jillyfae:

shadesofmauve:

“…this protracted struggle for recognition and respect for our hobby and our industry has largely robbed us of the capacity to engage in intelligent or reasonable critique of what’s happening in games. Since our childhood, most of us have been leaping to the defence of videogames - defending the medium from our parents, from our media, from our politicians. It’s become an automatic response. Many of us don’t seem to be able to turn it off, even now that there’s really very little need for it. As a result, attempts at reasonable discussion over questions like race, gender, sexuality, violence or addiction with regard to games from within the industry get treated with the same hostility that Keith Vaz or Jack Thompson’s grandstanding used to (quite rightly) receive a few years ago.

…

“We have to learn that we’ve won, and that the sky won’t fall if we try to have an adult debate over big questions of how our medium deals with tough subjects. We don’t need to present a united face to the world; there’s no “them” out there waiting for division in the ranks so they can take videogames away from “us”.”

Rob Fahey on GamesInudstry International (emphasis mine)

The full article is well worth a read. The immediate impetus was the response to the critics of the sexualized violence in the Hitman trailer, but the point is much broader.

Oooh.  Yes.  That is brilliant.  (If sad, in the illustration of the recurring reality that  People Are Dumb.  *sighs*)

(via jillyfae-deactivated20121202)