I'm just here to see Republicans say tax breaks are bad.

Abatement unlocked!

In fairness to the Kock Bros, it can be expensive to own a governor.

Video game makers get tax breaks. "Poor" people have video games.

The trickle down theory works!

"... whose main contribution is to create amusing and sometimes antisocial entertainment."

Read that, and immediately thought "fark you".
...does that mean they're right?

Spanky_McFarksalot: In fairness to the Kock Bros, it can be expensive to own a governor.

Buying your own personal politicians is sooooo 1800s. All the cool rich kids these days just guilt poor people into voting against their own best interests by guilt-tripping them for owning refrigerators.

/ there is no serious discussion to be had on tax policy in the U.S. because our entire farking system is one giant joke
// the bottom 95% are the punchline
/// or maybe the punching bag

I love to see the government propping up failing businesses by giving them our money. If I really felt Nintendo deserves some money I'll go buy a Wii, thank you.

Hey, as the third largest crime family in New Jersey, they've earned those tax breaks

When I was writing games the big companies saved a ton of money by simply not paying royalties.

/ Yeah, I'm looking at you MicroProse.
// And TelecomSoft
/// And Britannica Software

I'm sorry, the Tax legislation is in another Administration.

So, just to get this straight, video game companies are the big bad because they game the tax code to reduce their tax liability, yet the banks who needed trillions of dollars (and counting) of cash and guaranteed loans from the government is not? I don't see EA saying they are 'too big to fail'.

/hypocrisy, the GOP really needs to trademark it.

And Warren Buffet's company is still not current on their taxes from years ago.

He should be ashamed of himself.

"even oil companies have questioned why the government should subsidize such a mature and profitable industry whose main contribution is to create amusing and sometimes antisocial entertainment"


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...oh wait, THEY'RE SERIOUS! HAAA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Video game developers receive such a rich assortment of incentives that even oil companies have questioned why the government should subsidize such a mature and profitable industry whose main contribution is to create amusing and sometimes antisocial entertainment.

Contact info for the NYT's Public Editor: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/thepubliceditor/index.html

So, bread and circus?

TheTaiPan: So, just to get this straight, video game companies are the big bad because they game the tax code to reduce their tax liability, yet the banks who needed trillions of dollars (and counting) of cash and guaranteed loans from the government is not? I don't see EA saying they are 'too big to fail'.

/hypocrisy, the GOP really needs to trademark it.

I may have missed it, but didn't read anything in the article saying Republicans are mad with this.

Spanky_McFarksalot: In fairness to the Kock Bros, it can be expensive to own a governor.

Ya, but they get to frac on public land and then sell what they find to the public. While ruining the land, making the air quality near Yellowstone as bad as L.A., and still getting subsidies.

FTFA: "It also provides tax breaks for a company whose hit video game this year was the gory Dead Space 2, which challenges players to advance through an apocalyptic battlefield by killing space zombies."

Fearmongering, trolltastic article is fearmongering and trolltastic.

/DOOM II caused Columbine!

zulius: So, since they're getting more tax breaks, does that mean future games will be more exciting and playable than ever?

No no no, silly, it means that video game companies are totally hiring everyone with a pulse. Don't you know enough about politics to know that tax breaks means jobs?

Last time I checked Luigi or Princess Peach was not in direct communication with Scott Walker about breaking unions.

Rhino_man: FTFA: "It also provides tax breaks for a company whose hit video game this year was the gory Dead Space 2, which challenges players to advance through an apocalyptic battlefield by killing space zombies."

Fearmongering, trolltastic article is fearmongering and trolltastic.

/DOOM II caused Columbine!

Have you seen the trailer? Dead Space 2 thrives on horrifying parents (new window)

GAT_00: I'm just here to see Republicans say tax breaks are bad.

Tax breaks like these are bad, I understand trying to promote building business but there should be an end date, the only federal tax breaks I support are to develop cleaner energy or solutions to stop pollution. And most people around here call me a far right zealot, I'm closer to the middle than most people here, they just can't admit it.

Who needs tax breaks when you can get no bid contracts?

See, the only big bad in games is EA.

/Bethesda and Valve, on the other hand
//They're awesome

zedster: Thats because video games take peoples mind off of the fact they are unemployed or underemployed instead of them grabbing pitch forks and getting all stabby. In fact, the Koch bros should be giving them away

A more bitter Jane McGonigal could probably make a game that empowered people to grab pitch forks and stab in a more efficient, better organized way, though.

