[B]Turns out the suits in the game industry aren't all that different from the gamers. When British MP Keith Vaz, notoriously outspoken in his views on violent game content, recently backed out of an industry debate at the last minute, several game execs and a fellow pol wasted no time stepping into the breach with a bit of flame bait.[/B]

Eidos Life President Ian Livingstone took the MP's place on the panel, which was held at the Westminster eForum, where, as [URL=http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37250/Keith-Vaz-skips-industry-showdown]MCV[/URL] described it, Vaz was "comprehensively mocked and ridiculed by execs, developers and politicians":

[INDENT] Attendees jeered upon hearing the announcement that Vaz wouldn’t be attending after all, and the crammed meeting room was evidently filled with industry execs who wanted to ask Vaz to explain his frequent colouring of games as evil. [/INDENT] Among the execs administering the verbal beat down was Livingstone himself, who satirized Vaz' often salacious soundbites.

"Games are evil, games are terrible, games are turning children into killers," Livingstone mocked.

Ed Vaizey, MP for Wantage and Didcot, also waded in, comparing Vaz to Venezuelan prez Hugo Chavez, who recently characterized videogames (and Barbie) as cultural "poison":

"Hugo Chavez has jumped on the Keith Vaz bandwagon," Vaizey joked, referring to his colleague as "Keith Chavez" at one point. "Tell him that the Parliament website has a videogame on its front page, and no one has been killed yet," Vaizey added.

EA's Keith Ramsdale was a bit more considered, expressing regret that Vaz had not shown up. "You want to understand where his head is now after being so negative about the videogame industry."

Apparently that head is currently rotating on its axis at about 550°C.

[url=http://www.gameculture.com/2010/01/21/british-mp-roasted-absentia-execs-pols-eforum-debate]More...[/url]