A recent analysis of national survey data suggests that playing video games does not correspond to increased prejudiced beliefs. Instead, researchers found that gamers tend to hold more inclusive cultural values than the general American public.
This is much more obviously true in the table-top space, but I suspect the obvious expansion of diversity in gaming culture was exactly what all the awful reactionary gatekeeping crap was about, and why they continue to peddle the myth. I’ve seen similar arguments made that comic books are only for young white cishet men and that publishers are deluding themselves by not only catering to that market, despite the fact that the comics market in the US has pretty much collapsed while the more inclusive Euro and Japanese markets are doing very well thank-you-very-much.
This is much more obviously true in the table-top space, but I suspect the obvious expansion of diversity in gaming culture was exactly what all the awful reactionary gatekeeping crap was about, and why they continue to peddle the myth. I’ve seen similar arguments made that comic books are only for young white cishet men and that publishers are deluding themselves by not only catering to that market, despite the fact that the comics market in the US has pretty much collapsed while the more inclusive Euro and Japanese markets are doing very well thank-you-very-much.