Ha ha! The wizard game has a real-world problem
The Hogwarts game has an insurmountable problem: it’s set in a mythic English public school. To work, it has to be stereotypically English, and aggressively so. But white people are bad, m’kay? and must never be allowed to congregate without brown chaperones. Goodness me, English people are like turbo white people. What to do?
You can accept an African or Indian professor because I guess a school of magic would want representation from other magical traditions (lookit me, taking the world building seriously!). But when the student body is more brown than white, you start to wonder if you’re really in Albion any more. Subvert expectations too far and you’ll break them.
This is happening in meat-space, too. There’s a school near us that attracts a high number of foreign students. It isn’t a terribly good school, but Johnny Foreigner doesn’t know that. It has smart school uniforms and a horse riding program and it looks like Hogwarts inside. That still has cachet around the world whether our masters like it or not.
I read that the school has a target of…either minimum 40% English students or maximum 40% non-English students. I forget which. They struggle to maintain it.
It’s hilarious to see something marketed for its whiteness and Englishness, particularly when I know for a fact they’re exaggerating the whiteness and Englishness because whiteness and Englishness is their main selling point.
p.s. This is a very fun game in spite of itself.
p.p.s. I screwed up somewhere along the line and gave myself pink hair.
p.p.p.s. Good weekend!
Posted: April 12th, 2024 under games.
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from Jon
Time: April 12, 2024, 7:40 pm
Merry weekend to ye!
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: April 12, 2024, 8:51 pm
I guess it would be racist to let the player pick the racial mix at his or her fantasy school ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Have a nice weekend! 🙂
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: April 12, 2024, 9:38 pm
“…meat-space…”
Reminds me of the Bruce Willis’ character Korben Dallas in The Fifth Element who says, while in “the position”, ‘Negative, I am a Meat Popsicle!’
Comment from Durnedmuggle
Time: April 12, 2024, 11:40 pm
You say “pink hair” like it’s a problem.
Curiosity.
What were the default gender and “genetic makeup” settings during character construction?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 13, 2024, 6:37 am
I think your initial character is Harry Potter-like, which dodges a bullet. The character creation system was hugely popular at launch because it’s enormous. You can be any one of a startling mix of races and popsicle-colored hair. I ended up with pink hair because part of the selection menu was blocking the preview screen (remember, this is not a natively VR game; I’m using a fan-built plugin to 3D-ify it).
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 13, 2024, 6:41 am
It’s a hilariously woke game. The innkeeper is trans (and is voiced by a trans actor). Early on, you meet a woman who refers to her wife (later, you meet the wife). JK Rowling is a boiler-plate lefty liberal, which makes the kerfuffle around her even funnier.
I’m enjoying the fact that all the professors are wizened old people. Woohoo! Go wrinklies!
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