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Violent Video Game Tax? Another Great Idea From the Political Establishment!

Gavin Bard — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:00:48 +0000

In an absolutely brilliant move, Rep. William Fourkiller (will.fourkiller@okhouse.gov) of Oklahoma has introduced a bill that will not only raise taxes on the very wealthy but also eliminate many of the more egregious tax loopholes that they take advantage of in order to dodge paying any actually significant percentage of their income in taxes. This bill doesn’t just stop there though. It also raises the capital gains tax back to what it was before Ronald Reagan let his totally unbiased group of corporatist advisers start to muck around with the tax code, which enabled their trickle down economics that never, ever, ever worked. It also removes subsidies for the oil and natural gas industry and instead states that the income from taxing those industries will be moved to create more green energy, as the green energy sector is one of the few industries creating jobs. Perhaps the best part of this bill though, is the codification of the “Robin Hood tax.” The Robin Hood tax is a small tax, like literally a percent of a percent, that is placed on large scale financial transactions. This can make billions because of the sheer amount of volatile trading going on in this ridiculously unequal economic system we currently exist in. Thankfully though, the brave William Fourkiller (2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 510B, Oklahoma City, OK 73105) has stepped up to the plate and said “no more.” No more will they make the difference up on the back of regular, middle class Americans. No longer will corporate owned politicians wage a class war against everyone that doesn’t have nine zeroes in their bank account. This bill will surely be a model other states can use to quickly fill their ever depleting coffers.

Haha, I’m just kidding. He decided it makes more sense to tax violent video games instead- or, I should say, “violent” with as many ironic quotation marks around it as I can fit. This is an American politician we are talking about here. Since taxing the super wealthy and making sure huge multinational corporations who use the country’s resources actually pay the correct amount of taxes for the profit they’ve made is a total no-no in a plutarchy, William Fourkiller (405-557-7394)- who I would hazard has never actually played a video game in his life and still somehow represents thousands of people who do- has decided to make up the money on the backs of a consumer group that doesn’t throw as much of their cash into the insatiable maw of the political machine. It is exactly like how we can’t remove the tax breaks multi-millionaires get to use fossil fuel burning private jets because that might upset those poor baby “job creators” that don’t actually create jobs, they can constantly raise things like toll and public transportation fares. It is a strategy that has existed since the very first group of people with shiny stones decided they could hoard more of their shiny stones if they became the ruling class- move the burden onto those who can’t do anything about it because they aren’t the ones yanking the strings in this almost comically broken system. Although it is an election year, so maybe it isn’t just another out of touch politician taking a piss on those filthy proles and he is looking for a political victory with all those poorly informed pro-censorship fundamentalist types that parrot how dangerously violent everything is without having the actual slightest clue what they are talking about. I mean, with all those hundreds-of-none scientific studies that exist saying violent video games make violent kids, I can understand why they would want to single them out to make up their massive budget shortfall in as inefficient a way as possible.

The most telling thing about this is that all teen rated games would be included in the violent category. I’m not even going to bother listing the ridiculous titles that would be considered subject to the “I’m an Ignorant Blue Dog” violent video game tax (that might not be what they are calling it) because, as a gamer, I’m sure you ran a bunch through your head while facepalming with the fury of a thousand suns. This just shows that William Fourkiller really doesn’t understand anything about the gaming industry, let alone the gaming culture it has spawned. Yet he gets to legislate it, go figure. Our representational democracy sure does rule doesn’t it? Why with all the accurate and fair representation we all get.

Make sure you let ol’ Willy know how much we all appreciate his well informed, intelligent, useful bill. If you live in Okalahoma, make double sure you let him know the next time he is up for election by voting for someone else.

Not that voting matters, of course.

Source

Harmonix Head is Americans for a Better Tomorrow Tomorrow’s Sugar Daddy

Gavin Bard — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:00:41 +0000

I really hate politics. At least, I hate the way politics actually work in this country. I won’t bore you with the details of my political belief system or how inherently corrupt essentially all of our everything is right now, but let’s just say I’m probably to the left of Rudolf Rocker at this point. So, to say I greatly enjoy Stephen Colbert’s thorough mocking of the power corporations and the extremely wealthy have over our elections would be an understatement. He does this through the “Americans for a Better Tomorrow Tomorrow” super PAC which is only a slightly dumber name than any of the other ones around. They should all just be called “Bend Over and Take This Proles” but I guess politics was never big on truth and transparency.

