"it's free" doesn't mean you should get a game based on a franchise by famous anti-trans author. they still get paid for that. and getting the game is just validating epic's decision to ignore the issue and subsidize an anti-trans author's crusade against trans people which has resulted in the loss of rights for trans people in the UK.

@typeswitch and if you really need to scratch the "YA witch wish fulfillment" itch, well, that's what "The Owl House" is for.

@typeswitch also: we have not played it or heard about it, are not going to play it, and don't want to hear about it, so the following is pure speculation and should be taken as such

but we'd be astonished if the game itself doesn't encode all manner of bigotry in its story, world-building, and so on. the last one did, from what we heard.

@typeswitch and they shit right into my favorite game (Fortnite) which I have spent lots of money on.

I will probably either restrict my Fortnite gameplay to non-infested modes (I seriously hope at least Reload will remain Potter-free) or just not play at all until the event is over.

@LunaDragofelis @typeswitch don't give in to sunk cost fallacy, it's never too late to start fully boycotting fortnite

@sammy @typeswitch The other part of the problem is that I do enjoy playing Fortnite. It's not just about the sunk cost.

@LunaDragofelis @typeswitch yeah a lot of people support harmful things because it's fun to them

@sammy @typeswitch I don't think that me playing Fortnite at all is unavoidably harmful, as long as I avoid the HP shit.

My plan for Fortnite so far is:
- Not buy anything HP-related
- Not intentionally unlock any free HP items
- Archive any free HP items that are given to me unsolicited or that I unlock accidentally
- Avoid all modes with HP content until the promotion is removed from the mode (I assume it will be limited to Battle Royale and maybe Blitz Royale, while Reload and OG will probably stay unaffected)
- Play less Fortnite in general until the HP promotion is over

This might be enough for it to still be picked up by their statistic metrics as a signal against HP, and my stats might have more "weight" to Epic because I've been a relatively large spender, as well as minimizing the amount of my money going to JKR's transphobia budget.

I'm mad at JKR for vomiting on my favorite game and souring my options like that, but I also don't really want to allow her to take away my favorite game completely.

@LunaDragofelis @typeswitch teaming up with jkr isn't the first evil and fucked up thing epic games is doing and it will not be the last

@LunaDragofelis @sammy @typeswitch i don’t think jk rowling forced epic games against tim sweeney’s will to do a collab — they would not agree to this unless they thought it benefitted both fortnite and the harry potter franchises. it would be hard to believe that epic games hasn’t been made aware about jk rowlings transphobia, and if they do they think ignoring it (or worse) is good for the game

@sammy @typeswitch There's no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism. If I stopped playing all games where the developer or publisher has done or is doing anything evil, I would probably be out of games.

No Fortnite.
No Minecraft (Notch is a transphobe, Microsoft is a monopolistic spying megacorp).
No Nintendo first-party games (Nintendo crushes everything that even just touches their "intellectual property").
No Overwatch (Activision-Blizzard are evil).
Probably no AAA game ever.
Plenty of indie devs are shitheads too.

@LunaDragofelis @sammy @typeswitch fortnite is free to play, there isn’t a need to payroll assholes

@sammy @typeswitch There's a balance to be found between ethical purity and personal effort. I think the compromise of "play Fortnite but avoid all HP content" is the point where I want to put that balance, for myself.

Also I'm a trans person myself. Higher standards might be demanded of a cisgender trans ally.

@sammy @LunaDragofelis this thread is specifically about epic games store putting out that game for free and its relation to the harm done by JKR. if y'all wanna talk about other issues with epic please do it elsewhere and untag me.

@charlotte @sammy Sure, a major part of the problem is also that Epic *agreed to* that promotion. Though I view Epic as pretty much like every capitalist corporation: an amoral entity maximizing its profit ignoring ethics.

Given that the whole thing is likely intended as a promotion for the new JKR game, I hope that maybe JKR even *paid* Epic to put that shit in the game. Doesn't make it much better but at least my money wouldn't have gone into JKR's pocket.

@typeswitch similarly, don’t pirate the game (or the shows or the books). don’t describe yourself with an alignment to an imaginary school faction, even though she gets no royalties from that. don’t continue to inhabit a world created by a bigot when there are so many worlds out there. reclaim the mental real estate ✊

@typeswitch if anyone is looking for an excellent non-free game with a "magical boarding school" plotline that's actually diverse & inclusive instead of being things like "pro-slavery as long as it's traditional" and "stuffed full of antisemitic tropes" in addition to all the other stuff, I can heartily recommend Ikenfell.

If anyone is looking for a free game to play in general, go play Iji, Cave Story, or Battle for Wesnoth.

@kat @typeswitch I'm cishet but a survivor of the British boarding school system, I want absolutely nothing to do with this franchise because of how it also glorifies the régime of these kind of places (which should all be closed down, they are a human rights violation)