The only part that’s unique to gaming is that gamers are the most toxic community in the internet.

I wish this wasn’t as true as it is.

I don’t think this is a gaming problem.

It is a discourse problem.

People engage in absolutes. They either love a thing or hate a thing. There’s no nuance.

And it must be made to cater for them, there’s no expectation that it will contain choices they don’t approve of.

And this stance, this modern relationship with the world permeates everything, especially forms of media.

You see it in films and books… Fans and stans and folk trying to take it down. There is no nuance or middle ground.

People don’t accept that, perhaps, something isn’t just “not for them”. That’s why you get grown men complaining about the direction of children’s shows they used to watch.

And this is compounded with social media where polarisation, blunt takes and contradiction are the primary drivers of engagement.

Audience error.

I say unpopular because those that do think audiobook are “books” tend to be very, very vocal about how wrong I am when I express that opinion… As if I’m somehow undermining their enjoyment or the legitimacy of their consumption.

The 52% on my side are just sat quietly reading books and minding their own business.

I think you make some interesting points… Content is important.

Although I think there’s such a desperation to get people into the reading habit that anything is considered good enough.

Remember the Harry Potter book when they first came out. I seem to remember a lot of chat about how those books were low effort, but that they encouraged a lot of life-long readers.

I know that here, in the UK, our education system tends to make people resent reading. Furthermore it instills some awful habits… Like feeling you have to finish a book even if you aren’t enjoying it (which usually means you stop reading altogether).

Anyway. That’s a long way of saying I think you are right.

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but listening to audio books isn’t reading.

It is a different sensory experience. It uses different parts of the brain and imagination too.

It is far closer to listening to a radio play.

I’m not saying it is any worse or better, just different.

I’m not sure that conflating the two is useful, particularly when talking about reading habits.