Yesterday we ran a piece exposing the scare tactics media like to use when discussing video games and violence. Flashy edits, buzzwords, complete ignorance, that sort of thing. Today Katie Couric, the host of the particular segment we analyzed, reached out to her Twitter followers to ask for the "positive side" of violent games.
When I noticed her tweet, I went to look at the replies. Some were decent! Others...not so much. I decided it had to do with her particular brand of audience. She wasn't getting the full scope of the gamer audience, and that wouldn't be fair. So I retweeted her on Kotaku's official Twitter account. And boy, you guys did not disappoint.
But first let's look at the disappointing replies:
I'm happy to say these...misguided responses were few and far between after Kotaku's community (and gamers in general) got there. Good job, guys! Here are some insightful, supporting comments:
It warms my heart to see so many people rally against the inexcusable ignorance in the media's coverage of video games. This will continue to be a thing if we don't speak up, so good on all of you who did.
And, of course, there were some jokes, snarky replies and, er, maybe some questionable ones, too!
Lastly, let's all remember to bring this up when people try to make a correlation between violent games and real-life violence. Because I'm honestly sick of people thinking they can ignore the facts we do have.
To contact the author of this post, write to tina@kotaku.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.