In a world that gun possession and aggressive behavior, the least gamers want is an open war on video games. Just like it happened with other types of entertainment in the past, video games are in the spotlight and blamed for violence in real life. Today, in the White House, Donald Trump met several gaming industry representatives to discuss the matter. After it, Jennifer MacLean, Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), appeared on MSNBC to discuss the day’s Trump administration meeting on video games and gun violence.
When asked about whether or not video games influence people and make them act aggressively in America, she seemed to be swinging the blame mostly to the states than to video games themselves. She stated:
There are two things to consider here. First, we play exactly the same games that the rest of the world plays. There’s no science to support a causal relationship between video games and gun violence but there is the common sense element.
If video games caused gun violence why aren’t they causing gun violence in the rest of the world? The thing that sets the United States apart is our access to firearms not the games we play or the media we consume.
Up until now, parents haven’t been extremely mindful of game rating and that causes extremely violent games ending up at the hands of minors. According to MacLean, this discussion is clearly a distraction from the real issue, however, it can help parents to get familiar with game ratings when buying a video game. Furthermore, parents should be aware of the content of the video game their child is playing.
Last but not least, the IGDA Executive Director informed the caster that only 11% of all games sold in the United States, which brings out a whole new subject wanting all video games being “bad” and corruptive, to which she states that they are actually a form of free speech and art.
Do you agree? What do you think about the whole “war” against video games raging on at the moment?
