Gamer Becomes Mayor of French Town

March 13, 2008

GamePolitics readers may recall our coverage of David Hecq, the gamer and game shop owner who was running for mayor in the French town of Anzin Saint-Aubin.

Well, he won!

Longtime GP reader Soldat Louis, who often provides us with game-related news from Europe, has posted a message in the GP/ECA Forums about Hecq's victory:

Last sunday march 9th, there were municipal elections in France. And Hecq's team "Pour Anzin-Saint-Aubin : une nouvelle équipe pour de nouvelles ambitions" (litterally, "For Anzin-Saint-Aubin : a new team for new ambitions") received 57.18% of votes, against 42.82% for the former mayor's team. Details are shown on Hecq's campaign blog (in French)

...David Hecq is also credited for the creation of games retail store Objectif Games, which became Ultima Games, a chain of stores located in many French towns.

Posted in France People Politicians Who Play

Comments

Submitted by Unrated (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 08:39.

In the big picture, everything matters, thats why its so BIG.

Submitted by KayleL (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 11:13.

congrats David Hecq. Good luck.

Submitted by JB (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 06:58.

Congrats!

Submitted by Vany (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:19.

Ah, if only Troy had a gaming mayor...

Submitted by Bob (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:23.

Its beginning. Out go the old generation who condemn games as kids stuff, and in come the new Generation 30/40yo gamers taking position. Soon we shall rule the world *insert evil laugh*

Submitted by JC (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:29.

Feliticiations! I forget my French....

Hopefully this guy doesn't let the power go to his head and do what a mayor is suppose to do.

Submitted by GregoriusH (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:31.

@JC

Creation of an 'Pwning Noobs' class at the local youth centers?

Submitted by JC (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:35.

@GregoriusH

I personally hope not. Or something silly like spending tax funds to make his own gaming rig...

Could be worse though. I say its better to look at this as a hope of a new start to phase out gamer ridicule. It's best that he focuses on the issues facing the city and manage the budget well. Basics first, then improve.

Submitted by DeusPayne (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 08:12.

If only france mattered in the big picture. :p

Submitted by Vany (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 08:20.

Well in the big picture, nothing really matters at all...

Submitted by LoopyChew (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 08:24.

Félicitations! Hop Hecq!

Submitted by Soldatlouis (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 10:05.

Thanks for the credit :)

To be fair, it's a very small town : 2500 inhabitants only. And as I've previously said, he is also a former municipal employee, involved in local politics, and in touch with internet and blogging, (contrary to his rival). So it helped a litte bit.

This being said, although he's fan on violent games such as "Silent Hill" and "Resident Evil" series, he has unorthodox opinions about game ratings and accessibility of violent games to kids (I mean, "unorthodox" to gamers and game industry).

Submitted by Ian Cooper (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 10:20.

If it wasn't for France, the US would probably still be a colony of the British Empire, so you Yanks shouldn't be too hard on the French. Oh, and don't be too hard on the British either - if it wasn't for their intervention in the French and Indian War, people in the US would be speaking French today. So those who like an independent and English speaking America should remember which countries stepped in to help.

Submitted by Bob (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 10:34.

And america gave us Halle Berry, so we're all about even.

Ramen to that !
As a brit though its a fist shaking, cursing moment that the first story I read about a gamer politician is bloomin French. Sigh.

Submitted by Kris O. (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 10:37.

I'm excrutiatingly pleased to see a modern-day adult in a public office. I'll be keeping my eye on him, to see how this position plays out. I'm hoping for the best, of course, but reality isn't so warm and fluffy.

Submitted by Ebonheart (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 11:22.

A congradulations is in order. And good luck in the term, would like to see him win another mayoral election once his terms up.

Submitted by Shih Tzu (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 12:31.

Cool!

Submitted by Saladin (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 12:42.

Congrats brutha!

Submitted by King of Fiji (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 12:42.

Huray now lets get a African American female gamer into the white house!

Submitted by Guiguibob80 (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 14:34.

In the big picture, everything matters in average as much as anything else... that's called symetry...

Submitted by Nic Schweitzer (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 22:39.

All that matters is that we know through games what to avoid in life, & so by learning what is good & what it Spitzer one can make a great run in office. Good luck, don't pull a Spitzer... please? The industry has enough crap as it is!

Submitted by Andy_UK (not verified) on Fri, 03/14/2008 - 04:39.

Well done Sir!

Submitted by Altair (not verified) on Sun, 03/16/2008 - 00:14.

W00T! Oh yeah, and as a PSA, lets not use this article as an excuse to slam other countries! I can understand being dissapointed as the first gamer mayor not being English *looks at Bob*, because were just as dissapointed that he wasnt American. This is a huge victory for the gaming industry WORLD WIDE! Our voice is finally being heard more clearly! Allow me to be cheezy and say

GAMERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! =3

Shout box

Uncharted NES: Critics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm

Zen: I felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm

DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am

Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm

RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm

Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm

Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm

james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am

Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm

Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm

james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm

Andrew Eisen: Toki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm

james_fudge: Thanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm

DorthLous: Will do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm

Andrew Eisen: I appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

DorthLous: The title says 30, but in the article, the developer says it's like a 20% net tax http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/02/09/developers-call-facebook-currency-transaction-fee-thirty-percent-tax02/09/2012 - 2:43pm

All shouts

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