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France Offers Grants For Game Makers
vasqzr writes "According to a BBC News article, if you come up with a good idea for a video game in France, you could get a helping hand from the state." The article elaborates: "The French Government is offering four million euros [$4.5 million] to help aspiring game developers turn their ideas into reality." But not everybody can just purloin the money: "The government will pay for up to 40% of the cost... but there are strings attached... to get a slice of the cash, firms have to be French and the work developing an idea must be done in France itself" and apparently, the content of the game is important too, as "...the French Government... will not hand out grants for violent or pornographic games."
The game will be just like Americas Army. Except you control soldiers running away from Iraqi republic guards and pouring american beverage down the sewers for points.
Frogger.
after all games containing sex and violence never sell well anyways.
Is there such a thing?
PacMan was violent. And Pacman has an eating disorder.
Pong. Those horrible little lines smash that poor speck of light on the screen. That poor speck!
Any sports games are violent. And they cause violence.
Even Barbie games are totally violent.
And has anyone here played Aladdin for Sega Genesis? Geez. That was the roughest G-rated game I've ever played.
Even Tetris is violent the way I play it.
I can't think of one nonviolent game. So I guess these French guys want to not only cash in on the gaming industry, but they want to become famous by creating the first nonviolent video game!
What will they call it?
Clever Paint Drying 2005!
Funny how Ubisoft became so dominant without such a program.
I think this is a awsome idea that the French are doing. I only wish they did that here in Canada so that we could encourage the Gaming Industry here. Games are such a big revenue now that it could be very benificial for both the programmer and the government.
I'm no film buff, but of the non-english speaking movies I do hear about I think the vast majority of them are French. They must be doing something right.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
There goes my idea of the Erotic French Kiss of Death: The Game
Welcome to Slashdot, where unsubstantiated hyperbole is labelled "insightful!"
Due to my ongoing boycott of France (have not touched a french fry in months, and a certain style of kissing has been out too. No "Third Rock" reruns either!), I will not accept any such grants from the French government. However, call it a "freedom grant", and I will cash in.
Send me an e-mail....oops, that 18 letter french word for e-mail.... and let me know.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I don't know who came up with this story, but it totally unlikely that the french government would go ahead with this.
This is against EU laws, which prohibits governments supporting local companies, to promote competition across the EU (Article 87 of the Treaty Establishing The European Community).
If the french would do this, they would face stiff penalties.
the pun is mightier than the sword
They could put the money into small developers who are just getting started, but this won't help serious development houses over the tough times.
Developers in Finland can also apply for money from the government, from organizations like TEKES. The percentage of support is up to 50% and the pool is many times larger than what the French government offers, in a country with much smaller population.
Don't get me wrong, I think what the French government is doing is great, and much more is needed. It's a good start, but not big enough to be important to most serious developers.
Jouni
Jouni Mannonen | Game Designer, Consultant
Forget about seizing the day, you should seize yourself a spell checker.
French games are way too conservative and have been lacking. The only good game to come out of there to speak of is Syberia and it is an adventure game. Meanwhile, we have the beautiful and innovative Mafia are coming out of the Czech Republic, the government of which is in no position to give out game grants. The problem is culture, not resources.
Handing out grants is just going to make French games more conservative because the value of the games are going to be judged by government officials. I expect the result of this grant will be a pretty game with high production values but I also expect the gameplay with be rehashed from the late '80s.
Coward.
Bullshit. It may be an accepted cultural practice of the game dev industry, but it's not *necessary*.
Intelligent engineering practices and less-insane expectations about product cycles would dramatically improve the situation.
Yes, I formerly worked for a game company, and the sheer lack of professionalism was astonishing, and the 100-hour weeks were the way people made up for it...
Phase 2: Design a crappy nonviolent video game.
Phase 3: ???
Phase 4: Well, there's no profit, but you just took a French government handout and turned it into screaming fast computers and large flat-panel monitors. Do the happy dance!
Pathetic loser.
I don't know if I like the idea of the people who brough us superman 64 handing out grants. Call me crazy, but flying through rings is just not my thing. Let's just hope they don't try to export.
NJ Local Music Scene
How about a sim where you are the French President? I can see lots of fun possibilities. You could authorize a strike on the terrorist organization known as Greenpeace. You could instruct your UN Ambassador to block every single U.S. initiative at the Security Council level. You could test nuclear weapons 20 years behind U.S. weaponry on some South Pacific dependency over the protests of the natives who worship airplanes. You could appoint a cultural minister whose only purpose is to ban all English words (nevermind how many French words are in the English language) from daily use in France. You could block French citizens from bathing daily in order to preserve French cultural distinction from Anglo-American influence. You could take bribes, excuse me, "campaign contributions" from dictatorships in the Middle East. You could sell weaponry and other goods to the same dictatorship(s) in the Middle East despite UN sanctions to the contrary. When said Middle Eastern dictatorship is invaded by the Anglo-Americans, you can authorize your embassy to issue passports to fleeing members of the deposed regime for a substantial profit, or in exchange for documents exposing previously mentioned gun-running to be shredded in France proper. And the rest of your game playing time could be spent appointing old guard members of your government to cushy positions in the European Union bureaucracy... Sign me up! I swear, the Bonapartes, the Burbons, and the Orleanists must be turning in their graves...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*