A Question of Leanings

[ThaDium]

I'm not trying to start a flame war here. In fact, I wouldn't even post this except that my experience with these boards, with very few exceptions, has been that everyone is quite mature and responsible.

Anyway, the question:

I've found, in reading various game designer's blogs that they all seem to lean to the left politically. Is this also true of players? My group is pretty well split between liberal, conservatives and independents. (And we all get along! Shocking!)

I'm wondering what yourexperiences are. Are most gamers liberals and the designers website have me thinking?

ThaDium

 

[Eternalknight]

I hear the sounds of the moderators approaching, their hollow footsteps echoing throughout the boards...

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

This thread might be considered over the "no politics" line.

In case it isn't: I've found that to be true, too. It sometimes seems like everyone who makes things I like, from games to music to art, is diametrically opposed to me politically and philosophically. Sigh...

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Because politics is important to the people in my group, when we recruit new players we're very up-front about it: "[In addition to other stuff,] you must either be [this political persuasion] or willing to take a lot of crap for not being." And it's really not an idle warning.

It hasn't scared anybody off yet, though that's perhaps not surprising, considering where I live.

On a related note, I like to game with friends. (Either I pick friends to game with, or the people I game with tend to become my friends.) I'll come right out and say it: I cannot be friends with people on the Other Side. I don't even really understand how people can be, considering that politics informs everything in life, from spending money to vital civil rights. The idea of casually blowing off ideas and attitudes that are so important (both prescriptively and descriptively) with a casual "agreement to disagree" is odd to me.

 

[Elf Witch]

I'm not trying to start a flame war here. In fact, I wouldn't even post this except that my experience with these boards, with very few exceptions, has been that everyone is quite mature and responsible.

Anyway, the question:

I've found, in reading various game designer's blogs that they all seem to lean to the left politically. Is this also true of players? My group is pretty well split between liberal, conservatives and independents. (And we all get along! Shocking!)

I'm wondering what yourexperiences are. Are most gamers liberals and the designers website have me thinking?

ThaDium

My gaming groups are split between liberals, conservatives and middle of the road folks. We all get along because we respected each other's right to have an opinion that maybe different than our own.

 

[Steel_Wind]

In my group, we're all Canadians, and generally middle to left of centre for Canadians at that.

That makes us average people in central Canada, but leftist radicals in the USA.

Never mind the Democrat/Republican, Red State/Blue state dichotomy in your national discussions with one another - put that aside. I think Americans - no matter the political persuasion, do not appreciate how "right wing" America is compared to the rest of the industrialized world.

It makes questions like these on an international forum truly curious and potentially misleading. If I said my group was right of centre, many Americans would nod and presume we are speaking about things in the same terms.

When we most certainly would not be. View all replies from others outside of the USA in that light please. Worth remembering.

 

[Torm]

In case it isn't: I've found that to be true, too. It sometimes seems like everyone who makes things I like, from games to music to art, is diametrically opposed to me politically and philosophically. Sigh...

I doubt that. In my experience, most correct-thinking people (which, of course, includes most gamers ) REALLY want the same things, ultimately.

Many people are afraid (rightly so? maybe) of the absolute standards (and possible abuse thereof) that legal codification and government enforcement can bring, so they express themselves on the "Left", politically. But I would encourage you, the next time you think you are talking to someone like this, to move the conversation away from policies enforced on others and toward their personal standards for themselves and those they know personally. Unless you're dealing with a real whack-job (which exist in small but unfortunately extremely vocal numbers on any side of an issue) I think you'll be surprised at how much you actually AGREE about.

People are mostly good, and we know what is right. We just let the loonies run the asylum for some reason, unfortunately.....

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I think Americans - no matter the political persuasion, do not appreciate how "right wing" America is compared to the rest of the industrialized world.

Well, most Americans do not, or don't care, or like it that way.

And this thread has an expected lifespan measured in nano-seconds.

 

[WayneLigon]

Up until I started reading and posting here, I had never heard of a right-wing or Conservative gamer. I guess most of us here would be considered Independent since we are generally fiscally conservative. But as far as social issues go, we're so far to the Left we're coming back around the other side.

 

[Torm]

I don't even really understand how people can be, considering that politics informs everything in life, from spending money to vital civil rights.

Like I said above, it is because the difference between myself and my gaming friends is not really in our values - we mostly agree, or you're right, we probably wouldn't be friends - it is in how much we trust our government. And that's good, really. Without a support base of some of us, our government would be powerless. And without the rest looking sideways at it, it would be a totalitarian regime.