Part of the thesis of the piece is to acknowledge that our own understanding of GG from way back when might be a tad incomplete. Just reading your comment, it appears to me you’re pro-GG, and I’ll at least entertain that stance given you’re being more respectful than most, but I’ll just say that the common narrative about an event isn’t always the most correct one.

Alienation is an issue that I feel gamers regardless of belonging to GG experience on some level, and as the medium has gone mainstream, there’s almost this nostalgia-fueled pushback to see it return to its seldom form. I think that games being more diverse has made them generally better, because the decisions informing the creative process are suddenly no longer the monopoly of a certain demographic. I can certainly speak for myself and say that seeing Muslim-coded characters along with positive representation of people from the MENA region, has contributed to me feeling more emotional connection with a medium that always took the presence of my kind as a secondary concern. So while I can see why abrupt change can be a reason why some might feel repulsed by the current gaming apparatus, embracing it to me, seems like a much better route than throwing a fit and harassing people who you disapprove of online.