Datamining shows Hogwarts Legacy almost had a morality and reputation system
It's a recurring element of the Harry Potter books that student witches and wizards are constantly judged by their teachers, handed demerits that punish everyone in their House («50 points from Gryffindor!»), and warned away from forbidden magic like the Unforgivable Curses. Which is why it came as a surprise that, ahead of the launch of Hogwarts Legacy, Avalanche Software explained players wouldn't be judged for casting evil spells.
«It was important for us to give players who sought out to be a Dark Witch or Wizard an opportunity to do so,» lead designer Kelly Murphy said at the time. «This is the ultimate embodiment of role-playing: allowing the player to be evil. Additionally, this was important because it comes from a place of non-judgment by the game creators. If you want to be evil, be evil.»
As YouTuber GrandTheftDiamonds(opens in new tab) discovered during a datamine of Hogwarts Legacy SQL files, it seems Avalanche wasn't always convinced that was the right way to go. As their video(opens in new tab) documents, the PhoenixGameData SQL file contains references to certain actions having a cost in House Points—including the use of Unforgivable Curses like Avada Kedavra.
Appropriately, the Killing Curse is assigned the maximum penalty listed: -100 points. Casting Imperius to control someone's mind would have cost -50 points, and actions like Extortion and Bullying would have lost you points as well (-50 and -25 respectively). Few things were assigned positive points, but among them were studying in class (10 points), and participation while attending a club (5 points). Combined with some minor penalties for sleeping in class, playing the clown, or otherwise misbehaving when you ought to be learning, that suggests
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