David Jaffe Lashes Out at CNN Anchor

[Royas]

So what exactly are these witch-hunting journalists/politicians hoping to accomplish?(aside from drawing attention to themselves..) Violent videogames cannot be legally sold to minors. The issue has already been addressed (regardless of any scientific conclusions) with the ESRB rating system.

Any attempt to censor media intended for adults would be a clear violation of freedom of expression/speech etc. The legal systems of most Western nations would never approve of such censorship. If a parent allows their children to play violent video games in the privacy of their homes, the state has little to no means to intervene. It's all a non-issue IMO, these people should just be ignored as they really are not worth the elevated blood pressure.

Not sure where you are getting your information, but there are no laws on the books regarding selling M rated games to minors. Every attempt to make any law like that has been shot down at either a state Supreme Court level, or (in California's case) at the level of the Supreme Court of the United States. The rating system is an industry standard that is voluntary. Any retailer who wants to can ignore it completely, just as any theater is legally allowed to ignore the ratings on movies. The only penalties (if any) would be industry based, not legal.

This is only the case in the United States, of course. I can't speak to the laws of other nations, as I am not familiar with them.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Bwah?

I like the way she says: "Let me ask you a questions about Grand Theft Auto, there's probably some viewers out there playing this all the time."

Demanding quite persistently that violent video games cause people to murder other people and then declaring that your very own viewers are probably playing these games RIGHT NOW. Well I'm sold.

You know I don't recall ever hearing this sort of sensationalist reporting regarding video games here in the UK. We have the very same violent video games too...

 

[archvile93]

Mr. Jaffe, I want to make you cookies now. Or brownies. Or a pie. Or cake. Or chicken. Your choice, sir.

Hell, I will give him a whole grilled lobster!

You do that, since I have no clue how to cook seafood, or much of anything (that, and I find the idea of boiling a lobster alive morally wrong).

They don't cry. That is just steam escaping from their shells. Also, when you gut fish they are alive... sometimes. However, you can kill lobsters if you want, but they taste better fresh.

Gutted? ALIVE? THE SEAFOOD INDUSTRY IS FULL OF MONSTERS!!! >X[

(I don't have anything against you if you eat seafood, but that's just messed up to me)

That's nothing, some Japanese recipes call for scaling and cooking the fish while it's still alive. If it's done right the fish will still be gasping when it's presented to you.

 

[vid87]

I played and replayed the interview and compared the points made in the main article with Burnett's wording - I really don't think she was preaching "gaming makes killers" as absolute fact. At all. When she said "...it's accepted as fact..." she prefixed it with "A lot of people say...". That and her reading the senator's statement on the Norway shooter (as we covered on this site as true that he claimed gaming was his training tool - why he said could be a separate argument) leads me to believe she was reiterating other points being made about the topic and touching on a perception that is still prevalent in our society, after which she asked her guest if he can confirm it or not. Admittedly the only reason I can think for her to press on with the GTA questioning, aside from demonizing, was because the network needed to fill time and they had a clip they could show, which I agree would be good argument against 24-hour news cycle broadcasting (filling time with useless crap) but I didn't see that as trying to bully Dr. Pollack into conceding to that view. Also, did anyone find his quip at the end (6:06) about GTA or other games possibly causing "domestic violence" or making people "stand back" from fights weird?

While I aggree that she wasn't exactly preaching gaming makes killers, that she was just questioning and cited other people.
Her questions and the way they are worded, give gaming a very negative undertone.

That quote shows that quite well:

It's accepted as fact that these violent games - and by the way, they are horrifically violent - is why we are seeing this seemingly [sic] explosion in mass shootings.

