Twitch Streamer 'Girlfriend Reviews' Harassed And Bullied To Tears For Streaming 'Hogwarts Legacy'
Twitch streamer Shelby of Girlfriend Reviews was harassed to the point of tears last night while she and her boyfriend Matt played Hogwarts Legacy, the open-world Harry Potter game that has become a hotbed of controversy because of its association with J.K. Rowling (among other reasons).
Rowling's recent slew of TERF controversies have prompted strong calls to boycott Hogwarts Legacy, for while Rowling reportedly had no involvement with the game, she will receive royalties for its success.
Yesterday, Matt and Shelby's Twitch chat quickly became a toxic mess shortly after they began playing the game, which they received a review copy of ahead of its Friday release. The couple soon turned on "sub-only" chat on their stream to try and mitigate the bullying, but to no avail, as it prompted a wave of people subscribing to their channel for the sole purpose of harassing and insulting the duo.
The clip of Shelby sounding as though she was on the verge of tears circulated widely on social media, sparking heated debates and backlash.
Trouble began brewing for the couple yesterday when they announced they were going to stream Hogwarts Legacy later that evening. After receiving some pushback, they assured viewers that they had received the game for free (meaning they hadn't financially supported Rowling by getting a copy) and would be raising money for The Trevor Project, a non-profit aiming to provide counseling to LGBTQ+ teens while they played the game.
Many on social media were outraged that Girlfriend Reviews (largely thought of as a wholesome and progressive channel) received such harassment and took the incident as a sign the backlash against Hogwarts Legacy had gone too far.
Others were less sympathetic, noting that the pair were asked by their fans to not play the game and should have seen the situation coming.
The incident comes amidst stronger calls for boycotts in the week ahead of the game's release. One developer has even made a single-use website, called "Have They Streamed that Wizard Game," for the sole purpose of allowing users to see if Twitch streamers have streamed Hogwarts Legacy.
The backlash has put many in the gaming journalism and streaming industries in a difficult position as well. Despite the controversy surrounding it, Hogwarts Legacy will almost certainly be a popular title on account of it being part of one of the most iconic franchises of the 21st century.
Some have noted how streamers and journalism outlets are in the difficult position of choosing whether to cover the game despite the controversy surrounding it or ignore one of 2023's marquee gaming titles.
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newintown
>Bot nets and sock puppets harass someone
>TERFs are infamous for using bot nets and sock-puppets to harass people (typically trans people)
>This all makes trans people look pretty bad
>TERFs want to make trans people look pretty bad
>Would they really false flag trans people?
>The "Adele controversy" was started with a tweet from a fake trans woman account, run by a TERF
I dunno guys, call me a tin hat, but this is wayyyy too fishy to be just random disgruntled trans people.
Görktürks are furries
>this is wayyyy too fishy to be just random disgruntled trans people.
I think you underestimate just how spiteful they can be. Hell, just look at how the whole rowling terf controversy came to be. it started with an innocuous tweet that amounted to "firing someone for stating sex is real is wrong," and people just dogpiled on her for it. And they still haven't let up on it, like that one who wrote a book that features a trans character straight-up assassinating her, or the other one who rebinds harry potter books solely to remove her name from them. saying that they wouldn't be that petty is simply giving them too much credit.
Cannedlaughter
When I read people’s comments defending the bullying it gave me a flavor of “I mean, if you weren’t wearing hoochie clothes you wouldn’t have been harassed lady. You were warned several times not to look skanky so now why are you surprised that you’re getting harassed??. You’re totally asking for it.”
Harassment is never ok for any reason. Why does anyone need to spell that out man? Sigh.
Watermelanie
"disapproving messages over bideo game is JUST like rape. I am not exaggerating."
Görktürks are furries
TRA try not to harass innocent people challenge (impossible).
newintown
HA, that's funny.. I've been chased off the internet entirely by terfs before. doxxed, death threats. and unlike JKR, i don't have billions to hire personal security and the public influence to sic millions of mediocre white women on someone.
