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Games and the Govt - Part Two

Labour MP Tom Watson on games in education, the role of the BBC and parents monitoring kids' play

GamesIndustry.biz My six year-old niece's favourite game is Brain Training on DS. I asked her why and she said, "It helps with my homework".
Tom Watson MP

My four-and-a-half year old's favourite game is an Apple app called ABC Phonics. His mother and I love that because he comes in on a Saturday morning at some terrible hour, 5:30am, and it gets me 20 minutes in bed extra because he can then run his finger across the top of an Apple iPhone.

That is amazing: he's learning phonics, he's learning to write, and he's using a piece of technology imaginatively to do that. And he's letting his dad have a lie-in in the morning - that's perfect for me. If other kids were doing this...

Which is why I think the educative games industry has a big growth in this country if we get it right.

GamesIndustry.biz Getting cultural recognition from the government is one thing - do you think, if videogames are as a cultural form on a par with film and TV and should be treated as such, that the BBC should be doing more to reflect this in its output?
Tom Watson MP

Yeah, I do. And I'd like it reflected in their output and in the way they procure games and digital content. The BBC have spent GBP 1 billion on their website since 1994 - they could have breathed life into a lot of gaming companies if they'd got their contracts right and been generous with their licensing.

I'm not blaming the BBC as all this is new and fast-moving, but I would like to see a point where they can use their muscle to help the small guys in the industry to get on with making great games, great applications. Yeah, sure, use it on the BBC site but let the developer go and come up with a commercial offer around that as well.

GamesIndustry.biz One of the things mentioned in Digital Britain was the creation of a Centre of Excellence [for games] up in BBC Media City in Salford that would somehow utilise the resources of the BBC, so maybe that's an area where that could happen?
Tom Watson MP

I think it is, definitely. I just think it needs the BBC to be a little more agile with small games businesses. They could really, really help if they used their clout to bring a bit of life to it.

GamesIndustry.biz Just in terms of their general programming, we don't see much in terms of videogames - certainly not as a cultural phenomenon.
Tom Watson MP

That's the great cultural divide in Britain. I see so many people for whom TV is just mood music now; it's ambient images. They're either on consoles playing games, or gaming on their laptops. There is a generation out there for whom TV is not the centre of their lives, it's just another form of content and that's hard for the telly guys to take on board. It's been their lives for so long - it's not going to be won overnight that argument.

GamesIndustry.biz If there is a change of government after the next election, with the Conseratives coming into power, what impact do you think that will have on the videogames industry and what you're trying to achieve as well?
Tom Watson MP

There's absolutely no prospect of the Conservatives winning the next election so I think the videogames industry will be safe in Labour's hands!

GamesIndustry.biz ...
Tom Watson MP

You're not supposed to laugh at that bit!

GamesIndustry.biz Well, it's good that you're confident...
Tom Watson MP

[laughs] Let me just answer that seriously. Actually I've been very impressed with the Tory front bench on some of this as well. Sion Simon gets the games industry, so does [Shadow Minister for Culture] Ed Vaizey, so I would hope whoever wins the next election we can work cross-party on trying to get this industry some support. Obviously I'd like my side to be the ones doing it.

GamesIndustry.biz You're feeling is that in general there are MPs across the board that are slowly starting to understand and appreciate the industry?
Tom Watson MP

In parliament there are. There's a bit of a generational thing, and there's also a bit of people who just made it their business to go out and understand the industry. But they exist on both sides of the House and actually there's quite a lot of conversation that goes on between the two parties about what can be done in this space.

What I would hate is for this to become a party-political ping-pong match - we should actually be working together to see what we can do.

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Johnny Minkley

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Johnny Minkley is a veteran games writer and broadcaster, former editor of Eurogamer TV, VP of gaming charity SpecialEffect, and hopeless social media addict.

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