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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.

6 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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  2. Hi. I'm Troy McClure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hi. I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from voiceovers in such Louisiana videogames as "Super Mardi Gras Brothers: Show Me Your Joystick" and "David Duke Nukem III".

  3. Chickens and eggs by 2megs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Back when you needed one animator to put out a product, it made sense to have him on staff permanently. Now you might need twenty or more animators for a brief period on a product's development cycle. The only companies that can keep them around fulltime are those big enough (like EA) to have enough products in development that they can be moved around. Thus, the industry is moving towards contractors who move from company to company on a per-project basis, much as the film industry does now.

    For that to work, you need a critical mass of both people and companies in an area. If you don't have that, there's no pool of workers to hire when projects need to ramp up, and nowhere else for those workers to earn a paycheck when projects ramp down.

    Louisiana has neither right now. And there's no incentive for one to come unless the other is already there.

    1. Re:Chickens and eggs by LiENUS · · Score: 2, Informative

      Right now there is a LOT of graphics designers out of work, the largest advertising agency in louisiana (lamar) closed up its graphics division and layed off quite a few people. So the eggs are there, just need the chickens.

  4. The super secret plan for an Uber Game: by Smilin · · Score: 2, Funny

    All they need to do is get two game developers to go to Louisianna. Then they breed them to create two better developers. Then they breed those two and so on.

    Soon you'll have Super Game Developers and they will be unstoppable!

  5. Re:Niiiiice try... by Flyboy+Connor · · Score: 2, Funny
    Louisiana, in economic terms, has four major assets: farming (rice, sugar cane, etc...), proximity to oil (in Gulf of Mexico), tourism (in New Orleans), and the Mississippi River (shipping).

    That's a good place to build a city! It can produce a tank every other turn! Just make sure it has City Walls, and the Mongols and the Babylonians won't stand a chance!