Posted by It would seem that “Video Games are Bad” has become a hot topic yet again in the wake of continued incidents of gun violence across the US. This time however, it’s coming straight from the mouth of the President, who just this week, met with parent groups, members of Congress, and the video game industry group, the ESA. President Trump has made some negative, but vague comments on the issue, and that he was “hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.”
The meeting has since come and gone, and it seems like nothing really occurred. Headlines suggest that no substantial action is being considered, and that the meeting was overall unproductive. However, the fact that this meeting occurred at all is cause for some concern, and we should take note of how things went down, because this is not the first time the medium has been under scrutiny, and I’m certain it won’t be the last.
The ESA represented the games industry during the meeting.
While the meeting was closed to press, we have gotten some info on what happened during. The most eye-catching detail being the showing of a video, about a minute and a half long, consisting of examples of violent content in games. It includes clips from The Evil Within, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Fallout 4, and more. The clips include brutal takedown animations, violent cutscenes, player death animations, and some standard gameplay. Most of it is undeniably quite brutal. Of particular note however is Modern Warfare’s infamous “No Russian” level, where the player, as an undercover agent, participates in a terrorist attack on a Russian airport, encouraging the player to shoot at crowds of civilians.
“Remember, No Russian.”
The inclusion of this scene is especially interesting, in part because it was quite famously controversial, to the point that the controversy has its own Wikipedia entry, and because it also highlights how these clips have been stripped of context. For the record, I personally think the whole controversy was somewhat overblown, and that the scene, while not handled as well as it could have been, was an important part of Modern Warfare 2’s story. The objection raised by this video can only be assumed, but the general idea seems to be that violence in video games is too extreme, and could affect the minds of those who play them. However, that seems to be coming from the assumption that these scenes are glorifying the violence that occurs, and if one were to view “No Russian” in that context, it’s fairly easy to make a connection between what appears to be glorification of a mass shooting, and the mass shootings the US has experienced. This video however, is at best misleading, and at worst, intentionally dishonest about the scene, and indeed many of the things it displays.
“No Russian” was so controversial, the game actually offered to let players skip the level in its entirety
“No Russian,” as anyone who played it would be able to tell you, in no way presents the terrorists as heroic, or in any way glorifies them or the player for their actions. In fact, the mission ends with the protagonist being shot by the villain, in order to frame America as the culprits, and the undercover operation backfires spectacularly. The whole experience is a mess of complicated moral questions surrounding the protagonist’s, and the U.S government’s actions in bringing about that event. To simplify that whole experience into nothing more than “player shoots civilians” is either uninformed, or deliberately misleading, and once again we are faced with the accusation that a piece of media depicting something is tantamount to endorsement, which has never, ever been the case.
Other scenes from the video include an American soldier being violently shot, the villain of a Call of Duty title being killed with a throwing knife, a scene of a Nazi being brutally stabbed, and a graphic “X-Ray” shot of a kill in Sniper Elite. While these scenes are perhaps more of a cause for concern, lacking the more complicated context of “No Russian,” it seems the meeting had little to say about how these scenes are unique from other entertainment, and that most suggestions were more along the lines of self regulation, or more stringent age requirements, rather than direct legislative action. In fact, Representative Vicky Hartzler, one of the more prominent government critics of the games industry suggested that “Discussions should not be limited to just video games and guns,” and that “similar meetings with the movie industry pertaining to gun violence on film should also be conducted.” However, the exasperating moralizing surrounding this discussion creeped in yet again when Hartzler also commented that “Even though I know there are studies that have said there is no causal link, as a mom and a former high school teacher, it just intuitively seems that prolonged viewing of violent nature would desensitize a young person,” seemingly exposing, yet again, that this controversy is rooted more in the soil of moral panic than actual concrete evidence.
The death of Modern Warfare 2‘s main villain, included in the video
Another interesting comment that came out after the release of this video was from Warren Spector, developer of Deus Ex and System Shock, who said that every shot included was “simply disgusting” and that everyone affiliated with the games “should be ashamed of themselves.” Spector clarified that he did not believe video games cause violence, but that those who created the games shown “hurt us,” likely referring to the medium as a whole. I’d like to strongly push back against such attitudes, as it attempts to shame hundreds if not thousands of individuals who have done absolutely nothing wrong. This debate comes around time and time again, and if there’s one thing that’s not going to help, it’s attempting to throw people under the bus for creating what should, by all rights, be considered legitimate art, worthy of the protections afforded to all other mediums.
The ESA, for their part, seems to have made a good case for themselves, releasing a statement that, during the meeting, they had “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.” Whether or not one may agree with every position the ESA takes, it seems they are still willing and capable to protect the industry, and by extension, the medium, when the chips are down, and they deserve props for that, at the very least.
The only game that scares me
Overall, this whole mini-fiasco has thankfully been fairly uneventful. Everyone walked in not knowing what this meant for the medium, and it seems they have walked out without any intent to take things further. If anything, the stoking of anger against the gaming industry seems to have highlighted just how insubstantial much of that anger truly is, with a number of uninformed comments made and a meeting that essentially consisted of an experienced industry lobby versus a couple of sparsely informed parent groups. It’s an argument that has grown old and tired: a new medium gets its foot in the door and is suddenly blamed for the world’s problems.
To be frank, the suggestion that violent games are the root cause, or even an incidental cause of violence is, at this point, laughable. Or it would be, if these suggestions were not reaching of the ear of America’s President who then goes on to take them seriously. Even leaving aside the studies that show no correlation between fictional violence and real world violence, even leaving aside the fact that these scenes are often far more complex than violence = good, even leaving aside the fact that none of the games talked about are even intended for children in the first place, violent media has always existed for centuries, and will always exist regardless of medium, and while discussion of violent media should be welcomed, legislation is an incredible overreaction to a problem that, for all practical purposes, does not truly exist. So in short, while this meeting seems unlikely to turn into anything more serious, we should be on the alert, because it has shown that this debate is not truly over, and the medium is only ever one stray comment away from being back on the defensive. So please, if you truly care about the future of gaming, be informed, be aware, and if it ever becomes necessary, be ready to contact your representatives to protect the freedom of creators who work within that medium. If this is a battle that we still have to fight, let’s be prepared to fight.