/seriously considered majoring in game design because of the potential for social & political activism through game design
//focused more on user experience design, for now

Xaxor: Farking tax subsidies. Balancing the federal budget would be easier without them.

Video game characters pay taxes? Wut?

Derpmitter + Derpministrators + Derpmods = never giving a penny to Fark. Liter 4 life, adblock the shiat out of this site.

Fark you Drew.

fillahbuster: TheTaiPan: So, just to get this straight, video game companies are the big bad because they game the tax code to reduce their tax liability, yet the banks who needed trillions of dollars (and counting) of cash and guaranteed loans from the government is not? I don't see EA saying they are 'too big to fail'.

/hypocrisy, the GOP really needs to trademark it.

I may have missed it, but didn't read anything in the article saying Republicans are mad with this.

you didn' t miss anything. farkers like to blame the GOP on everything.

mario found at least a billion coins in the sewers, where did they go, where?

blackheart666: Xaxor: Farking tax subsidies. Balancing the federal budget would be easier without them.

Video game characters pay taxes? Wut?

Derpmitter + Derpministrators + Derpmods = never giving a penny to Fark. Liter 4 life, adblock the shiat out of this site.

Fark you Drew.

Yet, here you are...

Rhino_man: FTFA: "It also provides tax breaks for a company whose hit video game this year was the gory Dead Space 2, which challenges players to advance through an apocalyptic battlefield by killing space zombies."

Fearmongering, trolltastic article is fearmongering and trolltastic.

/DOOM II caused Columbine!

Wait until FOX News covers this.

Fubini: I love to see the government propping up failing businesses by giving them our money. If I really felt Nintendo deserves some money I'll go buy a Wii, thank you.

we're not giving these people money (EA).
and we shouldn't give corporations any money.
we shouldn't tax businesses except for heavy usage of certain public things.
we should tax the rich much more aggressively when they derive benefits from corporations is all.
enough of this governemnt picking winners and losers through subsidies.

So the government wants to tax my high score?

Video game companies don't have the governors of two dozen states flying in at their beck and call to discuss policy, either.

I don't see the problem here. Leisure is the result of our technology advances, and eventually the majority of our economy should be related to leisure, entertainment and luxury, rather than toiling. We no longer have to thresh fields, work in car factories, work in secretarial pools, because these were manual labor which is becoming obsolete with automation and technology.

However, creative enterprises will be the last stronghold where humans need to be employed. It makes a lot of sense to promote these over industries like automotive, oil, etc.

Furthermore, creative enterprises are one of the areas where America is still king.

It is one thing to try to figure out the right level of corporate tax breaks, and I understand the arguments against letting highly profitable businesses get away without paying taxes. But this article is not about that, but rather somehow vilifying game makers. But in my opinion entertainment industries definitely should be near the top of the list for subsidy. Others would be new science areas like genetics. I think breaks for green energy are good to do but for ethical not economic reasons -- US really doesn't have a chance of being a leader in green energy field.

Anyway, if we are going to give corporate tax breaks, then they should be for industries that fit into the future economy and for which we are, or have a chance at, being world leaders.

I don't think Japanese-developed games are benefiting much from game development tax breaks in the United States. Real issue, bad headline.

Incognito Mosquito: "... whose main contribution is to create amusing and sometimes antisocial entertainment."

Read that, and immediately thought "fark you".
...does that mean they're right?

Are video games art? if they are, then they are sometimes antisocial.

of course, if they are art, video game makers should be nonprofit collectives or publishers, and retailers should follow the same rules as galleries.

It absolutely does not surprise me that EA is as intent at screwing the government as everyone else, taking more shady and barely-applicable deductions to turn an obscenely profitable company into a reporting a net loss every year.

Still, the article holds video games up to ridicule when it's really just a single shady company, and this is the money line: "Those tax incentives - a collection of deductions, write-offs and credits mostly devised for other industries in other eras." It's more about cleaning up the absurd tax code and one large company's lobbying efforts than an industry-wide problem. The article's point would be almost as ridiculous as confusing BofA with the entire US banking and credit industry.

IlGreven: Video game companies don't have the governors of two dozen states flying in at their beck and call to discuss policy, either.

Unless it's about video game violence/indecency, then they're all about it.