With the Federal Election looming and a renewed interest in games as an industry in need of more government support here in Australia, what better time to talk to one of the key drivers for the industry to be taken seriously, in
IGEA’s
Ron Curry, than now.
A new tax initiative, more government funding for independent game development and the most recent bit of news, that
Australia would be the key
Country Partner for
Gamescom 2022, it’s safe to say our industry is on the cusp of an exciting period of growth.
Sitting behind a margin of that push for support and recognition is the IGEA and one of its key figure heads, Ron Curry, who has served as a voice for, and champion of, gaming and its many industries here in Australia for years. Ron took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with us about the recently unveiled Digital Games Tax Offset as well as his hopes for the industry moving forward while also waxing philosophical about what it all means.
Here’s a snippet:
With the DGTO, was that the larger case of education? In a sense to deal with government bureaucracy and to elevate games out from just being considered an ‘arts thing’ which, in uneducated eyes, could be seen as expendable given the perception might be that it doesn’t really do a lot for the economy, but rather appeases so-called “creatives”?
Yeah. Look, I think it fell into that "arts" bucket, and we know historically there's been a number of ministers responsible for the arts who would not see videogames as art. Previous ministers... [they] liked theatre and ballet. And not to be too unkind, but they [also] liked to stand side by side with somebody and have their photo taken. You know, I guess Nicole Kidman is much nicer than Master Chief or Sonic the Hedgehog, if you want your picture in the paper. And we've had those conversations with politicians and have said, 'can you just get someone to stand with us? We can take a great photo, too'. And that's generational. We've had to work through that. And I guess the other thing over the last eight years is we now have a bunch of advisors, and these are the people who you really need to talk to before you get to the minister level, and [those] advisors we're talking to, they're all gamers.
They’re the exact same age as the average gamer. So now we’re talking to our people.
Click here for our full Ron Curry IGEA interview.
