Videogames are violent. Really, Mr Trump?
I’ve spoken before about censorship and also about my take on gun control in the US. Yet only last week, an argument had been resurrected that I speculated was something that would be left in the past as an interesting fact on how backwards thinking people are capable of being. I’m of course referring to Donald Trump’s ‘think-tank’ on how to clamp down on violent video games in light of yet another mass shooting in a school.
The video they used to illustrate their point is available on YouTube. It is a couple of minutes of graphic kill scenes from a variety of games. The main thing missing from these videos is any form of context whatsoever. You can compile footage from any form of media to show almost anything you want to criticise them for is prevalent. To do this, you also must omit any form of context. The footage they use shows scenes from games where the player is either an allied soldier fighting Nazis, a survivor in a hostile wasteland or a zombie apocalypse, and characters trying to escape from a serial killer. In the context of all of those games, the general theme is kill or be killed, or in the case of the serial killer, it is an adaptation of a series of movies with sequels numbering in the double digits.
I’m not saying those games aren’t violent, far from it. They do have extreme violence in them. The violence is also less graphic and visceral than scenes found in many popular movies, or in some cases even TV shows. I’m not suggesting, unlike Donald Trump seems to be, that violence in any media causes real world events – that is absurd and has been debunked by many years of research. I think what is important to note is that at no point is anyone subjected to that level of sustained violence as depicted in the video. There is always a break, be it a cut scene, or a change in pace or even a game over screen if you are a scrub.
What really shocked me was the notion put forward that ‘nothing’ is being done to prevent children gaining access to this media. For a rogue senator (often corrupt) to make statements like this, as has been historically the case, it is usually an attempt to gain exposure and a name for themselves. For a president to do it, it is worrying. It means that not only are they not aware of the world around them, but also that no-one is willing to correct them when they are wrong. What implications does that have for things such as foreign policy? Just to make it clear, in the US and abroad, the exact same measures are taken to prevent kids from buying Grand Theft Auto as there are to stop them purchasing The Human Centipede. There are age restrictions on the games boxes, clearly displayed, and fines for stores caught supplying them to people not of that age. Of course, younger people do get to play them and they get to see age restricted films too. But the responsibility for that lies with parents, not the government.
An attempt to pin the causes of recent tragic events on the media also makes the Trump administration look a bit thick. Videogames are not exclusive to the US, in some cases it isn’t even the biggest market. People are playing these games worldwide in huge numbers. Grand Theft Auto V, the poster game for any debates on these issues, has sold 90 million copies across the globe. Even if these types of games affected 1% of the people that play them, that would be around 900,000 people committing violent acts on earth from that game alone – it would be an epidemic crime wave. It is far more logical to suggest that gamers are less likely to be out committing crimes, since they are spending so much time playing the games at home. It wouldn’t necessarily be true, but in light of crime rates in other countries where these types of games sell well, it makes a lot more sense.
I suspect the reason behind this ‘debate’ isn’t that anyone concerned genuinely sees these things as a threat, they probably just don’t like them. But a high profile attack on something many people enjoy serves as a distraction from finally sitting down and discussing that there might be a correlation between the ease of access to firearms and mass shootings. Or perhaps it is an analogy for an attack on the ‘right’ to bear arms? 15 million gun owners in the US who clearly like them, they aren’t all killers, not even a high percentage of them, why should the good ones suffer? I highly doubt America’s president is that thoughtful. Far more likely to be the distraction of the former, on behalf of the generous donors from the NRA. It is clear to the rest of the world that something productive needs to be done to try and prevent more children from dying. With last week’s videogame debate, it seems that they would rather trample on the First Amendment to protect the second.
My debut novel, The Night out of available on Amazon here. Link is to UK site, but it is also available in most other amazon regions too, where shipping charges will be less.
