• RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I guess all the twitter drama around the author matters less to the real world. It’s impressive to see how a vocal minority can completely distort what is happening offline.

    • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Hogwarts came out a quarter of a year earlier and released on every platform compared to Zelda only being on one.

      I wouldn’t take that as a indictment that J.K.'s terf bullshit didn’t have an impact on sales.

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, and the fact that people basically can’t talk about this game without mentioning it got boycotted because one of the people who makes money from it is a massive piece of transphobic shit is a small step forward all on its own

        • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          In that sense, it worked. Let’s face it: The people who don’t care about the author’s raging bigotry were never going to be convinced regardless, but there were a lot of us who didn’t even consider playing it because of the TERF.

          • ramble81@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Anecdotally, everyone I’ve talked to about it doesn’t care. They don’t like she’s a TERF and some even condemn her for it, but every single person I’ve talked to separates the world of Harry Potter from her. It basically has a life of its own and they couldn’t care less about JKR now, that’s what I’ve been able to surmise of people’s view of it now. It’s like having racist parents but not being labeled as one because you’re a separate entity.

            • Sage the Lawyer@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I’m a big gamer, and was a massive HP fan. I did not buy the game, or even consider it, specifically because of JKR’s bullshit.

              I may be in the minority, but I guarantee I’m not the only one in this boat. So now you’ve talked to someone who cares, if you count this as talking.

              And just to say a little more, no I didn’t crusade against the game, nor do I villainize people who bought it and enjoyed it. I do think it’s possible to enjoy art without liking the artist. Hell, my favorite book series of all time is the Ender’s Game series, and Orson Scott Card is probably just as bad as JKR, though maybe not quite as famous/public about it.

              But I can’t bring myself to buy it. I’m trans, and her rhetoric, and how public it is, has been specifically harmful to me, directly. But that’s just me. I won’t tell other people how to live their lives or enjoy their free time, so long as they’re not actively hurting others. And no, I don’t consider buying a game where one person who is profiting from it might spend a sliver of that profit on anti-trans BS to be actively harming others, especially when she already has enough money to do whatever the hell she wants anyways.

              This doesn’t make a dent, and ethical consumption under capitalism is impossible anyways. I just hope that some portion of people who bought the game heard about the protests and maybe donated a fraction of what they paid for the game to some pro-LGBTQ groups. I have to believe there’s at least a handful of people like that. I do believe that people are mostly good, and want to do good.

              Yeesh, I wrote a lot more than I planned to here. I’ll stop now lol.

            • Osa-Eris-Xero512@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Death of the author only applies if she’s dead.

              So unless there’s been some good news in the last day, those people are just coping

              • ramble81@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                (Thought experiment time) So at what point, if ever, does a universe separate from its creator? Think about Star Wars. There have been a large number of derivative works by multiple authors. However if George Lucas came out against gays and trans people, would you taint the entire franchise? At what point are the two separated, if ever?

                • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  1 year ago

                  However if George Lucas came out against gays and trans people, would you taint the entire franchise?

                  Yes. I would immediately lose ibr interest in Star Wars and go do something else. There’s plenty of entertainment out there that’s not made by shitty bigots.

                • Devccoon@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Star Wars is an awkward example because it’s already pretty well tainted itself with mediocre films.

                  But yes, unironically I would actively stop looking for the shreds of good among the carnage that is the once-beloved franchise if I knew its creator, whose name is still tied to it and who financially benefits at least from the propagation of successful entries under that IP, would be just a little bit more able to get their awful views out there thanks to that success.

              • Dadd Volante@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                This happens a lot more than you think. It isn’t just coping.

                How many movies were produced by Weinstein? How many comics were published by bigots that still re-sell in droves today?

                How many celebrated tv shows were made by pieces of garbage?

                Wrestlemania season is here. THAT company is completely vile from the ground up.

                Sometimes, people just pick and choose their fiction and legitimately separate the artist from the art. The Harry Potter franchise has outgrown it’s original author, just like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, WWE or almost any franchise.

                If you think the world truly is so black and white, you haven’t gone out and experienced enough of it.

                • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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                  1 year ago

                  Thats not death of the author, thats you covering your eyes while handing them money.

                  Death of the author does not exist while the author makes money off the product.

                  If you pirated the hogwarts game? Then you have room to speak on death of the author. But jkr has a hefty royalties deal on hp products. If you paid for it, the author is living well.

                  Im sorry you apparently cant face that truth, but that doesnt change it.

                  • Dadd Volante@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 year ago

                    Bruh, if you are going to try and pretend your consumption under capitalism is better than the other, that’s cool.

                    I’m sure you are the most morally sound person you’ve ever met 🤣

          • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I mean, I didn’t consider playing it because I’ve never been a fan of Harry Potter, but Rowling’s ramblings definitely didn’t do anything to change my mind.

            • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              I was a moderately engaged HP fan before I learned what a colossally awful human the author is, but her TERF ramblings also made me realize there’s quite a lot of racial and ethnic stereotypes baked into the franchise. It’s probably the fastest I’ve ever totally abandoned an interest in a series. Even if we do separate the works from the author like so many fanbois suggest, they’re still awful.

          • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            We know it didn’t prevent it from becoming the year’s most sold game, so whatever the impact it’s pretty easy to shrug off

            • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Buddy, its the worlds 5 largest IP, id be shocked if it didnt sell millions of copies regardless.

