Politics, the Third Rail of Video Games

@ArbitraryWater said:

Yeah, I think I will skip reading the comments on this one. Great article, I guess? Maybe?

Half of the comments are politcal rage rants, 40% are people commenting on how the comments must be crazy and that they are not going to read them (or that they are getting their popcorn), and 10% are people commenting on how it's weird that Patrick tried to connect video games to the real world (or something along those lines).

I thought it was a good article. I feel like it's stating the obvious in that games are injected with the viewpoints of their developers. It is good, I suppose, that these types of articles get out there because I think there are some people that don't realise how much a developer/author's personal beliefs may the final product. I would argue that it is more important that people question this when playing video games, reading articles, or even watching movies and realise how it may also affect their own view of the product.

@Patman99 said:

@ArbitraryWater said:

Yeah, I think I will skip reading the comments on this one. Great article, I guess? Maybe?

Half of the comments are politcal rage rants, 40% are people commenting on how the comments must be crazy and that they are not going to read them (or that they are getting their popcorn), and 10% are people commenting on how it's weird that Patrick tried to connect video games to the real world (or something along those lines).

I thought it was a good article. I feel like it's stating the obvious in that games are injected with the viewpoints of their developers. It is good, I suppose, that these types of articles get out there because I think there are some people that don't realise how much a developer/author's personal beliefs may the final product. I would argue that it is more important that people question this when playing video games, reading articles, or even watching movies and realise how it may also affect their own view of the product.

What are the personal beliefs in say ... Noby Noby Boy?

@JDillinger said:

@McGhee: The laziest form of political opinion. "Herp Derp, both candidates are just as bad."

Lazy? Because I'd rather post a political cartoon than write an essay in a fucking video game forum on why the government has been on a very distinct, downward trajectory ever since the JFK assassination? I could write about how I've voted in the last 3 presidential elections and no matter which party is elected, they do the same shit on the most important issues. They just slightly shift to one side or another within the so-called "culture wars" to keep the people emotionally invested in the two party system. Yes, there's a lot I could write about, but I had Aikido practice and fucking English homework. So I'll just be "lazy" and boil it down to voting for a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich. I wonder if you lean more douche or turd? Like it matters. Have a nice day.

@PulledaBrad said:

@Wiredxp said:

@PulledaBrad: The voter ID policy is seen as being designed to diminish racial minority voting numbers because many black/hispanic etc people are in the low income bracket. Therefore they are unable to afford government issue ID. These people may not be able to afford a drivers licence or passport, or alternately obtaining government ID may not be at the top of their to do list. If someone is registered to vote is that not enough proof enough? The voter ID laws or lack thereof have very little to do with keeping illegal aliens from voting. They cannot register to vote anyway. The proposed or repealed voter ID laws were designed to again shrink the size of the electorate. The further the electorate shrinks the easier it is to predict elections in favor of one party or the other. Voter ID favors the Republican party because it shrinks the size of the likely Democrat voting electorate. To learn more i would advise reading this BBC article.

Thats a load of crap. My ID cost me about 10$ every 4 years, If you cant do that then youre fucking up somewhere else. And you do have to register to vote but since ID isnt required, anyone with a bogus SSI number can get on the register. I still fail to see how this is in any way racists/xenophopic designed to diminish a minorities vote.

Any poll tax is illegal, for fucks sake we've decided this as a nation many years ago. Your intent is clear, you are juding certain groups of people for "fucking up somewhere". I'm not sure what makes you the diviner of good choices but even if you were correct in every cases, "fucking up" should not mean you are denied the right to vote. Also you pretend like states without voter id do nothing to verify voter's identities, I wonder how this country got along for 236 years without these laws.

A bigger problem with these laws is that they were enacted only recently, without any programs to inform people of the change. It's estimated that about 11% of eligible voters don't have a valid licence or state id. That's why many have been struck down by courts. They were also enacted while simultaneously closing and/or reducing hours at DMV's in poor neighborhoods, making it harder for people in those neighborhoods to even get the correct ID. You can even ask the Pennsylvania house republican leader why they wanted to enact these laws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuOT1bRYdK8) it doesn't seem to be about voter fraud. Voter fraud is extremely rare, most examples of fraud turn out to be accidents and usually a voter id would not have prevented them.

The larger voter suppression efforts are also horrible. From the Ohio secretary of state trying to reduce early voting hours in democratic districts, while extending them in republican districts. To the insane (7 hr) waiting times at polling location in areas with more democrats (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/no-one-in-america-should-have-to-wait-7-hours-to-vote/264506/). The Republican party has made a national effort to reduce the number of people that vote to achieve a partisan goal.

I also like how you ignored the larger points I was making in my original post, voter id was just thrown in at the end.

@PulledaBrad: That's a good question. I am a believer that any cultural expression, be it video games, music, fine art, film, or whatever else, has some sort of meaning. However, I also think that there are some things that are more difficult to figure out what they are trying to tell us. So if you play Noby Noby Boy, understand that the developer is trying to convey some sort of a message and that shapes both how the game was made and how the user experiences it. In saying that, not everything is supposed to have a profound meaning so it may be a little more ambiguous as to what Noby Noby Boy is actually trying to get across. Additionally, I think it is also fair to say that some artistic expressions are about trying to figure out what they are actually trying to say. So in essence Noby Noby Boy could actually be about nothing and its whole point was to get the player to think about what exactly they are doing. It's probably safe to say nobody knows what they are doing in that game.

@JDillinger said:

@McGhee: The laziest form of political opinion. "Herp Derp, both candidates are just as bad."

Lazy? Because I'd rather post a political cartoon than write an essay in a fucking video game forum on why the government has been on a very distinct, downward trajectory ever since the JFK assassination? I could write about how I've voted in the last 3 presidential elections and no matter which party is elected, they do the same shit on the most important issues. They just slightly shift to one side or another within the so-called "culture wars" to keep the people emotionally invested in the two party system. Yes, there's a lot I could write about, but I had Aikido practice and fucking English homework. So I'll just be "lazy" and boil it down to voting for a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich. I wonder if you lean more douche or turd? Like it matters. Have a nice day.

@MariachiMacabre said:

@FengShuiGod

"and concludes with the choice between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney on November 6."

Oh thanks, I didn't know there were only two candidates running for office.

Yeah because Roseanne Barr is sure to come out ahead. It's pretty obvious those two are the only ones with any hope of winning.

According to that logic Patrick should have said, "concludes with the election day victory of Barack Obama on November 6." If you want to go by who has any hope of winning then mentioning anyone other than Obama is pointless. But it's not. And it's not a simple choice between two candidates which are very much the same, or at least it doesn't have to be. Pretending there are only two candidates doesn't help anyone and furthers the woeful inadequacy of political discourse. There are plenty of legitimate third party candidates like Gary Johnson, Rocky Anderson, Buddy Roemer, and Jill Stein. But if you are content, no insist, on speaking only of the man who will win, the man who signed the NDAA into law, the man who brags about who drills more oil, the man who authorizes the killing of American citizens, the man who pioneered a kill list with no oversight, the man who allowed banks to get too bigger to fail, the man who nominated Geithner, the man who hardly talked about any substantive issue during the campaign, then yes, Nov. 6th and every election day for the rest of eternity will conclude with the non-choice between two very similar candidates bought by and therefore subservient to corporate money. I didn't know you liked your consent so manufactured. I hope it's not too bitter.

@McGhee: Yes I would like you to express yourself competently instead of being lazy and posting a "political cartoon". So sorry to bother you for something a little more substantial. Keep fighting the good fight.

