WEBVTT - Episode 10: Violence in Video Games 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:14.120 Hey, what's gucci? Everybody? This is if you want to 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.200 wait here for nerdif ascent and sitting across from me, 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:21.520 as always, it's my co host, Danny Fernandez. M I 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:23.840 love that you time that perfectly with taking a sip. 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:25.840 Oh yeah, you know you can tell because you can 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.920 hear your like and you're like held it up to 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.440 your lips and my co host takes sip. Yeah. That's 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.479 how you get podcasters when you know that when the 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:40.400 time you have to lacroise, not even one, you have 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:45.240 one and then another. Here's the thing, though, they're sparkling, 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.160 and if you hold them up too close to the mic, 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.800 it's going to be like the snap crackle pot. Yeah. 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.120 That's why I drink off Mike, you know, and then 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.640 swing back over here. What we need is more sponsors, 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.480 I feel, because all we do talk about the food 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.520 that we're eating and the protein shakes that we're drinking. Well, no, 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.319 don't worry, they'll be rolling in soon enough. Once they 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.440 still want our condoms. What happened with that? We do 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.720 we ever? Do we get? We weren't? We can up it. 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:21.000 We can up our spice factor. Yeah okay, yeah, Today 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:25.280 on the show, Yeah, we're tackling something that was really 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:27.560 important to Iffie and I that I think since we 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.560 started this podcast, we really wanted to tackle, but wanted 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.080 to make sure that we heavily researched it so that 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.160 we could cover our bases because I feel like you 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:39.880 and I are on the same page as far as 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.640 this discussion, but we want to make sure that we're 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.039 having an open discussion. Well, it's funny because I have 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.360 a long history. I've actually wrote two separate essays about 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.440 this topic because in high school when I had to write, 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.840 when they would give you, like, you know, a informational 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:58.360 essay about something you care about. I've always been a 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:03.440 big video game gamer, and I wrote two different essays 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.240 about this. So and it's funny because seeing it now, 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.440 seeing it thin, it's really just the same argument that 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:14.520 keeps get improven, disproven, and then they keep kind of 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.240 circling back to it so much so that and we'll 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.120 get into this later. Some some people who normally wouldn't 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:26.600 agree with us, has condemned this being used as a scapegoat. Yeah, um, 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:28.440 I guess we should say the title. I don't think 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.919 we said it. We're talking about violence in video games. Yeah, 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.520 we're talking about violence in video games. That's so fascinating 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:36.880 if you because you know something that's really close to 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.840 me that I did a research paper on in college 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.960 was about porn. And that's so funny because if you 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.480 follow me, you know that I which maybe we'll be 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:47.240 able to tackle. I don't know what it all we're 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.920 allowed to tackle with our ratings, uh and our sponsors 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:55.040 on here, but um, I'm pro porn. I'm sex positive, 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.839 and so I wrote a paper on that, and then 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.639 I've definitely tweeted about it at now being in my 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:05.480 thirties and actually had some cow State students hit me 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:07.960 up about it, asking me to come on and speak 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:11.040 as a woman that is pro porn. But same thing, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:13.880 a lot of the same arguments are still there as well. 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:19.600 So anyways, we both have a past with writing research 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:23.440 papers on some of these topics that are apparently ruining 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.000 our children. Yeah, so if you why don't you talk 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.520 to us about like the history of when this kind 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:32.760 of got started. Yeah, So the scapegoating video games, and 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:35.640 it goes as far back as the seventies, and it 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.240 starts with a seventies game called Death Race. But that 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.480 really is just more so just the kind of overall 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.720 social panic about violent video games, and that's kind of 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.839 where we'll start. But I think the most significant kind 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:53.240 of outrage came with Mortal Kombat, because what happened after 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.360 the release of Mortal Kombat kind of change gaming forever 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.480 because it led to the creation of the s r B, 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:05.560 which is the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which is something 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:10.160 that kind of started when they figured that, all right, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.400 people are gonna want their bad games. It was kind 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.440 of a fight back and forth, and really it starts 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:19.720 with Moral Kombat. The arcade fighting game was the first 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.599 title to receive a mature rating, and along with Night Trap, 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:24.760 which we'll talk about a little more because that one 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.840 is very interesting, was responsible for the chain of events 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.320 that led to the establishment of the s r B. 