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Someone is going to put someone in the fucking hospital over this stupid game, calling it now. Probably via swatting but who knows tbh.
jruge
30 bucks.
Rhettorical
Creating a bot to track down and dogpile on people with "harmful" views is nothing new to these people, it's just new to the general public. I'm glad it's getting attention, maybe people will finally stop letting this happen.
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> Creating a bot to track down and dogpile on people with "harmful" views is nothing new to these people
Shinigami Eyes browser extension for anyone wondering.
newintown
What about Shinigami Eyes?? It's not a bot net, lmao, it's used by trans people to avoid transphobia on social media sites.
Revolvenant
Unsurprisingly, the people who make transgenderism the very center of their lives while constantly talking about "protecting people" or "respect" are harassing someone because they played a game associated with the franchise of a "Terf" which people treat like it's a literal firing squad roaming the streets killing people when it's just a disagreement regarding biology. There is no politics in the games regarding the subject but that doesn't matter apparently as they treat it like it's a concentration camp being built.
From death threats to constant harassment, all of which they seem to think is acceptable. Cry bullies doing what they do best, striking you as they cry harassment.
newintown
Calling TERFism a "disagreement regarding biology" is… remarkably disingenuous.
H-BOMB
would you consider someone a TERF if they believed the following.
A. It is not possible to transition between the sexes and any surgery/hormone treatment is purely making aesthetic changes
B. Trans women/men should not be allowed in gendered spaces of their transitioned gender because it can be distressing to people for example domestic abuse shelters or it can be (and has been) abused by perverts; toilets, changing rooms, prisons etc.
Watermelanie
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brawnhilda
It's interesting how aggressively people are responding to the release of this game vs the lukewarm response to harassment and abuse allegations at other studios.
RemChi
Its because Harry Potter is huge and JK is vocal.
If a dev talks out, usually its just swept under the rug and forgotten because the average consumer doesn't care.
And lets just fucking say, the average consume also doesn't care about JK Terfing.
Jill
When a lot of anti-trans legislation is being considered in the US and parts of Europe, harassing people over stuff like this is only going to push those who were neutral towards or slightly for trans people against them. I say this as someone who has adult irl friends whose lives would be directly impacted by proposed legislation in my state.
newintown
which makes it… convenient, no? Like, if MY goal was to manufacture consent AGAINST trans people, the easiest way to do that would be to false flag. TERFs are infamous for using bot nets and sock-puppets to harass people, it's like their one trick. And they're comfortable with false flagging too, the whole "BioTrans" thing was for the sake of false flagging (while not having to disguise yourself as a dirty tr*nny), and the entire "Adele controversy" was started with a tweet from a FAKE trans woman account, run by a TERF.
This isn't to say that I think nobody trans was involved, but I'd argue that it's a bit too fishy for it to be entirely trans people, harassing a rando.
Chewybunny
Never apologize for the games you want to play. They want you to apologize so they can have control over you. Never allow it. Always push back. Always.
newintown
y-yeah man… it's your righteous and glorious mission! …. it's a fuckin game dog, don't moralize it or you're no better than the people you're bitching about.
H-BOMB
now it's "just a game" but if we let them continue soon it'll progress to things with much greater importance.
Besides can you remember when the argument was "we aren't going to take away your games"
we have already begun sliding downwards on the slippery slope
newintown
1) who's "them"?
2) you know slippery slopes are notorious logical fallacies, right?
3) who's "taking away your game"? you're totally free to play hogwarts legacy if you want to, but people are also free to call you a bad person for doing it – "they" get free speech too, ya know.
4) what "things with much greater importance" specifically? can you name a few, or is this just ominous vagueness to drum up some kind of fear?
view the rest of this conversation →
Lonefirebearer
lecorbak
honestly, I want to punch those fuckers.