@Puddlesworth said:

@PulledaBrad said:

@Wiredxp said:

@PulledaBrad: The voter ID policy is seen as being designed to diminish racial minority voting numbers because many black/hispanic etc people are in the low income bracket. Therefore they are unable to afford government issue ID. These people may not be able to afford a drivers licence or passport, or alternately obtaining government ID may not be at the top of their to do list. If someone is registered to vote is that not enough proof enough? The voter ID laws or lack thereof have very little to do with keeping illegal aliens from voting. They cannot register to vote anyway. The proposed or repealed voter ID laws were designed to again shrink the size of the electorate. The further the electorate shrinks the easier it is to predict elections in favor of one party or the other. Voter ID favors the Republican party because it shrinks the size of the likely Democrat voting electorate. To learn more i would advise reading this BBC article.

Thats a load of crap. My ID cost me about 10$ every 4 years, If you cant do that then youre fucking up somewhere else. And you do have to register to vote but since ID isnt required, anyone with a bogus SSI number can get on the register. I still fail to see how this is in any way racists/xenophopic designed to diminish a minorities vote.

Any poll tax is illegal, for fucks sake we've decided this as a nation many years ago. Your intent is clear, you are juding certain groups of people for "fucking up somewhere". I'm not sure what makes you the diviner of good choices but even if you were correct in every cases, "fucking up" should not mean you are denied the right to vote. Also you pretend like states without voter id do nothing to verify voter's identities, I wonder how this country got along for 236 years without these laws.

A bigger problem with these laws is that they were enacted only recently, without any programs to inform people of the change. It's estimated that about 11% of eligible voters don't have a valid licence or state id. That's why many have been struck down by courts. They were also enacted while simultaneously closing and/or reducing hours at DMV's in poor neighborhoods, making it harder for people in those neighborhoods to even get the correct ID. You can even ask the Pennsylvania house republican leader why they wanted to enact these laws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuOT1bRYdK8) it doesn't seem to be about voter fraud. Voter fraud is extremely rare, most examples of fraud turn out to be accidents and usually a voter id would not have prevented them.

The larger voter suppression efforts are also horrible. From the Ohio secretary of state trying to reduce early voting hours in democratic districts, while extending them in republican districts. To the insane (7 hr) waiting times at polling location in areas with more democrats (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/no-one-in-america-should-have-to-wait-7-hours-to-vote/264506/). The Republican party has made a national effort to reduce the number of people that vote to achieve a partisan goal.

I also like how you ignored the larger points I was making in my original post, voter id was just thrown in at the end.

If by me thinking that someone cant afford to get an ID makes them a fuck up, you're absolutely right. But no where did I say anything about it being a certain class or race? You brought the race issue up. And its a huge stretch to consider getting an ID as a poll tax. That just isnt the case. At all. It would be like calling the penalty for not obeying Obama care a tax. Oh wait, they did and got it passed by the SCOTUS;. As far as the limit on early voting, who exactly is being denied a vote, or an opportunity to do so? Can they not vote en absentia or show up on the 7th? Did someone not make plans and say "Maybe we should be in town on election day to cast our vote". I fail to see the connection between early voting and racial issues. I did read your article you posted and checked out the FSC ruling that the areas that had been affected was discriminatory but it didnt say how that would limit someones ability to cast their ballot. It shortened the time for early voting, but not the abiloty to vote. Or maybe I'm just ignorant on some fact that has passed me by. I do thank you for providing me with some reading material to further educate myself on the exceedingly long lines at some voting districts.

@PulledaBrad said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@PulledaBrad said:

@Bourbon_Warrior: FFS. It wasn't just the regs on Wall Street. Its the mindset of the US citizens. We all want to live beyond our means. A couple with a combined income of 60k trying to buy a house worth 300k is commonplace, and its no wonder that after the interest rates went up, they couldnt afford the mortgage note along with living on credit and trying to make the monthly minimum wilst also trying to pay for a brand new car payment. Its that that fucked this economy. Its whats fucking Washington as we speak. Spending more than we take in. How anyone can, at this point and time say "Yep time for Gov't subsidized healtcare!" and be oblivious to the follow up question of "How you gonna pay for it?" or deflecting with "Gay rights!" is out of their mind. The way I see it, the most important thing to be focusing on is the economy. The answer dosen't lie in taxing the "rich" more. That wont cover it. Its cutting spending and giving powers that the Fed has taken away from the states back to said states. The "equal rights" business can wait till we have some solvency and not depending on China when we need to fund another dead beat social program.

