Personalities in the Gaming Industry and Politics

[GMSkarka]

Your line appears to be much longer than mine.

Mostly because I view the product and person as two entirely different things. Maybe it comes from creating stuff myself....I dunno. I don't think of the things I write as being a part of me...once they're created, they are their own thing. Kinda like kids, in a way....there is a relation, but they are not the same as their parent.

EDIT: This just occurred to me: I actually view artistic product (books, movies, music, comics, RPGs, whatever) as actually more a part of the consumer than the creator. After all, WE are what make it meaningful to ourselves. The musician doesn't make our favorite song. They make a song, and we make it our favorite. I think that view has a lot to do with why I don't mix the art and the artist.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Qualifying somebodies views on the basis of their level of education or attention to the issues, sounds great, but is inherent undemocratic.

Democracy is all about having the right to be wrong. If my friend Bobby Joe refuses to vote for any candidate with the letter 'E' in his name, his vote should (and must) be equally legitimate to mine, even if I base my votes on a complex comparative analysis of different candidate's economic platforms.

Would it greatly surprise you to learn that I completely agree? I'm not advocating rule by educated elite. I'm simply pointing out that the educated are better equipped to form robust opinions and (almost paradoxically) better equipped to abandon opinions that have been discredited.

(One reason that I would never go for a "scholastocracy," BTW, is that the educated are also well equipped to ignore and obfuscate completely valid and superior counter-arguments, should they choose to do so.)

 

[Barak]

Politicians get my vote based on what their views are, because they all state their views (at least publicly), and they are supposed to represent them for me.

Artists don't get my money based on their views. First all, they don't all state them, so it'd be kinda hard to make sure I don't support a crazy-dude. Secondly, there is too many art out there that I hate. I really dislike country music, for example. But if country music artist X states his/her views, and I agree with them, I'd really hate having to buy his/her CD. So instead I buy what I enjoy listening to. Much less work, and allows me to listen to what I like instead of what whoever I happen to agree with makes.

 

[DaveMage]

(One reason that I would never go for a "scholastocracy," BTW, is that the educated are also well equipped to ignore and obfuscate completely valid and superior counter-arguments, should they choose to do so.)

Heh. This is an interesting statement considering you are discussing the issue with someone who uses the handle "nothing to see here".

That irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

For what it's worth, polling suggests the more educated you are, the less likely you are to be a swing voter.

Well, of course. The majority of people are poorly educated. Thus a large percentage of our electorate is likely to cast votes based on (1) emotional appeals, and (2) subjective appraisals. (Also known as the "Hey, I like this fella" and the "Well, I lost my job, so this guy sucks" factors.)

(Edited to remove an extraneous and distracting phrase. My bad.)

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Well, of course. The majority of people in the United States are poorly educated (especially when compared to other First World nations.) Thus a large percentage of our electorate is more likely to cast their votes based on (1) emotional appeals, and (2) subjective appraisals. (Also known as the "Hey, I like this fella" and the "Well, I lost my job, so this guy sucks" factors.)

Depends on what you consider poorly educated. I would love to see the data to support this statement.

 

[Troll Wizard]

I have to admit that SKR's website really irked me last year, so that I quit visiting his website and made it a point not to buy any products with his name on them. Secondly because he was working on a project with Monte Cook, I also stopped visiting his website and chose to boycott his products as well.
I had not thought myself all that political until last year. It turned out to be quite an interesting year for my family, my wife's family, and even work. With the exception of my father-in-law everyone is/was non-active politically and no one is religious.
We soon realized during political discussions that most of my family (myself and 3 siblings) had moved to the right, with the exception of one sibling who had moved to the far left... who is now living on the other side of the country.
My wife suddenly changed from a long-time Democratic to "I am not going to vote for Kerry, because he won't kill even single one of those sonsof..." the venom in her voice surprised and worried me, and I am a former Marine.
My father-in-law was a registered Democratic and union member, went ballistic when Kerry was nominated, he served two tours in Vietnam. Now he hates both parties and he is pretty vocal about it. My mother-in-law just stayed on the right and continues to rib him about Kerry to this day.
Even my work atmosphere became strange. It is a hardware/software development company of 300+ employees, 90% of whom are hardware/electronics/spacecraft engineers and physicists. The overwhelming majority of who are republicans, the rest are democratic and a few libertarians. Last summer was really interesting, some of the younger engineers would make comments like “hey folks, there are now four Kerry stickers in the parking lot…” in the lunch room. Before that it was obvious that several people walked on pins and needles, it seemed they wanted to vent, but did not know who it was safe to talk with. My boss the senior VP of our group surprised me one day with his anti-administration comments, which surprised for several reasons, one being that he always seemed apolitical, he was normally a stickler for keeping religion and politics out of the office, but I guess even he needed to vent. He must have thought that as a minority I would be in agreement with his views, which I wasn’t. Luckily it did not affect my work and I did ask that we not discuss politics.

Last year (probably last five years) have been rather heavy with politics and to have my primary hobby invaded by it just annoys me to no end. Visiting a designer’s website for free content, rules clarifications, and previews of upcoming products and getting smacked by the dogma of the left (or even the religious right) is just pouring salt into already open wound.
Express your views all you want, but it would be in own economic/business/professional interest to keep it separate from the material you are trying to sell.

 

[nothing to see here]

Well, of course. The majority of people in the United States are poorly educated (especially when compared to other First World nations.) Thus a large percentage of our electorate is more likely to cast their votes based on (1) emotional appeals, and (2) subjective appraisals. (Also known as the "Hey, I like this fella" and the "Well, I lost my job, so this guy sucks" factors.)

Those two appeals work far beyond America's borders. They're damn near universal, as our friends in France or the Netherlands could well testify.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Those two appeals work far beyond America's borders. They're damn near universal, as our friends in France or the Netherlands could well testify.

Interesting, so you think that they should have voted for the EU. I can admit that I dont know what the afore mentioned constitution looked like so I cannot say either way.

Have you studied it? Do you think they hurt themselves by voting no?

 

[Belen]

Well, of course. The majority of people in the United States are poorly educated (especially when compared to other First World nations.) Thus a large percentage of our electorate is more likely to cast their votes based on (1) emotional appeals, and (2) subjective appraisals. (Also known as the "Hey, I like this fella" and the "Well, I lost my job, so this guy sucks" factors.)

I have a feeling that a good portion of people in most countries are just as poorly educated. Remember, just because we see the public persona of another country, does not mean that they do not have just has many uneducated people.