The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have been investing much more time and energy into virtual reality (VR) with a new advisory group dedicated to VR, but it seems as though they might be taking it in a different direction from was is expected of the British VR community. A petition has been made for the BAFTA VR Advisory Group to be entirely based in the UK following the announcement of LA-based Roy Taylor of AMD to lead this UK group.
The aim of this petition is to make BAFTA reconsider making the lead of the VR advisory board either a UK or EU figure. This was started up by Katie Goode of Triangular Pixels, based in Cornwall, in the South of England. She first showed her disappointment when she contested against the announcement of Roy Taylor becoming the lead of the board on Twitter, to which Taylor replied himself that “I promise the EU will have a strong voice. I am English.” Nick Button-Brown, the BAFTA Games Committee Chair, then failed to comment on the matter.
VRFocus got in contact with Goode who shared her disappointment in the lack of response from BAFTA regarding the situation: “There has been no response or discussion even to a full BAFTA member (my developer friend), and no response to me – a BAFTA Crew Member, BAFTA Judge, and someone that’s pushed VR at BAFTA with showing and giving VR talks there.”
When asked who should take on the role of leading the BAFTA VR Advisory Board, Goode replied: “They don’t have to be British, but they do need to be part of the UKVR and EUVR community, be hands on every day, go through what studios over here have to go through.”
She went on to explain why Taylor wasn’t a good choice: “I really don’t know how they came to choosing who they have. I personally have not met Roy, I have not seen him on our online VR community of +800 international developers that talk daily with each other, I haven’t seen any VR work that he’s created himself, hands on. I have no personal qualms with him, but we shouldn’t have a British institution deciding to create a group in the US when we have local experience here in the UK.”
BAFTA are yet to respond to this petition, and VRFocus has reached out for comment to BAFTA and Roy Taylor.
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