Yes but this was the banks lowering their regulations so anyone could pretty much get a house way out of their affordability that caused this. You could pay for healthcare without spending so much on war, pretty simple its how every other country does it. Every US citizen not just tax payers have spent 8000$ on the wars in the middle east since 2002, probably more once\if America ever pays off China and their interest rates.

Problem there is scale. Most European countries and Canada have a smaller population than that of the US. With gov't subsidized healthcare peoiple would treat the ER as their family doctor and they burden it would put on the taxpayer is untenable. And 8k over 10 years? Im ok with that seeing as our debt has us somewhere around 218k per person. LIVE BEYOND THE MEANS!

Thats crazy, US was in surplus in 2001, W. Bush really ruined the country.

I think we need to build a giant AI computer to govern us because it seems like we're quite incapable of doing it ourselves

I find national politics to be boring, as I don't have enough money to influence them. Not enough people would care about lower levels of the US political structure to make a commercially viable game, so I'll take fictional politics & be content.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@PulledaBrad said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@PulledaBrad said:

@Bourbon_Warrior: FFS. It wasn't just the regs on Wall Street. Its the mindset of the US citizens. We all want to live beyond our means. A couple with a combined income of 60k trying to buy a house worth 300k is commonplace, and its no wonder that after the interest rates went up, they couldnt afford the mortgage note along with living on credit and trying to make the monthly minimum wilst also trying to pay for a brand new car payment. Its that that fucked this economy. Its whats fucking Washington as we speak. Spending more than we take in. How anyone can, at this point and time say "Yep time for Gov't subsidized healtcare!" and be oblivious to the follow up question of "How you gonna pay for it?" or deflecting with "Gay rights!" is out of their mind. The way I see it, the most important thing to be focusing on is the economy. The answer dosen't lie in taxing the "rich" more. That wont cover it. Its cutting spending and giving powers that the Fed has taken away from the states back to said states. The "equal rights" business can wait till we have some solvency and not depending on China when we need to fund another dead beat social program.

Yes but this was the banks lowering their regulations so anyone could pretty much get a house way out of their affordability that caused this. You could pay for healthcare without spending so much on war, pretty simple its how every other country does it. Every US citizen not just tax payers have spent 8000$ on the wars in the middle east since 2002, probably more once\if America ever pays off China and their interest rates.

Problem there is scale. Most European countries and Canada have a smaller population than that of the US. With gov't subsidized healthcare peoiple would treat the ER as their family doctor and they burden it would put on the taxpayer is untenable. And 8k over 10 years? Im ok with that seeing as our debt has us somewhere around 218k per person. LIVE BEYOND THE MEANS!

Thats crazy, US was in surplus in 2001, W. Bush really ruined the country.

Clinton dipped into Social Security to balance the budget. There was not true surplus.

@MariachiMacabre said:

@FengShuiGod

"and concludes with the choice between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney on November 6."

Oh thanks, I didn't know there were only two candidates running for office.

Yeah because Roseanne Barr is sure to come out ahead. It's pretty obvious those two are the only ones with any hope of winning.

According to that logic Patrick should have said, "concludes with the election day victory of Barack Obama on November 6." If you want to go by who has any hope of winning then mentioning anyone other than Obama is pointless. But it's not. And it's not a simple choice between two candidates which are very much the same, or at least it doesn't have to be. Pretending there are only two candidates doesn't help anyone and furthers the woeful inadequacy of political discourse. There are plenty of legitimate third party candidates like Gary Johnson, Rocky Anderson, Buddy Roemer, and Jill Stein. But if you are content, no insist, on speaking only of the man who will win, the man who signed the NDAA into law, the man who brags about who drills more oil, the man who authorizes the killing of American citizens, the man who pioneered a kill list with no oversight, the man who allowed banks to get too bigger to fail, the man who nominated Geithner, the man who hardly talked about any substantive issue during the campaign, then yes, Nov. 6th and every election day for the rest of eternity will conclude with the non-choice between two very similar candidates bought by and therefore subservient to corporate money. I didn't know you liked your consent so manufactured. I hope it's not too bitter.

