• ProtonEvoker@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      This is what happens when an author designs a sport where the protagonist is the single most important player.

        • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          The thing is, the seeds of something great are right there.

          Ditch the stupid seeker role, and you have a game that’s both entertaining and narratively useful.

          Harry could have learned how to be a team player, and eventually a leader.

          Instead Rowling wanted Harry to be super special boy in the laziest way possible.

          • Anders429
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            2 days ago

            It’s honestly hilarious how much being the seeker isolates Harry from the rest of the team. He doesn’t have any team plays besides the occasional interaction with the beaters. It would have been so much more interesting if the position were removed, the game lasted a set amount of time, and Harry was a chaser.

          • Zorque@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            You don’t have to ditch it, just make it so it’s not a guaranteed win under normal circumstances. Make it so the snitch isn’t released until a certain amount of time has passed, or points have been scored. And instead of having it be worth a ton of points, have it be worth a small enough amount that it could make a difference in a close game but not the only deciding factor. Then it’s a strategic position. A position that requires timing instead of just speed.

            • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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              9 days ago

              Just make it so that catching the snitch ends the game. As in, the scores from either side get fixed. This way the losing team would have an incentive to stop the winning team from getting it, but themselves wouldn’t be interested in doing so. It’s not game breaking, just another angle.

            • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              The mechanic of catching the snitch immediately ending the game is a pretty good one, and there’s several ways you could go about it.

              • Adds no points to either side: you want to catch it when your team is up, but if you find it when your team is down, you want to misdirect the other team’s Seeker

              • Adds a small number of points to your side: you want to catch it when your team is within striking distance of a win

              • Adds a small number of points to the opposite side: you only want to catch it when your team is up significanty

              My favorite would be a random or rotating points penalty. Like say every 3 minutes the points given to each side upon grabbing the snitch is randomized. It still allows for that stupid main character syndrome special boy causing the win thing, but it doesn’t completely break the strategy of the game.

          • jaydev@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            I also feel like half the reason he won all the damn time is because he literally just had the best broom in existence for most of the matches from his rich godfather. He’s also annoying af with all his angst in the later books (especially OotP) with “nooooo my friends don’t understand meeeeee I can’t talk to anyoneeeee lemme just be an impulsive idiot”.

            • Baggie@lemmy.zip
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              8 days ago

              Rowling had some really sinister cultural programming embedded in her brain that comes out in these books, regardless of the trans stuff that surfaced later. The entire magical governing system is hugely corrupt, based on family wealth, and obviously full of fascists, but the focus of the books was that there were bad actors abusing the system, rather than the system being broken from the start.

              You could argue that’s done for realisms sake, and sure maybe it is, but if the characters never actually meaningfully tackle those issues then you’re re-enforcing complicity for the sake of it, rather than enacting change in a corrupt system when you have the power and ability to do so.

              • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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                8 days ago

                That is exemplified specifically by the “rich godfather buys Harry Potter the bestest broom stick” scenario.

                Like, I’m pretty sure in Book 2(?) it’s a big deal that Evil Lucius Malfoy evilly outfits the Slytherin team with new broomsticks. Evil when Lucius does it because he’s evil, but okay when Sirius does it because he’s good.

                Just like how slavery was bad when Lucius Malfoy did it to Dobby, but okay when Harry had Kreacher as a slave (who he also treated like shit, but it’s fine, Rowling wrote him to be evil and deserve it anyway)

                Just like her worldbuilding, morality is whatever Joanne thinks is most convenient for the story she wants to tell.

                • jaydev@lemmy.world
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                  8 days ago

                  Ugh yeah the way Sirius treated Kreacher annoyed me so much. Apparently it was completely fine for Harry to have him as a slave as long as he gave him some locket and made poor brainwashed Kreacher feel like he was the best treated slave ever.

                  JK Rowling’s lack of critical thinking is glaringly obvious in everything she has ever written.

              • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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                8 days ago

                There’s an old 4chan post about J.K. Rowling and how they only believe in protecting the status quo system.

                https://www.reddit.com/r/COMPLETEANARCHY/comments/g0qtew/harry_potter_and_the_limits_of_liberalism/#lightbox

                It very neatly describes the way liberals see the world and political struggle. Lots of people complain about the anti-climactic ending, but really I don’t think it could any other way. I’d like to imagine that there’s some alternate universe where Rowling actually believed in something and Harry was actually built up as the anti-Voldemort he was only hinted as being in the beginning of the books. Where he’s opposes all the many injustices of the wizarding world and determines to change their frequently backwards, insular, contradictory society for the better, and forms his own faction antithetical to the Death Eaters and when he finally has his showdown with Voldy. Harry surpasses by adopting new methods, breaking the rules and embracing change and the progression of history. While Voldemort clings to an idyllic imaging of the past and the greatest extent of his dreams is to become the self-appointed god of a eternally stagnant Neverland. Harry has embraced the possibility of a shining future and so can overcome the self-imposed limitsVoldemort could never cross, and Voldemort is ultimately defeated by this.

                But that would require a Harry that believed in something, and since Rowling is a liberal centrist Blairite that doesn’t really believe in anything, Harry can’t believe in anything. Harry lives in a world drought with conflict and injustice, a stratified class society, slavery of sentient magical creatures, the absurd charade the wizarding world puts upto enforce their own self-segregation, a corrupted and bureaucracy-choked government, rampant racism, so on and so forth But Harry is little more than a passive observer for most of it, only the racism really bothers him (and then, really only racism against half-bloods). In fact, when Hermione stands up against the slavery of elves, she’s treated as some kind of ridiculous Soapbox Sadie. For opposing chattel slavery. In the end. the biggest force for change is Voldemort and Harry and friends only ever fight for the preservation and reproduction of the status quo. The very height of Harry’s dreams is to join the aurors. a sort of wizard FBI and the ultimate defenders of the wizarding status quo. Voldemort and the Death Eaters are the big instigators of change and Harry never quite gets to Voldy’s level. Harry doesn’t even beat Voldemort, Voldemort accidentally kills himself because he violated some obscure technicality that causes one of his spells to bounce back at him.

                And this is really the struggle of liberals, they live in a world fraught with conflict, but aren’t particularly bothered by any of it except those bit that threaten multicultural pluralism. They see change, and the force behind that change, as a wholly negative phenomenon. Even then, they can only act within the legal and ideological framework of their society. So. for instance, instead of organizing insurrectionary and disruptive activity against Trump and the far-right, all they can do is bang their drum about what a racist bigot he is and hope they can catch him violating some technicality that will allow them to have him impeached or at least destroy his political clout. It won’t work, it will never work, but that’s the limit of liberalism just as it was the limit of Harry Potter.

              • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world
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                8 days ago

                Umbridge feels like she was based on a woman Rowling personally knew. Don’t know much about Rowling past but I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a weird messed up childhood

              • jaydev@lemmy.world
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                8 days ago

                Harry’s grandfather is supposed to have invented Sleekeazy’s hair spray / potion or something to tame people’s hair since the Potters have crazy hair lol. It’s such a cartoonish reasoning.

          • Gabe Bell@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            Yeah, that’s just bollocks. (No offence) (okay a little offence).

            Harry had already saved the world when he was eighteen months old. He was already a super special boy given THE ENTIRE MAGICAL WORLD KNEW HIS NAME before he did.

            So the idea that making him a seeker was a way to make him special?

            That’s just crap.

        • Billegh@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          She isn’t a bad author, just a bad person. The reason I regret reading her work isn’t because of the work itself…

        • CaptainThor@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          Those books are wonderful, and my children delight in them, even as they both outgrow being the original target audience

          • GoodLuckToFriends@lemmy.today
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            9 days ago

            The books are average. I read them all, I enjoyed them. The warm feelings of an ‘orphan’ finding friends and a new family combined with having a fun time in a magical setting carry the series. The actual writing doesn’t amount to blasé. She built a world that seems fun. She built a world that falls apart with gentle pokes.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      9 days ago

      It’s not nearly as bad as the basketball example anyways, because the other teams players are having to play the normal game, AND try to fuck over the opponent trying to catch the snitch. If you ignore the scrawny kid and let him catch the game ender, it’s your own fault.

