IGDA Chimes in on Game-Violence Controversy

Today, the US president and the ESA will be meeting to discuss the impact of video games on children, and how video games might be responsible for the actions of killers like the shooter in Florida a few weeks ago. While we don't know the outcome of this meeting yet, I don't think its going to be a surprise how it goes: the ESA is going to say video games are not linked to any kind of real-world violence, and the republican president will do everything in his power to blame anything and everything except the mass prevalence and easy access to guns, which is as unique to our country as the frequency of mass shootings.

While the meeting is largely between the ESA and Trump, there are other games-related organizations who feel they have a voice in the discussion: one such group would be the International Game Developers Association, or the IGDA, who had some very powerful words to share over Twitter yesterday. It's a long read, but a worthwhile one, so you're getting the whole thing.

Let's be blunt on video games and gun violence-we will not be used as a scapegoat. The facts are very clear-no study has shown a causal relationship between playing video games and gun violence. The Supreme Court has clearly established video games as protected free speech in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. And the stereotype of gamers as disaffected teenage boys is simply untrue; 41% of the 150M+ gamers in the United States are women, and more women over 35 play video games than boys under 18. The United States plays the same video games as the rest of the world, but we're unique in our problem with gun violence. Gamers come from all walks of life. We're all genders, all ages. We're teachers and students, parents and children. Overwhelmingly, we're law-abiding citizens who agree with the majority of Americans who support reasonable gun control measures like stronger background checks, banning bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, and a minimum purchase age of 21 for all firearms. Making video games-or any form of media-a scapegoat for consistently refusing to even CONSIDER the reasonable, rational firearm restrictions Americans want and deserve isn't fooling anyone.

It's unlikely they needed to say this: the ESA will say the same thing but in gentler terms. But its still nice to see their passions roused. That's what brings change.