              For all we know it could have lost out on 20 million sales, but its an untrackable metric.

              • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                I mean I’m sure it’s a lot more cheerful for the to imagine the number as really high, but the fact of the matter is that in the end it still sold really well, becoming the top seller of that year.

                A bit of a ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ situation

                • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  Its nothing to do with cheerful, its to do with not knowing how effective a boycott was.

                  No one in their right mind would expect it to sell zero copies.

                  Tell me, how do you tell if a boycott was successful?

                  • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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                    1 year ago

                    I’d expect it to meaningfully affect the sales and the maker/seller/whoever behind it. Being the most sold game of the year and presumably making a fat profit, I don’t think it really did either.

                    So again, ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

          • Maalus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Why, because they point out that the entire thing was a lound minority running in their own echochamber?

          • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Sure call me a bigot. The point I was making is this is an echo chamber issue for people who want to eat others because they are not pure enough. And on that you come out swing with the same incessive echo put stuff I was pointing to.

            No matter how much you hurt the people you say you are fighting for. Go ahead, run your inquisition on people to see if they match your purity standards, don’t be surprised if one day you end up in front of the inquisition yourself accused of being impure.

            You spend time fighting with someone who might disagree with you in this fringe of society but still takes on the biggest fights out there… and you would rather burn them than focus on better, easier, more impactful targets.

          • rab@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            And how’s your moral compass?

            You didn’t play Harry Potter, but are you a vegan? You know animals have feelings right?

            Have you volunteered this week? You have time to bullshit with randoms on lemmy, why not use the time to make the world better?

            What other games do you play, do you like Blizzard games?

            Maybe you have an Xbox, you know what Bill Gates is up to right?

            Do you use Amazon? Ever heard of their CEO?

            I can go on and on and on. Get over yourself.

    • xkforce@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      JKR is a very vocal TERF that basically wants trans people to dissappear. A lot of people dont want to financially support her because of that. That most people seemingly either dont care about trans erasure or even worse, bought the game specifically because theyre the type to do shit just because people with a conscience told them they shouldn’t, says more about most people than it does that “vocal minority”

      • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh pipe down, I read the entire thing when it was recent and in no way does she want what you claim. She has an open letter on her own website outlining her views.

        Over the course of the years since this happened it has grown, morphed and people are now probably also saying she would be the one herding the trans people into the gas Chambers.

          • rab@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            I’m out of the loop on this whole thing because JK is a writer and doesn’t know anything about gender.

            Can you specifically quote something she has said to prove your claim or is it really hearsay like the guy above claims?

            • xkforce@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/

              Thats just one example. There are many others but I feel like if the point isn’t made it never will be.

              She makes a number of claims about transitioning and detransitioning that are straight up lies, tries to conflate trans women with predators that must be denied entry to womens’ bathrooms, claims that the change in societal views toward trans issues threatens to erase women etc.

              The reality is that JKR seems to have never dealt with the trauma of her rape and abuse so she denigrates trans women as being little more than predatory men in skirts. Thats why she brings that up in her post. She’s explaining why she is so concerned with trans issues and those reasons go back to that trauma never being processed in a healthier way.

              • rab@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                I read that today already, it is a lot milder than “wanting trans people to disappear”. Where are all the hateful tweets I have heard about?

                Edit: nothing? Anyone?

                • olmec@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  I hadn’t read this before, and I am honestly shocked that this is the what the uproar is over. This isn’t a call to action to hurt anyone. It is basically a statement that there is a difference between a transwoman and a woman, that distinction needs to be made, and this is mainly due to society rushing to a solution without due diligence. This is not 1/100th of what it has been made out to be. If this is all it takes for someone to never want to associate with someone else, then I don’t think he should associate with anyone. Everyone is going to differ from your opinion on one topic or another, you can’t escape it.

                  • rab@lemmy.ca
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                    1 year ago

                    Yeah I have to say what she says made a surprising amount of sense after what I was led to believe.

                    I still think she has no authority on the topic though and should stick to her domain.

    • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It happens every time. Pokémon Sword/Shield and Scarlett/Violet had the biggest launch in the franchise’s history despite being (justifiably so) heavily criticized by pretty much everyone online.

      People shit on microtransactions and always-online games but the top charts always show online multiplayer games are among the most played.

      It doesn’t make the criticisms any less valid; it just means that the general public is usually ignorant of them.

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think that the masses are mostly disengaged with terminally-online type discourse. The only reason I knew JK Rowling was TERF was because of reading it on here, so if you are only on social media to follow your old high school classmates on facebook, you’d probably never find out

      • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The masses are largely disengaged with LGBT rights in general, but the declining rights of transgender people in the UK (and the US) shows this is not just a “terminally-online” kind of issue. She is not the only one responsible, of course, but her outspoken antagonism towards transgender people is influencing people.

        It concerns me when people can’t differentiate “this issue does not affect me” from “this issue does not exist”. Even calling matters “terminally-online” in general is a bit questionable when whole ass presidents get elected by meme campaigns these days.

    • aew360@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      The game has a minor character who is trans too. It uses the world she invented but does not borrow her real world views

      • betheydocrime@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Just because a minority is depicted in a work of art does not mean that depiction was made in good faith. Americans are familiar with that concept because of our dark history of minstrel shows and blackface performances.

        When the trans woman character’s name is Sirona Ryan, it calls into question whether she is meant to be a character or a caricature.