Keith Vaz, a politician known for his strong views against violent games, failed to attend a debate with members of the gaming industry last Thursday, MCVUK reports. The Westminster eForum debate, attended by representatives of companies such as Eidos and EA, needed to have a last-minute change of plans when Vaz decided not to turn up, leaving embarrassed event organisers to announce that he "couldn"t make it."
Eidos" Ian Livingstone attempted to fill in for Vaz, mimicking him with quotes such as "games are evil, games are terrible." Other executives joined in the fun with Ed Vaizey declaring that he should be known as "Keith Chavez", following similar sentiments regarding games expressed by the Venezuelan president.
Vaizey was keen to point out, however, that the Parliament website currently has a game on its front page "and no one has been killed yet." EA"s Keith Ramsdale said that it was a shame he hadn"t turned up. "You want to understand where his head is now after being so negative about the videogame industry."
Appearing to be Britain"s answer to Jack Thompson, Vaz has expressed on numerous occasions his negative views towards violent video games, most notably Bully. Describing the game as a "bullying simulator", concerns were raised at the time that Vaz hadn"t actually played the game. Vaz was more recently involved in the Parliamentary expenses scandal, where he claimed £75,000 for a second house twelve miles away from his first.