MULTI President Trump will meet next week with members of the video game industry (update)

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The level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts

President Trump, weighing in on the ongoing conversation about gun violence in America, suggested laying the blame partly at the feet of pop culture today, citing violent movies and video games as possible causes of the problem.
“We have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it, and also, video games,” said Trump, speaking during a discussion on school safety at the White House. “I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.”
The president is not the only politician, especially on the Republican side, to bring out this old chestnut following last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 14 students and three staff members were killed. Within two days of the shooting, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin had given multiple interviews in which he pointed to violent video games as a factor in such events.
“There are video games, that yes, are listed for mature audiences, but kids play them and everybody knows it and there’s nothing to prevent the child from playing them, that celebrate the slaughtering of people,” Gov. Bevin said in a radio interview.

Florida shooting survivor on Trump’s comment about video games: “That’s just a really pathetic excuse… I grew up playing video games… first-person shooter games and I would never, ever dream of taking the lives of any of my peers so it’s just pathetic”https://t.co/VfXvVkwQmqpic.twitter.com/rBmbqf6dQS
— CNN (@CNN) February 22, 2018​

Young people have counteracted this narrative, as they have every time it is stated. The survivors of the Stoneman Douglas shooting have taken to activism, gaining a national profile as they advocate for gun control legislation. Following Trump’s comments today, CNN interviewed a student at the school who did not hold back in his response.
“That’s just a really pathetic excuse on behalf of the president,” said Chris Grady, 19, a senior. “I grew up playing video games — you know, Call of Duty, all those kind of first-person shooter games — and I would never, ever dream of taking the lives of any of my peers. So it’s just, it’s pathetic.”
In addition to calling out violence in movies and video games, Trump said that the Parkland shooting had led his administration to consider taking action on policy measuresto directly address access to guns.
“Everybody in this room, I can tell you,” said Trump, referencing the federal, state and local officials present at the meeting, “they’re into doing background checks that they wouldn’t be thinking about maybe two weeks ago.”
The president also said he would “work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18,” a comment referring to proposals that would raise the minimum age for buying certain types of weapons. In addition, Trump pointed out that he directed the Department of Justice to suggest banning bump stocks earlier this week, and said his administration would be “focusing very strongly on mental health.”



Trump reserved harsher comments for films, saying that the current movie rating system, which is administered by the Motion Picture Association of America, may be insufficient in appropriately characterizing and categorizing on-screen violence.
“You see these movies, they’re so violent, and yet, a kid is able to see the movie if sex isn’t involved,” said Trump. “But killing is involved. And maybe they have to put a rating system for that.”
The MPAA has taken plenty of flak over the years for its rating system. Kirby Dick’s 2006 documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated pointed out discrepancies between the way the organization handles, for instance, sexual content versus violent content. A 2013 study published in the journal Pediatrics found that gun violence in films rated PG-13 had more than tripled since 1985, the first full year that rating was in effect, and that in 2012, weapons were more prevalent in PG-13 movies than in R-rated films. The authors of another study published in the same journal later in 2013 focused on how often violence appears in movies alongside sex, drugs and alcohol, and said that their findings “raise serious concerns about the effectiveness of the MPAA rating system.”

 

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[h=1]President Trump will meet next week with members of the video game industry (update)[/h]

[h=2]Senate will not consider new gun legislation at this time[/h]

President Donald Trump will meet with representatives of the video game industry next week, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said today. The announcement comes in the wake of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.
The comment was made in response to a question from the Associated Press today at the White House briefing. Reporter Zeke Miller asked why the president was unable to get legislators to “bend to his will” on matters of gun control.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily about ‘bending to his will,’” Sanders said. “I think it’s about an ongoing discussion about the best pieces of legislation that they can put forward. Yesterday was certainly an important part of that.”
Here, Sanders was referring to a meeting with lawmakers in which President Trump said that, among other things, he would prefer to simply take guns away from violent individuals rather than follow due process through the courts. NPR described the event as“freewheeling” and President Trump’s positions as “conflicting.”
Miller’s question also comes after today’s decision by lawmakers to move on from considering any gun legislation in favor of discussing unrelated banking measures. With regard to President Trump’s will, Sanders dodged the question, and instead offered up the video game industry as a potentially more malleable target.
“The president has met with a number of stakeholders,” she continued. “Next week, he’ll also be meeting with members of the video game industry to see what they can do on that front as well. This is going to be an ongoing process and something that we don’t expect to happen overnight, but something that we’re going to continue to be engaged in and continue to look for the best ways possible to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect schools across the country.”


