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Hello, it's me, Mike Schubert, the guy that makes this podcast. Before we get into today's

episode, there's a few things that happened in the Harry Potter universe that we didn't really talk about in the episodes coming up because they were recorded before the news broke, so I would like to address them here while it is relevant. Two things happened. First, the details of J.K. Rowling's newest Corman Strikebook, this is the book that she writes under the pen name Robert Galbraith. It's Mystery Whodunit type stuff. The plot of that was revealed, and unfortunately it has some transphobic ties. We allude to that in this episode, but we'll talk about it in depth two episodes from now in the episode covering Potter puppet pals with Jackson Bird. So we don't really need to go in detail about that. We'll cover that in a future episode, but something that won't get covered, at least

for a while, because the news didn't really drop until after I recorded the next set of episodes,

was the trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter RPG game got released, and now there's a lot

of discussion about whether or not people should buy the game. This discussion exists because

the game just looks very cool, looks like a solid game. Unfortunately, J.K. Rowling is going to benefit from this game. This discussion exists because the game just looks very cool, looks like a solid game.

Unfortunately, JK Rowling is going to benefit from this game, even though she did not have direct

input in its creations, aside from signing over and agreeing to the use of the Harry Potter

world, a license that she has the rights to. Now, I was torn because I didn't know if I should buy the game and then donate to a trans

charity to offset it, or if that's not enough, or if that's going to hurt the developers.

Thankfully, there was a very good Twitter thread, which I will put a link to in the episode

description of this podcast, where a trans woman game reporter talked about how payment

for these games work, and basically, there is a big

argument of, well, you should not buy the game because then you're not supporting all of the people

who worked for years on this game. Unfortunately, at least according to the reports that I've read,

the people that work for these big companies that put together these games don't get really paid on a commission basis. They're not going to get more money if the game sells well. So you're not really hurting them by boycotting the game. They've already been paid. And unfortunately, a lot of them will either be laid off or their contracts will end. Once they finish their particular work needed for the game. The only people that really benefit from the game sales are the company itself, so Warner Brothers, Porky Games, etc. And JK Rolling. Now, even if JK Rolling doesn't get a percentage of the sales, we don't know the contracts, we don't know exactly what her payment is she could have been paid up front, she could get a percentage of every game sold, even if she doesn't get a lot of money from it. She does get more power and influence from

...