Why do Autists have a weird affinity for sonic the hog? Or is it just some observation bias because Autistic sonic fans are so visible sompared to others.
Franchise was marketed towards children that coincidentally encompassed autistic children, for whom Sonic resonated deeply, in part because they were exposed to it at such a formative age. Plus, video games overall are generally appealing to autistic children because of repetition. I had a really strong affinity for the (fortunately) obscure SMAC/SMAX when I was young. I read the novelization, played the GURPS game with my friends, thought about it all the time. It's simply that, whereas a game like chess is a fulfilling and enriching thing to cling to, most video games are very shallow. See: Runescape, Megaman, Pokemon, all those Godawful freemium games...