There are six of us around the table, and the conversation turns to what I do for a living, also known as “my field of study” in academia. “I’m a game designer and a professor,” I say. The dinner had been arranged by a third party in order to connect academics from various institutions for networking purposes.
“You mean videogames?” one of the teachers asks. It’s said with the same professional and courteous tone that one might reserve for asking, “Did you pass gas?”
Brenda Braithwiate goes on to discuss the responses she received when asking her friends what they though of videogames, and was surprised at the lack of blame the respondents attached to the media. Quoting Jake Simspon of Linden Lab:
It’s not the media that causes this; the media just responds to buttons that are already there. We are already afraid of the neighborhood murderer, so if the opportunity comes to push that button a bit, then sure, Big Media presses it. It means more attention for them.
