“Studies have proven that violent video games cause aggression.”
“Traffic causes aggression!” Jenna shouted. “By that logic, everyone in L.A. has lost their mind!”
“Well, that’s already debatable,” Patricia muttered.
Lance shook his head. “It isn’t a relic of the 90s, Jenna. It comes up whenever there’s a new mass shooting, and every single time, everyone keeps ignoring it as a real problem!”
Lewis sat quietly and watched the shots volley back and forth, unsure of what to do.
“When was the last time anyone seriously considered it?” Jenna asked. “Honestly.”
“Actually, quite recently,” Patricia said. “Did you read that Atlantic article from, what was it, two weeks ago?”
Jenna nodded. Lewis did too, recalling when he had come across the article about a week and a half back. It was a thinkpiece with an axe to grind titled: “It’s Time to Reconsider Video Game Violence.” Penned by well-known writer Sylvia Fenster, it cited various studies over the years, including ones that Jenna had said were disproven, but the main focus was on a number of similar incidents over the past several months.
The first had been in Jacksonville at the end of August. A YouTube star of Let’s Play gaming videos, much like the ones Jenna did, named Shane Dempsey had been shot and killed by his girlfriend Lola Hayworth, also a hardcore gamer. She then took her own life immediately afterward. In the weeks that followed, his fanbase claimed they felt she “had always looked creepy” and close friends of hers said she’d been on antidepressants. However, the police had found her extensive collection of almost exclusively obscenely violent video games, ranging from Doom to Grand Theft Auto. She also owned more controversial games such as Hatred, Manhunt, and Postal.
The second was Trevor Mann of Denver in late October, a 27-year old gamer who strangled a friend to death who had come over to play first-person shooters at his apartment. Mann had then pitched himself off his tenth-story balcony. Friends said he’d displayed no previous signs of aggression or violence and appeared happy in the weeks leading up to the incident. However, Fenster wrote, investigators discovered Mann was an avid player of horror games, especially some ultra-violent Early Access releases from the digital marketplace Steam.
The worst case occurred in Maine. An avid college student gamer named Dan Folsom had suddenly gone berserk, stabbing his mother and sister the day after Black Friday while he was home for Thanksgiving break. He’d then taken his own life, hanging himself with a belt. The father arrived back from gift shopping to discover the bloody mess. Both the mother and daughter were taken to a hospital, but only the little girl survived. “And that was just a Christmas miracle,” Fenster wrote. She went on to argue that this disturbing trend was likely due to the increased violence of modern video games, which made “the concerns we were having a decade ago look trivial.”
“That article was a cherry-picked propaganda piece written by a self-righteous twat with a thumb up her ass,” Jenna shot back.
“Jenna, language,” Lance said, appalled.
Lewis tried to suppress his smile.
“Video games haven’t become particularly more gruesome in recent years, there have always been some explicit media that are outliers from the norm. Fenster cited no sources or examples of how they’ve supposedly gotten that much gorier in the past few years.”
“She doesn’t need to,” Lance explained. “I think the recent killings by gamers are enough proof that playing too many violent video games takes a toll on your mental health. Now I’m not saying everyone who enjoys those games is bound to commit murder, but I think you can have everything in moderation – like drinking. A beer or a glass of wine once in a while is fine, but if you become an alcoholic, it’ll eventually kill you. I’d say the same goes for gaming. Look at the perpetrators in those cases, they practically lived and breathed violent media!”
“So what, people like me?” Jenna said. “Because I play those games you think I’m going to snap and kill a bunch of people?”
“No honey, not like that,” Patricia said, suddenly backtracking. “To be honest, we thought you would’ve grown out of it like James did. I mean, you are 26 now.”
“Some of my friends at FF are just a bit concerned, especially with the article and all,” Lance explained. He turned to Lewis, realizing his guest had been excluded from most of the conversation. “I sit on the board of Family First, in case you didn’t know.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”
Jenna had mentioned it before. It was something Lance did in addition to his career as a hedge fund manager. Based in Los Angeles, Family First was one of the largest media watchdog organizations in the United States. Last year it had filed the most Federal Communications Commission complaints of “inappropriate” content on cable TV. They weren’t known for being particularly fond of movies or video games either.
“I feel like we get a bad rap in a lot of circles,” Lance said, clearly wanting to change the subject, even by a margin. “People seem to think we’re all a bunch of crazy Christian fundamentalist conservatives, but that’s not true. Violence in the media is actually a bipartisan issue. There’s one woman at the downtown office who has a big Obama poster on the wall and the guy next door to her is the biggest Trump defender you’ll ever meet. And aside from abortion, I’m hardly conservative at all. I supported Bernie Sanders until the end a few years ago, and personally, I think gaming promotes gun culture and breeds toxic masculinity. But, I recognize those are my own beliefs. This is much bigger than you and me and all of us. This is something both sides can and need to come together on.”
“There are also people on both sides who play violent games,” Jenna added.
“Exactly,” Lance continued. “What I’m trying to say is that this doesn’t have to be a political issue. It’s a social issue, one that we all need to come together on.”
“Can we please talk about something else?” Jenna said.
“Alright,” Lance conceded. “After all, it is your birthday… We’re just concerned about you, sweetheart.”
Shortly after, they had filet mignon for dinner and the rest of the evening passed with banal conversation in the living room about Lewis’s education and career. Then Patricia decided to share stories of her daughter’s embarrassing childhood exploits in honor of her birthday, which Lewis thoroughly enjoyed while Jenna’s cheeks turned bright red. Finally, at half past ten, the two of them said goodnight and headed back out onto the driveway.
“Jesus, I thought that would never end,” Jenna said as she climbed into the car.
Lewis got into the driver’s seat beside her, already thinking about the surprise party.
“I need a drink,” she said. “Actually, more than one.” She flashed a smile at him. “Good thing where we’re going has a lot of those, right?”
“Where’s that?” he said, trying to keep cool.
“Well, my place.”
“Right, right,” he said.
“Anything going on there I should be aware of?” she said, not even trying to hide her smirk.
“I guess we’ll just have to see,” he said, smiling.
As he started the car, he put his phone in the cupholder and saw he had a new voicemail message. It was probably from Miller. Whatever it was, it could wait.