It’s hard for me to feel sympathy when their argument is literally “I never would have been an asshole if I’d known there would be consequences."

Poor babies. How were they supposed to know being assholes would have consequences?

It's telling that I can't tell which disgusting sea of humanity to which you're referring.

I think making the game work for people who already paid for it and got nothing for their money takes priority over making sure you get your extra content to a game that already works for you.

All you’re saying is that their influence is subtle, not that it doesn’t exist. Pushing someone who is on the fence about something in one direction or the other is still influence, even if it only takes a little nudge. In the manner that reading Ayn Rand can influence a person to embrace or reject objectivism, for…

Your username is wrong. You are at least 80% disgusting.

But Fermi had given the world clues as to how to find the neutron when he described its power—including its power to turn a proton into a neutron.

All the same ones that any medium can have. Its an art form. It conveys ideas. Those ideas can be positive and life-affirming, or they can be toxic and detrimental. They could inspire you to feel wonder and joy about the world around you or they can inspire you to feel depressed and pessimistic. And yes, they can…

But they are not talking about certain games but gaming in general that makes hem happy and which saved their life

You’re focusing on violence specifically, and I’m speaking more broadly. Sure there is no evidence games will make you violent, but if a game can make you feel elated or happy or excited, then of course it can make you feel depressed, angry, or upset. If it can influence you in positive ways, providing a new…

In that case I apologize for criticizing your punctuation.

I can't make any sense out of what your rambling, poorly punctuated screed is trying to say or figure out what your point is supposed to be.

So you’re simultaneously saying that video games can be incredibly influential experiences from a positive standpoint, but are absolutely not influential from any negative standpoint. They’re only capable of positive influence. That’s what you’re saying. And then you use nebulous feel-good stories with no scientific…

Now tell me at the same time that games do not, and can not, influence people negatively, and you'll have illustrated my exact point, thank you.

Are you suggesting that such a setup can't be used to tell a compelling story or provide an interesting experience? That seems incredibly narrow-minded and dismissive. I can think of a dozen different "overused" setups in fiction of all mediums that are still used to great effect today. I don't see why this one is any…

How would you suggest they tell the story of a city in which every person has vanished? Would newspaper clippings and written diaries really be any better? Environmental storytelling can only go so far.

It's not about passion, it's about rationality (or a lack thereof). I've never heard anyone say that books can't influence someone negatively one minute, then say they're the most influential medium the next, but that's something you see all the time from the game community. You see it in these very comments all the…

That depends on what you think the purpose is. If you play for action, sure. If you play for exploration, story, and the joy of discovery, then not so much.

I think you’re taking hyperbole too seriously. The point is that we as gamers like to pretend the criticisms that come from those outside the culture are irrelevant or misinformed, often without ever giving them fair consideration. When someone says “games can’t affect you the way other art forms can” we scream “oh…

That’s what he’s saying; it doesn’t make any sense to dismiss the fears of those outside the culture without taking them seriously in the first place. He's saying we need to take these people and their criticisms seriously before dismissing them outright.