@PulledaBrad said:

@Puddlesworth said:

@PulledaBrad said:

@Wiredxp said:

@PulledaBrad: The voter ID policy is seen as being designed to diminish racial minority voting numbers because many black/hispanic etc people are in the low income bracket. Therefore they are unable to afford government issue ID. These people may not be able to afford a drivers licence or passport, or alternately obtaining government ID may not be at the top of their to do list. If someone is registered to vote is that not enough proof enough? The voter ID laws or lack thereof have very little to do with keeping illegal aliens from voting. They cannot register to vote anyway. The proposed or repealed voter ID laws were designed to again shrink the size of the electorate. The further the electorate shrinks the easier it is to predict elections in favor of one party or the other. Voter ID favors the Republican party because it shrinks the size of the likely Democrat voting electorate. To learn more i would advise reading this BBC article.

Thats a load of crap. My ID cost me about 10$ every 4 years, If you cant do that then youre fucking up somewhere else. And you do have to register to vote but since ID isnt required, anyone with a bogus SSI number can get on the register. I still fail to see how this is in any way racists/xenophopic designed to diminish a minorities vote.

Any poll tax is illegal, for fucks sake we've decided this as a nation many years ago. Your intent is clear, you are juding certain groups of people for "fucking up somewhere". I'm not sure what makes you the diviner of good choices but even if you were correct in every cases, "fucking up" should not mean you are denied the right to vote. Also you pretend like states without voter id do nothing to verify voter's identities, I wonder how this country got along for 236 years without these laws.

A bigger problem with these laws is that they were enacted only recently, without any programs to inform people of the change. It's estimated that about 11% of eligible voters don't have a valid licence or state id. That's why many have been struck down by courts. They were also enacted while simultaneously closing and/or reducing hours at DMV's in poor neighborhoods, making it harder for people in those neighborhoods to even get the correct ID. You can even ask the Pennsylvania house republican leader why they wanted to enact these laws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuOT1bRYdK8) it doesn't seem to be about voter fraud. Voter fraud is extremely rare, most examples of fraud turn out to be accidents and usually a voter id would not have prevented them.

The larger voter suppression efforts are also horrible. From the Ohio secretary of state trying to reduce early voting hours in democratic districts, while extending them in republican districts. To the insane (7 hr) waiting times at polling location in areas with more democrats (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/no-one-in-america-should-have-to-wait-7-hours-to-vote/264506/). The Republican party has made a national effort to reduce the number of people that vote to achieve a partisan goal.

I also like how you ignored the larger points I was making in my original post, voter id was just thrown in at the end.

If by me thinking that someone cant afford to get an ID makes them a fuck up, you're absolutely right. But no where did I say anything about it being a certain class or race? You brought the race issue up. And its a huge stretch to consider getting an ID as a poll tax. That just isnt the case. At all. It would be like calling the penalty for not obeying Obama care a tax. Oh wait, they did and got it passed by the SCOTUS;. As far as the limit on early voting, who exactly is being denied a vote, or an opportunity to do so? Can they not vote en absentia or show up on the 7th? Did someone not make plans and say "Maybe we should be in town on election day to cast our vote". I fail to see the connection between early voting and racial issues. I did read your article you posted and checked out the FSC ruling that the areas that had been affected was discriminatory but it didnt say how that would limit someones ability to cast their ballot. It shortened the time for early voting, but not the abiloty to vote. Or maybe I'm just ignorant on some fact that has passed me by. I do thank you for providing me with some reading material to further educate myself on the exceedingly long lines at some voting districts.

How is it not a poll tax? If the thing you need to have to vote costs money, or the documents to get it cost money, then it costs money to vote. Its pretty simple.

