British Politician Calls Lack of Tax Breaks "Madness"

[Flying-Emu]

If people would stop laughing at his last name.

Mr. Balls is an idiot. The problems facing RTW have NOTHING to do with tax breaks: they have to do with rushed production and poor programming. Any gamer who spent more than fifteen minutes IN APB would know that he's just spewing a load of horseshit.

 

[Flying-Emu]

Hmm. I dunno who this guy even is, so off to Google I go.

...This guy has some fairly exploitable pictures on image search. Hmm....

Spoiler: 30 seconds later...

I love you.

 

[dekkarax]

he he he.

'Ed Balls.

 

[Frequen-Z]

Mr. Balls. Until you change your surname, it does not matter if we share an opinion or not, I am merely going to laugh at you.

Immature, perhaps, but at least my surname isn't Balls.

Yes, i have to agree here. Not only he is a politican, but also has a surname like that. Could anyone possibly believe anything he says? I mean, with that kind of surname, his lack of trustworthiness is just too damn obvious.

As I can only assume you are implying I find him untrustworthy because of his surname, I feel I must point out the obvious;

Derp.

Try reading my post before quoting it so you don't waste my time. I never said he wasn't trustworthy, or even that I disagree with him, I just said his less than ideal surname overshadows his opinion.

 

[Delusibeta]

As I understood it, Labour's planned tax breaks required games to be "culturally British" in order to get the break. I would think that APB would have failed that test, thus not get the break and thus Ed is talking out of his arse. And even if it passed, no tax break in the world would have covered the massive losses RTW suffered by APB (conservative estimate: US$30 million). So Ed is still talking out of his arse.

 

[Kollega]

As I can only assume you are implying I find him untrustworthy because of his surname, I feel I must point out the obvious;

Derp.

I'm not implying that, i'm just joking. Sarcasm-over-the-Internet is a *****, isn't it?

 

[Frequen-Z]

As I can only assume you are implying I find him untrustworthy because of his surname, I feel I must point out the obvious;

Derp.

I'm not implying that, i'm just joking. Sarcasm-over-the-Internet is a *****, isn't it?

I guess we have a simple misunderstanding. My apologies. You'd be surprised how many times I've been quoted and the post has been similar to yours, except with all serious intent. Which is why I'm always so eager to snap back.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Oh COME ON! This is just dripping with memes and potential pop culture references. It's too much!

OT: Screw the Topic, Look at those potential references!

No Really OT: Well, It is Madness (LOOK AT THAT REFERENCE! LOOK AT IT!) but Realtime Worlds was doomed as soon as they started making an MMO. Should've just worked on Crackdown 2 rather than letting some other people slap it round the face with their bats. Then again the people at ruffian games were founded by Realtime Worlds folks and I guess that they wanted a game that wouldn't be so hard for them and would earn them a profit.

Calumon: Madness?

I agree.

 

[Kmadden2004]

Makes you wonder, if Labour really believes in more lenient tax breaks for game developers, why didn't they introduce them in the 13 years while they were in office instead of vilifying the industry through their Minister for "thinking of the children" Keith Vaz?

This just smacks of blatant opportunism.

 

[AngryMongoose]

Tomorrows Daily Mail:
"Former Labour Education Secretary Supports Violent Video Games"
"Corrupting Britains Youth"

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Maybe I'm just tired, but knowing that there is a politician somewhere in the world named "Edward Balls" makes me laugh uncontrollably. Hey, it's not my fault that my brow is so low that my eyes are cast in perpetual shadow.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Mr. Balls. Until you change your surname, it does not matter if we share an opinion or not, I am merely going to laugh at you.

Immature, perhaps, but at least my surname isn't Balls.

Glad I'm not the only one

 

[BritishWeather]

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say!

Labour: Conservatives are doing it wrong
Conservatives: You would cut as well

Same old story and still fuck all getting done. When will we see the legalisation of drugs and copy the Swedish numberplate system, it's really really simple.

 

[zHellas]

Balls is the Shadow Education Secretary. British Education did SO well under Labour...

And honestly...Ed Balls...*pfffft* Finbarr Saunders would have a field day.

Dick Armey would like to have a word with you...

 

[Chrono212]

I had to watch the Emergency Budget...live...and take notes

Spoiler: When I hear about the axing of the tax breaks

At which my boss at the time promptly asks "If it's a successful part of the economy, why does it need tax breaks?"

The videogame industry had contributed around a billion pounds to the British economy last year, he added, but there was serious competition from countries like Canada who were trying to entice companies to relocate.

The UK is slipping behind because the industry is treated just as if it can get money from anywhere.
Which, like every other industry at the moment, it can't.

Based off bedroom programmers getting together to form a company and launching a game was fine when capital was around and the costs, relatively, low but now it's much, much, much more expensive and time consuming. Just look at what Extra Credits says about the indie market compared to the mainstream, multinational developers and publishers.

 

[mad825]

what is a tax break going to game developers like RTW? they made a very bad choice just like what 3D realms made, thus the choice that they made should be a punishment and there should be no reward for it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Balls is the Shadow Education Secretary. British Education did SO well under Labour...

And honestly...Ed Balls...*pfffft* Finbarr Saunders would have a field day.

Dick Armey would like to have a word with you...

I'm not even going to comment on all the Dicks and Bushes in the White House.

 

[ASnogarD]

Lol , Balls is just pissing in the wind here...

Honestly, Labour was in power how many years and didnt offer any incentives until it was practically certain Labour would lose and the goverment was in another fine mess budgetwise.

It was a cheap promise Labour was certain not to need to keep, and it posed the Tories with a nasty dilema ... support the tax break when the country needs to fix its finances, or not offer the tax break and get negitive opinion, either way they were buggered.

Bah, politicians... them and lawyers give Kotick a run for most evil 'human' award, oh and religious nutjobs too.