DISCLAIMER: Many people reach out to us a Cinch News with ideas, thoughts, and lately also inside knowledge. In this article, I interview “Luna”, a non-binary person who claims to have worked on the new Harry Potter Legacy game.
Every day, the boys would literally crack jokes about how much they hated the “transgender agenda”
– Luna, employee
Blizzard recently found itself in rough waters, as multiple women, men, and others came out in droves to finally speak out against the hatred, racism, homophobia, and rape culture that persisted in the company for years and years. The victims finally spoke out, and although Blizzard did not take the necessary step in withdrawing to themselves for some months to reflect, at least now the company is aware of of to behave in a multi cultural, non patriarchal, society — and they make games better than ever.
Our interviewee, referred to here as “Luna” as they fear persecution, give us insight on the companies that chose to develop and publish the new Harry Potter game despite its transphobic background and JKR’s terrible anti-woman stance.
Firstly, could you tell us a bit about yourself? Sure! I am a non-binary, most often male-presenting, 1/4’th Native American person. I have a master’s degree in an accredited school of visual arts and performance.
What was your role in the creation of this game? You could say I was a form of contractor, which awfully many people have to endure working as in the games industry. I was part of making the game’s “experience”.
“look look everyone! J is now transsexual” after a roaring laugh, someone else chimed in “he even has the bald spot!”.
– transphobia in plain sight
Were you excited to work on the Harry Potter franchise? As most LGBTQIA+ people will tell you, HP was a HUGE part of my childhood. I had to suffer trauma from relentless bullying throughout school, and the HP community is where I felt safe. This, of course, has all changed now….
Why did you continue working on such a horribly transphobic game? Basically, I had little choice. Due to capitalism, I unfortunately have accumulated quite a bit of debt. And since the Republicans and regressive left wont vote for loan forgiveness, as most other countries, I have to work it “off”. Because of lack of unionization in the games industry, I literally had to choose between a place to rent and food, or sticking up for my beliefs. We did try to make amends by moving the game into an inclusive direction, the few of us that were not part of the “men’s club”. For example, one developer had implemented a “feature” from RDR2 that allowed the character to “punch feminists to hell”, only with Hufflepuffs instead as they quote “represented the damn modern feminists and fruitcakes”. Yea, he went there unapologetically. Let me just say someone shut that shit down quickly.
Another example tends to the more recent “debate” on peoples right to attend to their bathroom needs in their preferred gendered bathroom. A sound designer wanted to implement an Easteregg where a girl would shout “eekkk!! she has a penis” if the character walked into the girl’s lavatory after choosing a male gender. Luckily, they could not find a voice actor willing to do that. Another example, and I do not care about spoilers, is the first time a character ingests polyjuice potion. If the person changes their appearance from a boy to a girl, then it was meant to be implemented that after the polyjuice went away, the character would say “I would never be a real woman anyway”, referring of course to the horrible copypasta.
On that note, I know some readers might ask you to have simply moved (I know this is a fascist dog whistle). Why didn’t you? Well, there are two reasons: as a non-gender-conforming person, I have very little room to move around Utah without having to fear for my life. Secondly, as many of my generation are, I am in a more traditional family house with me, my husband, our two xxfriends, and three dogs. In particular two of the dogs are adoptees, and because of the trauma from previous owners/shelters, I do not want to uproot them again. My husband’s xxfriend is also on disability (xir is differently abled), and finding a location that is usable is hard.
Got you, sending all my love. On that note: can you explain the situation with the people you worked alongside? So basically, you have to consider the people in the games industry in general: traditionally “masculine”, woman haters, colorism, etc. It is no different for a game such as Harry Potter. What became apparent tough, was that even though everyone pretended not to be “woke” (as if that was some kind of bad thing), they ALL knew the damaged that JKR has done to a lot of trans people through Harry Potter, and they out right laughed every day about it. Basically, every day I would be reminded how much they laughed at the people who are rising up to JKR.
Is there any good example of this? So for example, at lunch, one guy literally threw pasta at another person’s head. After it hit him it stayed there, seemingly indicating “long hair” on an otherwise bald guy. The thrower then loudly shouted “look look everyone! J is now transsexual” after a roaring laugh, someone else chimed in “he even has the bald spot!”. Another time, even with the “boss” present, someone started laughing about how he both gets to develop “the best RPG in history, with my booyyyysss” and also “sticking it to the fucking lesbo Potter nerds”.
That sounds HORRIBLE! It was, every day I would come home crying, which even worse upset both the dogs and also my husband who is non-neurotypical and has a dislike for loud noises. Just talking about all of this makes it come back to me, and I feel the tears coming. I even had to attend therapy for this experience, which has been a great economical burden, as I also have to go to therapy due to the emotional damage caused after coming out as non-binary. Every day, the boys would literally crack jokes about how much they hated the “transgender agenda”
I am so sorry to hear that. We can stop the interview, unless you have anything else to say? DON’T buy the game!!! if you do so, you are literally contributing to the trans genocide. Every day people fear rape and murder, and by buying this you are basically saying “transphobia is cool as long as I get an epic adventoreous game”. Harry Potter belongs to the LGBTQIA+, the nerds, the geeks, the misfits. Not the gamers.
Thank you Luna
Due to the nature of this information, we cannot verify the whistleblower’s identity or the authenticity of their claims.
