Shadow Culture Secretary Ed Vaizey is one of the few politicians in Britain who actually understands and appreciates the good that videogames do, and has been a supporter of the industry for a long time. While registering for the London Games Conference, Vaizey spoke highly of games and criticized his fellow politicians for focusing entirely too much on the violence issue.
"I’m delighted to be speaking to the London Games Conference. The games sector is one of the most successful creative industries in the UK, but it has been forgotten by Government," Vaizey claims. "While Canada and France aggressively compete to attract talent, all our politicians can talk about is video games violence.
"Yet games should be a dream for a politician -- it recruits people qualified in difficult subjects, like maths and computer science; it’s regional; and it’s successful and world-beating. Government backing should be a no-brainer."
I can't disagree with anything he's said. The British government benefits tremendously from the impact videogames have had on the economy, and I think it's disgusting that politicians demonize the industry while at the same time making money from it. It's small wonder that the UK games industry has fallen so far. Politicians in general need to stop focusing on meaningless pet peeves and worry about what they can do to help industries thrive.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
Likes
PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
23 comments | showing # 1 to 23
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
11:20 AM on 09.11.2009
| 
Maybe we can go retro and demonize music again. Quick someone play a song backwards! Maybe it has a message to Al-Qaeda!
in due time I guess. In the meantime, how about giving those politics give us a reason to care they do something for the world.
Actually he's not in the governemnt and the fact that he is a tory plays a large role in wheater his views will be taken seriously or not, in the british system the voice of one man is not enough, it's the party that counts, and that doesn't look good either when you consider, earlier this year (could have been late last)the most powerful Tory in the country, Boris Johnson, was waffling on about GTA being connected to knife crime and then you've got their leader trumpeting the phrase "broken Britain"and the need to return to "core values", not i direct assault on video games but i wouldn't put on any bets that cameron will end up a champion for the medium.
Too be fair none of the major parties over here have been outspoken agianst games, bar the occasional loon. Good on Vaizey, first time i've read of someone from westminster treat Videogames in the context of an economic issue rather than a social one.
Tories were traditionally right wing, but have now drifted more the the centre-right.
Hurr durr Keith Vaz.
Here in Brazil most are stupid and corrupt and don't even know how to spell VIDEOGAMES.
Does anyone believe our government gives a shit about what is good for the economy or the public?
I'll never vote for a dirty right wing party but Cameron has got a couple of decent people in his team. Shame he's got more douche bags than he does decent people......Daniel Hannan being the biggest douche bag of them all.
Not really. He's a despicable shit about most things, he just happens to very rarely be right about something.
I don't think so. The Tories is slang for the Conservative Party.
Tory's are the Conservative Party.
Conservatives are the UK equivalent to the USA's republican party. Except they're not quite a stupid and down right scummy. They're still complete scum though.