Game Industry Becomes More Fascist

I thought this was a pretty interesting video about how various state governments around the country have provided subsidies to video game companies. From the economist's perspective, these subsidies would result in games being made that would not have been created without the subsidy, most likely of lower quality. But I wonder which game companies are receiving the bulk of the subsidies: large companies, indie companies, or are they spread around more evenly? (I think to ask the question is to answer it.) I've long been disappointed, perhaps until recently, in the state of gaming, where it seems that most of what is produced plays things safe, following the successes of first-person shooters, GTA open-world type games, etc. But other developments that have made game making more democratic give me hope. (You can see Indie Game: The Movie on Netflix for a taste of this, though it's a rather boring documentary).

Honestly, I don't think subsidies have or will result in a better gaming industry, but will simply send more money to the largest game companies. Indeed, it may even result in worse games since companies will receive money, not from pleasing gamers by creating wonderful games, but from their ability to lobby governments to extract wealth from taxpayers. It might be the case that game companies will be able to make a higher return on their money by paying for lobbyists than they would investing in new technology or more employees to make games better. Economically, this activity is called rent-seeking and is a dead weight loss to the economy. Gaming-wise, this may result in shoddier games from the subsidized companies. Hopefully developments like Steam and other outlets will remedy this, but the ultimate remedy would be getting rid of the subsidies entirely.

#StopCronyGaming