Wed 21 Sep 2005
Check out the piece I wrote for The Escapist, titled “Salvation vs. Condemnation - The Two Faces of Government“. I suppose it is not presenting any new info/ideas, but more so provides a quick look at how most governments are working to help the game industry (from an economic/tech point of view) and yet simultaneously impeding it (ie, “saving culture from corruption”). This whole “issue” of The Escapist was dedicated to government intervention with the games industry…
Nice to see GamePolitics plug it. And, always happy to be slashdotted, despite someone’s confusion that the creepy Jekyll/Hyde character is a picture of me!
September 22nd, 2005 at 5:59 pm
Excellent article, man. Congratulations on the Slashdot mention- It’s a hell of a feeling :) It’s just these kinds of pieces that make me love The Escapist so much.
Good job.
September 22nd, 2005 at 6:58 pm
And a lot gets lost as collateral damage as well.
Consider that any game has to be subject to classification and that the classification process is subject top non-trivial fees (around AU$590). If you would like to import an innocuous game, for example a romantic adventure sim aimed at the niche female audience, you pay this fee per game. Where an import game may have a margin over cost of $10 and a very uncertain distribution number and marketting costs for a new genre; well it is not going to happen. So we get stuck in the dominant genre of violent games for young males, the very ones attracting the censorship of the OCFL. It’s a vicious circle leading to a spiral of ignorance…
Meanwhile the rest of the world leaps forward in leaps and bounds; Any restricted game is available from an overseas exporter that can’t be affected by the local laws, so this is crippling the diversity of the local games industry, with unfair competition!