Harry Potter’s warted legacy

Expected to be one of the biggest releases this year, controversy surrounds the new boy wizard video game. Can we separate art from the artist?

This week I re-visited the NYU Game Center, finally.

CNN had reached out for an interview about the Harry Potter release (see below). My ego and I eagerly agreed, of course, and suggested we film it at the game center to have a cool backdrop.

It’s only a few blocks from my office in downtown Brooklyn, and I’ve been meaning to go for a while. There’s nothing quite like it because I watched it grow up. And it is where I grew up. Right around the time when I started teaching, the tiny seed of the department started to sprout at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. They had all the cool toys, trolleys with consoles, and massive screens. My students loved throwing down at the end of class with a few rounds of Guitar Hero.

A few years later it outgrew its Manhattan digs and moved to Brooklyn. Lots of light, space, and arcades everywhere. There’s something unique about working with and around creatives. Not just the chaos. But there’s this permanent excitement and energy. Seeing a novelty like Kill…