critics also say that the house elves in the game are bad. in the game, the house elves are slaves, but they are happy about it. in real history, people who owned slaves used to say their enslaved people were happy. they would say that the enslaved people were naturally meant to be slaves. they said these things so no one would try to free them or make laws against slavery. in real life, enslaved people in history almost always wanted to be free. for example, the people enslaved in the united states before the civil war.