Donald Trump‘s meeting with video game industry figureheads today has got off to a bad start, with a White House official referring to ESRB President Patricia Vance as “Mr” in a released statement. This comes after the games industry previously stated that it had not been contacted by Trump, despite White House officials claiming that a meeting with game executives had been organized.
The meeting, which will see members of the Entertainment Software Association discussing video game violence with Trump, suffered from organizational issues from the outset. In the wake of the mass shooting in Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the Trump administration turned to forms of entertainment such as video games as a reasoning behind the attack. The White House later stated that it would be holding a meeting with game industry execs, though the ESA stated that no such meeting had been scheduled.
However, since then the meeting has been organized, with there being speculation as to who would be involved. Now the full list has been revealed, with it including Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick and ESA CEO Mike Gallagher, along with a “Mr. Pat Vance.” It seems that despite arranging the meeting, the White House believes Patricia Vance to be male, even though the ESRB is the largest factor in deciding with is suitable entertainment for younger players.
The list can be viewed below:
Expected attendees at POTUS meeting today to “discuss violent video-game exposure and the correlation to aggression and desensitization in children,” per WH pic.twitter.com/6y61gTYZbT
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 8, 2018
It’s unclear how Trump’s meeting with the gaming industry execs will proceed, though as no one attending is qualified to scientifically assess the supposed link between games and real-world violence, the relevancy of the meeting is questionable.
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore
