I played the Harry Potter mobile game for 30 minutes to earn gift card points
And lord, it's just not *good*
Like I was planning the rapid pump and dump but it was genuinely uncomfortable to play, you're immediately thrust into this martyr narrative against a Draco expy and it *feels*, *bad*.
The kid's name is Snyde, she's a Slytherin and a bully, and that's just it. It gives you "empathy" choices where you get empathy points for not being openly cruel to her, but in the next scene, *you have to be cruel to her to brew potions*. *It literally makes you bully her to proceed.*
You find out both her parents are locked up in Azkaban and it's like okay, this is the heel turn, this is fixable, but, no, this just makes her escalate into attacking you.
Dude, literally *why*?
I'm gonna admit that I was concerned about playing it and liking it and having to deal with that, because it's more high-end than most games I get through Mistplay, but I was actually taken aback by how awful I felt in this role. This is a game--and a series--that really does teach "Actually, bullying is great if you're the one doing it, because they probably deserve it".
And when I say series, I mean series. A lot in the books never quite sat right with me reading them as a kid, but I didn't have the media comprehension to express what I was feeling, so I let it slide because oohoohoo fiddle de dee magic candy! The video laying out the meanness of the writing really helped me go "Yeah, no, that was fucked up", and I'd recommend it highly.
Imagine if Stardew Valley just picked a villager and made you be a total asshole to them, no matter what you tried to do. This isn't what I want to be. This isn't who I want to play. In some games, sure, being the bad guy is awesome. But as an 11-year-old? This feels ugly and wrong.
Anyway, I earned $3, they earned a one-star review laying out how cruel it feels. It felt really nice to not even have to bring the elephant in the room to the table, ngl.
As for my intrepid wizard...
He'll be fine
(Also there's no negative outcome to failure, it lets you skip sections if you have trouble with them, and the advertised "DECORATE YOUR ROOM HAVE A FAMILIAR" is locked behind eye-watering price tags. Criminal customization taxes. It's just. It's not good, people.)
Yeah, OP.
Think about it.
