New "culturally British" test for games Comments by Johnny Minkley
Nothing to do with Nick Griffin.
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Vice.Destroyer
17/06/09 @ 10:11
+1
A culturally british game? Am I to take it that we are talking about the content of the game, rather than whether a percentage of the developers and other contributors are british?
What is wrong with giving firms whose head offices are registered at Company House a discount? Or am I being thick? |
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local_celebrity
17/06/09 @ 10:13
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I would definitely fail the Norman Tebbit test in COD4. I'm always supporting the Arabs and the Russians.
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RobotRocker
17/06/09 @ 10:14
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It seems more like film where if its culturally relevant to British society and isnt completley set to a global audience.
Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive are going to be rolling in it. |
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@mingster
Main rule no. 1 should be do you employ british citizens that live in britain to make your games? That would be an "actually British" test rather than a "culturally British" test. A game that tells a "British story" could very well be made by migrant workers, after all, integrating and accepting migrants is a very "British" thing. |
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AphoticCosmos
17/06/09 @ 10:21
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"evidence for a tax relief"
Yes you wankers, Canada's 5 years ahead of us here. Lets' have a quick review and push it through Parliament. |
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optimusprym8
17/06/09 @ 10:33
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So Armed & Dangerous? Had Scottish accents in it.
GTA:London but not GTA4? Fables are a given I would have thought. FIFA titles..? Imagine: Pop out miracles for more benefits |
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kangarootoo
17/06/09 @ 10:34
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Cue sci-fi shooters including futuristic bowler hats and horse drawn carts.
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Doctor_What
17/06/09 @ 10:52
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Great idea: you get tax credits but no-one in America will understand the accents so you go broke. Genius.
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Sunyavadin
17/06/09 @ 11:08
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I hope the GTA games qualify.
They may all be set in America, but the humour is most definitely from this side of the atlantic, as are many of the cast. |
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@BigJonno
I agree regarding Fable 2. It does seem a very 'British' game, and not just because it's set in Albion and features a lot of west country accents. I think the criteria would have to be a little different for games than movies, at least to begin with. There is an international market for British films as the success of 'Lock Stock', 'Shaun of the Dead' and Mike Leigh and Ken Loach films show. Not sure it'd be the same for games. |
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@BigJonno
Colour me confused on this one. Would something like Fable 2 qualify? The Fables always struck me as very "British" games in terms of writing, humour and the "feel" of the world, as opposed to the majority of fantasy RPGs that feel very Americanised. Yes, Fable and Peter Molyneux's other games are very "British", mind you so Overlord is also very "British" despite coming from a Dutch company. I wonder if the publishers can claim grants or if it's restricted to the developers? @optimusprym8 So Armed & Dangerous? Had Scottish accents in it. Team Fortress 2 would qualify too in that case. FIFA titles..? Erm, I don't think so, the licence from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association isn't terribly "British". :) |
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+1
@mingster
To get tax relief it should be made in Britain by UK nationals. Shouldn't matter whether the content is 'culturally British' or not. It should be developed in Britain to get the tax relief yes, I personally don't think the "culturally British" thing should be that much of a factor either but the nationality of the people who make up the team should be pretty much irrelevant. A company made up of UK citizens and migrants shouldn't be excluded from getting tax relief. The people working on the game will be in the UK, paying their taxes and spending their money there. A company will want to hire the best people for the job regardless of their passports, to penalise a company for not having a racist hiring policy would seem a bit dodgy to me. |
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DarthInsinuate
17/06/09 @ 11:45
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It's a shame that games like Burnout, House of the Dead: Overkill, and Pure probably wouldn't qualify.
At least it'll keep the forrins out of our games industry. |
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@dadrester
If it's done in a similar way to the film councils scoring system British developers could make a "culturally British" game while still having mass appeal. Points there are awarded not only on content (although half of them are) being British, but also for it being produced in Britain with British resources. |
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rhubarbandcustard
17/06/09 @ 12:01
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"Hopefully this will encourage more British game development. We traditionally make the best games in the world, and our talent pool is slipping away because there arent enough incentives like this."
