The ESA to Meet with Trump

Last week we reported that Mr. Trump was being a textbook conservative and pinning the blame on America’s gun problems on everything except guns - specifically, violent media like movies and video games. As to that last point specifically, he announced that he would be meeting with leaders in the Video Game industry to address the problem… which came as a surprise for the video game industry, who hadn’t been told previously that this meeting had been arranged.

Well, that meeting is supposed to happen sometime this week, and the ESA - the Entertainment Software Association, otherwise known as the game’s industry’s biggest lobbyist in Washington - has announced that they will attend this surprise meeting, despite how sudden it is.

"Video games are enjoyed around the world and numerous authorities and reputable scientific studies have found no connection between games and real-life violence. Like all Americans, we are deeply concerned about the level of gun violence in the United States. Video games are plainly not the issue: entertainment is distributed and consumed globally, but the US has an exponentially higher level of gun violence than any other nation. The upcoming meeting at the White House, which ESA will attend, will provide the opportunity to have a fact-based conversation about video game ratings, our industry’s commitment to parents, and the tools we provide to make informed entertainment choices."

I’ve publicly stated my ambivalence towards this meeting: the current White House doesn’t have the wherewithal or even a passing interest in passing legislation that would censor or regulate video games, and Trump is only trying to look busy and buy time while he waits for the outrage to pass and for nothing to change. I might be wrong, of course, but I suspect he’ll have this meeting and never talk about it again… which, end of the day, would be the preferred outcome.

We’ll have to see, though, as the meeting is set to take place on March 8th.