  • 5too@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    As I recall the story, Rowling designed that feature of the game specifically to annoy her sport-loving husband. It’s a feature of a fictional sport designed in spite. So really, it performs it’s function admirably…

    • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Doesnt that diminish the world building? I know it did for me. As an adult, I cant appreciate HP the same way I did as a kid. I can still appreciate Lotr just fine, as an example. She should have put her differences aside for a better story, but shes not better than that anyway.

      • excral@feddit.org
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        9 days ago

        What world building? Rowling’ wizarding world is the epitome of nothing makes sense and can only be explained by “a wizard did it”.

        Hogwarts was built in the 10th century, but uses far more modern Muggle technology for their sewage and sanitary system rather than some established form of teleportation/relocation.

        The economy is a joke as they use fixed exchange rates between gold and silver can be abused for arbitrage trades with the Muggle world. It can only be explained by all wizards and witches stopping their primary education as ten-year-olds but even then it would take only one to figure it out and break the system.

        Why on earth use owls to carry letters and packages? The practicality of using owls over other birds aside, why not use established instant transportation methods like the floo network? The only explanation we get is that the floo network and apparition are blocked in Hogwarts but does this one school dictate the rules for the entire world? And even then, wouldn’t it be easier to set up a post office in an exempted area or just outside Hogwarts?

        I could go on as there are countless other flaws and then just as many again once you consider the implications of the time turner. Having a sport with nonsense rules is one of the lesser issues when the world is inherently broken

        • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 days ago

          For anyone who enjoys this type of deconstruction, check out the old but gold fanfiction Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Fun read, very high quality.

          The economy is a joke as they use fixed exchange rates between gold and silver can be abused for arbitrage trades with the Muggle world. It can only be explained by all wizards and witches stopping their primary education as ten-year-olds but even then it would take only one to figure it out and break the system.

          This is almost verbatim a plot point in the fic. It takes the rational ‘Harry James Potter Evans-Verres’ (the alternate reality protagonist) all of three seconds in Gringotts to devise an infinite money glitch, among other ways to break the system, though he still faces the obstacles of being a child.

          The theme explores how Wizards take advantage of clearly superior muggle technology, but magically delude themselves into a false sense of superiority that crushes intellectual curiousity at a young age and isolates and inducts muggleborn wizards into a cult of ignorance.

          It’s hard to learn and respect newtonian physics and thermodynamics when your brooms operate on Aristotleian physics (point forward = go forward) and you violate thermodynamics by the age of six.

          Now imagine trying to learn arbitrage rates when you’re taught to fly by age 11, and can instead choose to spend the next 7 years learning how to break reality with your voice and mind. Then graduate wizarding school at age 18, never to pursue education again for some reason. because most teenagers learn how to teleport at will and how much education do you need beyond that?

        • bampop@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          Really, I couldn’t stay interested past Dumbledore’s death knowing there was like a hundred ways he might not actually be dead. The whole deathly hallows thing even acknowledged that, it’s good that Rowling very intentionally chose not to do a C.S.Lewis there. But the problem was the inherent brokenness of the world, which was just unsuitable for a serious story.

    • SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip
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      I respect that, but I hate the fans who love it, it’s like they have never played or watched anything competitive before.

      • bampop@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Monopoly was also designed to annoy people, yet somehow people play it hoping it will be fun.

        • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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          Children play it for fun because they get to play make-believe about money, play the banker, etc. Just handling fake money makes it fun to them because they are interested in the world on that level. The game itself is not fun to anyone, and I don’t think adults ever actually play it without children…

          • I Cast Fist
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            8 days ago

            Last I played was as an adult with 3 other friends. To make it tolerable we had a rule that, on landing on someone else’s property, we could either pay up or drink a shot of rum. Mistakes were made.

