Lord Puttnam: Political Legitimacy of Games Overdue

July 7, 2009

The political legitimacy of video games is overdue.

So says Lord David Puttnam, producer of hit movies such as Chariots of Fire and The Killing Fields. Puttnam, long an advocate of technology and the arts, also serves as a member of the recently-formed All Party Parliamentary Group on the Computer and Video Games Industry.

Puttnam made the comment during a lengthy interview with British newspaper The Guardian's Games Blog:

My own belief is that the [video game] sector should get significantly more [government] support, particularly at the entry and training level...

I'm also trying to persuade people within the interactive entertainment industry that the role they are playing, and the role that the games they develop are playing, could be far more significant in British cultural life...

What I hope we'll achieve with this new committee is the overdue political legitimacy of the games industry; to get a level of informed parliamentary understanding of interactive games... Most parliamentarians don't have a clue as regards the challenges or the opportunities the games industry faces. If for example, they had a full understanding of the levels of support the Canadians offer their industry they would, I'm sure, fall off their chairs!

As GamePolitics reported earlier this year, Puttnam called upon game makers to help spread the word about climate change.

Posted in Digital Britain Games & Culture Social Issues U.K.

Comments

Re: Lord Puttnam: Political Legitimacy of Games Overdue

Submitted by SticKboy on Fri, 07/10/2009 - 09:26.

I applaud Lord Puttnam for his modern and progressive views. This is exactly the kind of approach this industry needs from Government, not just in the UK but internationally.

What's up with you GP.com cunts anyway? Something genuinely positive and worth supporting, but none of you can be arsed to post? Pathetic.

-- teh moominz --

Re: Lord Puttnam: Political Legitimacy of Games Overdue

Submitted by beemoh on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 13:32.

Entertaining fact, for certain definitions of "entertaining": Lord Puttnam was chancellor of the University of Sunderland up until the year I graduated from it. For bonus irony, my final year project was a PC game on the matter of climate change.

Shout box

DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am

Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm

RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm

Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm

Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm

james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am

Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm

Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm

james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm

Andrew Eisen: Toki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm

james_fudge: Thanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm

DorthLous: Will do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm

Andrew Eisen: I appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

DorthLous: The title says 30, but in the article, the developer says it's like a 20% net tax http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/02/09/developers-call-facebook-currency-transaction-fee-thirty-percent-tax02/09/2012 - 2:43pm

Uncharted NES: If they actually release Final Fantasy XI for PlayStation Vita, then I will consider buying one.02/09/2012 - 12:13pm

Uncharted NES: Customers Petition Apple to End Worker Abuse with 250,000 signatures- http://tinyurl.com/6vpuom202/09/2012 - 11:28am

All shouts

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