I know Cohh doesn't want politics in his channel but he's
a) inviting them if he plays this game
b) promoting the sale of this game by giving it more publicity.
To the benefit of the channel itself he should at least know what he's potentially getting into. (I cut the personal oppinion from the reddit post)
So let me get this straight. There's a new, very polished video game set in the Wizarding World of committed transphobe JK Rowling. The plot of the game is that there is a rebellion of goblins who are fighting against racial discrimination and prejudice by the Ministry of Magic and the wizarding community as a whole. From the Harry Potter Compendium - "The Goblin Rebellions were a series of rebellions in which the goblin population of the Wizarding world revolted against discrimination and prejudice toward their kind by wizards and witches. They were most prevalent during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but even in modern times there are subversive goblin groups working in secret against the Ministry of Magic, according to the Daily Prophet. The historical rebellions have been described as "bloody and vicious." ...These rebellions may have occurred because of lack of goblin representation [in magical Parliament], attempts to enslave goblins as house-elves, stripping of wand privileges, wizard attempts to control Gringotts, or the brutal goblin slayings by Yardley Platt."
And you, the hero, are a wizard whose ultimate task it is to quash the rebellion and put these goblins back in their rightful place under the rule of the wizards.
The goblins of the HP series have long been criticized as offensive Jewish stereotypes, with critics pointing out their control of the magical banking system, their greed, and their exaggerated facial features. And the game is set in 1890, around the time the antisemitic hoax "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" was being developed (published 1903 amidst a new wave of antisemitism in Europe). Part of the official gameplay reveal shows the two villains, Ranrok the goblin (pictured) and Victor Rookwood the dark wizard, discussing what appears to be a child abduction scheme. From a fandom site: "Ranrok was a very greedy individual who sought to claim a magical power he caught a glimpse of that wizardkind hid even from themselves. His worldview was skewed by his hatred for all wizards and witches, who he sought to destroy entirely."
The lead designer for Avalanche Games, Troy Leavitt, has been a harsh critic of social justice movements, was a proponent of Gamergate, called the MeToo movement a "moral panic," and claimed that society gives deferential treatment to LGBTQ+, POC, women, and disabled people. And Warner Brothers knew this before they hired him to make this game. This game where the player fights against greedy, child-abducting Jewish stereotypes. The game where the player suppresses an uprising of an oppressed race who are pushing back against their own disenfranchisement, disarmament, slavery, and murder, in order to maintain the supremacy of the dominant culture.
