Donald Trump Video Games Industry Meeting

Overview

Donald Trump Video Games Industry Meeting refers to a conference United States President Donald Trump had with various lawmakers and video game industry executives about the effects of violence in video games on players. Trump has long been critical of violence in video games, blaming them, in part, for the various mass shootings at American schools, and the meeting was set in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Background

One of the earliest indications of Donald Trump's position on video games came following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. On December 17th, Trump tweeted, ^[1] "Video game violence & glorification must be stopped--it is creating monsters!" The tweet (shown below) received more than 10,000 retweets and 8,500 likes in five years.

Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Trump began voicing similar concerns about violence in video games. On February 22nd, 2018, Trump said in a meeting about the shooting,^[2] "We have to look at the internet because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds and their minds are being formed,” the president said. “We have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they're seeing it. And also video games. I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts."

Developments

On March 8th, 2018, President Trump held a meeting with various law makers and video game industry executives about violence in video games. The participants included Senator Marco Rubio, Representative Vicky Hartzler, Take Two Entertainment CEO Strauss Zelnick, L. Brent Bozell III of the Media Research Center, Representative Martha Roby, Lt. Col. David Grossman, President and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association Mike Gallagher, Chairman And CEO of Zenimax Media Robert Altman and Melissa Henson, Mother from the Parents Television Council.^[3]

The meeting began with a super cut of violence in video games. That day, the White House uploaded the video (shown below) to YouTube, where it received more than 485,000 views in 24 hours.

According to reports, the video left some in the room shocked. Henson told Rolling Stone,^[4] "They started by showing some violent video games and [Trump] was pointing out how violent those scenes were. I think for many of us there, there was a shocked silence. Those from the video game industry were quick to defend [the video games] saying they were meant for a mature audience and that they weren't intended for kids to see."

That day, Trump posted a photograph from the meeting on Instagram. ^[5] The post (shown below) was captioned, ""Today, President Trump participated in a roundtable with Congressional leaders and video game industry leaders in the Roosevelt Room at the White House." Within 24 hours, the post received more than 52,000 likes.

Online Reaction

People online began posting jokes about the meeting. New York Times writer David Itzkoff tweeted^[5] the "You have died of dysentery" screen from The Oregon Trail with the caption "this early report from the president's meeting on video games is not promising." The post (shown below, left) received more than 400 retweets and 2,300 likes in 24 hours.

Twitter^[6] user @jbillinson tweeted a picture of Trump with the video game characters Super Mario and Sub Zero and the caption "this video game meeting at the white house is wild." The post (shown below, center) received more than 3,300 retweets and 9,800 likes in 24 hours. Additionally, Twitter^[7] user @jordanuhl tweeted a mock campaign promise from the Trump administration. The tweet (shown below, right) received more than 60 retweets and 300 likes in 24 hours.

GamerGate Response

The controversy caused a riff in the GamerGate community. On February 22nd, 2018, Redditor ^[8] B-VOLLEYBALL-READY posted in the /r/KotakuInAction subreddit "[Censorship] Donald Trump just linked violent video games and movies to mass shootings, claims that they are 'shaping young people's thoughts', says that 'we are going to have to talk about that'…" The post received more than 1,000 points (91% upvoted) and 1,300 comments. In the thread, Redditor^[9] Aurondarklord replied with a link to Trump's 2012 tweet (see background section) and a claim this is the standard conservative politician's reply in the wake of gun violence, which received over 550 votes. User KennyOmeger responded with a post (shown below) critical of the subreddit, which received over 170 upvotes.^[2]

On March 7th, 2018, Twitter^[10] user @lachlan posted a link to a Daily Beast^[11] article on the controversy with the caption "GamerGate, welcome to The Resistance." The post (shown below, right) received more than 60 retweets and 100 likes. However, some responded negatively to the article (shown below, left).

Search Interest

External References