Maybe to you it comes off as a coward, to me he comes like the dude who engaged a controvercy and remained a cool headed person, which is admirable.  Some people identify with the characters that they are playing in a video game, the movies or cartoons that they watch, maybe not you but many do and I doubt the cause of it would be ''narcissism'' maybe it's quite the opposite.  But than again that's just my point of view.