Earlier this week GamePolitics reported on Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's announcement that EA Sports would establish a game testing center on the LSU campus.

Today's edition of The Advocate reports that state officials had to sweeten EA's deal to the tune of $750,000 due to last minute competition from another (unnamed) state:

Of the EA deal, Stephen Moret (left), secretary of Louisiana's Department of Economic Development, said:

This is really, really big. This company, without question, is at the very top of the list. EA’s decision to come here would be comparable in the film industry to Pixar or The Walt Disney Company coming to build a studio in Louisiana.

GP: We wonder if the competing state may have been Texas. As GamePolitics previously reported, Texas. Gov. Rick Perry met with EA at E3 in Los Angeles.

Louisiana's WBRZ-2 has a video report on yesterday's news that EA Sports is partnering with Louisiana's government to bring a state-of-the-art QA (quality assurance) facility to Baton Rouge.

Tax breaks played a big part in the deal. Also noteworthy, Gov. Bobby Jindal, who was at one point mentioned as a possible VP choice for Republican John McCain, says he is a gamer.

EA exec Sharon Knight said that the QA facility with begin testing NCAA Football, Madden and Tiger Woods Golf on the PC, PS2 and PSP platforms/

No stream for this one, unfortunately, but click here for the video.

The Redmond Digital Arts Festival sounds like a very cool event, but at least one local blogger questions using tax dollars to support an event aimed at the video game development sector.

The Sledgehammer writes:

...the newly created Redmond Digital Arts Festival will be taking place in October, funded partially with city and county public arts funding and partially by a number of sponsors... it almost seems like they’re trying to put together a (very) miniature version of the annual Game Developers Conference right here in Redmond.

 

While I’m sure this might be something that would be interesting to people who develop video games (as well as some people who don’t,) this strikes me as an odd thing for a city government to be getting itself involved with.  Without diving too deep into politics here, my support of funding for public art doesn’t extend much beyond the stuff that goes on the wanted posters on the post office wall, but since there are state and county mandates for public art funding around here that are unlikely to go away anytime soon, it looks like they’re going to have to spend the money on something...

Recently, GamePolitics reported that the Massachusetts legislature was mulling the idea of tax incentives for the film and video game industries.

Game developers who were considering a move to Massachusetts based on that news may want to re-think their position, however.

The Boston Globe reports that, although the State House approved the tax breaks, the head of the State Senate, Sen. Therese Murray (D, at left), has nixed the idea:

Senate President Therese Murray said her chamber had no intention of taking it up before the end of the legislative session next week.

 

"I just don't think it's something that's affordable," Murray said yesterday in an interview. "It's not the top of our agenda."

 

She said lawmakers' time would be better spent on assessing a package controlling healthcare costs, approving bond bills, and reviewing the governor's budgetary vetoes.

The Boston Globe reports that the Massachusetts legislature is considering tax breaks for video game developers - but the proposal is far from a sure thing.

With more than a thousand people employed in the game biz, Massachusetts ranks fifth in the nation (behind California, Washington, Texas and New York). Turbine and Harmonix are among the state's best-known video game companies.

The Globe describes the proposal, which also includes incentives for filmmakers:

The bill would have allowed companies to claim a tax credit for up to 20 percent of the cost of building, converting, or equipping a facility related to "video gaming," as the company invests at least $500,000.

 

It is unclear, though... whether the video game industry incentives will remain part of it. The bill, sponsored by Representative Ronald Mariano, Democrat of Quincy, was approved by the Legislature's Joint Committee on Revenue last month on a 5-to-4 vote...

 

And even if the bill is approved, the video game provision could be missing from the final version.
 

Students and staff at a Vermont school are proposing legislation that would tax violent video games - and Gov. Jim Douglas (left), a Republican, is apparently listening.

As reported by the St. Alban's Messenger, Julie Benay, associate principal of Mary S. Babcock Elementary School in Swanton, VT., is leading the charge. Although it's unclear exactly what Ms. Benay's qualifications in the realm of violent media might be, she told Tongues United, a student organization which advocates diversity, "I have worked in schools with young kids for 20 years, and over the course of that time I have seen a lot of differences in how kids behave and the kinds of things that they do. I have become increasingly alarmed at the level of violence and the intimate knowledge with violent things that young kids know about..."

Benay mentioned the influence of the David Kushner book Masters of Doom, which chronicles the rise of id Software, creators of the influential and oft-criticized Doom series.

"I started thinking about when video games were invented, and when did these really violent games come on the market," Benay said. "I found that they first came on the market Dec. 10, 1993. Two guys invented Doom as the original first-person shooter... It gave opponents an opportunity to not only beat each other, but kill each other as well."