France Gives Tax Breaks To Culturally Relevant Video Games
from the oui? dept
The French government isn't shy about trying to promote local culture, and apparently they've decided that video games should be a decent part of that culture. The government has decided that it will now offer tax credits to local companies that produce video games "with a cultural dimension." They claim they need to do this to help keep video game production in France, but if there isn't demand for local video game production, then why should the French government subsidize it? If there is demand, then won't the market take care of it without French taxpayer money?
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I'd have to disagree with Mike on this one
Market forces are best at finding efficiencies, but when it comes to culture, promoting less efficient options often have valuable, though less tangible long term benefits.
The French video game will probably suck wind. All the kids will still want to play GTA and dress like a gangsta, but efforts such as this are still valid in their goal long term.
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Socialist Government at work
So, as a Canadian, I just want to know when we can kick those french bums out of Canada already and start distributing all the tax money the rest of Canada pays more evenly across Canada and not the majority to Quebec.
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culture
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movie industry parallel
In the same direction, this can help produce 'different' games, that would probably not be produced otherwise. Gaming industry has become really shy in producing things for which the massmarket appeal is not obvious.
If this can be a step in the direction of more gaming diversity, why not?
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The market
The French are hardly the only culture out there doing whatever they can to prevent becoming irrelevant in a sea of American culture. Iceland's sole excuse for independence is their language which the Danish didn't think to stamp out during their 500-year occupation.
Offering tax credits is a much smarter method than trying to compete with existing businesses by starting up government-subsidised or owned competition. This leaves the tasks to those already capable of performing them. Ideally, anyway. The reality is that MerdeSoft S.A. will probably release a quick-and-dirty craptastic "game" which meets the "cultural" requirements and use that break to offset costs on their real products.
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French video games
How about some ideas for french games.
Surrender Surrender, you play as france, you have to hold your hands up in the air, as the germans march through paris.
or hows about snub the forigner, where you play a typical parisian, going to buy bread in a beret, spitting on tourists, and generally making the whole city of paris stink by throwing rubbish around.
The only people worse than the french, are the french canadians. Its as if the americans had to have french near them too, so that they would beleive the brits as to how bad france actually is.
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Re: French video games
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So then if they had a class of character in a RTS wargame that surrenders in the first round then that maker can get a tax break.
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Can it date back to the riots a while ago?
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Have you played Versailles?
I think it was quite successful too. This is an example of a videogame drawing on a strong cultural background and that is different from GTA or Doom.
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Re: Have you played Versailles?
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I don't believe anyone here is racist/prejudice
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Abusing the system
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Sounds like a good idea to me!
And look at Canada's growing film industries... how many movies and TV shows are shot each year now in Canada instead of of the US? So I think France will only benefit as does Canada from supporting the arts...supporting a country's art & talents over time opens up unseen economic and tourism opportunities. If only the US would learn from this - but they won't.
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Lets make a game about croissants
Or perhaps we must chase down a lost toque that was stolen by someone who is non-french.
Or maybe a game that asks you to conquor the land and convince everyone that you are superior in every conceivable way.
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Re: Lets make a game about croissants
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Good games
I can see that the French governemnt would want their children to be learning French rather than English from thier films and games, but since they are surrounded by french anyway this is not really an issue. I would assume they are afraid of getting a Munich-effect in the whole of the French youth. (The munich effect is a name given to the fact hat in Munich, where the European Centtral Bank is located,most everyday business is conducted in English rather than German, even though there are no English speaking countries in the ECB except Ireland (and they have less garsp of Enlish than the Yanks do), but rather because the French won't speak German, the Germans won't speak French, and no-one understands the Eastern Eurpoeans or cares about the Dutch and Italians. THis leaves English as the linga franca (a phrase garunteeed to annoy the french when used of English).)
The idea that eh ICelandic childern have to be given ICelendic names is crazy, and almost French in stupidity. I mean, look at English. While the basic syntax is Germanic, the words tend to get made up from other words wherever there is a need. Compare that with the French, who insist on making up thier own words to maintain the purity of thier language.
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French video games industry
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French video games industry
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