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.200 U S Senator Joseph Lieberman came across Mortal Kombat almost 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.840 by happenstance, but he instantly recognized what he called quote unquote, 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:42.000 incredibly violent content. Yeah, so his quote was, we're talking 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.960 about video games that glorified violence and teach children to 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:50.080 enjoy inflicting the most gruesome forms of cruelty imaginable um 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.400 And that is what led to the game industry, founding 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.000 the E s r B to regulate its own content. Yeah, 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.200 and at first, you know, before all that, Sega tried 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.160 implementing its own voluntary rating system. It was called the 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.119 Video Game Rating Council, and it would largely rate games 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.520 released for its own consoles, and Mortal Kombat Night Trap 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.520 were rated M thirteen and M seventeen on Sega scale, respectively. 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.080 During the hearings, Howard Lincoln and Bill White, the chairman 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.479 of Nintendo and Sega's US divisions, respectively attacked each other's 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.920 stance on like the objective content and video games, and 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.560 Lincoln condemned Sega for even releasing Night Trap and felt 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.520 it simply has no place in our society. Now, let's 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:33.440 talk about night Trap, because Night Trap is very funny 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.520 because looking back on it now everyone's so confused. But 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.400 night night Trap was this game that used full motion video, 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:45.160 the shortened version is FMV, and it was a game 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.960 where you were controlled You had cameras during this kind 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:53.240 of like slumber party, and all these girls were getting 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.640 like captured and attacked, but you can set traps to 0:05:55.680 --> 0:06:00.200 stop the attackers. And like there's one scene where he's 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.760 like in a towel, like you know, just your typical 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:06.680 TV towel, it's like over your breast and everything. But 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.359 they just were so blown away. They just felt it 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.880 was too sexual and and too violent. If I do 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.440 want to say, the thing that strikes me the most 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.880 about that end of that sentence was that it has 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.720 no what was the quote? It has no place in society. Oh, 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.440 simply has no place in our society. This is something 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.159 that we will see again and again as far as 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.919 the argument against video games that no one seems to 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:38.720 be addressing to television and film that it appears these 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.920 arguments continue that it is okay for movies to be 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:48.599 extremely violent, but when video games do it, they're not. 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:51.680 And so you know, a lot of the argument I 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:53.320 feel like is and I'm going to watch this, but 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.120 a lot of the argument I feel like is that 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:58.160 as an art form, which which I think a lot 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.839 of video game developers, especially early on, would consider a 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.880 lot of what they do as art, that is an 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.120 expression of art, is an expression of creativity, that they 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:13.160 are regulated much more heavier and blamed essentially for a 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:15.680 lot of things in a way that television film is not. 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.040 That's so true and I think it is. It comes 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.280 from the same place. Uh A lot of times this 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:26.000 kind of like shocked, you know, reaction comes from is 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:28.800 whereas the assumption that video games are for kids. But 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.160 on this y s A, the Entertainment Software Association, they 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.080 have like a great PDF that gives you, like the 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.880 essential facts about games and video about games and violence, 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.440 and we will be including these in the footnotes. But 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:46.160 the average game player ages thirty five and the average 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.160 game buyer ages thirties. Who can buy games, you know, 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.720 I mean granted, yeah, people have their parents, but adults 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.280 with disposable income, like you said, I mean, most of 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.880 our friends are gamers. I'm now watching this night Trap, 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:03.160 which is so weird because you are essentially rescue. It's 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.240 not anything I would feel that's too too different from 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:11.480 a Superhero scenario where you're rescuing a damsel in distress 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:14.600 um which I saw with a lot of these that 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.400 were I mean grand cheese in a nightgown. But I 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.400 mean other than that, which I've seen hundreds of times 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.280 in film at least. I mean, if we're talking Jason, 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.360 you're seeing full on boobies. So yeah, it is this 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:28.320 double standard, and I think it does come from the 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.360 assumption that this is for kids. And it's interesting too 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:34.800 because we're going to notice a flip when we come 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.120 close to our generation in the approach. And this because 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.839 this is very much coming from the place of trying 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:46.080 to protect our kids from seeing these things. Nowadays, it's 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.280 more so being blamed. It's it's less it's less of 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.640 like our kids shouldn't see this. It's because our kids 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.880 are doing this and not guns. It's it's a scapegoat 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.240 for the most truest sense of the word. Yeah, I 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:02.280 did want to read um this amazing quote from James 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:07.439 Ivory at Virginia Tech where he said racial prejudice about 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:11.199 violence lead us to seek external explanations when white kids 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.960 commit crimes. So therefore, if an African American youth commits 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.200 a horrific act of violence, it is because he is 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.600 full of rage or hatred. But when a nice end 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.280 quote white kid shoots up at school, he must have 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:27.600 