Sunday night/Monday morning update: Just got back from seeing Rio with some college friends… it was awesome!! Check it out if you have a chance. Also, Gale from Patbird & Galesaur was there, so if you missed the link the last time, check out her awesomesauce comic! End update.

Ok, so… this is the May 23rd comic, but I’m putting it up a day early cause I’m going to be out tonight.

Words really can’t describe the frustration I experienced while watching this video, a “debate” held of Fox News about whether or not the government should be spending money on grants for video games, now that they have been accepted as an official form of art.

The video starts by asking, “Should games like Call of Duty receive federal funding?”

I’ll answer that right there. No. The NEA grants are for artistic endeavors that are non profit. Call of Duty is a multi-million dollar franchise, and would not be eligible. Brian Ambrozy of Icrontic was Fox’s guest to defend gaming, and made this statement clear right off the bat. He went on to say that saying a game like Call of Duty could earn grant money is as ludicrous as saying that “the latest Hollywood blockbuster is up for federal funding.”

Fox decided not to confirm that Brian’s point was correct. When Brian started to talk about the artists that make games, Fox undercut him with videos of 8-Bit Mario, suggesting that games are sloppily drawn pieces of shit.

The followup was some guy called Neal Asbury (who had no identified video game or NEA credentials) stating that if we’re gonna give game makers artistic grants, why not ping pong players. I… can’t understand what ping pong has to do with anything, as the people who play the game are athletes as opposed to artists. Ultimately, he went on to say that giving money away on anything was a waste of government spending and should be cut.

…yeah. While a week or two back I was less than enthused that games were officially recognized as art, this sort of asinine commentary needs to stop. Should games receive government funding? Only if they are not commercial games, same as any other art form that is grant eligible.

Fox already knew that games like CoD were not a part of the NEA grant pie, but decided to deceptively hide the fact, and then promptly change the subject the moment Brian attempted to be a voice of reason.

Screw Fox News, and screw any other media outlet that engages in these practices.

And now, I’m off to go see Rio. I’m absolutely positive I’ll enjoy it more than watching that… debate again.