Crossfire Poll inspires Political debate!
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31 Oct 2008, 12:04
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News
Paul 'ReDeYe' Chaloner of both QuadV and the CGS has today published his article on the upcoming US Election titled, The Gamers' Election, inspired by Nellie's most recent Poll
You can read the full article here
You can read the full article here
Tell me more!
Like near every poll published ;) Nader & Barr being the obvious, though IIRC there's fifteen (?) contesting.
He didn't mention any of the senator's actual policies.
Obama has also actually come out and said that the US needs to stop their children "watching tv, playing on video games and go outside"
Although it got played up as "obama is against games" I think it was more so just trying to say that they don't exercise enough :P but you get what I mean when the article didn't really cover much ground.
Obama has also toned down his pro net neutrality speak as soon as Biden was picked as Biden is supposedly quite linked to companies wanting more protection of IP.
McCain isn't exactly any better though as he's come out and said he doesn't want the government involved in any sort of internet regulation which would rule net neutrality out.
Therefor i think it's of no social importance whatsoever and in no way a true reflection of what people think.
Though there’s been no recent check that I’m aware of, IIRC most Crossfire users (believe it or not) are of a voting age. I guess anecdotally CC events would show that too…
‘n I’d take issue with users ignorance. No factual basis to ground this in, and their interest in US politics aside, I’d say the userbase of Crossfire, as the point was made by Adacore elsewhere the other day, is generally of a reasonable intellect - *probably* higher than average.
And it very much does effect us. To stay on the original articles topic, isn’t the internet ‘based’ in the US? I remember seeing some show about google, clouds ‘n such. Ignoring the foreign policiy, taxation, interest rates, value of currency, protectionist policies, fundamentalist moral christian values forced onto charities etc etc ad nauseum
<3 nellie though :)
If you work a 9-5 job in the oil industry, you may be concerned with income tax levels, taxes on oil companies and other legislation affecting oil production and use, such as allowing offshore drilling.
It's a pretty direct comparison to look at the people whose livelihood (or, at the least, a major hobby) is gaming. Legislation banning/restricting games where you kill people with guns (so all FPS games) in the US could have a profound impact on everyone involved in the competitive gaming community, and could well put some people (gamers, shoutcasters, event organisers) out of work. Quite aside from this, even if it is just a hobby, it could wreck what is (and as sad as it may sound, there is no denying this) one of the most important aspects of our lives as competitive gamers.
So yes, I think voting based on their stance on gaming issues is fine, and would be a great engaging example of relevant politics to the youth vote.
A sport, a hobby - it's sad that even some gamers can't get past the negative perceptions.
Areas such as taxation aren't relevant to most as they're not high earners. The economy is less important - we don't have pensions, houses or stocks and shares. Healthcare too is less relevant to us, as we are generally young and unlikely to require it.
Other areas, such as military and war related concerns, probably don't have much of an age split and may or may not influence our choices (I know that they'd influence mine).
Most people, however, are pretty selfish creatures and I think the four issues mentioned in the first paragraph are those most likely to resonate with the average competitive gamer. Now I'm not saying that's a large number of people in the grand scheme of things, but that's not what this article (or democracy in general) is meant to be about.
As nellie says, this isn't about mass suicide, but reasonable personal opine. For most of us, gaming is a sport with an importance akin to soccer (in europe). Imagine the response to legislation on soccer when you think about legislation on gaming - the community may be much smaller, and thus the reaction would have a far smaller political effect, but the effect on us, as gamers, would be similar.
just watch out @ xfire !
I'd like to think that Obama would be better for gamers if only because he actually knows how to use a computer and won't have to rely on aides with agendas to inform him on relevant issues as much as McCain would.