Kennesaw, Georgia is in the midst of an ugly scandal. And a racist online game is playing a prominent role.

Last week, a group of minority employees in the Atlanta suburb filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging mistreatment by white co-workers, supervisors and elected officials.

City Councilman John Dowdy (left), a defendant in the suit, has resigned his post, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Among numerous allegations, the lawsuit charges that Dowdy, a 10-year veteran of City Council, circulated e-mail links to the anti-immigration themed Flash game Border Patrol. Released anonymously in 2006, Border Patrol disparages Hispanics with epithets such as "drug dealer" and "breeder."

From the lawsuit:

Dowdy sent an email to Human Resources Director... linking the recipient to a racially violent video game called "Border Patrol" in which the game player would "shoot" different cartoon characters that were stereotypes of Mexicans, including "Mexican National," "Drug Smuggler," and "Breeder," a cartoon of a pregnant Mexican woman holding hands with children . Points were assigned for shooting and killing each of these characters .

 

Dowdy forwarded this game to [three Kennesaw employees] among other people, along with a message which read, "THIS IS WAY TOO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!! Makes you feel better anyway, I did my part today, I kept a few from coming over!!! GET READY --- THEY ARE
FAAAST! ! !"

UPDATE: We inquired with Kennesaw officials as to whether Dowdy is a Democrat or Republican. However, we were told that council elections there are non-partisan, so no party affiliation is recorded by the city.

An increasing number of states are offering tax breaks to game developers, but Savannah, Georgia is offering something extra - free office space for a year.

Non-profit group The Creative Coast Alliance and the Savannah Economic Development Authority have teamed up on the incentive program in order to attract game developers to the Georgia city.

The free space is located in the Game Development and Digital Media Center which is presently being constructed in an upscale, riverfront office building. Officials are also touting Savannah's lower cost of living as compared to other game development hubs, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Montreal.

Game designer Brenda Brathwaite, who chairs the Interactive Design and Game Development department at the Savannah College of Art and Design, commented on the city's advantages:

Savannah has what game development companies need in talent, tech and quality of life. In
today's economy when so many developers are laid off and looking for that silver lining, the Savannah offer is incredibly welcome and offers developers a chance to start a studio on more stable footing.

On a related note, game developers may also qualify for Georgia state tax incentives of up to 30%.

Game publishers lobbying group the Entertainment Software Association gave generously to elected officials in Georgia during 2007-2008, according to public records uncovered by GamePolitics.

Nearly three dozen politicians of both major parties received $27,200 in campaign contributions from the ESA during that period. Attorney General Thurbert Baker (D) received the largest amount, $3,500.

As GamePolitics has previously reported, Baker appeared in a 2007 public service announcement which promoted the video game industry's ESRB rating system.

The large number of contributions to individual legislators may be explained in part by the Georgia legislature's 2008 passage of a tax incentive program for game development. For its part, the ESA declined to discuss specifics of its political contributions.

UPDATE: We noticed this morning (Feb. 1st) that FollowTheMoney.org, the search site we used in preparing this story, is no longer showing any ESA contributions to Georgia officials. It's unclear why, but we have contacted the site for an explanation.

Last week GamePolitics broke the news that Decatur, Georgia was gathering information in the hope of building an avatar-based, virtual world (think Second Life / PlayStation Home) interface for its citizens.

Not surprisingly, there are those who see such a project as a waste of tax dollars.

Conservative blog Say Anything writes:

To help spur economic growth in their community the city leaders in Decatur, Georgia area creating an online virtual version of their city on Second Life.

Because I’m sure that’s just what those in Decatur who are struggling with economic downturn want.  Their tax dollars spent on a video game. I’ve born witness to some pretty sillly moments in economic development history, but this one takes the cake.

The whole idea of keeping taxes high so that politicians can spend the revenue on “developing” the economy is bogus to begin with, but spending those tax dollars on a video game takes a special kind of stupid."
 

Via: inDecatur

In Georgia, Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor is now making a bid for the top job. The Democrat is running TV spots promising to legislate video games.

It's the second ad we've seen in the last 24 hours that seems to equate the threat of violent video games with that posed by online predators. The other is from Ed Perlmutter (see following article) from Colorado.