You can guarantee that some tool would make the claim that the British make the best games. Just like you can guarantee that some tool would make the claim that the British are the best at anything else you care to mention. It isn't true. It never is. The British are uniformally shit at everything. So there. |
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RobotRocker
17/06/09 @ 12:08
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The sub header does make me think though
If I made a game called "Egg the fat nazi twat", would that be culturally British enough for tax relief? |
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I reckon you just have to localise the accents to British accents and dialogue to qualify. Which I'm all for - if we're going to get games months after the US for 'localisation' reasons then why the fuck do us in the UK never see it? Only casual games (EyeToy, Wii Fit etc.) are ever given British accents for PAL English (unless the voices were British to begin with - e.g. in corny British due to a fantasy setting) because apparently it's alright to alienate 'core' gamers.
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kangarootoo
17/06/09 @ 12:37
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"A company made up of UK citizens and migrants shouldn't be excluded from getting tax relief. The people working on the game will be in the UK, paying their taxes and spending their money there. A company will want to hire the best people for the job regardless of their passports, to penalise a company for not having a racist hiring policy would seem a bit dodgy to me."
+1 |
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kangarootoo
17/06/09 @ 12:38
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"You heard it here first...
Assassin's Creed 3 to be set in Victorian Britain" That would rock... except for the notable lack of tall buildings of course. |
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I reckon you just have to localise the accents to British accents and dialogue to qualify. Which I'm all for - if we're going to get games months after the US for 'localisation' reasons then why the fuck do us in the UK never see it? Only casual games (EyeToy, Wii Fit etc.) are ever given British accents for PAL English (unless the voices were British to begin with - e.g. in corny British due to a fantasy setting) because apparently it's alright to alienate 'core' gamers
play the UK version of forbidden siren on ps2 and say that! totally ruined the game. Admittedly it was completely down to very very poor voice acting. |
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I wonder if Rare of old would qualify then? Banjo Kazooie looked generically American but a lot of the in-jokes were British. Same goes for Conker (although ironically Nintendo were so retarded that they chose not to publish it in the UK and we had to rely on THQ... thank fuck for them!).
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 17/06/09 @ 13:57
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YourMessageHere
17/06/09 @ 12:57
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"a game based on 'The Avengers' "
/preorders Now where's my not-very-free-roaming peculiar-em-up The Prisoner game? |
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@kangarootoo
"You heard it here first... Assassin's Creed 3 to be set in Victorian Britain" That would rock... except for the notable lack of tall buildings of course. I instantly thought "Spring Heeled Jack". That would indeed rock. The buildings in London etc from that time are all tall enough. If the game doesn't start or end with a big fight inside Big Ben I'll have a moanathon about it. Edit: of course, I'm not quite sure who the assassination targets would be if it was restricted to Victorian Britain.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 17/06/09 @ 15:13
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@LazyDan
I reckon you just have to localise the accents to British accents and dialogue to qualify. Which I'm all for - if we're going to get games months after the US for 'localisation' reasons then why the fuck do us in the UK never see it? They obviously spend that time localising it into other European languages not English. Localising the voices into UK English would be a waste of time and resources and irrelevant to most people (especially those non-UK Europeans who end up playing the English version because they don't get a localised version) as for the most part it'll come down to a choice between god awful American voice acting or god awful UK voice acting. Besides if the game is set in LA, for example, do we really need a bunch of mockneys wandering about? "Aa-righ guvnor! Gor blimey it's the bill! Apples and pears!" |
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Looking at the tests for films you can get enough points just for being a british company with british voice actors. Obviously they'll need to change the test for games given how many games are set in fantastical worlds. Fable II is a very british game for example but loses a lot of points because it's not actually set in the UK or have a character from the UK in the lead role even though Albion is clearly based on these fair isles.
Of course this only applies to games made in the UK so Overlord wouldn't count. |
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callum9999
17/06/09 @ 14:59
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It's amusing how British people are quick to go on about how Britain is a rubbish, violent place to live, yet they choose to spend their lives living there instead of moving abroad...
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RedSparrows
17/06/09 @ 18:06
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'It's amusing how British people are quick to go on about how Britain is a rubbish, violent place to live, yet they choose to spend their lives living there instead of moving abroad... '
It's just a lazy trope of British popular discourse. Oo get me. |
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