Being linked vaguely alongside murderers and seal clubbers in the mainstream media, video games need to take any victory that they can, no matter how small, before all our copies of Skyrim are gathered and burned.
That said, William Fourkiller, a representative of Oklahoma, proposed a law that would cause Oklahoma games to carry a 1% tax. Not exactly 2012’s Jack Thompson, yet, but enough to earn the nickname ‘William Funkiller’. The justification for this law was the link between video games and obesity and violence. The bill was defeated due to the lack of evidence of a decent amount of true connection. Suspicions were also raised at his curious choice of the video game industry. Representative Ownbey (Who, by contrast, has an awesome name) commented, asking why just video games?
“Why not French fries or rap music or movies?”
And so wins another tiny battle for the video game’s industry and community against another grumpy old Senator. With science and logical thinking
Fourkiller then went on to attempt to establish “Oklahoma Task Force on Video Games’ Relationship to Obesity and Aggression”.
Which was also swiftly shut down.
What do you think? Will this be a quoted, momentous occasion? Or is there some credence behind the idea of a video game tax?