As an added bonus, it gets us off of the topic of religion for a while.
For this reason alone a shotgun approach to creating threads
might be okay. Now everybody else, stop talking about that and get to the OP at hand, because at least the thread caught my eye, and since I'm never around the WEPR, that's saying a lot.
Most importantly, nobody has gotten the real significance of this declaration. That's because nobody here seems to be familiar with the logistics of surviving as an artist.
As far as game makers go, the above statement and its ramification will most affect small studios and independent developers who are trying to get something into the public market. They'll have to compete for grants in a stupidly difficult field
but at least there is now an opportunity for funding, making it even remotely possible.
Let's put this in a perspective relevant to this site: AG serves, in one respect, as a grants office itself: in terms of sponsorships and cross-platform development for games that Dan accepts on the site. The difference is that the NEA is a federal agency, so you'd be applying for government funding.
Given the world of videogames, I suspect that in the next decade or so this investment will be recognised as a smart move, and it'll be expanded. For the reason of seeing more sophisticated independent games actually making it out there where we can more easily access them, I think it's a good thing, say what you will about the changing definition of art.
