Here’s The Video Trump Showed ESA At The White House Meeting: “This Is Violent, Isn’t It?”
Paolo Sirio
The much-anticipated meeting with US President Donald Trump and ESA reps has been held a few hours ago, and it kicked off with a video prepared by someone at the White House. You can see it below.
According to reports, Trump himself asked the attendees: “this is violent, isn’t it?”. The video features footage from Call of Duty (the infamous airport scene is in it at some point, of course), Sniper Elite, Fallout and more popular video games.
To that question, ESA reps, among which you can find Take Two’s Strauss Zelnick (GTA publisher), responded of course that those games have a violent component in them but are not meant to be offered to kids. And that there are studies that prove there isn’t a correlation between gun violence and gaming.
The Verge reports the meeting was “a strange one” and that “attendees said there was the little serious talk of government restrictions on content (which would present significant legal challenges), and the conversation focused on more robust age restrictions or voluntary measures that could be undertaken by the industry itself.”
“The president encouraged [game developers] to explore things they can do on their own to make things healthier in society,” said Media Research Center President Brent Bozell, hinting at the fact that more meetings will probably be held, both with the video games and movie industries. “And that’s where it was left.”
Trump was apparently keen to understand the positions of the ESA.
“The President acknowledged some studies have indicated there is a correlation between video game violence and real violence,” said the White House in a statement after the meeting. “The conversation centered on whether violent video games, including games that graphically simulate killing, desensitize our community to violence.”
ESA, which organizes the annual E3, added in a note:
“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,” said The ESA in a statement.
You can see the video below. It is violent, isn’t it…?
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