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Oklahoma Senator Proposes Tax Incentive For Family-Friendly Games
GamePolitics reports on legislation proposed by Senator Anthony Sykes (R-OK) which would make video games eligible for the same tax breaks that apply to TV and film. The catch is that games with a mature rating would not be eligible for those breaks. Quoting:
"While games are restricted to projects appropriate for those under 17, the only eligibility requirement placed on film content is that it be neither child pornography nor obscene. By that standard, R-rated films and MA-17 television programs would easily qualify for the tax break. ... '[Sen. Sykes]... would rather not include the ratings restriction. Unfortunately, as he went around to his fellow senators asking for their support, the first question out of their mouths was whether there would be ratings restrictions.'"
I can't wait for some sequels to Carnival Funfair on the wii...
wtf!? does that mean childporn is legal in Oklahoma?
so, normal porn can get a tax break?
I'm gonna make 100,000 versions of tetris and then the goverment will owe ME money!
Are video games an endangered species in Oklahoma? Why do they need tax breaks?
are R rated movies not eligible for tax incentives? that'd be kind of absurd.
just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!
Does it violate the First Amendment for the government to tax one kind of content at a higher rate than another kind of content?
I've read a preview for the Ghostbusters game coming out and they're cutting things that appear in the Ghostbusters movies to make them more child friendly.
So why is it ok for Peter Venkman to swear in a movie but not the game?
Also, has there ever been a game sold with child porn in it? That comment just makes no sense.
I'm gonna make 100,000 versions of tetris and then the goverment will owe ME money!
What, are you going to recompile LOCKJAW Tetromino Game with the options hardcoded to 100,000 different configurations?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an angry parent or some anti-gaming crusader, but the industry as a whole would be healthier if they made more games for kids. Link
If they banned everything but kid's games, then that would certainly be a violation of the first amendment, but this is not.
Do you know what is considered child porn these days? I'm sure you're aware that drawing pictures depicting nude children is now illegal. Did you know that recording a (non-nude!) public cheerleading competition is also child pornography? See Gilbert Chan:
http://www.sacbee.com/yolo/story/1004647.html
Leisure Suit Larry, Neverland Ranch Special Edition.
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD
I'm sure you're aware that drawing pictures depicting nude children is now illegal.
I'd like to think that you are aware that the USA is not Australia. Sadly, this being Slashdot, I'm not sure I can safely make that assumption.
Is this in effect endorsing the ESRB rating system? Another question, are games having ESRB mandatory or voluntary? Will the government want to control how ESRB rates games? Could the government fine the ESRB for misrating a game?
GTA has become an important teaching tool helping kids learn how to drive.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/blogs/sidebar/909182374/26738978/grand-theft-auto-teaches-6-year-old-to-drive.html
This is stupid. There is no shortage of "family friendly" games.
The cake is a pie
Just how many video game developers are there in Oklahoma anyways? Would this bill actually affect anyone, or is it simply an attempt to lure them there being derailed by anti-game crusaders?
And the next thing the senators for OK will back, are Jesus games, like The Inquisition and The Crusades, where kids get to run around getting points for killing and torturing infidels, and pagans. There's not penalty for killing christians through, since they're going to heaven anyway.
For a modern game, they will probably endorse something like "Save the Children" Where the player gets to be a pro-life acitvist killing doctors, and bombing clinics.
Also, has there ever been a game sold with child porn in it? That comment just makes no sense.
Japan is FULL of those! Or at least that's what the sensationalist media tells us...
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I agree we should "make video games eligible for the same tax breaks that apply to TV and film", but do it the other way around.
Why the hell is the government telling TV and film that they don't have to pay the standard taxes everyone else has to pay?
A lot of people have this candyland fantasy that "tax cuts" and "tax breaks" and "tax relief" are a good thing. You can change SPENDING, but aside from that it is impossible to change the total money in taxes you have to collect. If you give some people a "tax break" independent of a spending change, then the bill on that spending still comes due and still needs to be paid for. Any "tax cut" or "tax break" or "tax relief" without a matching spending adjustment enforces an equal and opposite tax hike on others when the spending bills come due. If you give TV and film a tax break, then government expenses and government taxes simply get shifted into a tax hike on everyone else. The Bush tax-cut-for-millionaires did the same thing. If you cut government revenue collection from millionaires and maintain or increase government spending, that means you are in fact dumping and equal-and-opposite delayed tax hike on the poor and middle class. You can temporarily hide from reality - you can have the government temporarily put the bill on their credit card - but then you just have to pay the bill PLUS INTEREST. Creditcard financing just means a bigger tax hike later to cover the interest.
If someone wants to propose slashing $X dollars from the military budget, or slashing $X dollars from education, or slashing $X dollars from senior's Social Security and Medicade, if someone wants to slash $X in food aid for children in poverty, or any other specific spending cut, then fine. THAT is the only possible actual tax cut when the bills come due. Anyone else talking about tax-cuts is full of shit. They are engaging in candyland fantasy economics, and they are in fact proposing TAX REDISTRIBUTION, not a "tax cut", not a "tax break", not "tax relief". Discussing tax distribution can be legitimate, but calling it a cut or a break or relief is false and delusional.
I don't see why TV film or software industries should be getting a special government hand-out to cover their taxes at the standard rate that applies to every other industry. I don't see why the TV film or software industry tax bills should be redistributed as tax hike ultimately dumped onto everyone else.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Ah, thank god for big government. Financial incentives for having our kids sit around munching and playing "the right kind" of video games. Ya gotta love these guys.
Silver lining: At least it doesn't involve spending billions of taxpayer dollars invading another sovereign foreign nation.
Having been to Japan, I did see a "virtual girlfriend" game there. Only it was advertised as also being a "virtual daughter" game as well. And this was on 3m high posters in a store, so it wasn't exactly an underground sort of thing.
This amounts to discrimination against mature-rated games. If the government rewards those who make games that adhere to a certain collection of moral values, they're doing something they really ought not to - going against FREEDOM OF SPEECH. They want to create an environment where it is not possible to create a profitable video game with the word "fuck" or showing a female nipple (male nipple: OK!). Well, fuck those conservatives, it's not their country. It's everyone's. They can just not buy the M games. Why do they have a heart attack when someone ELSE buys one? I'll tell you why. It's because a lot of conservatives (and other groups know for trying to force their values on others) are possessed of a certain hubris, that says they have not only the right but the moral duty to change us into a shape that pleases THEIR eyes. Resist it, or we are all doomed.