First of all, gaming journalism outside of gameindustry.biz and developer oriented magazines is very much a tabloid culture and misinformed filled with bias and shitposting. If you don't think they're worth your time, don't buy their prints and don't click their link so that they don't make money via ad revenue.
In regards to portraying a positive image, then you lot might as well dedicate yourselves to showing up to local offline sessions and show that you care about the game even if there is a negative image surrounding some of the content. As long as they realizability that the game can be fun and they'll end up enjoying it, players slowly begin to approach it and try it out. Once you got a few people hooked, then all this talk about dlc content becomes irrelevant.
If you actually show insecurity regarding this issue, then you're not making this game look approachable. Just have fun with it. Be cool with it, don't buy the costumes/packs you don't like and don't be a weirdo. One of the so cal players (who will remain anonymous) just acted like a creep and I remember that turned off Aris from trying the game out, but people are started to try it out because despite its issues, it's mostly fun and there's usually a character that will fit someone's taste.
I know that the game a large number of young players online that don't usually go to offline sessions, tourneys or gatherings, so I'd like to ask you to not bring this issue on with new players or observers. Pretend you don't care about this much despite the bad publicity and keep playing the game and show you're having fun, because that is the key to attracting new people to the scene.
So far I didn't venture much in into the realm of 3D modelling. Right now I'm looking into 2D animation though.
