it makes sense Hannah, the liberals legalized gay marriage :)

Does this mean that the Green Party plays Ecco the Dolphin over and over?

Also, I only play Q-Bert. What political affiliation am I now?

Seriously, this is more crap that fails to look beyond our failed two party republic. (Not knocking the article, I'm knocking the government)

Conservative, Liberal and Moderate tend to be more inclusive than just refering to political parties. Not all Republicans are conservative (though I'm hesitant to say "Not all Democrats are liberal"). I'm not sure that this study actually proves or even reveals anything meaningfull. I'm older (yep, older than 50), consider myself to be a conservative, and agree with the statement that a lot of programming is in bad taste and doesn't reflect my values. However, I am unlikely to pick up and play either Madden or Mario (don't care for Football enough to play it on a video console and I don't own any Nintendo consoles). I don't have a lot of time to play games (at least one's other than the ones I'm working on) and carefully choose which ones I do play based on what I like and the amount of time I have (recent play includes Age of Empires 3: Asian Dynasties, Beautiful Katamari, the Orange Box, & Carcassonne).

If anything, the poll says to me that those who call themselves Liberals in this poll tend to be younger and actually have/make time in their lives to play a lot of games, not necessarily just the goods ones. :)

Libertarians? Independents? Other third party voters?

Yeah, that just doesn't make sense. It was the first thing that popped out at me when I read it. SOMEONE has to be buying M rated games. Especially given the huge popularity of GTA and such.

I think I'm in the purple category

Liberal or Conservative, Mario's everyone's favourite choice.

Ahh internet polls... The most reliable source of knowledge known to man.

I took to time to read the rest of the article for a laugh. Apparently conservatives don't read or attend movies very often. I'm not sure what's up with today's Moderates because according to this poll they usually watch daytime and children's programming. Also, liberals can't get enough of PBS and MTV.

People watch PBS and MTV? That's news to me.

Lets form the Mario Party seems like it would be pretty popular!

"So, who’s buying all those copies of Halo, Guitar Hero and GTA?"

Non-voters. Yeah, I'm exaggerating some, but you have to admit that the target demographic for those games intersects quite nicely with one of the least politically active groups in the country.

This poll doesn't really say anything. Apparently, everyone plays Mario and Madden. Guess I'm odd, because I haven't played Mario in years and haven't touched Madden, ever (I'm sorry, but John Madden is the most annoying and retarded sports commentator in history). So politically, I don’t exist. Who's playing the RPGs, stealth action games, and first person shooters?

I'm a cultural liberal, and, except for sports and racing (I'm not really into either, except for, somewhat amusingly, Mario and Mario Kart :P), I'll play pretty much anything. From RPG's, to FPS's, from puzzle to platform, and etc.

But what gets me is, what, exactly, games actually "reflect" political views that are in the market? That you could consider popular. I don't see Halo as anti-gay, or Resident Evil being against universal healthcare. Even in games where politics is involved, like some stealth or war game, it's not really focused on a political spectrum of views, more like, some kind of conspiracy or international threat, whatever. Not economic or social issues.

and the rest of the gaming world
white christan and mormon conservatives play the bible and anchient manuscripts

and black level minded humans play every thing else like violent games, platformers, FPS, puzzle, ect.

some thing is fishy here

@ Dave

It tells me you are an anarchist or a communist ;)

Dennis, I cannot believe you failed to squeeze a Red Vs. Blue reference into this article. They lobbed that one down the middle of the plate!

Please my brain hurts.... is there a point here? Ok, Liberals and Conservatives do things differently, this is a given. But last I checked my brother and I (both conservatives) do things differently. Just in games, He plays his sports (I agree with Austin, Madden hiss) and strategy wars games while I play RPGs and some FPS. Just a matter of taste.

~~Sarcasm~~
Nnnoooo it cannot be political or I would be doomed to follow the path of JBT who is a self professed republican/conservative. Gods, someone shoot me before that happens.

about as helpful as a study looking at how gays and straights play games....

It seems like they believe the only two developers in the world are Nintendo and EA. And they both only made 2 games.

This is just another shaped poll that gave them the answers they were already looking for. My circle of friends and acquaintences ae almost all moderate-to-conservative and every one of us plas every kind of game out there, from XBLA silliness to hardcore "murder sims." (What a stupid phrase that is.)

I'm a "conservatarian" if we're making up labels, and I hate Madden with a passion. Give me Gears or GRAW any day of the week over Madden and the like.

I agree with JimK. They were most likely just given a list of Mario, Madden, Sims, and Donkey Kong and asked which one they prefer. Most polls like this will give you choices and won't let you fill in the blank on games. Still, you would think that they would try to put a FPS in the choices.

Austin Lewis Says:
November 13th, 2007 at 10:09 am

I’m a conservative and I absolutely hate goddamn Madden games.

There, I said it.

I play a lot of FPS, games like Portal, TF2, and Half Life 2. I also play COD4, Guitar hero, and every good RPG released in the last few years.

_________

I KNEW it! Goddamned Conservatives..

The lack of other games being mentioned isn't the problem - it's putting the political spectrum into only two groups. GTA is probably more favoured by libertarians, who get no mention at all.

@Verbinator

Regarding "not all democrats are liberal," I've actually spoken to quite a few American's who consider themselves conservative but are members of the Democratic party. They tends to be the ones who value free-market economics over religion and balanced budgets over wars.

@ TheTrueMrJack Says

doubt it he hates all games

"but I can’t see the social conservatives running out to buy PS3s."

Actually, It's the fiscal conservatives I can't see buying one... ;) (j/k)

Actually, as a conservative (both fiscal and social), these are a few of my gaming choices:

Final Fantasy (actually, up to 9 with the exception of 8) and spinoffs like FFT and Kingdom Hearts.
Castlevania series (especially SoTN)
Fable
Civilization series
X-Men Legends (Both were good)
The occasional FPS

Also, while I've touched Madden, It's been limited to less than 10 minutes throughout the franchise's history.

Several comments about the poll itself though:

1. About half of the Conservatives are over 50. How many serious gamers are over 50? I mean, I can name some rare examples. but seriously.

2. There's no indication of what games people were given on a list to say that they played or not.

3. Looking at the raw data, It seems that the moderates were, by and large, uninformed idiots. They don't read, and prefer "Daytime and Children's programming"

So, in short, let me echo the classic statement:

“Lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

So if I play lots of RTS and TBS games that then then me I'm a warmongering totalitarian? I mean I suppose some of your views will be reflected in your entertaiment choices but this just seems to be going a bit too far.

As a Canadian, I don't know whether to laugh or headdesk regarding that image. Maybe headdesk, since that poll is ridiculously vague and untrustable.

I'm a conservative (kinda...I'm a slightly more old fashoined one that actually tries to follow the constitution..) and I freaking love FPS's, Guitar Hero, GTA and Mario, what does that make me?

I wouldn't touch Madden for anything less than a dollar. The last football game I've played was Blitz 2000

@Playstation

Then where's Halo 3?

[...] [Via Game Politics] [...]

I'm a hardcore liberal, fiercely anti-conservative [especially on social and religious issues], and play most of the shit listed. Terrible poll, imo.

Most conservatives [noneconomic] are ancient in age anyhow (clinging to such outdated, backwards, and superstitious beliefs is difficult under contemporary thought). Of course, ole Granny and Gramps do not game as much.