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What Went Down During Trump's Meeting With The Video Game Industry

trump insta.JPG

In case you were not aware, on Thursday President Donald Trump had an hour-long meeting with Congressional leaders and video game industry leaders behind closed doors in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. Attendees included company representatives from Bethesda, Take-Two, Rockstar, and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), as well as critics of violent media from the Parents Television Council (PTC), Media Research Council (MRC), Representative Vicky Hartzler, a Republican Congresswoman from Missouri, among others. The meeting, which the White House describes as one of many with the game industry and other stakeholders in a national discussion surrounding school shootings, was closed to the press. However, some of the attendees revealed what went down in post-meeting statements and press interviews.

The meeting kicked-off with the screening of the following 88-second video that depicts violent scenes from game franchises like Call of Duty, Sniper Elite, and Fallout:


Unlisted video from The White House’s YouTube channel


Following the footage Rep. Hartzler said that the president would ask, “This is violent isn’t it?”, asking for comments and thoughts among those present.

"I think for many of us there, there was a shocked silence," Melissa Henson, a spokesperson for the PTC, said during a press call following the meeting. "Those from the video game industry were quick to defend [the video games] saying they were meant for a mature audience and that they weren't intended for kids to see."

“I think he’s deeply disturbed by some of the things you see in these video games that are so darn violent, viciously violent, and clearly inappropriate for children, and I think he’s bothered by that,” said Brent Bozell of the MRC.

In a press statement following the meeting, the White House added that “the President acknowledged some studies have indicated there is a correlation between video game violence and real violence. The conversation centered on whether violent video games, including games that graphically simulate killing, desensitize our community to violence.”

It is not the first time that President Trump made a connection between violence in video games and real violence. He has been quite vocal about his thoughts on the matter in the past...


... even if studies showed no correlation between the two, as the ESA pointed out: "We discussed the numerous scientific studies establishing that there is no connection between video games and violence, First Amendment protection of video games, and how our industry’s rating system effectively helps parents make informed entertainment choices."

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who was also at the meeting, also acknowledged that there is no evidence linking violent video games to the tragedy in Parkland. But he said he wanted to ensure “parents are aware of the resources available to them to monitor and control the entertainment their children are exposed to.”

"The tone of the meeting was that it was for information gathering, fact finding," the PTC's Melissa Henson said. "I don't believe anyone came in there with a policy outcome in mind. The President was not walking in there with his mind already made up. I am under the impression there will be future conversations, though no next steps were discussed."
___________________________________________​

While nothing consequential went down during this specific meeting, similar ones are bound to happen, especially in the wake of increasing reports of public violence. Decisions might then be made that will have a heavy impact on the video game industry.

Views are highly divided regarding the issue of violence and video games. This will probably remain the case in the foreseeable future until a consensus is met, however unlikely that may be. But what do you think? Is there a correlation? Are there any changes that need to be made within the video game industry that can help to curb real-world violence?

rsz_trump_video_games_meeting.jpg
 

dimmidice

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"And how our industry’s rating system effectively helps parents make informed entertainment choices."

Well that's clearly bollocks.

As for the whole videogame creating killers debate.I think violent games can sate a violent persons appetites in a safe way. But i also think some people may think their appetites are normal from playing games
which could potentially be dangerous. I'd say the former happens more than the latter though.


We all know why trump's taken an interest in this though. That school shooting a while ago. trump wants a scapegoat for that, while at the same time ignoring the fact that the guy was a trump supporter. And if anything incites violence it's trump"s speeches.
 

Kioku

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"And how our industry’s rating system effectively helps parents make informed entertainment choices."

Well that's clearly bollocks.

As for the whole videogame creating killers debate.I think violent games can sate a violent persons appetites in a safe way. But i also think some people may think their appetites are normal from playing games
which could potentially be dangerous. I'd say the former happens more than the latter though.


We all know why trump's taken an interest in this though. That school shooting a while ago. trump wants a scapegoat for that, while at the same time ignoring the fact that the guy was a trump supporter. And if anything incites violence it's trump"s speeches.
You're actually using Trump as an excuse for how disturbed the guy was? REALLY?
 

dimmidice

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You're actually using Trump as an excuse for how disturbed the guy was? REALLY?
His speeches incite violence, he was inciting people to beat up protestors by saying he'd pay their legal fees. But no i don't think that trump caused the guy to go mental. Though the guy probably was a trump supporter because he was mental.
 

jt_1258

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"And how our industry’s rating system effectively helps parents make informed entertainment choices."

Well that's clearly bollocks.

