Gamers have long been stigmatized as lonely weirdos. Some of that has been deserved--ask anyone who's had a bunch of children shout horrible slurs at them during a match of Call Of Duty. But some leaders in the gaming industry want to push back against that narrative by creating games that encourage users to form communities as part of the gameplay. The idea is that by fostering more human interactions, games can promote positivity and openness, bringing people together instead of pushing them apart. "Whether it's a town hall meeting for a community or whether it's a group of gamers getting together in a park, whenever people meet face-to-face, there's a level of civility, courtesy, and respect that you often see," says John Hanke, the founder and CEO of Niantic, the developer behind the massively popular augmented-reality mobile game Pokémon Go.