Last week, something unusual happened in the game industry: Most of the world’s biggest video game publishers directly or indirectly addressed the realities of gun violence on a national stage.
Those unprecedented moments, delivered in short speeches, moments of silence and colorful ribbons, came during press conferences by the likes of Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony as E3 kicked off its annual celebration of gaming in the shadow of the nation's worst shooting in history.
The dichotomy of those good intentions anchoring press conferences that almost uniformly included games with guns was hard not to notice.
For some, it raised the almost tired debate of gaming's direct impact on violence.
Does playing a video game steeped in a cycle of kill-die-kill have an impact on players? Almost certainly. Arguing that an overwhelmingly violent game doesn't impact its users is akin to arguing that any game with a singular drive or message can't inspire or evoke change.
It's arguing that games for change isn't a thing and that everyone at this week's festival, everyone who works to educate, inform, inspire through gaming, is wasting their time.
Violence in video games, like any other aspect of gaming, most certainly can impact a gamer.
But that's the wrong question.
The right question or questions are far more complex.
What sort of impact does violence in a game have on a person who plays it?
Can violence in games have a positive impact?
Here's the question I often wonder about: What sort of impact do gun games have on children in terms of their future support of gun ownership?
When my son was 12 he was, like most teens his age, a huge fan of Call of Duty.