The Hogwarts Legacy RPG video game was released today amid a firestorm of protests calling for boycotts because of the controversy surrounding the franchise creator, J.K. Rowling, as well as the lead designer, Troy Leavitt. To fill the void, Kids on Brooms — a similar RPG video game with witches and wizards — is pledging to donate all sales today to charities that support the trans community.
In 2018, Rowling started making headlines as transphobic when she liked a tweet that referred to transwomen as men in dresses. The author tried to explain away her actions but as the LGBTQ Nation reports, she has continued to make hostile comments and tweets against the trans community. Not completely unrelated, the game’s lead designer Troy Leavitt left the game project after the backlash of his support for cultural appropriation was exposed as well as his involvement in the misogynistic Gamergate Harassment Campaign that targeted feminism, diversity, and progressivism in the gaming community.
With the release of Hogwarts Legacy today, the announcement from Kids On Brooms writer Doug Levandowski couldn’t have come at a better time. Instead of purchasing the other game, that money can be used for a good cause as it pulls gamers away from an environment that is blemished by anti-trans sentiment.
Canadian game designer Eric Lang — who had nothing to do with the build on Kids on Brooms — is in full support of this move and has even thrown his own money into the campaign.
Best known for her role as the voice of Valkyrie in the video game Apex Legends, Erika Ishii highly recommends the series.
Between Erika Ishii’s mention of “the other wizard world” and a second Doug Levandowski tweet, a pattern is starting to form that if they don’t mention Hogwarts Legacy, then they aren’t giving free promotion to a game that they are trying to rival.
Folks have been suggesting Brooms as an alternative to a certain video game RPG coming out, and we want to make that as easy as possible for folks without profiting off of it ourselves.
— Doug Levandowski (@DougLevandowski) February 8, 2023
Some fans are so into this idea that they are willing to put more money in than what they would just paying for the game.
Any chance we can get an anti-Discount code? A code we can put into DriveThruRPG to make it charge us more money which will be directly added to this donation?
— David Gordon Buresh #ProtectICWA (@SndWurks) February 9, 2023
As if needing a better reason, gamers are coming in droves because the campaign is working.
I’ve been wanting to play this game for a long time! Gonna finally get it now!
— Alex Fernie (@FernieCommaAlex) February 9, 2023
Hogwarts Legacy is still selling today, but not as good as it would have been if the alternative Kids on Brooms hadn’t existed.
