wraggster
January 5th, 2007, 07:23
The games industry should sponsor an academy to teach gamers skills they need to become successful game developers, Shaun Woodward, the creative industries minister, has suggested.
The "best way for the videogames industry to have the talent and the skills it wants is to move into the hot seat itself; to come to the government and say 'we want to put some money into an academy'", Woodward told the Financial Times.
He countinued, "you might have kids who traditionally have quite a difficult time coping with traditional academic subjects but happen to be the most amazing gamers... you have to look very creatively at the kind of educational background you want."
The game industry is moving beyond looking enviously at tax breaks and other state incentives offered to film companies, the minister said, to an acceptance that it's now a multibillion pound industry in its own right.
"They're now recognising that 'actually we're huge, maybe we need to build our own institutional bricks'," the minister said. "You see television and films schools but we don't have a video-games school. Why not? Because [the sector] is so new. And yet we're the third largest manufacturer in the world. And that's the sense of catch up here."
Woodward went on to say that he is confident that private sector support will make the 'game academy' a reality, so there could be a lot more game developers flying the British flag in the future.
via cvg (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=153406)
The "best way for the videogames industry to have the talent and the skills it wants is to move into the hot seat itself; to come to the government and say 'we want to put some money into an academy'", Woodward told the Financial Times.
He countinued, "you might have kids who traditionally have quite a difficult time coping with traditional academic subjects but happen to be the most amazing gamers... you have to look very creatively at the kind of educational background you want."
The game industry is moving beyond looking enviously at tax breaks and other state incentives offered to film companies, the minister said, to an acceptance that it's now a multibillion pound industry in its own right.
"They're now recognising that 'actually we're huge, maybe we need to build our own institutional bricks'," the minister said. "You see television and films schools but we don't have a video-games school. Why not? Because [the sector] is so new. And yet we're the third largest manufacturer in the world. And that's the sense of catch up here."
Woodward went on to say that he is confident that private sector support will make the 'game academy' a reality, so there could be a lot more game developers flying the British flag in the future.
via cvg (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=153406)