Of course, this doesn’t have anything to do with video games on the surface, but today the New York Times decided to actually act like journalists and put out a piece on who is financing the various bullshit super PACs that Citizen United enabled to destroy our democracy. It is about what you would expect for most of them. Wall Street puppets for Romney, Texans who don’t actually care about Texas for Perry, Jon Huntsman’s actual daddy for Jon Huntsman, and it goes on. The most surprising name though, is Alex Rigopolus- a name you might recognize as the head of Harmonix. While his $9,600 bucks to Colbert’s super PAC pales in comparison to the millions of dollars being passed around by big business, Christian hate groups, and incestuously swapped back and forth by other super PACs in a sort of “two Super PACs one donation” thing, it is still enough to make him the top donor to a good cause- a cause that shines a light on just how awful money in politics has really gotten.

Maybe I’ll take back all the bad things I said about Rock Band 3.

Source

Capitol Hill “Family Game Night” is One Step Forward

Gavin Bard — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:05:59 +0000

When I read that Microsoft’s Get Game Smart initiative was holding a game night with Representatives Mike Rogers (R-Mich), Bobby Scott (D-Va), John Shimkus (R-Ill) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla) as hosts, I thought what a great idea that was. I’ve always refused to believe that not a single representative in our government was a gamer or actually cared enough to defend gamers, an absolute enormous group of passionate voter-aged people who remain untapped. That is why when I run for the NJ senate in 2012 I’m running on an entirely pro-gamer ticket. And also to repeal the Bush tax cuts. And push through a public healthcare option. And hold Wall Street accountable through stricter regulation. And ban religion from schools that receive public funding. And nationalize textbooks. And ban republicans from apologizing to major corporations who destroy fragile ecosystems and then somehow owe less money than Limewire does (who knew oil spills were less damaging than downloading music.)

Wait, what was I saying? Oh yeah, Congress’ Family Game Night. My problem with this is that, while it seems like a great idea, it is so incredibly easy for the people in control of our country to miss the point. Organizers are using this as an opportunity to show families how to enjoy games without being exposed to all the dicks and cursing that apparently ruin our gaming experiences and corrupt our nation. That is a great idea, because it doesn’t vilify games as much as it tries to show that the number one most important thing here is parental involvement. That should have always been the issue. GTA IV won’t corrupt your kids if you aren’t a shitty parent, there isn’t anymore to it than that no matter how hard Joe “I’m the biggest asshole that ever lived” Lieberman wants to keep his name relevant around election time.

Rep. Wasserman Schultz;

Instead of preventing our children from using the computer or the Internet, or criminalizing speech online that would be permissible on the playground, we must instead teach children how to be good cybercitizens.

100%. It isn’t the computers or the internet that open up the pathway to risky behavior, it’s the lack of parental oversight (lack of oversight, hey, sounds like something our government should know a lot about) and the fact parents seem to use computers and television as a babysitter instead of actually sitting down and talking to their kids about things. This leads to children who aren’t mentally prepared to see the things they see and have to fill in the blanks, so to speak, without having any sort of moral jumping off point to base their assessments off of. Acting like video games are somehow a gateway drug to perversion and violence is something that has been disproved over and over and over again but still seems prevalent in the beltway and at pee wee soccer games nation wise.

John Shimkus;

Bringing parental involvement and industry together is vital in order to help protect children from inappropriate graphic violence and sexual situations.

Half credit, it shouldn’t be on the industry to dumb down their artistic ideas because some kid who has sub-par parenting might think that Gears of War is a narrative belief system or something. The government needs to stop relying on the industry and start talking directly to the parents of America’s childr-… Wait? John Shimkus?! JOHN SHIMKUS?! This is the best representative they could get to show up for this? The same John Shimkus that idiotically compared the Iraq war to a baseball game between the Cardinals and the Cubs? The same John Shimkus that walked out on a speech by the President of the United States like a petulant child because the party of NO wasn’t getting their way? The same John Shimkus who believes that lowering our carbon dioxide output will actually HARM the plants involved in the Earth’s ecosystem? The same John Shimkus that quoted the fucking bible during a hearing on global warming and said, and I’m paraphrasing only very little here, that we don’t need to worry about the icecaps melting because God promised he wasn’t going to try to fucking drown us again?!

THIS is the guy they have at this event? He probably understands technology as well as he understands science or how to tie his own tie.

Shimkus is two steps back just because he still holds public office somehow.

[Source: GamePolitics, which if there was a God would be getting more hits than IGN, Kotaku, and us combined. Vote dummies.]

UK Emergency Budget: No Tax Breaks for UK Games Industry

Sam Naylor — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:23:57 +0000

The “Emergency” Budget has been issued by the UK Chancellor, and it has been revealed that there will be no tax breaks for developers in the UK.

