'Trans Witches Are Witches' game bundles raise over $79,000 in protest of Hogwarts Legacy

1 year ago 119

A student witch holds a crystal ball and looks to the sky

(Image credit: Heiden)

While gamers are fighting over whether or not it's OK to play Hogwarts Legacy, a group of LGBTQ+ indie designers have pooled their efforts and put together a bundle of 69 games (nice) that you can buy to, as the tagline puts it, "Reject Hogwarts Legacy's bigotry and support indie devs".

The Trans Witches Are Witches bundle (opens in new tab), which costs $60, has raised more than $70,000 at the time of writing, while a smaller, sister bundle, the Apprentice Edition (opens in new tab), goes for $10 and has raised more then $9,900.

The paired bundles have been organized and curated by Kritiqal (opens in new tab), a games criticism outlet focused on politics, art, and culture. The main bundle includes videogames, tabletop games, music, assets, and zines with magical themes that would cost more than $300 if bought individually. Proceeds from these bundles are split evenly by the creators.

The videogames include a Steam key for competitive two-player bullet hell Crystal Control 2 (opens in new tab) as well as direct access via itch.io to games like You Are a Wizard (opens in new tab) (a Commodore 64-style platformer with a riddle fox who tries to make you care about riddles), Polymute (opens in new tab) (a puzzle game where you change form), Jill O Lantern: First Slice (opens in new tab) (a cross between Ace Attorney and a slasher movie), and Tomorrow for Mar (opens in new tab) (a 2.5D visual novel about trying to pass your Upcycling Potions final to graduate magic university).

On the physical games side, you'll find academic anime-inspired RPG Cantrip (opens in new tab), postcard game Witch You Were Here (opens in new tab), "there's a wizard school but it's in the USA and also you're the teachers" RPG Pigsmoke (opens in new tab), "this pumpkin spice latte is my spell focus actually" RPG Basic Witches (opens in new tab), and Muscle Wizard Gets the Job Done! (opens in new tab), which is based on one-page crime bear RPG Honey Heist only it's about a Muscle Wizard deciding whether to solve problems with muscles or magic.

As the bundles' FAQ points out, it isn't just J. K. Rowling's opinions on trans people that have made many players decide Hogwarts Legacy is worth avoiding. Senior producer Troy Leavitt was an anti-social justice YouTuber (opens in new tab), who resigned after his history of videos criticizing feminism was highlighted. Then there's the whole thing with the house-elves who enjoy being slaves, honestly, what's that all about?

Both bundles are available until February 24.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games (opens in new tab). He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun (opens in new tab), The Big Issue, GamesRadar (opens in new tab), Zam (opens in new tab), Glixel (opens in new tab), Five Out of Ten Magazine (opens in new tab), and Playboy.com (opens in new tab), whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.