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

Comments

Submitted by Unrated (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:39.

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

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

congrats David Hecq. Good luck.

Submitted by JB (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 05:58.

Congrats!

Submitted by Vany (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 06:19.

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

Submitted by Bob (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 06:23.

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 - 06:29.

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 - 06:31.

@JC

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

Submitted by JC (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 06:35.

@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 - 07:12.

If only france mattered in the big picture. :p

Submitted by Vany (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:20.

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

Submitted by LoopyChew (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:24.

Félicitations! Hop Hecq!

Submitted by Soldatlouis (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 09:05.

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 - 09:20.

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 - 09:34.

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 - 09:37.

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 - 10:22.

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 - 11:31.

Cool!

Submitted by Saladin (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 11:42.

Congrats brutha!

Submitted by King of Fiji (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 11:42.

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

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

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 - 21:39.

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 - 03:39.

Well done Sir!

Submitted by Altair (not verified) on Sat, 03/15/2008 - 23:14.

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

Poll

Shout box

ZippyDSMlee: Something I did by hand on my convertiable laptop, http://zippydsmlee.deviantart.com/art/Cotlop-zelda-unfinished-sketch-WIP-finish-373937163 forgot if I posted it befor.06/19/2013 - 7:44pm

Conster: Also, I guess The War Z changed its name so they can scam some more people?06/19/2013 - 7:44pm

Conster: AE: when even HuffPo makes the same joke, it's not something you want to take credit for. :P06/19/2013 - 7:43pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey look! The War Z changed its name to Infestation: Survivor Stories. http://infestationmmo.com/06/19/2013 - 7:23pm

Andrew Eisen: You're going to have a lot of company in prison, RedMage. Most of the internet has stolen MY joke. Bastards!06/19/2013 - 7:06pm

RedMage: The cover art thing points to an industry trend of only wanting to appeal to teen boys despite the talk of "broadening the appealz"06/19/2013 - 6:17pm

RedMage: I'd like to turn myself in for unintentional theft of a joke. Ignorance of the law is no excuse :o06/19/2013 - 6:17pm

Andrew Eisen: Remember the fight to get Last of Us's Ellie on the game cover? Check this out: http://cheezburger.com/758618624006/19/2013 - 6:12pm

Andrew Eisen: RedMage - Thief! You stole my joke! You're a horrible, loathesome person! Or you simply had the same idea and didn't read my earlier shout!06/19/2013 - 5:35pm

RedMage: Maybe they're going to rename it the Xbox 18006/19/2013 - 5:26pm

IanC: Bet EA are pissed.06/19/2013 - 5:17pm

Andrew Eisen: Ah, James is just a little quicker on the keyboard than I!06/19/2013 - 5:07pm

Craig R.: Too little, too late.06/19/2013 - 4:52pm

DorthLous: PWAHAHAHAH, the MS spinning sound woke me up :)06/19/2013 - 4:27pm

Andrew Eisen: Microsoft's new console shall now be known as the Xbox One-Eighty.06/19/2013 - 4:17pm

Andrew Eisen: I imagine we were typing our respective shouts at the same time.06/19/2013 - 4:14pm

MaskedPixelante: So Andrew... is there going to be a new poll now? I mean, the one about the XBO DRM is kinda no longer relevant.06/19/2013 - 4:13pm

Andrew Eisen: In light of Xbox One's furious backpeddling on its DRM policies, I'm closing the poll for now. I'll probably write a new one later today or tomorrow.06/19/2013 - 4:11pm

IanC: Found three people whining about this so far. Saying that its because of cheapasses and that its going to be horrible online now. W T and indeed F.06/19/2013 - 4:09pm

Andrew Eisen: Technogeek - I agree but: "After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again." Why do I need to connect online to set up a system I'm not going to use online?06/19/2013 - 4:07pm

All shouts

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