One of the biggest online gaming forums has said it will not host any discussion of Hogwarts Legacy, increasing the scope of a previously issued ban.
Resetera had previously banned new posts about promotion for Hogwarts Legacy, preventing users from starting new discussions about trailers and other showcases. Instead, all of those conversations were limited to a single, ongoing thread.
In a post last night, however, the forum's general manager said that "the mod team has decided to expand our prior ban on promotion for the Hogwarts game to include the game itself," with "no discussion of this game" allowed on the site.
The post also outlines the mod team's decision, saying that as "we began outlining the issues put forth by Rowling and the game in question [...] each time we kept coming back to the simple fact that Rowling [...] is actively pushing, in her position as a wealthy and famous individual, for legislation that will hurt trans people."
The decision by Resetera's staff is the latest in a suite of protests around the game, many seeming to pertain directly to Rowling's views. On Steam, user tags were changed to include terms including 'transphobia' and 'psychological horror'; after the game's cast reveal, one actor issued a statement in support of trans people after receiving backlash for their decision to appear in the game; and one activist raised for than $5,000 in 24 hours by encouraging people to donate the cost of the game to a trans charity.
Although she is not involved in the development of Hogwarts Legacy, GamesRadar+ acknowledges the role of J.K. Rowling in the creation of the Wizarding World, as well as her publicly-stated, harmful views regarding the rights of transgender people. If you'd like to offer your support to the communities affected by Rowling's rhetoric, consider donating to the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US, or Mermaids in the UK.
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I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.