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Lousiana Attempting to Attract Game Industry

Posted by Zonk on from the head-south-for-creole-and-game-development dept.

Academomancer writes "Yahoo reports that Louisiana is trying to lure the game industry with tax incentives and a marketing campaign. From the article: Mark Smith, entertainment director for the state economic development department, said he aims to integrate video gaming into the state's entertainment industry, bringing together music, film and digital production.

2 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. I hope this starts a tech boom in LA by SpaFF · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I live in New Orleans right now and the tech market there is practically nothing. I hope if some gaming companies move down here perhaps some other tech companies will follow.

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    1. Re:I hope this starts a tech boom in LA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      I grew up and lived in NOLA (many years ago...) and ended up involved tangentially in the city's economic development plans, so I'm reasonably familiar with the political players, &c. of the time.

      To make a long story short, NOLA shot itself in the foot by focusing on tourism at the expense of basic industry -- there was a concerted effort at the time by local development economists and corporations to capitalize upon the Michoud assembly area to lure more high-tech and manufacturing into the area, but the city leaders strangled that effort in the crib (as part of a larger City Hall coup, not on the merits). Of course, that was a drop in the ocean compared to what happened to the various attempts to improve local public schools (Ben Franklin aside) and basic services, but a lot of it trails back to a mid-eighties belief that, following the World's Fair, Nola could reinvent itself as a high-end, Vegas-style destination, and that efforts spent to actually provide jobs to the citizens would take away the "uniqueness" of the city.

      I love the city, but NOLA just gets worse every time I go back, and I don't expect the gloriously messy, hideous politics of the city will allow it to improve.

      It's still worth the flight to get to Marisol's, though.