While surfing Xbox Live this morning, GP noticed that the Inside Xbox section has posted a "Gamer Spotlight" on a user named borocouncilman. From the spotlight description:
He's an Xbox gamer and an elected official in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He's also got a wife, two daughters, and a baby boy on the way.
And then, in one of those "small world" moments, I realized that borocouncilman is an elected official in my home town. How cool is that?
Borocouncilman's real name is Det Ansinn and he's actually the Borough Council President here in Doylestown. While I knew the name, I had no idea Ansinn was a gamer. His XBL chops are impressive, but his real-world bio is even more so:
[Ansinn] founded a successful technology company that has created and supported well-paying local jobs. On borough council, Mr. Ansinn chairs the Streets committee and serves on the Finance and Public Safety committees. In addition to his role as councilman, he is also actively engaged in the community and serves on the board of the Bucks County Free Library.
With so many anti-game politicians out there, it's great to find one who is not only tolerant of gamers, but actually is one.
So what does borocouncilman play? His profile lists a number of games, including Halo 3, Gears of War, Mass Effect, COD4, Crackdown, Burnout Paradise, Fight Night 3, Fusion Frenzy 2, Bioshock, Kameo, King Kong and TMNT...
UPDATE: TriXie from XBL has a detailed interview with borocouncilman.
Comments
Re: Pennsylvania Elected Official is Xbox Live Gamer
I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area. If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?
But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself. Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children. Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story. Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age. The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself. Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head. Not gonna happen. Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.
The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status). In a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent. The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me. Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time. It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?
Hopefully, he's one of the very few political figures that's able set a good example for the country. If he gets caught bangin' hookers or smokin' crack, he should be forced to change his name to "N00b-bait" and be publicly pwned.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Um... he didn't buy his XBox with government funds to serve as a back up media server for the office, did he?
Perhaps we can start deciding debates via deathmatch.
I have already theorised that in the future our wars will be fought in halo and CoD matches in a huge convention centre, gamers will become the new soldiers and we won't have any victims of war any more!
Anyway that's pretty cool. I haven't played Xbawkz in awhile (SSBB addiction) so I haven't seen that.
That was to be expected.
Why do you link to the Economist? I expected awesome Guy Fawkes Maskism.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/personality/trixie/gamerspotlights/2...
I read GamePolitics daily. Thank you all for your comments.
I like to link to the Economist because they are awesome and you can search thier archives to find lots and lots of articles supporting gamers.
Now I could give away links to enturbulation.org, obviously the Marcabians need our help for tomorow.
You are such a WoW addict :P I was once like you. Then I just decided to quit because the game gets a little boring once you have to level 70s.
Thats good to know. It is really cool how gamers are starting to take office and moving up in politics and the rest of the world.
Gamer leaders--good leaders, too, which is rare enough on its own--contrasted against really backwards legislation, I'd say we come out at least even on the "good" uniqueness versus the "bad". As long as you don't live in an actual city.
Maybe we're coming out ahead, with this revelation.
@StealthKnight
Google? Just saying.
It's all visible online, and he does a good job in Doylestown, but I suppose whether or not you agree with his choices making him a "good counselman" (?) is up to you.
GP: "...litte towns nobody's ever heard of?" ...oh, Coravin - how could you? LOL... actually, Doylestown is pretty well known, relative to towns of its size (10K pop.). It is the Bucks County seat, Bucks County being a pretty affluent suburb just north of Philadelphia. It's also going to be a battleground in the coming primary and general election, I can tell ya... I'm expecting some candidate visits. Obama already has an office here.
The town itself is known for stately 19th Century buildings, gourmet restaurants, its music scene, nightlife, and a whole bunch of historical & cultural attractions. In fact, GP & the beautiful Mrs. GP moved here to enjoy what the town has to offer. D-town is very well known to the NYC types as well, some of whom live here & make the long commute every day.
But... I am clearly biased. In a good way...
Gamer = 50% of my vote,
You also need to understand the political issues of Videogaming from the industry's side and the gamers side of the story to earn that other 50% of my vote.
But yeah, this is awsome for you guys in the US who need some real gamers in Power...
I wish they'd remake it for the 360 arcade, that would be the best! Make up your own weird & warped tracks & then challenge random people to race on them. I'd definitely pay 800 points for that baby.
Borocouncilman, can you use your awesome political power to order Microsoft to remake it?
@GP: Any chance of adding an edit comment feature? Maybe with a timeout of 5 minutes to stop jack thompson from rewriting history too extensively.
GP: Alias - little scoop for ya... We're switching to a complete redesign of GP (testing as early as next week, possibly), and that was one of the features we were most keen to add.
Well I very rarely say this but: W00t!
Clever
I think everyone will like it!
And to keep this on topic: Xbox+Politics=Cool
Keep it clean, Keep it legal, and you can be the start of the NEXT GEN of politicians.
Great job.