Limiting early voting effects minorities because that's who usually chooses to vote early. And that was known when these laws were being designed. For example black churches have for a long time had a "souls to the polls" event where people would carpool to polling locations the sunday before the election. In many cases early voting hours have been changed to allow early voting except for the weekend before the election. There is no reason to have a hole in the early voting schedule except to reduce the number of people voting (and again high voter turnout correlates with victory for the democratic party).

These laws are discriminatory in their effect. It's not that they make it impossible to vote, they make it much more difficult. They result in less minorities and young people voting (i.e. a large part of the democratic base). The effect of less voting is several orders of magnitude larger than the voter fraud that they claim to prevent. Maybe the republicans really do have pure intentions. Maybe they really didn't know that these laws mostly affect certain groups of voters, and that they have the effect or reducing democratic turnout. In that case they aren't racist... just stupid.

See what you have dont Patrick, i hope you are happy :(

@Phished0ne said:

@dvorak said:

@kwang2000 said:

@dvorak said:

These long-form articles always seem really disconnected from the rest of the site.

These articles don't fit because unlike the rest of the site, they try way too hard to make video games "relevant" to greater societal issues. Pretending that chintzy seasonal games like Political Machine are important cultural lampoons doesn't actually make them important cultural lampoons; it just makes you look like a douche.

Here's a free idea for a followup article that is just as shallow and silly: How those Burger King adver-games comment on childhood obesity in America. Mail me a check if you use it.

I'm glad someone ran with this. I was just too busy at the time to expand on the sentiment. My thoughts exactly.

The site is all about how stupid and fun games are. These articles are completely disconnected from that, and it feels incredibly forced.

That was *kinda* the point of bringing in Patrick wasn't it? To bring in a person who was going to do *real* journalistic work and write interesting articles. Much like Ben Kuchera is doing for Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade is also a site mostly about how "silly and fun" games are. But that doesn't stop them from having a senior editor who was going to write real articles about serious issues. Its important to cut your silly videos with serious discussion, it makes Giant Bomb a more balanced site.

This is not a "real article about serious issues." Maybe instead of asking random Twitter Republicans what they think about the latest cartoon election cash-in, he could, I don't know, write about (convicted criminal) Oliver North's involvement in Black Ops 2. You know, something real serious that requires real muckraking, the kind of actual journalism work you might see in the New York Times or even Wired. Real journalism is asking real questions, not mentioning a hot button issue and then tenuously connecting some random games about that topic to it.

(Just look at the comments. Lots of stupid arguing about politics in general but almost nothing about the actual specific content of the article itself. Is anybody discussing the revelation that the Political Machine added a fake Chick-Fil-A to the game--surely an act of drubbing satire? No, because it's barely informative, it's not news, and in any arena outside of video games, it wouldn't be journalism.)

@McGhee: One more thing. If you seriously believe that there are no fundamental differences between the Democratic and the Republican parties or the candidates then I'm afraid you're seriously delusional.

@Puddlesworth: I simply cannot agree woth your argument that it is a tax. Im sorry. Serious question cause I havent the foggiest, are the places where early voting has been modified andf long voter lines areas where you can mail in your vote, like (I think) Oregon has?

Oh wow you mean the entertainment industry is making liberal leaning political games and forcing conservatives o play them. I challenge Giant Bomb to find a conservative leaning game and have one of he liberals at Giant Bomb, ie anyone working at Giant Bomb, to play that. Vote Romney, or you keep the hateful, racist left in the White House. The real racists, the dividers, like Obama are right before your eyes. Republicans are talking about fixing the issues we face as a country, and Obama is running a campaign of hater tearing Romney, accusing him of murder by cancer, then denied they had anything to do with it, only to proven wrong. Obama has lied, he has failed on every level. You have to be nuts to vote for more failure.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@McGhee said:

I think you got a better choice than Bush\Kerry

@jony2shoes said:

What the fuck kind of idiot votes for Romney? Jesus christ.

A Racist or someone that treats their political party like a sports team.

the same could be said about the other side, i'm a conservative and a gamer, and I can't in good conscience vote for either candidate.

