Nu skal det som udgangspunkt siges at den globale skare af selverklærede spilentusiaster, eller "gamere", er bred, og at pågældende undersøgelse som udgangspunkt bare viser en statistisk sammenhæng - alligevel er denne sammenhæng om ikke andet bekymrende.
Take This, en non-profit organisation der specifikt undersøger helbredsmæssige komplikationer og diverse stigma i gaming-verdenen, har udgivet en større undersøgelse kaldet 'Identity fusion and extremism in gaming cultures', som specifikt har undersøgt giftig adfærd blandt gamere. Når de definerer begrebet "gamere", så er en person med "a deep, visceral sense of alignment".
I et opfølgende interview med Vice fortæller en af forfatterne bag, Dr. Rachel Kowert, at de refererer til en generelt mindre, giftig portion af det samlede globale community, men at denne gruppe viser forøget tendenser til at racistisk og sexistisk adfærd, et mønster der før at blevet afdækket på blandt andet Twitch.
"We have individual identities and social identities. So I am Rachel, I am a female, and I'm a gamer. I love The Witcher. These are my social identities and are separate. Identity fusion is when the social identity, the individual identity, fuses together and you can't tear them apart.... The way in which fusion is shown to develop makes them more susceptible to more extreme behaviours", forklarer Kowert om den måde de anskuer den undersøgte gruppe.
Og i forhold til resultatet? Ja, hun siger dette:
"When the gamer identity is very core to who you are as a person, that seems to reflect what we call toxic gamer culture, tends to reflect more exclusion than inclusion—so things like racism and sexism and misogyny. All these things that we know exist in gaming spaces seem to be internalized by those who very closely identify as being part of that community. I think that games are wonderful places that have more positive things to offer than negative things across the board. I think it's important that we have the conversation that games are being leveraged in this way, because we're not having that conversation, and therefore we can't mitigate it if we don't have the conversation."
Vi anbefaler naturligvis at man selv læser undersøgelsen, eller Vice-interviewet, via ovenstående links.