But teaching people to favour the consistency of imaginary worlds may also teach them to vilify disagreement and the entire practice of interpretation. At its nastiest, this mentality both facilitates and camouflages bigotry.

I mean… it’s a game. The RP in RPG is role playing. Isn’t part of the fun playing someone or something you’re not? I play the other gender in games because I’m not that gender. In Mass Effect I love playing renegade - punching reporters in the face even though I’m not like that in real life. This is the same stupid argument I’ve heard all the time. “Grand Theft Auto encourages violence”. No. It’s fun because we get to play this character who is so unlike ourselves.

In Halo I played a bioengineered soldier who was ripped away from his family to put down violent uprisings. Does that mean I think that’s okay in real life? Or was I playing a game that set that as a premise?

Do we apply the same scrutiny to movies? To theater? Just because we empathize or maybe even we admit that there is a part of us who want to speed through downtown Los Santos just for fun doesn’t mean that’s who we actually are.