles replicating key events from the books, and a mentor whose sacrifice triggers the defeat of the big bad and the conclusion of the story.

            I’m not saying every plot point is predictable, but the “oh wow the key was a portkey and saved us from being killed” was predictable long before the dragon appeared and it doesn’t really get more complex from there.

  • yboutros@infosec.pub
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    Be careful if you download this game your computer will blow up if you make your character trans by swapping them for witch or wizard

  • Nima@leminal.space
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    oh nice. I love HL. will let some friends know they can grab it for free.

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        Man you ain’t lying. Fun game but you’re right it was pretty mid. I will say the opening “tutorial” was very cool

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          It was fun in the beginning, running around Hogwarts is cool, Hogsmead looks very pretty. But the rest of the world is just boring and I suppose the story is enough for a game but nowhere near the books. I finished it once, had a lot of fun, tried to play through a second time and made it halfway through before giving up.

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            After I got my broom it took literally all wonder and playability out of the game for me. So I got maybe 10-15 hours out of it. Thankfully I didn’t pay for it, it’s in my family library on steam.

            • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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              Although those first few minutes on the school broom in flying class flying around Hogwarts was fantastic.

  • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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    Isn’t that the game where you can be a douchebag in every single dialogue option and people still end up being your friend with NO change in story whatsoever?

    • blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works
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      The dialogue options presented are “overly courteous” or “neutral”

      The worst thing you can say are things like “don’t mess with me” or “I have to report you for that”

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      I think the Map of the castle is absolutely exceptional and there’s a lot of attention to detail.

      The main storyline is enjoyable enough, although I wish there was more of a push-back if you choose to use the unforgivable curses. They’re meant to be unforgivable and yet you pretty much get a “oh I wish you wouldn’t do that” when you straight up torture an enemy in front of an NPC.

      The main letdown for me is that outside of the castle, a lot of the game feels somewhat empty. It’s not like Skyrim where you go out into the world and you’re always finding little things spread out everywhere that piques your interest. It feels like there’s not much reason to venture out from the castle or Hogsmeade unless a mission explicitly tells you to.

      Overall though I do think it’s decent.

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      2 days ago

      It’s pretty middling tbh. I played it last year when it was on PSPlus. Certainly couldn’t see a reason for all the hype it got on launch. I assume HP fans are just starved of new content.

      The gameplay is OK, but there’s a lot of dicking about swapping spells, it’s too damn long, and honestly not worth your time for a full playthrough. It’s a very standard open world, go to the map icons, do the minigames affair. If you’ve played games in the last ten years, you’ll know exactly what to expect. They’ve made a game for kids that will be played mostly by people who are now adults.