In a steady bid to become the people’s champion of gaming Britain, UK Labour MP Tom Watson writing for The Guardian boasted that at least three MPs excluding himself have a “Guitar Hero habit”.
The article’s true motive was an attempt to inform ignorant British politicians, like Daily Mail buddied Keith “protect the children” Vaz about the positive financial benefits of the videogames industry. However, it was difficult to walk away from the piece with anything other than an unsettling image of Watson arched double with headstock raised, flicking his tongue like Gene Simmons to “Rock and Roll All Night”, flanked by ministers on bass and drums.
Watson laments that as a country “we don’t teach kids programming any more”, drawing links between this educational policy change and industry leader’s complaints that many UK universities “are not producing graduates skilled enough to make a high-end game.”
The runaway success of Watson’s facebook group Gamers’ Voice shows that the UK does indeed care about the endless berating villification of the £18 billion industry. Unfortunately the comments wall is filled with little other than underhand swipes at the expenses scandal or glimmering praise for Watson as “a light in these dark times”, so it is perhaps questionable if the ‘mouth and no trousers’ attitude of a social networking group is the key to change.
RE: Your comment about the wall
Try clicking the Discussion tab at the top of the page and reading some of the board and I think you’ll find that there’s plenty of the right attitude for change – the wall is more light-hearted :)
It’s nice to see sensible politicians talking about gaming in the UK.