UK Tax Breaks For "Culturally British" Games 267
An anonymous reader writes with news of a proposal in the recent Digital Britain report to set up tax breaks for developing video games that are "culturally British." Quoting the report (PDF): "In film a system of cultural tax credits has long helped to sustain a wide range of films that speak to a British narrative, rather than the cultural perspectives of Hollywood or multinational collaborations. Other countries such as Canada, for similar reasons, extend the model of cultural tax relief beyond the film industry to the interactive and online worlds. CGI, electronic games and simulation also have a significant role in Britain's digital content ecology and in our international competitiveness. Each of these has the same capability as the more traditional sectors, such as film, to engage us and reflect our cultural particularism. They may in future have a cultural relevance to rival that of film." Conservative Shadow Arts and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said the government has ignored the games industry, and he seeks to set up a government council to promote it. The report also outlined a number of changes to how games are rated.
what's defined as culturally british? (Score:0, Interesting)
what's culturally british? ruling at the barrel of a gun for a century, poaching wildlife to extinction, or collapsing stable democracies so that you can rape a country of its natural resources?
Just curious.
Re:Spot o' tea, guvnah? (Score:4, Interesting)
Hmmmm.... (Score:3, Interesting)
So making a map for a FPS where you trash the London subways instead of some other town's might qualify? Just curious...
Wii Want Cricket (Score:1, Interesting)
This would be the best use of the wii controller ever: http://www.freewebs.com/wiiwantcricket/ [freewebs.com]
Re:Is it me or is slashdot... (Score:3, Interesting)
I think there are more frequent articles concerning the UK, which means there are more opportunities, but I think the anti-British comments were worse a couple of years ago.
Re:Coming soon for the Wii... (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course we have Soccer in Britain. It's a British word FFS.
When I was a kid, all the comics wrote about Soccer, not Football, and that was before most of America knew what it was.
Now just because the yanks have adopted the word it's considered unbritish. Crazy.
Re:Xenophobia (Score:5, Interesting)
Your original post strongly implied that support for "British culture" was closely related to support for the BNP, which is incorrect.
The case, "nationalism = racism" has come up before, and in England it is official policy, something which many English people find insulting. The Welsh and Scottish cultural history is celebrated and preserved, as are the cultures of recent immigrants, but the English are mischaracterised as racists if they show any national pride. For example, if you display the traditional St George flag (red cross on white background), people will tend to assume you are a BNP supporter. Display the Scottish flag and you're regarded as a proud Scotsman. It frustrates me that supposed "intellectuals" regard this as right and proper, never questioning the groupthink. Hence I try to challenge that attitude wherever I see it.
Ultima (Score:3, Interesting)
Dear Richard Garriot,
Since there is a tax break for games that are culturally British, now is the time for you to quit screwing around on space stations, brow beat the rights to Ultima back, and Get Lord British and the Avatar kicking ass and taking names once again in Sorsia. RESSURECT ORIGIN PLEASE! I need a good Wing Commander game KTHX!
We now return you to your regularlly scheduled M$ vs Linux /. flame war...
Re:Coming soon for the Wii... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Big Brother 2014 (Score:3, Interesting)
How about a game where you get to go around the streets of Britain shooting video cameras and avoiding the... police?
Make it a third-person shooter where that view originates from those very same cameras. (Or would that be a second-person shooter?) You get first-person view only when you've destroyed all the cameras that could see you. When you walk into another's view, you're suddenly third-person again. Except for the hidden cameras, of which you see their perspective only when you're looking straight at them (as your sight glances over them you get a blink of the other perspective as a hint).
Also, you don't get to start with a gun. Not even a throwing knife. You have to start with rocks, and chuck them when the cameras pan off you so as to avoid detection. As you get better, you get better weaponry (slingshot, etc., moving up to faster weaponry), while the cameras get more vigilant and more actively trying to catch you in the act. Eventually you start gaining control over the cameras, scoping ahead of you, as well as being able to loop their feeds (becoming a sort of cross between the remote stealth game "Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers" and "Operator's Side", but without the frustrating voice control of the latter). As authorities move in, you have to be more selective about cameras you disable so that you can spy on their positions.
I'm liking this more and more. But there needs to be some gray about it all, even turning dark, such as, as you advance in abilities and the need to protect yourself and the allies you've made, you start to wonder if you're really fighting against the surveillance or becoming Big Brother yourself.