Rebut letter talks about Lula about game and violence at school – 04/24/2023 – Tech

A letter signed by 70 specialists in video games, including university professors, researchers and developers, criticizes the speech by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) last Tuesday (18), in which he associated violence in schools with contact of children with Digital games.

“There’s no game, there’s no game talking about love, there’s no game talking about education. It’s a game teaching kids how to kill. And more and more deaths than in World War II. Just get the game for these kids,” he said. the president during a meeting with representatives of the Three Powers to address the issue at the Planalto Palace.

The letter says that digital games are diverse cultural artifacts and that the association between them and violence is not only misleading, but has the potential to distort discussions about the roots of violence.

“Innumerable games with educational, cultural, artistic and poetic purposes have been developed based on academic research, with the purpose of mediating the teaching-learning process of several disciplines”, they write.

“Such sociotechnical agencies are able to promote the engagement and interest of both students and teachers, in addition to contributing to the development of skills such as problem solving and critical thinking.”

The signatories of the letter also claim that undergraduate and graduate courses in digital games form highly qualified professionals to work in the games industry. Today, more than 280 institutions offer similar courses.

According to experts, there is no scientific evidence that contact with games, even violent ones, causes aggressive behavior in young people.

Lula’s speech caused a series of criticisms on social networks, mainly among players and influencers. Esports championship presenter Nyvi Estephan made a thread on Twitter criticizing the president.

“Just like in movies, games have age groups that must be respected, and that is a responsibility of the parents, not the industry. The speech cannot be shallow, otherwise you [o governo] help spread even greater prejudice against an industry of extreme economic and social importance,” she wrote on the social network.

Minutes later, Estephan published an image showing that the team that manages Lula’s social networks had contacted her, proposing a phone call to talk about the matter.

Influencer Felipe Neto, who has more than twice as many followers as the president on Twitter, also wrote that Lula is wrong. “This analysis is shallow, outdated and does not reflect reality,” he said.

One of Lula’s sons, Luis Cláudio, published a message on the same social network in which he defends games as art and entertainment.

“My father saw his children and grandchildren grow up playing video games. He knows that this did not make us violent, he made a statement about a controversial subject live and ended up generalizing. Video games are much more than violence, they are art, leisure, and entertainment,” he wrote.

In a note released last Wednesday (19), Abragames (Brazilian Association of Electronic Games Developers) said that President Lula’s speech is mistaken and frivolous.

“Games are leading the growth of the global creative economy and in Brazil alone they directly employ more than 12,400 professionals who work in more than 1,000 studios. To refer to such an important and transformative product as “porcarias” is to disrespect every legacy and potential intrinsic to it,” he said.

“Like movies, soap operas, music, books, news, sports, opinion makers and so many other references, games are part of a diverse and very rich society, where examples cannot be taken from contexts nor serve as an excuse for structural failures and ineffective public policies.”

In August 2022, before the elections, Lula published on social media a fondness for the games sector, in a speech different from the one given last Tuesday.

“Videogames are not just entertainment, they are also culture, employment and technological development. Yesterday gamers presented proposals for our Government Program, asking for public policies that strengthen the electronic games sector in Brazil”, he wrote on Twitter at the time.