VTuber Silvervale Latest Streamer To Purportedly Face Harassment For Streaming 'Hogwarts Legacy'
Hogwarts Legacy is at the center of yet another Twitch controversy. Weeks after Shelby of Girlfriend Reviews was moved to tears by the toxicity in her Hogwarts Legacy chat, VTuber Silvervale had a similar experience, as the chat in her stream of Hogwarts Legacy got out of hand a few days ago.
In an emotional outburst, surreally juxtaposed with her smiling model, Silvervale sobbed through claims she had been doxxed and harassed for streaming Hogwarts Legacy — an occurrence that's been purported by many other streamers since it released two weeks ago.
The game has been a hotbed of controversy primarily due to its association with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who is accused of being a TERF. While Rowling had no involvement in the game's creation, she will receive royalties from its success, causing activists to call for the game's boycott.
In the case of Silvervale, some contend that Silvervale is misrepresenting the facts of the incident, potentially setting up blowback against the trans community. Silvervale had been streaming the game for days, and while people had disagreed with that decision in her chat, some stated that the chat remained a healthy space. The issue arose when viewers discovered the word "trans" had been banned from her chat.
One circulating clip shows a user typing "Trans Rights Are Human Rights" in Silvervale's chat and getting "timed-out" for 10 minutes, meaning they couldn't post in the chat for that duration.
Silvervale defended herself by saying that she had not instructed her mods to ban the word "trans" from her stream, but that the word auto-banned by Twitch and messages with the word were held for manual review.
Silvervale clarifies the banning of the word "trans" in her Twitch chat.https://t.co/P5g49iikzG#ENVTuber #VTuber #VShojo pic.twitter.com/DfQwQ3QrqX
— Kuri Rinji | VTuber & Fan Cringe/Drama🌰 (@VTuberCringe) February 16, 2023
Furthermore, others stated there was no proof online that Silvervale was purportedly doxxed, as she publicly claimed. Some have contended she was never doxxed for playing Hogwarts Legacy and may have been referring to a 2021 doxxing of the VShojo community. Others noted that the controversy only served to intensify hatred against trans people in the gaming space.
Hey @_Silvervale_ you've sent a wave of anti-trans hate ripping through the VTuber-sphere both on Twitter and Twitch. Some of us are too scared to stream, and those of us who are streaming still are getting hate raided, botted, sent death threats, told to kill ourselves, etc.
— Äike Signe 🌻 Hobby Dragon VTuber 🐲 (@AikeSigne) February 21, 2023
At the moment, the specifics of what happened with Silvervale are murky, as her claims of doxxing have not been verified with evidence and the most intense examples of toxicity on both sides seem to have appeared after the controversy went viral.
What's certain is that Hogwarts Legacy has become a problem for anyone who plays or is associated with the game on social media, even as the game breaks records on Twitch.
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WeenieMan3
They pull shit like this and wonder why people aren’t fond of them in the same breath. I get how not all of them are like this but dear god, the cult-like behavior, constantly inserting being “trans” into every part of their existence, and the general oversexualized behavior I’ve noticed really creeps me out.
Revolvenant
Makes the word "Trans" put chat in time out, obviously doing so knowing the toxic behaviors regarding harassment over a fucking game about wizards and further discussion which have nothing to do with said stream/game
"you've sent a wave of anti-trans hate ripping through the VTuber-sphere both on Twitter and Twitch. Some of us are too scared to stream, and those of us who are streaming still are getting hate raided, botted, sent death threats, told to kill ourselves, etc.!"
The only people scared to stream so far seem to be the people they harass. Time outs at this point isn't enough,ban them. Don't give an inch, they'll take the entire mile.
Rhettorical
I don't think bullying people is a good way to win supporters but what do I know?
katakis
…allegedly? NOW it's allegedly?
KoimanZX
No one deserves this kind of treatment. TRAs would have more impact on Ms. Rowling if the went after Universal Studios, Lego, and Warner Bros. instead of attacking streamers, but they have to be a bunch of crybully slacktivists. It would be sad if Silvervale is forced into retirement over harassment from these professional victims hellbent on silencing anything they see as remotely similar to dissent.
brawnhilda
They won't go after corporations; they only want to bully people they think have power over, which is usually women.
KoimanZX
It's ironic how the men whom they call "manbabies" have more respect for women than they do. Many lesbians can attest to the misogyny of TRAs with how the latter pressure the former into sex with trans women, and how their spaces are dominated by said group (which is a big reason why lesbian bars are so rare). TRAs are very much like the incels and pickup artists they deride.
MCC1701
Reminds me of someone I know, she's fairly tomboyish and she's talked about how quite a lot of these kinds of "activists" treated her as a closet lesbian, pushed her towards being with women, then treated her poorly when she asserted herself as straight.
She also mentioned how one of her lesbian friends started getting similar pressure to come out as trans. I didn't really comment at the time, but I think many of these activists are equipped with hammers and to them the world is just full of nails.
MistSonata
It's unfortunate, but at this point people are using this game as a dogwhistle to signal their support for transphobia. It's hard to tell who's streaming it because they think it's a fun game, and who's doing it because they know it'll boost the morale of transphobes.
katakis
People who are using the term dogwhistle should go and jump off a cliff. It's the poster word for "well the facts might be different BUT I'M RIGHT ANYWAY"
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If you hear dog whistles everywhere, you might just be a dog.
Also, maybe there's a third category of people who are sick and tired of being told what they can and cannot do by the malignant tumor of terminally online Tumblr exiles that attached itself to the LGBT identity for clout.
Crowley
OK so Rowling is a bit of an utter ignoramus for being anti-trans, we get it. No doubting that.
So here's the million dollar question: Is the staff at Portkey Games anti-trans? By and large, it's unlikely, despite their "boss-but-not-really" being so.
In that sense, isn't it unfair to boycott the game they worked on because of something someone else said or did? If you went to work that same job you've had for years, and found out your boss had unsavory views on trans (or anything else, for that matter), would you quit on the spot?
TL:DR; It's perfectly fine to hate Rowling. just don't hate the people working under her just trying to make a living. I hate Jeff Bezos' for example, but I'm well aware that taking it out on Amazon Couriers struggling with rent would be a colossal dick move.
GrayVBoat
I agree with everything you said, except your usage of the word "hate." I don't think it's okay to hate anyone, no matter how much of a scumbag they are.
But otherwise you're totally right. The games' devs shouldn't be in the line of fire for Rowling's shitty takes, and neither should the people playing or streaming the game.
GamerDLM
A better question would be does it matter?
The people who worked on the game already received the majority if not the entirety of their payment because it's a licensed game.
Warner Bros owns Portkey games, it's not like a contract job with royalties tied in. Portkey games was literally a label created 5 years ago by Warner Bros just to release Harry Potter related games.
If an IP gets mired in controversy or is not profitable it's not like Warner Bros is lacking in IPs they could switch focus on.
Now if you want to focus on the developer that was Avalanche Software which was also bought by Warner Bros when Disney closed some of the games branches. But the same argument still works because they are still owned by Warner Bros.
Blaze Helios
"Allegedly" my ass! Harassment is never OK!
King Crimson
Gee I wonder why Twitch could have possibly banned the word "trans" from chat when this kind of shit JUST KEEPS HAPPENING. It is getting hard to even disagree with the decision when TRAs have become so vile and toxic in the online space.