When the gaming generation come to power

Tony Blair was a truly awful prime minister on so many levels but at least he said nice things about computer gaming and left the industry pretty much alone, that is except for huge increases in red tape and taxes. Perhaps having children of computer gaming age gave him enough insight to realise that the Daily Mail is wrong and that games are, largely, a good thing.

The jury is out on his dour Scottish successor when it comes to games, but Brown’s cabinet is a lot younger than Blair’s was so are more likely to be in touch with reality. Which is more than can be said for David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative opposition. In what he obviously thinks will be a vote winner he has taken to having a very misguided go at video games. Despite all the evidence that proves him to be totally wrong. Now we have become used to Prince Charles saying silly things like this, but Prince Charles doesn’t need votes.

Mass computer gaming really took off in the UK round about 1983, thanks to Clive Sinclair. So someone who was 18 then will be 42 now. This means that the only people who could possible give David Cameron any credence whatsoever are those who are older than this. He really is narrowing down the demographic that he wants to vote for him!

When John Lennon (the most important Beatle) was murdered in New York it was a news story, but only that. When George Harrison (a less important Beatle) smoked himself to death 21 years later it was a major national event with all the newspapers running multi page features about him. The difference was that John Lennon died before the Beatles generation reached positions of power in the media. The same will happen in gaming. The current generation in charge at the BBC, Daily Mail etc haven’t the faintest idea what it is about so they fumble about in the dark making fools of themselves. The BBC even report it as technology!

But soon our day will come. Right now the 40ish gaming generation are rising to positions of power. Soon we will be in control. Soon the Daily Mail will be covermounting Wii games instead of Frank Sinatra hits.

In the meantime David Cameron has obviously lost it, which is a pity because we need to find something to replace this terrible Labour government.

So are you in a position of power in the national media or politics and are you younger than 42? If so tell us your comments. Whatever your age and position you can still comment. Please do, it is adding a lot to the discussions here.

2 Comments


  1. I don’t know about power, but I do run IT for a government agency and I am 31. I have a good idea how I got here and video games have a lot to do with it. I get a lot of inspiration for my web sites and graphic design from games. I have always loved coding and the seeing visual reward that goes along with it. Seeing a project grow beyond your expectations is quite rewarding. I can only imagine how it feels to be a game developer seeing 40 million people play your game day in-day out.

    I feel I have grown up a bit, but I still love to game!

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