Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery: Hogwarts Misery

Reading Time: 5 minutes.

Harry Potter fans have, for decades, tried to find a way to insert themselves into the story. For years, they used fan fiction, stories written in the Harry Potter universe. Often, these stories have an additional character inserted, one often modeled after the author. However, it’s difficult for these stories to be satisfying. The authors seek to insert themselves into the adventure, but fear giving them too difficult of a journey. There’s a reason books, movies, and comics are full of strife, we love seeing characters overcome. It’s why fan fiction isn’t the best way for people eager to insert themselves into a story. Authors just can’t help but make their characters stand out as a hero without effort.

Video Games to the Rescue

Video games are perfect for this situation. They offer difficulty, planning, reactions, strife, and show real consequences for actions. They allow players to guide their character through a story that they have some, but not all control over. Much like real life, we’re more in charge of our reactions than the world that surrounds us. That’s why people love Role Playing Games (RPGs). From tabletop Dungeon and Dragon games, to newer games, like Skyrim, Horizon Zero Dawn, Fallout, and many others, these games allow players to tell a story, build a character, and take charge in a universe and story built to be fun and engaging. This would be the perfect medium for hardcore Harry Potter fans. It’s a way for them to experience the magic of the wizarding world without ruining the story with perfect characters.

This is why I was excited for Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. It’s an RPG set at Hogwarts, where players can guide a character of their own making through classes, friendships, adventures, and struggles. Plus, the game’s on iOS, so I could play it anywhere. That sounds wonderful!

Unfortunately, the game isn’t wonderful. Microtransactions utterly ruined it. Haven’t we had enough things ruined by freemium junk?

Troublesome Mechanics

When you start playing Hogwarts Mystery, the signs that the game will be awful are hard to ignore. There are three forms of “currency” in the game. These rip-off freemium games always have a mechanic like his. The first is “energy,” next is a gem-like currency, this is the one that can only really be acquired by purchasing it, and the last one is the standard currency in the game. Often, the second form of currency, the—gems, in this example—is required to refill the energy. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery has this mechanic, and it’s particularly troublesome.

The way it works is this: as you perform actions, like going to class, learning a spell, or, well, anything, you use up energy. Energy will replenish itself on its own over time, but it’s at an incredibly slow rate. The game is also designed to cause your energy to run out at inopportune times, with highly energy-dependent tasks. It’s the equivalent of running out of gas on your way to an important job interview. You’ll be fighting a boss, in the middle of a vital conversation, or learning something new, and suddenly, you’ll be told you have to wait a few hours before you can finish. Worst of all, you’ll only have a few hours to complete the task from where you left off, so you’ll have to rush back to the game as soon as you can. However, you’re given another option: you could use gems. You can earn gems in game once per level, which won’t happen often. Refilling your energy might cost 55 gems, an amount that’s virtually impossible to obtain without buying gems from the App Store.

The Real Hogwarts Mystery: Who Stole My Money?

The first bundle of gems might cost a buck. The next day, you’ll need another dollar. Soon, it’ll take $5 to keep your character going through a quest, then $10. Eventually, you’re dropping $20 just to get some extra playtime. The game pulls you in, makes it seem as though it’s a worthy investment, then slowly drains your bank account. It’s how Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, slot machine games, and other <Group> of <Strife> games work. They take advantage of basic human addiction, and turn it to profit. It’s the way casinos and slot machines have worked for decades. Now that these tricks are being used by video games, they’re more dangerous than ever.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery could have been great. It could have been everything Harry Potter fans have wanted since the books were first published. Instead, it’s freemium junk. It’s a greedy cash grab that pulls you in with the promise of a wonderful interactive story, and forces you to pay a fortune to keep playing it. These game mechanics don’t just hurt your wallet, they worsen the game. The developers made the entire game with one goal: to get you to open your wallet. Even if your funds are infinite, the game could have been so much better if the developers had made it with fun instead of money in mind.

It Didn’t Have to be This Way

Freemium games have claimed another victim: Harry Potter fans. Devotees likely would have spent $20 for a good Harry Potter RPG, maybe even more. Instead, the developers, Jam City, wanted a quick cash grab. It’s what they do. Jam City has done nothing but make shameless cash grabs, games good only for giving players just barely enough fun to keep handing over more money. They made something that will make them a quick return on their development investment and be done. It’s a greedy tactic, the software development version of a smash and grab. Get in, steal users’ money, and get out before they realize they’ve “purchased” nothing.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Users would have willingly given more money for this game than the developers will get from manipulative tactics. If Jam City had decided to forgoe a premium game, one that has an up-front cost, they still could have implemented an ethical freemium model.

Fortnite is a game that comes to us from Epic Games, makers of Infinity Blade, Unreal Tournament, the Unreal Engine, and more. Gamers have loved Fortinte on every platform it’s been on, including iOS. It has also been immensely profitable. The game is free to download on every platform. Players can enjoy the game completely, they only have to pay for customization. If you think this is popular in an action-packed first person shooter like Fortnite, imagine how popular it would be in a game where the player is truly in control of their character, their personality, their responses, and the storyline. The customization aspect alone could have made the developers of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery disgustingly rich. It likely would have made the game better too. Instead, the game will be a blip on our radar, and forgotten in a few weeks.

Skip Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery would have been an easy game for developers to make successful. Give players a way to insert themselves into the wizarding world of magic and wonder, and people would have jumped at the opportunity. Just as people were willing to pay for the Harry Potter books, they would have paid up-front for the chance to play in Harry Potter’s world. Jam City could have charged customers to customize their avatars, allowing them to fully insert a digital version of themselves into the game. Either option would have been preferable to scamming users with time limits and increasing costs, ruining the narrative and pacing of an otherwise well constructed game. Jam City and the producers of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery had a chance to make a truly wonderful experience for fans. Instead they disappointed everyone.