When White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders first announced a planned meeting with game industry representatives last week, it was before anyone from the industry had received an invitation to it. Now, in advance of the gathering later today, the White House has released a list of attendees that includes both advocates for the game industry and some of its fiercest critics.

Among the critics who will be present are Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who through his Killology Research Group has made a career of suggesting video games and other violent media are desensitizing young people to violence. The title of his book Assassination Generation: Video Games, Aggression, and the Psychology of Killing summarizes his position on the issue quite succinctly.

Brent Bozell, the founder of the Parents Television Council interest group, will also attend the meeting, along with council member Melissa Henson. The council has pushed for laws restricting the sale of violent and sexual games to minors, and it reacted negatively to the 2011 Supreme Court case mooting such laws. "I wonder if Justice Kagan would still argue in public that these games are blameless, and the Adam Lanzas of the world are never influenced by these 'iconic' works [like Mortal Kombat]," Bozell wrote in 2013, referring to the shooter in the Newtown Elementary School shooting.

On the game industry side, ESA President Mike Gallagher and Entertainment Software Rating Board President Patricia Vance (incorrectly referred to as "Mr. Pat Vance" in the White House listing) will be present, along with Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick and Zenimax Media CEO Robert Altman. The president's brother, Robert Trump, serves on the board of Zenimax Media, which is the parent company of Bethesda Softworks and id Software.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), and Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) will also attend the meeting, according to the White House statement. That list notably leaves off lawmakers like Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.)—who in a recent interview called out "the societal impacts of people being desensitized to killing" by games like Call of Duty and movies like John Wick—and Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.)—who recently called for government regulation of violent video games at a town hall meeting.

The more things change

The makeup of Trump's meeting contrasts heavily with a similar meeting Vice President Biden held with the game industry five years ago . That meeting featured a number of researchers who presented evidence against the idea that video game violence leads to real-world violence and no participants with a history of arguing against game violence. Biden's meeting also featured members of President Obama's cabinet rather than lawmakers.

Game industry representatives Gallagher, Vance, and Altman were all present at the Biden meeting, along with a number of other industry executives who will not be present for Trump's meeting.

Kotaku reports that organizing for today's White House meeting has been extremely disorganized and "wildly frustrating," according to unnamed "people involved with the process." Kotaku also reports that outspoken video game critic and disbarred attorney Jack Thompson was pushing to attend the meeting, telling the site, "I need to be in that meeting, and I'm working on it, trust me."

In recent days, Trump has repeatedly brought up his belief that violence in video games and other media might be influencing children to become more violent in real life. "It's hard to believe that at least for a percentage, maybe it's a small percentage of children, this [media violence] doesn't have a negative impact on their thought process," Trump said. "These things are really violent!"

In a statement refuting Trump's position, the ESA noted that "the same video games played in the US are played worldwide; however, the level of gun violence is exponentially higher in the US than in other countries. Numerous authorities have examined the scientific record and found there is no link between media content and real-life violence."

Stetson University Psychology Professor Chris Ferguson, who has researched this topic for years and attended the 2013 meeting with Biden, backed up that position in a recent interview with Ars. "When we look at violence as an outcome, I'd say that the research is pretty clear at this point that violent games and other media are not at all a cause of violent criminal behavior, not even in part," he said. "We've looked at this in a number of studies, considering youth violence, bullying, dating violence, conduct disorder, and adult arrests, and can't [find] evidence for effects."