            • Shardikprime@lemmy.world
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              I used to and still play with my friends over and what we do is save the game state in writing for the properties, status cards, money, houses/hotels and we use rubber bands to keep games going for years.

              New people mean new game, same people we just continue the last state

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          9 days ago

          It is fun when you’re winning and it’s turned into a drinking game seeing how many rounds everyone else can last. It usually ends because everyone ends up piss drunk and wanders off.

      • seeigel@feddit.org
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        9 days ago

        Or they did, didn’t grasp the game, and it felt entirely arbitrary and boring, like that game of quidditch.

    • Gabe Bell@lemmy.world
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      Well that just makes me like her a tiny little bit.

      Or – you know – dislike her a little bit less.

  • Owl@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    except that the golden snitch doesnt mean you win. it means you get 150 points and the match ends. sure, that often leads to a win unless the enemy has a 150 point lead, but still.

    • illi@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      Also, apparently in the school cup the overall score seems to be counted to overall results - not just win/loss. Isn’t there a point when Harry needs to make sure he only catches the Snitch if they are in a lead by at least certain ammount of points to win the cup? One could assume this applies to leagues as well.

      Not that it balances things much, but it does give a bit of nuance.

      • Anders429
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        2 days ago

        That kind of system makes so much more sense if the games are for a set amount of time. Otherwise, what’s to stop two teams from dragging a game out to ensure they both surpass whoever is in the lead?

      • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Either way, while the match only ending if the snitch is caught is a great concept, it probably shouldn’t be worth fifteen goals worth of points. Fifty points, or even just thirty, for the snitch would add more strategy to the game since it might be best to deny the other team the snitch without catching it yourself if the other team is ahead.

      • Shardikprime@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        I do remember there was a game were they grab the snitch and STILL lost, because the other side was 10 points ahead

        • Anders429
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          Yeah, everyone likes to point to that as a reason why the snitch isn’t completely broken. But all it does is show that Victor Krum is a moron who can’t trust his teammates to score literally 20 points.

        • illi@lemm.ee
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          9 days ago

          That was a weird one and I never got why anyone would do this. On a World Cup finale no less

      • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        I appreciated that after a few years they all stopped caring in the least about the house cup, and it went to other houses as well. It was hacky.

    • Randelung@lemmy.world
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      The house points are supposed to be displayed by large hourglasses with rubies, emeralds, etc. falling down or floating up. One billion making their way through the hourglass over the course of months? decades? would be hilarious.

      for a few days.

  • JackbyDev
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    9 days ago

    “Oh no, I caught the snitch when we were 160 points behind” said no one ever except for that one time in the books and even then it just makes zero fucking sense.

    • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Actually that happened twice, once at the world cup where it made zero sense and once at Hogwarts, where it did make sense, because even though Gryffindor lost catching the snitch kept them in the house cup which is based off point differential

      • JackbyDev
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        It just leads to such utterly contrived scenarios where the winning team isn’t the one who catches the snitch. If it was something like 30 points and didn’t end the game and you could catch it multiple times it would be better I think. It would be interesting to see team compositions that vary. Maybe some teams forgo scoring with the quaffle and focus only on scoring with snitch catches.

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      The game doesn’t end until the snitch is caught.

      In a league situation in the event of the same number of wins, the largest points difference comes first.

      I.e. it is strategically useful to end a losing game as quickly as possible.

  • Eyedust@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 days ago

    Just ending the game would have been a good way to implement the snitch, tbh. It would have more strategy, more reasons to block the other seeker when you’re behind. If there really had to be extra points, it should have been worth 10 points or something.

    • herrvogel@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Yeah that’s the reason quidditch is a dumb fucking sport. You can be wiping the floor with the other team, but if their guy gets lucky and catches the parking lot frog, it’s all for nothing. They’ve won despite having played an objectively much worse game.