As for the whole videogame creating killers debate.I think violent games can sate a violent persons appetites in a safe way. But i also think some people may think their appetites are normal from playing games
which could potentially be dangerous. I'd say the former happens more than the latter though.


We all know why trump's taken an interest in this though. That school shooting a while ago. trump wants a scapegoat for that, while at the same time ignoring the fact that the guy was a trump supporter. And if anything incites violence it's trump"s speeches.
How is it not having them informed? It's a matter of the parents not understanding or not caring about their child playing gory violent games. Which games like cod that are known to have a lot of children playing has blatantly shown right on the box.
2ps8z841dpty.png
limited-edition-call-of-duty-wwii-ps4-bundle-esrb-logo-01-ps4-us-13sep17.png
 

Old

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Hark - the orange dotard tweets more garbled propaganda aimed at inciting his (angry, uneducated, dickless) base!
(Or rather, what remains of his base, these days....80% Russiabots, 10% trailer court inbreeders, 10% easily conned dummies.)

Hurry, Bob, while we've still got some semblance of a democracy LEFT!
 
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Taleweaver

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You have got to be kidding me...

The guy pretty much singlehandedly starts an international trade war. Let me spell that out for you:

AN

INTERNATIONAL

TRADE

WAR



There are things that could be worse on this planet (like...countries launching nucleair missiles at each other). But not much.


Yet what does he do? He is concerned about video games. FREAKING VIDEO GAMES!!!


Yes, it's my hobby. Yes, I'm concerned for it. But I also have a freaking sense of perspective. Video games aren't a necessity. Countries agreeing with each other is a large kind of exponential magnitude more important.

Americans: seriously...throw that sociopath out of the white house. He has already caused some serious damage to your reputation. Please don't make it harder for his successor to just undo all his stupidity (assuming the trade war doesn't escalate into an actual one).
 

BlueFox gui

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lmao he is so fucking dumb
his retarded country have a lot of problems, some parents can't even educate their children, and what is their excuse?
"vido gaemz maek our kidz violent, their irresponsible parents and people around them have nothing with that, it's aaaaaall vedo gaemz fault"
omg
trump shouldn't exist
 

jt_1258

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Also, I just have to say this.

Parents: "Oh no, the games are making our children violent."
*Try's to fight the game industry while continuing to let their child play whatever the fuck they want on the ps4 s, xbox1 s, & switche s.*
 

Sheimi

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Americans: seriously...throw that sociopath out of the white house. He has already caused some serious damage to your reputation. Please don't make it harder for his successor to just undo all his stupidity (assuming the trade war doesn't escalate into an actual one).
If people are willing to get their heads out of their asses.
 
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DaTank45

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How is it not having them informed? It's a matter of the parents not understanding or not caring about their child playing gory violent games. Which games like cod that are known to have a lot of children playing has blatantly shown right on the box.
View attachment 117016 View attachment 117017
The real answer is bad parenting when it comes to any type of violence being consumed by children. Whether its through video games, movies, TV, internet, etc... If for some reason they censor all of the violence by these media types, what happens? Everyone just behaves and doesn't make poor decisions? The parents should be held accountable along with the children that commit these terrible acts of violence.
 

Meteor7

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What an absurdly ignorant way of thinking. Do they honestly think that portraying violence in a much more fluffy, abstract, and inconsequential way will dissuade people from committing those acts as opposed to the visceral depictions in that video? Of course not, because the more you abstract and remove the concept of aggression from the bloody, gory, unpleasant consequences violence will actually have, the less averse a person would be to the act altogether. It removes the guttural, putrid reaction that seeing the results of that kind of violence will invoke in people, and serve to normalize and trivialize acts like murder in the minds of those who see it. We just saw that effect right here; people were shown those acts of violence in all the gory detail and their reaction was not "hey, look at that, murder is SO COOL" it was 'stunned silence'. They were disgusted and put off by what they saw. The more dangerous act is to make those forms of violence not evoke those feelings of disgust, which is apparently exactly what these backwards blowhards intend to do.
 

jt_1258

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The real answer is bad parenting when it comes to any type of violence being consumed by children. Whether its through video games, movies, TV, internet, etc... If for some reason they censor all of the violence by these media types, what happens? Everyone just behaves and doesn't make poor decisions? The parents should be held accountable along with the children that commit these terrible acts of violence.
Ya, that's why I said some don't care. They just say "Here kid, have some money and grab whatever the fuck ya want." and don't look at or care about the age rating. The most leaneancy my parents ever gave was by a couple of years of the age rating or really old games like Diablo 2 that are likely to drop down in age rating if they were reevaluated by the esrb today.
 
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