been brainwashed or under the corrupting influence of something outside himself, 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.520 something like video games. Yeah, that's wild. We don't see 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.160 that argument in the media the way that it is 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:39.240 perpetuated continuously. With the recent shootings that we and going 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.640 back all the way to the nineties, and speaking of 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:47.000 the nineties, Sega's rating system basically did not please Lieberman 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.000 and he did not believe these systems were sufficient as 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:52.920 a because it seems like everyone was kind of taking 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.880 Sega's route and trying to start making their own age 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.040 based rating system. Lieberman wasn't feeling it, and in Februar 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.880 threatened to propose a creation of a federal commission for 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:06.160 regulating and rating games. So with the threat of federal regulations, 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.040 a group of major video game developers and publishers, including 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.520 Acclaim Entertainment and Electronic Arts e A this is before 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.559 We've grown to hate them, along with Nintendo and Sega, 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.760 formed a political trade group known as the Interactive Digital 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.360 Software Association in April, with a goal to create a 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.960 self regulatory framework for assessing and rating video games in 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.240 and While SEGA kind of tried to get people on 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.800 the side of their VRC rating system, Nintendo representatives objected 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.400 to the idea because they didn't want to associate themselves 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.679 with the work of the main competitor. Because even though 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.880 this is all political, business is still business. So instead, 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.280 a vendor neutral rating system known as the Entertainment Software 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.040 Rating Board e s RB was developed in the formation 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.200 of the s RB was officially announced to Congress on 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:58.120 July and it was officially launched in September sixteenth, and 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.480 its system consisted of five of age based ratings, which 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.239 we're very familiar with early childhood gets, two adults renamed 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:10.240 everyone in and teen, mature, and adults only. Now something 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.280 about adults only, which, because some people may not be aware, 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:17.600 most gamers usually are. Actually nowadays, I'm not so sure 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.600 because adults only basically is a death sentence for your game. 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.160 You got rated, And what that means is that vendors 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:27.640 will not carry your game, but you can still purchase 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.000 it online. So that's that's the tricky thing. Feel like, 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.600 that's the same with movies as well. Yeah, you won't 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.760 be able to see it in mini theaters, right yeah. Um. 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:44.120 So the debate actually over brutality and bloodshed in video 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.480 games goes all the way back to the seventies. If 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:48.800 we were going to take it all the way back 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.280 with an arcade game called Death Race, yeah, which that 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:58.360 drew a lot of public outrage, um, because it allowed 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.720 players to run over enemies for points. Now we have 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.440 grand theft auto and other things. But yeah, that was 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:06.560 it was happening all the way back in the seventies. 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.600 It's really fascinating to me because in a lot of 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.439 the research that we scoured through when going over this 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:18.160 topic was fascinating. What's known as the Goldilocks effect. Do 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.959 you know what that is? Iffy? So essentially, it's where 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:25.480 every generation thinks that the next generation is more wild 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.920 or violent than when they grew up. So the generation 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:34.640 before us, people often think is too conservative, they didn't understand, 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.800 they don't understand our art and our music. Uh, And 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.040 then the generation in front of us is seen as 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.920 being more wild, too violent, to sexually promiscuous. When you 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.960 look back at the sixties and seventies and it's like, 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.400 really though, you know, because they had games like that, 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:58.120 they had very sexually promiscuous times and I feel like, 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:00.520 but that's essentially the name of that effect is when 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.280 you think or your parents generation thinks that their generation 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:06.439 was the best, and it's these new up and coming 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.880 generations that are promoting this. Yeah, but it but it 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.720 just always finds a way to because I think it 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.679 all started with just kind of like the idea of 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.200 what may happen, especially with death races, and what I 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.160 was going to say about death races, it's funny because 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.600 you can feel its effect because one of the main 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.520 things said about Grand Theft Auto is that you got 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.400 points for running people over, which isn't true, and Grand 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.520 Theft Auto true. Yeah, you can get money from people, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:32.480 but you're not being scored on it. But I think 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.960 that's carry over from the description of death rays because 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.000 I remember my parents saying things like that, but that's 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:41.400 not true. But let's fast forward almost six years later, 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:48.439 so we're in let's go into which we're very familiar. 