Despite previous hopes of tax relief for UK developers, the new coalition government have decided not to grant such breaks. Ex-Chancellor Alistair Darling had suggested the that industry would be offered subsidies similar to that of the UK film industry. Perhaps unsurprisingly the Tories have not let this happen, even with a supportive Culture Minister.

TIGA, the UK’s game developer trade association, and publishing body ELPSA have condemned the UK government’s decision, with TIGA CEO Richard Wilson saying that “The Coalition Government has broken pre-election pledges made by the Conservative Party and by the Liberal Democrats to support and introduce Games Tax Relief.”

“Unless the Coalition Government introduces Games Tax Relief or a similar fiscal measure then the UK will forfeit millions of pounds in inward investment, jobs will be lost and we will cease to be a leading developer of video games. The UK video games industry is export oriented, high tech, highly skilled and low carbon in output. This is an industry of the future which the Government should be supporting with action, not words.”

ELSPA director general Michael Rawlinson said that “Bearing in mind the pre election commitment towards tax breaks made by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats we are extremely disappointed by the outcome of today’s Budget. Our industry will be rightly puzzled as to how tax breaks can be lauded before an election, only to be seen as ‘poorly targeted’ and scrapped just six weeks later.

“We understand that this decision has been made in the context of the current economic climate. Yet the Chancellor today spoke of the need for a more balanced economy. If this is to be attained the government must acknowledge that the creative industries are of vital importance. Therefore in the absence of tax breaks it is the essential that the government work with our industry to ensure that the policies which we have outlined – such as addressing the skills gap and better access to R&D initiatives – are implemented.”

VAT has also been set to raise to 20% in January. As if we didn’t get shafted enough on hardware prices. The full Budget can be found here.

UK Games Association Hoping New Culture Minister Will Implement Tax Relief

Sam Naylor — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:18:17 +0000

You might have heard that here in the UK we’ve got a brand new (as much as hundreds of coffin dodgers can be considered “new”) government. With this government comes a new Minister for Culture, Ed Vaizey (above)- who TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, hope will implement plans for tax relief for game developers in the UK.

The other creative industries have had tax breaks for a while now, so TIGA are pressing hard to make the UK a much more viable place to develop games. The UK game industry is a large industry, and video games have undeniably become a huge part of life here. According to Ofcom, our media regulator “93 per cent of households with children in Scotland own a games console.”

The study by Ofcom produced some other interesting results, as well. “73 per cent of adults in the UK used the internet at home or elsewhere in 2009, compared to 63 per cent in 2007… 84 per cent of parents surveyed in Scotland by Ofcom said that they trusted their children to use the internet safely and 71 per cent think that benefits of the internet for their children outweigh the risks.”

Impressive stats, and it shows that not only are we become a more progressive society, most of us have accepted the warm embrace of video games. It only stands to reason now that the new Culture Minister will allow games developers to benefit from our tax system as much as the other creative industries.

Jason Kingsley, TIGA’s Chairman, explains: “It is good to have a Culture Minister who supports tax breaks for the UK video games industry. TIGA’s research shows that Games Tax Relief over a five year period would create or protect 3,550 graduate level jobs and increase or safeguard £457 million in development expenditure. Games Tax Relief will generate high skilled jobs, encourage investment and strengthen an export oriented industry.”

New York Attorney Taking Action Over Videogame-Induced Seizures

Dylan Duarte — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:15:40 +0000

An attorney in Syracuse, New York is representing a four-year-old boy who suffered a seizure watching his brother play a videogame. The attorney is asking other victims to come forward to presumably set up a class action lawsuit.

The attorney, Michael P. Kenny, is taking Sony and Vivendi to court over Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly for the PlayStation 2, claiming that the game contains “seizure triggers” which harmed his client.

Kenny released the following statement:

“The video game companies know there is a problem, and they choose not to fix it. The video games seizures have a cause, and the manufacturers choose not to correct it.” Kenny asserts that the video game manufacturers knowingly place their financial gain ahead of people’s health. He added, “Without federal legislation to compel the video game companies to take action, we have no choice but to litigate on behalf of the victims.”

You can check out the website Kenny set up right here. What I want to know, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, is why that kid was playing a game with a metascore of 56.

Game Politics

Massachusetts Governor Brags About Guitar Hero

Dylan Duarte — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:20:42 +0000

I jump with joy any time that video games are brought up in a good light, and this is no exception. Deval Patrick, the Governor of Massachusetts, lobbied game publishers to relocate to his state in an effort to help his state’s economy. Now he’s brought the subject up again, this time bragging about it.