It’s unclear what role, if any, video games played in the Parkland shooting, where a disturbed 19-year-old man allegedly pulled a fire alarm before gunning down his classmates with an AR-15-style assault weapon. That has not stopped President Trump from pointing the finger at what he sees as an entertainment medium that glorifies killing.
“The video games, the movies, the internet stuff is so violent. It’s so incredible,” Trump said, during the same meeting yesterday with lawmakers. “I see it. I get to see things that you would be — you’d be amazed at. I have a young — very young son who — I look at some of the things he’s watching, and I say, ‘How is that possible?’ And this is what kids are watching.
“And I think you maybe have to take a look at it. You know, you rate movies for different things. Maybe you have to also rate them for terror, for what they’re doing and what they’re all about.”
Video games have had a formalized rating system, administered by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, since 1994.
Polygon has reached out to the Entertainment Software Association for comment.
Update: Reached for comment, the Entertainment Software Association told Polygon that neither it nor its members, which include most of the industry’s high-profile developers and publishers, had heard from the Trump administration yet.
“ESA and our member companies have not received an invitation to meet with President Trump,” it said in a statement.
The ESA describes itself as a trade association “dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish computer and video games.” Its role includes lobbying activities with the U.S. government on behalf of its members, which include Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony as well as Activision, Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Ubisoft and virtually every other large games publisher in the multibillion-dollar global industry.
“The same video games played in the US are played worldwide,” the ESA added, “however, the level of gun violence is exponentially higher in the US than in other countries. Numerous authorities have examined the scientific record and found there is no link between media content and real-life violence.
“The US video game industry has a long history of partnering with parents and more than 20 years of rating video games through the Entertainment Software Rating Board. We take great steps to provide tools to help players and parents make informed entertainment decisions.”

 

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Sighhhhhhhhh

 

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[h=1]Now we know who is going to Trump’s video games meeting[/h]

[h=2]Contentious encounter likely as anti-games politicians invited along with games execs[/h]

We now know who will be attending President Donald Trump’s White House meeting with game industry representatives. A story in the Washington Post yesterday released the names, most of which have yet to be officially confirmed by the White House.
Robert Altman, the CEO of ZeniMax (parent company of Bethesda), will attend. Trump’s brother Robert Trump serves on the board of ZeniMax, but is not expected to attend. Strauss Zelnick, chief executive of Take-Two, is also invited. Take-Two is best known for publishing the Grand Theft Auto series, which has attracted much media attention and political heat over the years. As already confirmed, Entertainment Software Association head Michael Gallagher will also be there.
But the meeting will also feature fierce critics of video games, including Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and Brent Bozell, founder of the Parents Television Council.



Bozell is also the head of the Media Research Center, which describes itself as a nonprofit media watchdog organization. It regularly highlights anti-video game articles that align with its conservative values, including praising a 60 Minutes report on the Grand Theft Auto series from 2005 andcondemning the Indiegogo campaign for Choice: Texas, an interactive fiction game that aims to shine a light on issues with the lack of abortion access in Texas.
Hartzler describes herself as an ardent opponent of gun control. In the immediate aftermath of the killings in Florida, she posted the following statement. “Heartbroken over the violence and loss of life in Florida. My prayers go out to all those impacted. We must find better ways to protect our children at schools.”
“Banning guns isn’t the answer to preventing violence any more than banning cars would be the answer to preventing people from being killed in car accidents,” Hartzler wrote in anopinion piece in 2013 after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 26 dead. “The cause, not the tool, should be the focus. We must have a meaningful conversation about mental health issues and other possible cultural and societal contributors to violent behavior, such as violence in video games.”
Trump called the meeting after making comments about the purported effects of violent video games. He was commenting on the murder of 17 people at a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, three weeks ago. On Feb. 14, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Cruz had a history of behavioral problems. He made hateful social media comments about minorities. He was also a keen video game player.


“We have to look at the Internet, because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed,” said Trump during a meeting in the days after the shooting. “And we have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it. And also video games. I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts. And then you go the further step, and that’s the movies. You see these movies, they’re so violent and yet a kid is able to see a movie if sex isn’t involved, but killing is involved. Maybe they have to put a rating system for that.”
The National Rifle Association and its supporters have a long history of blaming video games for mass shootings. Researchers have spent years looking for links between violent games and violent behavior, with none yet found.
There is precedent for the meeting, including the appearance of Altman and Gallagher. In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, game industry officials were invited to the White House to speak with then-Vice President Joe Biden. That meeting featured a wide array of game executives including ESRB head Patricia Vance, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, then-Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello and Epic Games board member and former president Mike Capps, as well as Altman and Gallagher.
Biden said: “I come to this meeting with no judgment. You all know the judgment other people have made.” The meeting was later described as “cordial” and “reasonable.”
Last week, the White House announced a meeting with the game industry to discuss gun violence. That caught the team at the ESA completely by surprise; the organization wasn’t formally invited until the following Monday. The meeting has now officially been scheduled for 2 p.m. ET today, though no official list of attendees has yet been posted. It’s not known yet whether live cameras will be at the meeting.



In yesterday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that President Trump “wants to continue the conversation on every different area that we can to help promote school safety.” Asked whether the president thinks video games are too violent, Sanders responded, “It’s certainly something that should be looked at and something that we want to have the conversation about.”
Yesterday morning, The Daily Beast published an article that said President Trump plans to pin the blame for gun violence on the game industry at large. Quoting anonymous sources, it said that the Trump White House is scrambling to “cobble together some semblance of a serious policy meeting.”
The Daily Beast also reported that members of the game industry have called the meeting with the Trump administration “pointless,” and have referred to it as a “stunt” and a “dog and pony show.”
We’ll have more on the meeting as events unfold during the day.
Correction: The Stoneman Douglas High School shooting claimed the lives of 14 students and three staff members, not 16 students and one teacher. We’ve edited the article to reflect this.

