Theres a bunch of people in a discord I'm in whining that video games are ~60$ so they can't play anything/only have 1 game for their console.... and like. I get it. Games are stupid expensive these days (and don't get me started abt DLC/lootboxes/microtransactions) but at the same time... Is budgeting really that hard to do? Not to shake my cane at avocado toast but that stupid fancy dinner and drinks you just had to have at disney + the merch you bought would buy several games. (Not to mention the ticket itself.) I just feel so out of touch in that I feel like I'm the only one there that understands that 20$ can't be spent 3 times. It's not classism you won't use self-control. And it isn't capitalism's fault you consistently fail at basic math my fellow discord users.

Wait till they realize that $70 is going to be the new default price point.

But yeah, there are so many ways to save $60 for a game you want. Like, games are announced at least 4-7 months before they come out; most much longer, years before they ever hit shelves. If you put five dollars from every paycheck into an envelope you're good for at least one game per year just on that alone. More if you get paid weekly or biweekly instead of monthly. But you can also trade games in for money or credit. Most places around the US have at least one buy/sell/trade store within driving distance, and if that's too hard, there's always ebay. When you're done with a game, sell it. That's $10-30 off the $60 or $70 dollar price right there. Or wait for a sale. Most new games are on sale within a few months after launch these days anyway. There are seriously so many ways to afford games if you really want to, even when you're poor. If you can afford to plop down $200-$500 on a console, or even more on a gaming PC, you can afford a few $60 dollar games per year if you budget at all.

Don't get me wrong, JKR is a transphobe, anti-Semitic, racist, rich asshole who deserves to die in a fire, but the original work she created in the 90s and early 2000s was amazing work. The HP universe is great with amazing and rich characters and history, and it made a huge impact on the world. Millions of people related to the sorry or the characters in some way and that's why it was such a huge success.

Now obviously I don't want anyone to give JKR any form of money whatsoever, so I don't want anyone running into a Walmart and buying every HP themed item. But it doesn't mean you can't express your love of the series without giving money to that asshole. You can make your own props diy style instead of paying an egregious amount of money to buy a replica elder wand. I made myself my own wand, like I wanted it and from the type of wood I wanted. My girlfriend got a homemade broom for her birthday that would've cost hundreds of dollars if it was official merch.

If you don't have the resources to make yourself stuff, you can go on Etsy and give money to an artist instead. You can also buy on the used market, places like FB marketplace, eBay, Craigslist and the likes have loads of stuff, and no money goes to JKR. Plus, the last book came out in 2007 and the last movie in 2011, so they should be very easy to buy used or to borrow from someone else.

Now, regarding Hogwarts Legacy. I get that the story is lined with anti-Semitism and that the morals are bad. But it's not like it's never been done before, hell I've played GTA and somehow I don't condone doing mass murder, abuse and torture. Saying the game will teach anti-Semitism to people is exactly like saying that video games cause gun violence. Some people like me just want to play the game to finally be a part of the universe we love so much. I want to explore the castle grounds, cast spells and fly on a broom.

So if you, like me, want to play the game not because of the morals but because you want to experience the feeling of being part of the universe, I advise you to wait a couple months and buying the game used on places like eBay. And from my experience, games tend to drop in value very quickly on the used market, so I wouldn't be surprised if you pay half of what you would've payed on launch day. And of course for the live of god don't buy any DLC and microtransactions online.

So, JKR bad, HP good. Love the universe, hate the author.

he showed up in time for his birthday :D

Not the same anon who asked abt homestuck and Harry Potter in a mocking manner but I am genuinely curious on your opinion on hussie’s problematic past. Why support hussie’s media but not jk’s? (To be fair I don’t like either of them)

because Andrew Hussie isn't really earning any money from me rereading Homestuck and reblogging Homestuck content, for one, and secondly, because despite all of their many MANY flaws, Hussie does not belong to a literal hategroup hellbent on spending all the money they earn from Homestuck on stripping the rights from marginalized groups of people, unlike JK Rowling, who is literally doing that. in fact, i know for a fact that the current Homestuck writing team is made up of multiple trans people

beyond this, Andrew definitely still has their issues and Homestuck is definitely full of some shady, racist shit that i'm not comfortable recommending to people (and hence, when i DO recommend Homestuck, i always make a note of such stuff), but a lot of the issues and "problematic" (stupid, nebulous word) stuff in it are addressed later textually, or at least something that Hussie takes note of and moves away from in the later installments of the franchise -- this can't be said for Rowling. she's doubled down on pretty much every criticism anybody has ever had of her books, and is STILL producing equally egregious content to this very day!

finally, if you try to eliminate all "problematic media" from your life, you will end up living like some kind of nun, or more likely, just watching/reading your favourite problematic media and justifying it in your head. my stance against Harry Potter is not to say that reading Harry Potter literally makes you a shitty person, just that it's been ten years since even the last movie came out, and that perhaps it's time to move on and get some interests that don't contribute financially to, let me reiterate, the world's richest and most famous terf. the fandom at large is still buying her merch, her new content, her videogames, microtransactions in her apps, going to her themepark, etc etc etc (whilst this isn't really true for the wider Homestuck fandom at all), and i was formerly the biggest Harry Potter blog on tumblr, so perhaps making a stand and saying "hey, you shouldn't be paying attention to this woman's world, her stories, or what she's selling any more" on the internet's biggest fandom hub, i am directly challenging those most likely to give her money.

TL;DR: JK Rowling is an active member of a violent and quickly growing transmisogynistic hategroup and personally dedicated to stripping trans women of their rights. if you can't see why supporting that is different to sometimes reblogging fanart of a free webcomic (with, yes, deeply racist & ableist moments/elements) that ended five years ago, idk what to tell you