        • JackbyDev
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          No you fucking can’t. I know it happens twice in the books but it’s such an absolutely convoluted thing. It’s like when professionals will every now and then make careless mistakes. That doesn’t make it a skill. If you’re 160 points behind, don’t grab it. That simple. The possibility that someone can drop a football by mistake before getting into the end zone is not some sort of strategy to plan around. No. It’s something rare you hope for on the enemy team. If you catch the snitch, you win, because you wouldn’t do it if you’re behind by 160 or more points unless you made a very amateur mistake.

          • Anders429
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            I love that they deleted their comments but I still know exactly what they were saying. The excuse that sometimes the team catching the snitch loses is ridiculous. No one who is actually trying to win would ever let that be the outcome. The fact that Krum did it in the book just showed that he didn’t trust his team at all.

      • Eyedust@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        Yeah, I usually go down this same thought process every time I re-read the books. I usually end up at, “Yup, she went out of her way to avoid Quidditch by using feebler and feebler excuses every book.” It’s a shame, because it really could have wound up an exciting part of the series if it was more thought out.

    • JackbyDev
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      It was worth 150 points. The equivalent of 15 goals. Do you mean 100 points and re-release it and continue playing?

  • Gabe Bell@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Counter point :- (not to do with American sports – they are ridiculous)

    imagine you’re watching a quidditch game where one side has an overwhelmingly good set of chasers. I mean unbelievably good. Far better than the other side. Within five minutes they are 50 points up, and another 30 minutes later they are 250 points up. There is literally no chance of the other side catching them.

    Do you really want to sit and watch that? It’s like the Brazil - Germany game. After a while you would just be “Stop – you are hurting them too much. It’s getting embarrassing and we are all now going to leave because even the home team wants you to stop”

    At least with the snitch it means there is a chance that it’ll be evened out.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Conversely, literally every other game becomes meaningless. Catching the snitch gains SO many points. You could literally just play defense and snitch support, and never try and score.

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        9 days ago

        Remember you also have to catch the snitch to end the game. Otherwise it would just go forever

    • Little_mouse@lemmy.ca
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      It’s worse than that though. The parking lot frog adds a huge, but not impossible, score to your team if you catch it AND it instantly ends the game.

      So even if one team is absolutely crushing the other, it’s not actually going to even things out unless it is in a very specific range of uneven matches.

      Being so overwhelmingly outclassed makes a neat sort of metagame about preventing the parking lot frog from being caught. Though the frog is apparently hard enough to catch even once that defending it is sort of besides the point. Even if the frog hunt suddenly has a second dynamic, it’s still taking place pretty much completely outside of the view of the audience.

      • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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        The snitch isn’t completely out of view of the audience though. And I think that’s kind of the point. The audience can see every fight between seekers for the snitch. This happens at the world cup, and at the matches between Slytherin and Gryffindor in the books. A good set of chasers and beaters can be countered by a good seeker and a good keeper.

          • Little_mouse@lemmy.ca
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            I’m being a bit hyperbolic, but I seem to recall them describing the snitch as ‘basically invisible’ and the players flying under the bleachers and into the stratosphere in pursuit of it. Those might be exceptions, maybe the frog only sometimes wanders out into the parking lot.

    • heavydust@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      Another counter point: it’s a book for children.

      And another again: “In episode 2F09 when Itchy plays Scratchy’s skeleton like a xylophone…”

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        I’m sorry, but I hate this excuse. Bad writing is bad writing. Hand-waving away something that just straight-up doesn’t make sense because it’s “for children” is lazy. Also, saying a 30-second throwaway gag on a show-within-a-show is the same as the thousands of pages of YA lore in the series Rowling spent over a decade writing is obviously a false equivalency.

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    It would differ from town to town - more southern games would feature a lubed hog, in Philly they have to catch a chicken, in Florida they have to seduce a gator, etc.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      All the drunk Florida fans at the tailgate will be seducing gators anyway.

      Seems unfair on the ref to have to sort them out.