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.640 If you're not, was one of our I don't want 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.440 to say first, but I definitely know our generations. One 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.080 of our earliest memories of a mass shooting, which was 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.120 Columbine UH. Two teenagers killed twelve of their p is 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.880 and a teacher at Columbine HI. And it was widely 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.920 reported that they played the shooter game Doom. And that 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.520 was and they were so right away just already scapegoating that, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.280 not the fact that they were able to get access 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.480 to so many weapons to bring to school, but it 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:19.840 was the game that did it. It wasn't you know, Yeah, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.720 it was one of the most prominent times that I 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.720 feel like a video game was blamed for a mass shooting. Yeah. 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:28.680 Well it was funny too, because just like I was 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.880 saying about Death Race being just kind of carry over, 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:34.280 I didn't even know about Doom. What was said around, 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:36.920 you know, with my parents and and and the people 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.040 I spoke to, was that it was counter Strike. Counter 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.600 Strike was what made and that we specifically weren't able 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.080 to play counter Strike in my high school because of that. 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.080 So it's so funny that's just any game with guns 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.760 and shooting, that's what's training us. But that's really not 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:56.200 the case. Yeah. Actually, after Columbine, the number of published 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:01.680 research articles examining video games increased nearly three sent so 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.160 less than a month after the shooting. The former House 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:09.480 Speaker Republican New Gingrich said that Hollywood and computerized games 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:14.360 have undermined the core values of civility. Yeah, and there's 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.440 one little sidebar I want to do while we talk 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.040 about this, because I feel like when you hear us 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.440 have this conversation, a lot of people may be thinking, like, 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.480 oh man, yeah, the Republicans are trying to like use 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.920 a scapegoat. They're trying to do this. But actually back 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.000 when our man's Lieberman, he was actually a Democrat. Joseph 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.760 Lieberman was a Democrat, And we're gonna see some familiar 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.800 names that kind of held the charge against this because 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:43.120 Bill Clinton asked the federal government to look into weather 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:47.080 media companies, including video game industries, were marketing violent content 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.760 to young people. So it wasn't just a Republican thing. 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:53.440 All the politicians were on board on this, like panic 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.600 of like video games making people violent, that was it 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.600 was a panic. Yeah, Actually a U. S. Senator Hillary 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:04.440 Clinton introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act that was in 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:09.840 two thousand and five. That actually didn't pass, So Clinton's 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:11.800 bill never made it out of the committee, and in 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:16.600 eleven the United States Supreme Court ruled that all such 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:21.280 legislation was unconstitutional and that research evidence could not support 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:23.960 claims that it was necessary. The court declared that video 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.200 games are art and that if they are sometimes violent, 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.160 this is no different from literature film or even fairy tales. 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:32.160 That is what I think is one of the most 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:33.800 what we were talking about earlier, one of the most 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:37.560 fascinating aspects of this is that we are so set 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:42.600 on restricting, censoring, and blaming video games for the violence 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.920 as opposed to other media forms that are equally if 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:52.480 not more violent. That ruling was Brown Versus Entertainment Merchants Association, 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:57.840 which considered whether regulation of violent games was constitutional, and 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.920 they actually referred to several decades of accumulated research in 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:04.840 the court. The Supreme Court said these studies have been 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:08.320 rejected by every court to consider them, and with good reason, 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.239 going on to discuss how little such studies told us 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.200 about the real world. Yeah. Actually, the late Justice anton Uh, 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:20.920 late Justice antonin Scalia, who is a typically right leaning justice, 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.840 said that video games deserve the First Amendment protection and 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.400 he also cast out on the idea that violent games 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:31.080 would cause real world acts of aggression. And like Danny said, 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.320 it was through all of the decades of research, because 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.280 we have been researching it and it has been coming 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:41.080 back false that this is not this does not result 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.720 in violence. Yet we still somehow keep bringing it up 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.960 even though there's fact after fact. So maybe this is 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:50.800 one of the like earlier kind of forms of where 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.920 facts are given and just you need something to place 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:00.359 the blame. Yeah, I wanted to bring up one more report, 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.040 which was by the American psychological association. But the A 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:06.920 p A. And they said, and I felt like this 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.000 is really kind of what narrows it down, and and 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.919 how yeah, I feel like this is what really narrows 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:17.240 it down. Is no single risk factor consistently, consistently leads 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:21.440 a person to act aggressively or violently, their report said. Rather, 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.720 it is the accumulation of risk factors that tends to 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:30.480 lead to aggressive or violent behavior. The research like access 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.680 to guns, masculinity, right, the research tribute here demonstrates the 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:38.440 violent video game use is just one such factor. So 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:41.520 if you were to look at some of these because 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.400 they have said, well, these school shooters played this video game, 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.080 but they're not looking at all of the other risk 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.800 factors and all of the other factors that might have 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.560 led them to commit the crimes that they did. Instead, 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:57.800 they need something to blame it on, and that thing 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:02.000 is video games. And we actually have lots of studies. 