“This is not your father’s [Route] 128. You know that [video game] ‘Guitar Hero’? That was invented here. It was built here.”

Harmonix is indeed based in Cambridge. And the Route 128 area is a massive technology hub in the state, with companies like Polaroid, Sun Microsystems, and Raytheon having branches there.

Game Politics

Inside Every Gamer, There’s a Little Fanboy

Wade Larson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:07:39 +0000

Liberal. Conservative. Fanboy.

These words have taken on new meanings in the age of internet and anonymous hate-spamming. And, just like pundits and politicos, gamers have their preferred warhorse.

But when you show your support for a system you instantly become “fanboy,” and are likely to get a face full of flamer comments within minutes. People get defensive. People get offensive. And most frequently, they degenerate into juvenile debates that go a lot like playground calls of “my dad can beat up your dad.” Sure, its never going to happen, its just that people really like to be assholes to each other.

But you already knew this, if you have any internet proficiency. So lets ask the question, what is a fanboy, and is it really so bad to be one?

Well, Brad Hilderbrand, at kombo, dared to ask that question, and his editorial inspired me to share my opinion with you, in a time when it’s not only gaming that’s full of name calling, and the side we chose has come to be a derogatory term.

I will admit, that for the better part of my years, I was a Nintendo fanboy. I owned mostly Nintendo systems and loved Nintendo games. Lately, I’ve become quite attached to the Xbox 360. I do not own a PS3, but that’s mostly because I’m fucking poor and can’t afford everything I want. That’s life. But it doesn’t mean I don’t like Sony. In fact, if I had the opportunity, I would buy a PS3 and some really great games to go with it, because all systems have their good and bad parts, and in the end, it comes down to having fun.

So lets put down the hate words and really come together as a nation, as a world, as a community of people with a shared interest, and maybe if we’re lucky, all the ‘responsible people’ who don’t play games will notice that we can get along without resorting to playground name-calling tactics.

Just as long as none of those dumbass PC douchebags who think their $2,000 system is hot shit come along. Seriously, fuck those guys.

That’s sarcasm. Put out your flaming torches, I own a PC too.

Obama Billboards Appear In Burnout Paradise

Andrew Podolsky — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:10:46 +0000

In a move that’s well beyond any lame Second Life appearances, the Obama campaign has bought ad space in Paradise City. EA confirmed the ad buy to website Gigaom today– check out their statement after the jump.

EA told Gigaom:

“I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, the game’s publisher, told me via email, noting that EA regularly allows ad placements in their online games. “Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates,” she continued. “Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”

However, the McCain-Palin ticket has been getting some in-game publicity of their own. Recent (unofficial) appearances by the GOP VP Candidate have popped up in games as diverse as Bayonetta, Rock Band 2, and Tomb Raider.

We’re also looking forward to Wednesday’s final debate, when the candidates will fight a duel in a lush outdoor garden. A preview of this can be found below.

Source: Gigaom

Master Chief is a Political Liability

Justin Arnold — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:24:56 +0000

The lexicon of American politics includes many derogatory terms: carpetbagger, hatchet man, or flip-flopper. Now we can add “Halo player” to the list.

In the Maricopa County District 1 Supervisor race in Arizona, incumbent Republican Fulton Brock is slamming Democratic challenger Ed Hermes in his campaign literature as a “Halo gamer.”

The mail-out is a one page pamphlet which shows a side-by-side comparison of the two in an attempt to cast Hermes in a negative light as young and inexperienced.

This mail-out comes after Hermes continues to fundraise more successfully than Brock, who has committed a series of political faux pas during his tenure. In August, Brock was secretly taped while meeting with local activists that landed him in the proverbial aqua fervens.

Hermes, 24, is running on the platform of fiscal responsibility, public accountability, and “n0 c0nzol3 haxz0rz,”

Source: joystiq.com

Warning: Politicians May Be Abusing Their Powers to Make Gaming… Better?

Dan Landis — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:19:48 +0000

This story starts with a young boy and a subscription to the MMO Final Fantasy XI. After a few months with the game, he grows tired of it and decides he’s going to cancel. Great, so how do you do that? What seems like should be a simple task ends up an exercise in frustration. Little did Square Enix know — they just messed with the wrong guy.

When Frank Edwards wanted to cancel his son’s subscription, he had a hard time finding out how to go about it. The Final Fantasy XI community website supposedly had no link to cancel an account, and he was unable to locate a phone number until he checked his credit card statement. A call to this number resulted in an hour and 45 minutes of elevator music while he was on hold.

