Streaming couple Girlfriend Reviews were forced to end their usual streaming content early after one member of the couple was reduced to tears as Twitch chat began writing rude comments at the pair for playing Hogwarts Legacy.
Hogwarts Legacy is set to be one of the biggest game launches of 2023. However, the new Wizarding adventure – set years before the events of the main Harry Potter narrative – has been surrounded by controversy from the get-go. A result of author J.K Rowling’s public and continual string of transphobic messaging and comments.
As a result, the game has already been boycotted by many, with online discourse surrounding the game largely focused on whether or not gamers should buy the game and inadvertently line the pockets of Rowling.
We will be playing Hogwarts Legacy early today thanks to a code we got cuz we're real big time reviewers https://t.co/8qTOhv3U7A pic.twitter.com/aUSF70qdOX
— Girlfriend Reviews (@itsgfreviews) February 6, 2023
Streamers are already being hit with abuse online just for playing the game. In a recent stream, content creator couple Girlfriend Reviews hopped on a live broadcast to play through some of Hogwarts Legacy early. However, during the stream, Matt and Shelby were being verbally attacked in the chat to the point where Shelby had to step away from the stream, clearly upset and sounding as though she was on the verge of tears.
“I’m almost thinking of just going offline. I’m barely into the second combat here and every time I look at chat, the conversation is just bothering me,” began Matt. Shelby then added that, “maybe we can do a quick be right back, or a little break or something.”
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Matt then went on to say that Shelby can “take a break if you want. I’ll just stop talking and go fight and do the combat.” Listening in, you can then hear Shelby leave the room, clearly distressed about the line of comments in the chat, to which Matt then tells his viewers off. “Y’all done did it now.”
The clip was then posted to Reddit, with many users defending Girlfriend Reviews and calling out those who were commenting negative things in the chat and causing the tears to flow during their Hogwarts Legacy twitch stream. “These guys are so wholesome too, it sucks to see them getting harassed like this,” wrote one Reddit user. “They caught a lot of sh*t for defending TLOU2 from one side and now they’re getting it from the other side for this game.”
Earlier this week, a new website was created letting those who wish to boycott the game see which Twitch streamers are creating content with it. The idea behind this website being so that people can then unfollow the streamers who are playing Hogwarts Legacy.
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