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.040 And also we want to talk about the most recent 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.440 use of skategoating here, but we'll just get into that 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:18.400 after the break, all right, and welcome back to Artificent. 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.920 We are talking about violence and video games, going down 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:24.840 the history of it, talking about all the studies that 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:29.239 strike down. Whatsever just so much info just disproving this, 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:31.960 but we have it here all in one place for you. 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:36.440 But Danny wanted to wanted to say something up top. Yeah, 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.840 that a p a uh study that we were talking about. 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.960 The American Psychological Association. So they had actually looked at 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:48.000 four meta analysis that reviewed more than a hundred and 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:53.440 fifty research reports published before two thousand and nine, and 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.480 then of the ones published between two thousand nine, and 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.879 they looked at a hundred and seventy are articles to 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.400 come up with their research. And again it said, while 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:08.760 there's some variation among the individual studies, a strong and 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:13.000 consistent general pattern has emerged from many years of research 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.200 that provides confidence in our general conclusions. As with most 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.920 areas of science, and the picture presented by this research 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.720 is more complex than it usually include in news coverage 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.680 and other information prepared for the general public. So that's 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.879 another sector of it, is what the media decides to 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.680 latch on what is shown is like they played video 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:35.760 games or they played violent video games, which they're not 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.280 looking at the full picture. Yeah, well, because that's such 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.600 as simple. Yeah, of course, they played video games, because 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.200 everyone their age plays video games that isn't you know, shocking, 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:48.439 And it's funny because you would think after you know, 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:52.919 that huge study and even Scalia kind of like shutting 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.120 it down, it would end. But most recently Trump went 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.320 ahead and set that video games, the video games, the movies, 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.680 the Internact, the stuff is so violent. He went ahead 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.280 and set that, and it kind of re ignited this 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:09.400 dead argument because at this point it is officially dead. 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.000 I feel like it's reached as it's not. I mean, 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:15.879 it's alive, but it's you're beating a dead horse. That 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.040 is is not true. It is like it's having that 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.960 Behrenstein bears argument. We've already proved. We already proved to 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.480 you that the name was what it was. Yeah, that's 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.320 what I need to tell you. Something did you see 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:35.240 on the White House YouTube channel, which if you didn't know, 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.960 the White House has a YouTube channel, they have something. 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:42.960 They have a video up that's titled violence in Video Games. 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:47.960 It has um over a million views. Uh if he, 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:50.480 I will show it to you. It is literally there's 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:55.240 no introduction to it. It is just the most not 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.400 the most, but it is just violent. Excerpts taken from 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.160 video games of people like hitting each other with hatches 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:07.359 or or shooting someone in there some pretty prolific scenes 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:09.359 and video games because these are some games I've played 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:11.960 and it and they're really it is funny. They got 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.800 Dead by Daylight, which is a horror game where you 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:19.840 play a slasher. It really is like but there's no introduction. 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:24.679 There's literally nothing that that introduces this this video. It 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.720 just is on their YouTube page with clips of violent 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:32.200 you know, violent particular points in videos, and they're taking 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.760 old games. They took the extremely controversial No Russian and 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:39.280 it was the scene where you're you literally go and 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:42.000 do a mass shooting like that is the scene in 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:44.880 the context of the story, it makes sense and actually, 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:47.000 as the player, you do have the option to not 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:49.840 shoot anyone. You actually get an achievement if you do 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:54.800 that whole episode and shoot no one here that whole Yeah, 0:22:54.960 --> 0:22:57.520 it's fascinating. One of the comments that has over two 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:00.480 thousand likes says, I mean, some of those clips you 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:03.480 showed are unplayable cut scenes, So shouldn't you therefore be 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:07.520 making the same argument against movies and television. Yeah, I 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:09.520 think that's the same thing. And I do want to 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:13.920 point out that the first half of that video no 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:18.200 one was using guns. It was all just access growing guns, 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:20.600 like it was no real Like I think two people 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:23.520 got shot and the rest were with other weapons other 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:28.320 than guns. So you're just taking somebody else. Somebody else said, 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:30.280