To which he replied - particularly during the GTA questioning - that he does consider stuff like that "heinous." I don't usually watch her segment, but I imagine she gets more leeway in dialogue and can throw in her own opinion, so her finding these games "horrifically violent" and "offensive" was probably more of her personal preferences for entertainment and less about arm-twisting. BTW, I'll admit I'm not happy overall about the interview and will absolutely retract what I've said thus far if it turns out she and the network do have an official, misguided slant on gaming, but for now I'm just saying I don't think it was as awful as it could've been and that Jaffe might have gone a bit overboard. It may be his way of dealing with things, but a proper dialogue is going to need calm, reasoned exchanges, not venomous mud-slinging, no matter how "righteous" it may seem at the moment.

 

[Saika Renegade]

Every generation blames something. Movies, rock and roll, Elvis Presley's hips, television, radio, video games, computers, the internet, laying blame for things such as illegal drug use, illicit sex, and violent actions solely at their feet. Every generation's had a scapegoat for the societal ills it experienced because it's easier to blame ambient entertainment than actually reach for a meaningful solution to cultural ills, especially if it's painful in some form (like, say, limiting the reporting media's obsession with violence).

Not that we should stick our heads in the sand, but really, she and her ilk contribute to the problem just as much as any mentally unstable individual with the means and the motivation.

 

[Thoric485]

I like Jaffe, the guy's uncensored. His confrontation with Kotaku [https://soundcloud.com/ben-kuchera/jaffe-confrontation] is my favorite.

 

[mattaui]

I wish more people would realize that you don't have to be on your most polite behavior when you respond to someone in an argument, especially if they're spouting absolute falsehoods and trying to gin up public opinion against, in Mr. Jaffe's case, his very livelihood. While I'd suggest holding back on excessive profanity and definitely avoid personal insults (none of which Mr. Jaffe engages in), he rightly calls her and her entire profession on the carpet for not only failing to do their jobs, but to be part and parcel of spreading misinformation.

What he posted wasn't a 'violent outburst' nor was it childish or insulting. What's childish and insulting is the sort of sensationalist nonsense that passes for news these days, in all corners of the media world. Part of the reason we're in the state we're in is that too many people get all hot and bothered when anyone vigorously questions authority figures, either elected, self-appointed or otherwise. Thankfully we now have plenty of avenues to challenge media and political figures who used to control most of the levers of mass communication.

I'm so glad he said what he did, and I wish more industry members would be as outspoken so as to force people to stop nodding their heads at self-appointed video game experts.

 

[theultimateend]

I always say the best way to disprove claims of violent video games causing violence is with a violent outburst.

I mean, yeah, Burnett is a troll among trolls, but we're not going to get people to take our medium very seriously when the industry leaders are having man-child tantrums on Twitter.

I want to tell you all the ways that what you've said is naive.

But the more I try to write it out the more I realize that it probably wouldn't help. There is this illusion that "being an adult" is going to garner people respect among radicals that wish to dismantle and place blame upon them and their ideals.

This has never been the case, ever, in the history of all time.

What he did was the correct approach and the only thing that ever can be heard over the droning of morons who wish to make top dollar for minimal effort.

 

[Jfluffy]

I couldn't help but laugh when she was talking about Grandtheft Auto with the point thing.

 

[Signa]

Folks please note: This is CNN not FOX news reporting this garbage. A good sign that major media outlets care less about truth in journalism and more about inciting flame wars. In other words, ALL news channels are troll-bait and untrustworthy.

In a twist of irony:
It's like pigs are flying.

 

[Signa]

You win points for killing prostitutes in GTA? I didn't even know there were points in GTA! I must really suck at it

That always amused me that they stated it that way. I know not every viewer is going to understand that GTA has more in it than a point system, but if they kept it accurate, they could have made it sound so much worse!

"You win cash prizes for murdering prostitutes, which you can then go spend on more guns and ammo to kill more people for more cash!"

You might even be able to throw rap under that bus with all the obsessions with cash and murder in the game.

 

[secretkeeper12]

[I always say the best way to disprove claims of violent video games causing violence is with a violent outburst.

