7 ms·

President Trump Proposes Violent Game Regulations

10 points by bdz 9y ago

klez 9y ago
I would agree if people playing those same videogames in other countries did go on killing sprees at the same rate as in the US.
- josho 9y ago
  Republican policy strikes me as devoid of data. During the election I really tried to understand their policy positions. But failed to find reasoned or rational arguments for their positions.
  - paulddraper 9y ago
    Uh huh. And what is your data? (1) IDK what the parent precisely meant by "killing sprees", but there are statistics for acts of terrorism. And the US is hardly exceeds the norm. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_terrorist_incidents_by_country https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_terrorist_incident... For example, even sticking to first world Western nations, in 2015 the UK had 3x the terrorism incidents and France had 4x the terrorism deaths as the US. (Note the US has over twice the population of these other two counties combined). (2) FWIW the American Psychology Association says "The research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and heightened aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive affect and reduced prosocial behavior, empathy and sensitivity to aggression." Abscribing this idea to lazy Republicans is wrong.
    - pjc50 9y ago
      "Killing sprees" refers to mass shooting incidents such as at Stoneman Douglas High School. These aren't counted in those statistics, which makes them highly misleading - they just refer to "terrorism", which is political and exactly the sort of thing to be completely unrelated to video games. The majority of those deaths in France in 2015 were from the Bataclan incident carried out by ISIL.
      - paulddraper 9y ago
        Mass shootings is pretty arbitrary. It doesn't really matter if you die by bullet, car, or bomb.
pjc50 9y ago
I wonder what the pro-Trump gamer groups are going to make of this.
- paulddraper 9y ago
  IDK. But it is possible to have nuance in politics, to support most of someone's views and actions but not 100%. I hope what little nonpartisanship we may find will not be too surprising to us.
- CM30 9y ago
  As someone who's talked to people on the far right in the video game community, the general response is that while they agree with Trump on some things, they heavily disagree in regards to his attitudes about video games, and dislike right wing 'moral guardians' trying to control them. Their attitude to what causes shootings and other violent crimes is basically the same as the left with one exception; they feel guns generally don't cause the issue whereas mental health issues, politics and poor law enforcement procedures do. Source: Various people on sites like Gab.
- Mountain_Skies 9y ago
  My parents are lifelong Democrats of the "Bernie Sanders is too far right" variety but they're also very anti abortion. They hate the pro choice part of the Democratic party platform but agree on so much else that they're still straight party voters. Wouldn't be surprised if Trump gamers are similar.
CM30 9y ago
Again? Seriously, why do games keep becoming a scapegoat for stuff like this? Not only is there zero evidence that video games cause violence at all (indeed, the data would point to it being negative, given the decrease in violent crime at the same time as the increase in video game violence), but there are literally hundreds of factors and media forms that are far more connected to violence. Why do these people still not focus on the real issues relating to guns and mental health issues and law enforcement failures and inequality and political/religious extremism? Why don't they seem to target music/TV shows/films/books/sports with as much as disdain, given hardcore fans of those have actually hurt or killed people in the past? And why does it seem that (somewhat sadly) both political sides in certain countries seem to show disdain towards the artform? What more do these people need to move on and blame something else? Or actually address the real issues here?
- klez 9y ago
  > Why don't they seem to target music/TV shows/films The article touches on this too. So yes, they do.
jrnichols 9y ago
It didn't really sound like he proposed changes to the ESRB system or anything, but what he said is true. At least in my years, i've felt like games have become more violent, along with media/film/tv. but i'm still not convinced it has any role in school shootings. it seems like he's looking at different things instead of trying to focus on one thing. which before would have been "ban guns."

10 points by bdz 9y ago

klez 9y ago

I would agree if people playing those same videogames in other countries did go on killing sprees at the same rate as in the US.

josho 9y ago
Republican policy strikes me as devoid of data. During the election I really tried to understand their policy positions. But failed to find reasoned or rational arguments for their positions.
- paulddraper 9y ago
  Uh huh. And what is your data? (1) IDK what the parent precisely meant by "killing sprees", but there are statistics for acts of terrorism. And the US is hardly exceeds the norm. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_terrorist_incidents_by_country https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_terrorist_incident... For example, even sticking to first world Western nations, in 2015 the UK had 3x the terrorism incidents and France had 4x the terrorism deaths as the US. (Note the US has over twice the population of these other two counties combined). (2) FWIW the American Psychology Association says "The research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and heightened aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive affect and reduced prosocial behavior, empathy and sensitivity to aggression." Abscribing this idea to lazy Republicans is wrong.
  - pjc50 9y ago
    "Killing sprees" refers to mass shooting incidents such as at Stoneman Douglas High School. These aren't counted in those statistics, which makes them highly misleading - they just refer to "terrorism", which is political and exactly the sort of thing to be completely unrelated to video games. The majority of those deaths in France in 2015 were from the Bataclan incident carried out by ISIL.
    - paulddraper 9y ago
      Mass shootings is pretty arbitrary. It doesn't really matter if you die by bullet, car, or bomb.

pjc50 9y ago

I wonder what the pro-Trump gamer groups are going to make of this.

paulddraper 9y ago
IDK. But it is possible to have nuance in politics, to support most of someone's views and actions but not 100%. I hope what little nonpartisanship we may find will not be too surprising to us.
CM30 9y ago
As someone who's talked to people on the far right in the video game community, the general response is that while they agree with Trump on some things, they heavily disagree in regards to his attitudes about video games, and dislike right wing 'moral guardians' trying to control them. Their attitude to what causes shootings and other violent crimes is basically the same as the left with one exception; they feel guns generally don't cause the issue whereas mental health issues, politics and poor law enforcement procedures do. Source: Various people on sites like Gab.
Mountain_Skies 9y ago
My parents are lifelong Democrats of the "Bernie Sanders is too far right" variety but they're also very anti abortion. They hate the pro choice part of the Democratic party platform but agree on so much else that they're still straight party voters. Wouldn't be surprised if Trump gamers are similar.

CM30 9y ago

Again? Seriously, why do games keep becoming a scapegoat for stuff like this? Not only is there zero evidence that video games cause violence at all (indeed, the data would point to it being negative, given the decrease in violent crime at the same time as the increase in video game violence), but there are literally hundreds of factors and media forms that are far more connected to violence. Why do these people still not focus on the real issues relating to guns and mental health issues and law enforcement failures and inequality and political/religious extremism? Why don't they seem to target music/TV shows/films/books/sports with as much as disdain, given hardcore fans of those have actually hurt or killed people in the past? And why does it seem that (somewhat sadly) both political sides in certain countries seem to show disdain towards the artform? What more do these people need to move on and blame something else? Or actually address the real issues here?

klez 9y ago
> Why don't they seem to target music/TV shows/films The article touches on this too. So yes, they do.

jrnichols 9y ago

It didn't really sound like he proposed changes to the ESRB system or anything, but what he said is true. At least in my years, i've felt like games have become more violent, along with media/film/tv. but i'm still not convinced it has any role in school shootings. it seems like he's looking at different things instead of trying to focus on one thing. which before would have been "ban guns."