Rather than just put up with this bullshit, Frank Edwards calls up his good buddy Illinois State Representative Raymond Poe. You see, Frank Edwards just happens to be an alderman in Springfield, and he’s learned that having a friend with bill-writing abilities is a good thing to have.

Frank gets his pal, the Senator, to propose a law that fixes this horse-swaggle, and that law ended up just getting passed earlier this week. The law states:

So basically, it says: “That’s what you get for fucking with me, Square Enix.” It’s actually kind of funny how the law is written to specifically address Frank’s problem. To put things into perspective, though, Frank Edwards previously had asked Senator Poe to help him pass a law that “package delivery trucks are not permitted to park along the curb next to a driveway because the exhaust from said package delivery truck is harmful to the homeowner’s tomato plants and totally makes the homeowner’s wife angry.”

Okay, I made that up.

Having had a similar issue after canceling my World of WarCraft subscription a few years ago, it’s cool to think that I could do something about it if I decided to become more politically involved and make friends with a Senator. I won’t, but it’s still nice to know I could.

It’s strange to see videogame legislation pop up in the news like this and have it not throw me into a geekified rage. This one, however, seems to to be a win on both sides of the camp. What’s next, legislation that makes licensed games not suck?

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

PC Review: The Political Machine 2008

Andrew Podolsky — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:29:07 +0000

It’s been 17 months since Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton started to duke it out for the Democratic nomination, less than a month since the winner of that contest was settled, and four score and seven years since John McCain graduated from flight school, after learning how to ride a pterodactyl. It’s easy to get fatigued watching all this crap on cable news, but for a fun bit of counter-programming, we have this clever little strategy game, The Political Machine 2008.

At first glance this downloadable game looks a bit like Civilization, but on a scale of 41 weeks instead of 4,100 years. Also, instead of a whole world to explore, you are limited to the 50 United States (suck it, Guam!), and there is no “fog of war” obscuring your view of the nation. While there is no rolling blackness from your perspective, the nation’s voters are wallowing in ignorance, and it’s up to you to educate them with speeches, ads, and political trickery.

You play as a contemporary political contender, including some recent candidates and running mates, and can face off against historical figures in the campaign mode. Obama vs. Lincoln, for example, is a fun match-up because they both hail from Illinois, and Reagan is always a tough contender because he’s the only Republican with a steady shot at winning California.

If you’re any kind of fan of politics at all, have any sort of preference about political coverage in newspapers or TV, or have read any nonfiction book about the Bush Administration, you’ll undoubtedly get a huge kick out of the tactics in this game. You can hire smear merchants to pen vitriolic columns about your opponent, a fashion consultant to keep you looking spiffy, and a speechwriter to round out a few choice phrases.

The Political Machine is clever in its message—to succeed, candidates fly around from state to state constantly, delivering speeches on the same few inoffensive, noncontroversial topics, claiming bold stances on positions like “I’m for the environment” or “I’m against high gas prices”. It’s a little hard to get a read on the voters’ perception, as the polls mostly focus on individual states. But after a few campaigns you’ll get the hang of all the right things to say: just promise farm subsidies in Iowa and thump your chest about a strong military in Virginia.

The game lacks a bit of nuance, however. You can’t parse your positions down to the level of “meeting with enemies of America without preconditions but with preparation”. You can also slam your opponent and tell lies about their positions, regardless of where they actually stand. Like Twain said, a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.

A couple of tweaks and improvements are also needed. It’d be better if more stats about your opponent’s position were available at hand. On election night, it’d be great to see the name of the state and some detailed information about why you won or lost. Also, on-the-ground operatives like The Heckler or the Wealthy Patron are pretty cool, but they don’t hold nearly the evil appeal of a real life Karl Rove. If I want to spread a whisper campaign about my opponent’s alleged illegitimate children, this game should let me.

If anything, the game’s not nasty enough. Politics can get pretty rough and tumble, but the worst you can do in this game is distort your opponent’s stance on the issues. You can’t leak photos of them wearing a turban, or run a few out-of-context clips on Youtube until their negative rating is so high that you win by default. You actually have to campaign on the issues, which we all know is completely unrealistic.

Even with a few minor flaws, the Political Machine is a reasonably priced and enjoyable experience, and it’s also a great way to blow off some of the steam that builds up from watching stupid bullshit on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. I can’t emphasize these points enough, because it says right there on my teleprompter to deliver these points with emphasis. And unlike my opponent, I for one am against higher gas prices, terrorists, and using the flag to wax your car. Thank you and God Bless America.

What does this score mean? Check out our review scoring breakdown.