It's a mistake to attribute such reactions to the naivete of those who never gamed. I remember after Sandy Hook, a group of kids, on their own, began a campaign to convince others in their community to part with their games, going around and collecting them in garbage bins. Again, the games aren't the "existential threat." Rather, its the way the media spins them together with real life to depict a culture which people no longer want to associate with.
Even worse, our own community is now manufacturing the ammunition for that debate. This week, CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times each featured industry commentators linking the portrayal of women in video games to the recent misogynistic attacks on feminist critics. All three segments extended the cause past even Gamergate, arguing this is attributable to the gamer identity itself. As with Sandy Hook, some people will decide this just isn't something they want to be a part of anymore, regardless of how tenuous they understand such correlations to be.





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