We know video games are big in pop culture: millions of us, of all ages, play them every day. We know they’re big in business: the video game industry in the United States alone is worth over $US25 billion annually, to say nothing of the rest of the world. And it seems that the United States government knows how big a deal they are, too.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) in South Korea released the results of last year’s survey aimed at studying the causes of internet addiction. The Ministry conducted the study from October to December 2011, which was just around the time when Korean news began to report on school violence.
Canada, with its multiple tax breaks and incentives, is often painted as a mecca for game development, a space where the money always flows and the growth is always facilitated by government investment. But what is our local government doing to stimulate growth in an Australian industry decimated by a series of crushing closures? The answer is simple — a lot more than you think.
Much credit to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, for maintaining this registry of members of the Electronic Software Association and their on-the-record positions regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill almost universally despised by rank-and-file gamers.
Video game preservation, educational robot dragons and Department of Homeland Security Sno Cones are just some of the “outlandish” federally funded projects called out in U.S. Senator Tom Coburn’s annual big book of wasteful government spending this week.
You probably remember that small security snafu that hit Sony back in April this year. Turns out the government didn’t just watch events from the sidelines — the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner launched an investigation into Sony Computer Entertainment Australia (SCEA) to rule out any negligence on the company’s part.
In Oregon, when I trade my games in, I’m required to certify there is no lien against them, like the IRS wants my copy of NCAA Football 11. It’s one of the many fun-filled ways in which local ordinances regulate the sale of used games. Madison, Wisconsin, is scheming up another.
It might in the future, according to one reading of Senate Bill 978, assuming it gets passed. This is a proposed law put before the Senate about a couple months ago, but the games community just sat up and noticed once it read the language and understood the totality of its prohibitions.
