It is worth holding in mind as we talk about The Wizard Game that AAA game development is best assumed to be an endless cesspit of some combination of soul-crushing overwork, other abuses and exploitations of employees, and cultures of racism, sexism and transmisogyny

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't talk about this in particular, we should! But also its worth thinking about where your money is going any time you make a purchase and we should strive for a better industry. This isn't to say "the whole industry is fucked, do what you want"

instead its to say "the whole industry is fucked, we need major structural changes immediately"

And like, there's also the horrible cycle of studios dumping huge numbers of employees when a job like this finishes! And even if they stayed, the money made from games goes up the chain to executives and NOT the people who actually make the game

I also think that it is important to talk about how and why Rowling in particular pushes these to a place of undeniability, to sharply bring us into our awareness of how these systems can and do work and why when there's not someone like her on the receiving end of the money it

becomes easier to ignore the harm.

And like don't get me wrong, this is often obfuscated from me because it takes attention to not allow itself to reobfuscate itself. Within minutes of writing this thread I saw an ad for a Monster Hunter game and because it has cute dogs now, my brain just skipped all that

But Capcom is a big game developer, they are almost certainly involved in a number of these issues!!!