I mean, yeah, Burnett is a troll among trolls, but we're not going to get people to take our medium very seriously when the industry leaders are having man-child tantrums on Twitter.[/quote]

My thoughts exactly. Jaffe isn't taking some kind of heroic stand; his rant is just a hate filled knee-jerk reaction towards Erin, not an intelligent argument as to why she's wrong.

 

[mooncalf]

This guy is not my idea of a champion for the debate. In "The Newsroom 2.0" parlance "Is this the best form of the argument?" and I don't think so. But I'm glad someone is getting some exposure seizing an opportunity to decry the BS in this tripe they're still peddling.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Games are training simulators. That's why they immediatly made me a general when I joined the military and showed them my savegames from Command & Conquer.

Pish. Pish, I say!

A couple of decades of gaming really helped me rescue my kidnapped girlfriend from a machine-gun toting maniac and his army of thugs named after characters from classic kung-fu films. My experiences were likewise invaluable when raising a giant army of bloodthirsty orcs to wipe out the armies of humanity and claim the kingdom of Azeroth as my own. And let's not get started on all of the theme parks that I've built, the cities I've planned, and that period I spent remodelling the UK's entire transport system so that every available resource would be shipped to the absolute furthest-away recipient possible (because "Transport Tycoon" taught me that the longer you transport something, the more you get paid. It just makes sense.)

 

[GoddyofAus]

Erin Burnett is a right wing, agenda driven slag.

 

[WWmelb]

Folks please note: This is CNN not FOX news reporting this garbage. A good sign that major media outlets care less about truth in journalism and more about inciting flame wars. In other words, ALL news channels are troll-bait and untrustworthy.

In a twist of irony:
It's like pigs are flying.

I uh.. what?

I've never seen this debate broadcast like this, and with this level of maturity ANYWHERE...

Kudos to this program, and kudos to Adam Sessler.

 

[Coffeejack]

For fuck's sake. Just bin her, bin her now.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Congratulations Mr Jaffe you win PR screw up of the week. If the video gaming industry wants to counter the current issues it needs to get better organised and stop playing to the gallery of the hardcore gamers. The people you need to convince that games aren't a risk are just going to see some hipster launching a personal attack via twitter on someone they trust. If you want change people minds, you need to put your best suit and respectfully and forensically dissect the oppositions argument. Angry rants didn't work for the Tea Party and it isn't going to work for the gaming industry. The industry needs to sound like serious responsible people not some hipster ranting about capitalism.

I find it sad that you find what Jaffe said to be "hipster rambling" on Twitter. Saying something about it at all as a big name in the industry at all is a rare sight. Not even the big publishers like EA or Activision really have said anything to combat the current "violent games are bad" argument.

With today's technology and the fact that online news is much more relevant than televised news(both CNN and Faux News have been going through the lowest ratings they've seen in 20 years), David Jaffe can do the next best thing to yelling at her in person anytime he pleases. He can directly call her out online in a place she personally frequents, and he can have people do it over and over again with his one rant. He can also guarantee that a lot of major online news outlets will cover it. Gaming news isn't so small on the internet anymore.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Erin Burnett is a right wing, agenda driven slag.

Yup. Agreed. I give it 2 years before she makes the leap to FOX like Lou Dobbs before her, and Glenn Beck before him.

 

[vid87]

Folks please note: This is CNN not FOX news reporting this garbage. A good sign that major media outlets care less about truth in journalism and more about inciting flame wars. In other words, ALL news channels are troll-bait and untrustworthy.

In a twist of irony:
It's like pigs are flying.

I uh.. what?

I've never seen this debate broadcast like this, and with this level of maturity ANYWHERE...

Kudos to this program, and kudos to Adam Sessler.

Agreed, that seemed like a calm, rational discussion to me.

I think what would be interesting is to take every news interview that features this topic involving game industry vets and social scientists and edit all of them together into a montage so we can send them to news outlets and say "WE'VE ALREADY ANSWERED THIS."