CGE faced an immediate online backlash after unveiling Codenames: Back to Hogwarts on social media site BlueSky on July 23, with the announcement receiving hundreds of responses attacking the decision before the Codenames account locked comments, and switched off the function allowing users to share the post alongside their own remarks.
The continued online criticism intensified two days later when CGE released a short statement attempting to justify its decision to release the game – which was panned for going out of its way to avoid mentioning Harry Potter or JK Rowling by name.
That statement also immediately came under fire online for its attempt to separate the art from the artist, while failing to address that Rowling – a dollar billionaire thanks to Harry Potter – has used financial proceeds from her creation to directly fund organisations attempting to strip trans people of their rights.
You even directly quoted the complaint that this is built on the backs of thousands of people's work. Without their consent, without the possibility of attribution and recognition for their work.
And then blithely ignored it, failed to address it at all.
You have demonstrated you just don't care about the creative work of countless people over countless hours, that has been shredded and fed into the machine which extruded this thing you want to promote. Why should anyone care about giving you “constructive” feedback? De-construct this thing and think a lot harder about the people you're trying to market to.