The Myth of the Media Myth

From here:

Ultimately, Edison arrived at the same conclusion I did. “To me, that implies that the biggest myth might indeed be that there is a media myth at all – that non-gamers rarely think about games until they have to, and then tend to dismiss the industry wholesale. That part seems to come pretty easily.”

More and more, Edison sees a split between two extremes. “I see popular thought divided starkly between those who play, enjoy or appreciate interactive media and those whose feelings fall somewhere along the lines of ‘I hate videogames,’ ‘Videogames are for kids’ and ‘There is no redeeming value to be found in gaming.’ If you take the latter group, you hear two contradictory beliefs: that videogames are a children’s medium, and that videogames are too violent and explicit for children. Just those two conflicting biases alone would be enough, I think, for a person unfamiliar with videogames to throw up their hands and be done with the subject until someone more invested works it all out.”

An interesting piece by a Professor and Game Designer, about the outstanding bias in our culture today when confronting video games and people being gamers.

Thanks, mefi.