GP Regular Shows NIMF's David Walsh Gamers Are People, Too

GP regulars know him as YukimuraSanada, a knowledgeable, friendly face - and sig - around the comments area of GamePolitics.

To Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family, however, he's Matthew Metzo, a gamer whose recent letter to Walsh impressed the NIMF founder with its sincerity. Walsh, of course, is not especially favored in the gaming community, thanks in large part to his efforts to limit violent content in games, his work with notables like Senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman on video game issues, and his role in moving last year's Hot Coffee scandal from an Internet story to a mainstream media sensation.

As Yuki told GP, "Maybe we can use this to show that gamers can have a voice. Just something cool. To be honest, I never expected him to answer, so his response was a welcome suprise."

Here's what Walsh had to say about our pal Yuki in the latest edition of his MediaWise column, which appears in three dozen newspapers (sorry, no links yet) and is distributed in many school districts across the country. The column is titled "Gamer is Not a Dirty Word":

"One morning a few weeks ago, I opened my inbox and found an e-mail from a man named Matthew Metzo. Like a lot of people who send me messages, Mr. Metzo is an avid video game player, or, as he puts it, a gamer.

"...his letter asks me to help 'those of us who are tired of being judged because of something we choose to do as a hobby.' His concern: with all of the negative attention on video games, the term gamer 'is rapidly becoming derogatory.' Although, Mr. Metzo admits he had not always agreed with the stands I've taken in the past, I was struck, even touched by his letter..."

"I can see why Mr. Metzo is concerned... Suddenly, it seems that nearly everyone who cares about children has something to say about video games. And most of the time these people don't have many positive things to say. As I've said for years, some video games, especially ultraviolent and killographic games and certain industry practices deserve some public condemnation..."

"And with so much money to be made, some in the industry often seem to lose sight of their public responsibility to protect children. As I've said before, however, there are a lot of very good video games. The term video game shouldn't be derogatory, and the term 'gamer' shouldn't be a dirty word either."

"Criticizing the people who play video games for the irresponsibility of some in the industry is nothing more than guilt by association. Millions of people - hardworking, responsible adults and healthy, happy kids - play good video games."

"Censorship and demonization are not the answer. If we antagonize thoughtful, reasonable people, we'll only make it harder to reform a flawed industry and protect our kids. We'll never find 'the better way, the more effective way, to allow both freedom and responsibility to co-exist,' that Matthew Metzo hopes for in his letter... gamers are people like us. Some of them are probably the people we love."

GP: Unlike another well-known video game critic, we've always found David Walsh respectful of gamers. Beyond that, it's great to see members of the game community such as Yuki reaching out to what some might consider the "other side" - and to see the othe side accepting the olive branch. Nice job, Yuki...