  • RaptorBenn@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    It’d work better if he only caught it once, like if it were a one in a million it’d balance better and represent the “hope against all odds” kinda device that i thought it was. But Harry catching the bloody thing every third game ruins it.

    • RedC@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      Iirc a game of quidditch doesn’t end until the snitch is caught. I believe one game lasted months

      • RaptorBenn@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Really, I thought they were timed or something? I thought catching the snitch ended the game, but was not the only thing that could end the game?

        • Maladius@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          They actually say a game once went for months because nobody caught it, and they had to keep switching players out to sleep. Which now that I think about it, how did they not have players on the bench…

          • andMoonsValue@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            What the hell’s the point of everything else in the game then? I thought people were scoring points and stuff. Why isn’t everyone just going after the golden snitch?

            • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              If everyone was trying to get the snitch on team a, team b would just get constant empty net goals and rack up a huge lead.

              Since you still get 10 points per goal, if you can get a 16 goal lead on the opposing team, then you can win even if the snitch is caught by the opposing team. So not leaving an empty goal + having to deal with the bludgers (which can attack your seeker) then you suddenly don’t have as much resources for the snitch.

              Additionally the game can be ended by mutual agreement between the teams, so a blowout in scoring can result in an effective surrender/resignation of the other team.

              It’s actually an interesting mechanic when you think it through, since it means a pretty delicate balance of team resources need to be spent between seeking/assisting the seeker, defending, and having the ability to score in the case that the other team focuses too heavily on the snitch.

              • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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                8 days ago

                Delicate my ass. Put two chasers on defense, a chaser on snitch finding duty, and a beater dedicated entirely to hospitalizing the opposing seeker. The 3 on defense just need to park their asses in the goals, and as long as you either find the snitch first or concuss the other seeker, you win. Your second beater can move as necessary.

                • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
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                  8 days ago

                  I think it’s reasonable to assume that there are minutia rules in place that would prevent or discourage disengaging play.

                  Similar to icing rules or offsides in hockey and soccer, or how players can’t enter the crease without the puck in hockey, goaltending rules in basketball, or pass interference and holding in American football.

                  Every sport is filled with rules like that in order to encourage dynamic and engaging play and I’m willing to bet we don’t know those rules for the same reason nobody poops it’s boring and not relevant to the story.

                  Besides you can counter that play by running a light defense and heavy attack on the opposing seeker, since defending against one chaser will be significantly easier, or having the seeker come off of snitch duty in a power play like scenario, making a 4 man offense with both beaters attacking the chasers acting as defenders (who would get demolished since they parked at the goal, keepers can’t get hit, but the chasers are just psuedo keepers in this scenario), that would allow you to dunk on the now hamstrung opposing team.

                  I think every sport seems stupid or broken until you put tweaks on the rules.

                  Edit: I just saw your play involved no offense, which means the entire opposing team’s offense can attack the goal as a counter, effectively making a 6 (or 7 if the keeper gets involved and they go open net) v 4, which makes it incredibly likely that the attacking team can just massively out score the opposing team, so your team would either have to draw back, or get extremely lucky and catch the snitch before the score snowballs. It could be an effective strategy, but it would for sure make you lose games against teams that have a stronger focus on scoring vs seeking.

            • Saleh@feddit.org
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              9 days ago

              Because then Harry isnt the constant hero saving everyone all the time.

              it would be fine if the snitch gave maybe 50 points instead of 150. Then a significantly better team could push their opponents to end the game to safe face, or get them to try to regain points before being back in race to win.

        • RedC@sh.itjust.works
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          9 days ago

          Adding also that canonically there have been games where the snitch is caught but that team still loses.

      • I Cast Fist
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        8 days ago

        I believe one game lasted months

        Ah, so a typical match of tennis

    • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      It would work if it was just an end timer, not deciding the game. So it’s at a semi random moment when the game can end and scores are final.

    • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Harry catches the snitch almost EVERY game. I think the only game he ever played where he didn’t catch it was one where he was attacked by dementors and fell off his broom.

