Experts recount how videogames dodged a Presidential bullet

Posted by on January 16, 2013 in Games

Remember when Vice President Joe Biden summoned various folks to Washington to consider options for the President’s response to the shooting in Newtown? As you may recall, representatives of the videogame industry were included in the group. Gamasutra spoke briefly with two of the people present at that summit, Cheryl Olsen, the co-author of Grand Theft Childhood, and Christopher Ferguson, a clinical psychologist at Texas A&M who studies violent behavior.

According to Olsen:

[Vice President Biden] said upfront that he didn’t think the evidence he’d seen showed a link between violent video games and real life violence. And he said even if the research were to show a link, it would be a tiny influence compared to the influence of the other factors he was looking at.

Is it any surprise that the Obama Administration had an entirely reasonable perspective on the issue from the get-go?

  • Brad Grenz

    It’s obvious now he was just trying to get a press account on Steam.

  • Afiemb R. Kewpovchiin

    Kudos to the Veep for having a rational response. Now where is the mainstream media coverage of this? Maybe a video clip we can parade around the next time the issue comes around?

  • Random

    Why would you expect the mainstream media to cover that point? The media (of either political bias) has always loved running those segments on the horrors of video games, designed to scare unknowing parents. So the NRA made the dumb statement this time, but in the past the media has been quick to find an “expert” to link these tragedies to video games almost every time going back to the 90s. They wouldn’t want to lose those ratings.

  • Chris H.

    It is a very reasonable and reasoned response, and those in the meeting were welcoming of the opportunity and in agreement that industry-sponsored (but not conducted) studies were a good idea. Now, that said, go read the comments at the link Tom posted, and be worried. You’d have thought–based on the timbre of the comments there–that Biden had just suggested banning all games with an M rating or something as severe.

    That’s my big worry here. I see the NRA as this organization that somehow in the last 30 years turned into a group of wild-eyed crazy folks who were never willing to listen to common sense and make intelligent compromises that would aid them and their constituency longterm and are now forced to defend the indefensible. Upon reading the comments at Gamasutra, I’m worried that the gaming industry could absolutely be every bit as full on the margins of similarly inflexible, crazyshines douchebags as the NRA.

  • Brutix

    I guess it doesn’t surprise me. The obama administration wants to disarm us at this point, not stop us from playing video games, so winning favor in this industry is an uncharacteristic smart move for them.

    I support a lot of what the NRA does, but they are so worried about losing our right to bear arms that they are making enemies where they shouldn’t be by making ridiculous statements like they are doing about video games. Not good, guys!

  • Gandalf Parker

    It doesnt surprise me. They do have access to a ton of studies in order to weed out the news trolls topics as not needing to waste time on.

    IF (big IF) there were a link Id suspect it would boil down to be more about time than content. Anything can be overdone. If you are going to look at spoon-fed subjects of violence then it would include Games, TV, Movies, Music, Sports, and possibly even too much time spent in Sunday School class. It bounces back to parents to avoid total immersion. IMHO

  • EyebrowsMulligan

    Not at all. Their focus is and has been weapons. So why not hold a meeting with some video game folks, check the box, and quietly say “I suppose they’re ok…for now.” They’ll be back around after they’ve fried their bigger fish.