 

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[h=1]Here’s how violent the Trump administration thinks video games are[/h]

[h=2]*collar pull*[/h]

Following a private meeting this afternoon in which President Donald Trump discussed violence in video games with a number of stakeholders, the White House published a video on its official YouTube channel meant to illustrate just how violent games can be.
The compilation — which appears to consist of game footage lifted from various YouTube channels, watermarks and all — runs for under a minute and a half, but packs as much violence as possible into that span. Highlighted games include multiple Call of Duty titles, with a lengthy segment dedicated to the infamous “No Russian” mission from 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, as well as Wolfenstein: The New Order, Dead by Daylight,Fallout 4 and Sniper Elite 4.
Attendees at today’s meeting included game industry officials — the administration invited Entertainment Software Association president Michael Gallagher, ESRB president Patricia Vance, and publisher executives such as Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick — as well as media critics and legislators. However, for the latter two groups, the White House only invited individuals from the right side of the political spectrum: conservative critics such as Media Research Council president Brent Bozell and Republican lawmakers like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.



Trump reportedly opened the meeting by playing the video, asking, “This is violent, isn’t it?” There’s no denying that much of the footage is gruesome, with multiple instances of people’s heads exploding into gibs. One of the last clips is a slow-motion kill shot fromSniper Elite 4 — a hallmark of the franchise — in which a sniper’s bullet breaks open a skull seen in X-ray vision. (This is even the thumbnail for the video.)
Here’s how the White House characterized today’s meeting in a statement it released afterward: “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’s clear that the White House was trying to portray video games in the most negative light possible, as it pertains to violence. However, Trump reportedly seemed open-minded in his approach to the discussion. The session was one of multiple meetings about gun violence and school safety that the Trump administration has held following the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed.

 

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[h=1]‘This is violent, isn’t it?’[/h]

[h=2]Trump begins game industry meeting with gaming sizzle reel[/h]

At the White House earlier today, President Donald Trump sat down for a round table meeting with a few game industry execs, as well as a group of determined critics of games. Trump began the meeting by screening a montage of games, commenting “This is violent, isn’t it?”
The meeting was closed to members of the press, but the Washington Post spoke to a few attendees right after the gathering. At this point, information about the meeting is mostly coming from the game industry’s critics. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Republican from Missouri, furnished the information about the sizzle reel. “They were violent clips where individuals were killing other human beings in various ways,” she said.



For game industry insiders, the meeting is seen as a diversionary tactic to take attention away from the gun lobby and the National Rifle Association, which is facing strong public opposition in the aftermath of the murder of 17 people at a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, three weeks ago. On Feb. 14, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Cruz had a history of behavioral problems. He made hateful social media comments about minorities. He was also a keen video game player.
Trump called the meeting after making comments widely seen as an attempt to shift blame to the games industry. “We have to look at the Internet, because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed,” said Trumpduring a meeting in the days after the shooting. “And we have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it. And also video games. I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts. And then you go the further step, and that’s the movies. You see these movies, they’re so violent and yet a kid is able to see a movie if sex isn’t involved, but killing is involved. Maybe they have to put a rating system for that.”



From the games industry, the meeting was attended by Robert Altman, the CEO of ZeniMax (parent company of Bethesda) and Strauss Zelnick, chief executive of Take-Two. Entertainment Software Association head Michael Gallagher was also there. The game industry has yet to make an official comment.
According to Melissa Henson, program director for the Parents Television Council, the meeting was “respectful but contentious.” Henson believes that violent video games are having a negative effect on society. She said that the game industry execs stood their ground in asserting that there is no connection between video game violence and real world violence, something that is broadly borne out by years of research into the matter.
But Trump, who backed down on calls to regulate the sale of guns following a meeting with the NRA, may be leaning on the side of gaming’s critics. Brent Bozell, president of the strongly anti-games Media Research Council, said, “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.” Bozell told the president that games need to be regulated in the same way as tobacco and alcohol.
Update: The Entertainment Software Association has released comments to Polygon following today’s meeting with the Trump administration. It stands by previous statementsthat video games are not to blame for gun violence in the United States.
“We welcomed the opportunity today to meet with the President and other elected officials at the White House,” said the ESA. “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. We appreciate the President’s receptive and comprehensive approach to this discussion.”
Update 2: The White House released an unlisted version of the video montage that Trump presented to those gathered during the meeting. It is embedded below.



Update 3: The International Game Developers Association, a non-profit that represents members of the development industry, decried the association between video games and gun violence in a tweet thread following Trump’s meeting on the subject.
“Let’s be blunt on video games and gun violence-we will not be used as a scapegoat,” the IGDA account tweeted. “ The facts are very clear-no study has shown a causal relationship between playing video games and gun violence.”
The entire thread spans seven tweets, with the conclusion being this:
“Making video games-or any form of media-a scapegoat for consistently refusing to even CONSIDER the reasonable, rational firearm restrictions Americans want and deserve isn’t fooling anyone.”