      • RaptorBenn@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        If i was the opposing captain, I’d have half the team just fucking with harry. We’d call him “the git who lived” out of pure resentment for his talent.

        Now that I’ve coined the term, I can’t believe Fred and George never called him that.

  • rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    If you’ve ever played Killer Queen Black, the snail mechanic reminds me a lot of the golden snitch. It is kind of fun to have something that you might not have most players paying attention to become a pivotal component of gameplay. Kind of like stealing bases in baseball. But as an actual sport it’s kind of dumb, I agree about it just being a kids book, don’t think about it too hard.

    • aeshna_cyanea@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      Disagree, the snail is just a core part of the game that is always there and you need to pay attention to it. It’s not a sudden random event like catching an elusive critter

      • rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works
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        8 days ago

        What are you disagreeing with? The golden snitch, as it is, is a core part of Quiddich in that the game literally requires it to be caught to end. In KQB that is not the case. I was more mentioning that while playing, a whole other mechanic can go on. If you think of Killer Queen Black as a snail-riding game, then there are times where the game can end suddenly from queens dying too much, or berries being collected.

        • aeshna_cyanea@lemm.ee
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          Jus that it’s better design because more clearly connected to the rest of the gameplay process. It’s something anyone can do, and always available as an option to focus on. Rather than a guy wandering around hoping to find the snitch

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Rowling, although a great storyteller, is no system analyst. Take her magic system for example. “Accio Invisibility Cloak!” Boom, Harry’s standing there in plain sight and you’ve got his cloak.

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Accio doesn’t work on the Deathly Hallows or Horcruxes, so that would not have summoned the Cloak of Invisibility.

          • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            See I’m just not sure how accio works, like wouldn’t you need to really know exactly what pair of undies he’s wearing? Whereas, if they think Potter’s sneaking around in the Invisibility Cloak, they would know he’s got to be wearing his glasses. And considering they were always getting broken and re-mended, I don’t think he has back-ups.

            • Shardikprime@lemmy.world
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              They explain in the game, HL, that when you accio people, you are actually accioing their clothes.

              Or it was levioso? I don’t really remember

              • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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                8 days ago

                For sure, I’m just saying that if you can’t see him under the Cloak, you don’t know what clothes he’s wearing. But you know he’s got his glasses on.

          • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            Yeah, that should work as long as you can see the boots. My worry with the Invisibility Cloak is not knowing what pair of shoes he’s wearing at the time and accidentally accio-ing his boots from under his bed as he sneaks right past in his slippies.

    • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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      They literally try this against Harry in book 7 and it doesn’t work because Harry’s cloak is special (it’s one of the deathly hollows)

        • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          Oh, there’s tons of holes in the magic system, no denying it. It’s used more of a plot device to set up certain scenarios than as a cohesive system (polyjuice potion, liquid luck, unbreakable vows, etc). Which, for a kids/YA series I don’t have a problem with

  • ammonium@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I thought this was exactly the point, they make fun of the muggles but it’s their society which is completely bonkers

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    It might be because I was young when I read Harry Potter, but the whole series was magical for me exactly because of stuff like this.

  • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I think the movies in particular do a poor job showing how hard the snitch is supposed to be to catch. Games literally went on for days according to the books because the seekers weren’t pro-level generational talents like Harry.

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      Doesn’t that kinda enforce the point that the rule/function is stupid?

      • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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        No because they need a way to end the game

        Time limit is a solution, but it’s not the only one. Time limit would change the game so much.

        Do you want basketball on broomsticks or Quidditch?

        In Quidditch, you can have a strategy of never scoring a goal but just playing keep away until your team catches the snitch. It’s risky but could be a strategy.

        Time limit would be the better team scoring a couple goals and playing keepaway.

        You could add shot clocks…

        • rumba@lemmy.zip
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          8 days ago

          I think she was always shooting for ‘surreal’. She was pretty successful at it in many WW aspects, but it seems she missed the mark on a few subjects, especially sports and competition.