Mind you i'm not a republican or a democrat, i honestly don't fucking give a shit about either lying sacks of shit. Politics will always be a game for who can lie the best; its a choice between picking the devil we know and the one we don't. its a lose lose situation, and I'm not fucking happy about it. Sick of these stupid ass parties, and no one working together, country is fucked.

just gonna leave this videogame-related comment here: strategery's art style is neat.

@drakesfortune said:

Oh wow you mean the entertainment industry is making liberal leaning political games and forcing conservatives o play them. I challenge Giant Bomb to find a conservative leaning game and have one of he liberals at Giant Bomb, ie anyone working at Giant Bomb, to play that.

I believe they've all played and loved Shadow Complex already.

@kwang2000 said:

@Phished0ne said:

@dvorak said:

@kwang2000 said:

@dvorak said:

These long-form articles always seem really disconnected from the rest of the site.

These articles don't fit because unlike the rest of the site, they try way too hard to make video games "relevant" to greater societal issues. Pretending that chintzy seasonal games like Political Machine are important cultural lampoons doesn't actually make them important cultural lampoons; it just makes you look like a douche.

Here's a free idea for a followup article that is just as shallow and silly: How those Burger King adver-games comment on childhood obesity in America. Mail me a check if you use it.

I'm glad someone ran with this. I was just too busy at the time to expand on the sentiment. My thoughts exactly.

The site is all about how stupid and fun games are. These articles are completely disconnected from that, and it feels incredibly forced.

That was *kinda* the point of bringing in Patrick wasn't it? To bring in a person who was going to do *real* journalistic work and write interesting articles. Much like Ben Kuchera is doing for Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade is also a site mostly about how "silly and fun" games are. But that doesn't stop them from having a senior editor who was going to write real articles about serious issues. Its important to cut your silly videos with serious discussion, it makes Giant Bomb a more balanced site.

This is not a "real article about serious issues." Maybe instead of asking random Twitter Republicans what they think about the latest cartoon election cash-in, he could, I don't know, write about (convicted criminal) Oliver North's involvement in Black Ops 2. You know, something real serious that requires real muckraking, the kind of actual journalism work you might see in the New York Times or even Wired. Real journalism is asking real questions, not mentioning a hot button issue and then tenuously connecting some random games about that topic to it.

(Just look at the comments. Lots of stupid arguing about politics in general but almost nothing about the actual specific content of the article itself. Is anybody discussing the revelation that the Political Machine added a fake Chick-Fil-A to the game--surely an act of drubbing satire? No, because it's barely informative, it's not news, and in any arena outside of video games, it wouldn't be journalism.)

I'll tell you why he didn't write an article about that. It would be lost on the people reading it. I would bet a large portion of people who come to this site dont know and dont *really* care(especially people interested in BLOPS2). 3/4ths of that piece would be a wikipedia article about Oliver North and why people playing games should care. Hell with how politically uninformed the vast majority of people are(especially on a gaming site) the article would've basically became a long-form description of the whole of the Iran-Contra affair. It would be extremely tedious and overly time-consuming for him to take on an article like that.

They even discussed it on the podcast. The consensus was "Hahaha Oliver North..the vast majority of people listening to this podcast dont even know who he is". I agree that probably would've been a better and possibly more interesting, "journalistic" write-up, but it would be lost on the readers.

Plus, Realistically he probably served as someone who tried to help ad the "realism" factor into the fighting(if he actually had any input at all). Activision has been hiring military people to work as consultants for ages now. I think them reaching out to Oliver North was just an attempt at getting publicity.

just gonna leave this videogame-related comment here: strategery's art style is neat.

If you're voting tomorrow, just remember that the congress (and senate, if your state is having them) voting is just as important as your vote for the President. 
 
Hell, to be perfectly honest, the local races (school board, sheriff, etc) will probably more impact to you as an individual than the Presidential race. 
 
Take the whole ballot seriously, not just the first part.

There's a reason I hate politics.

@Puddlesworth: I don't know, I kinda turned the corner on Voter ID when that democrat had to resign from his fathers campaign after getting caught on film talking about how easy it is to vote multiple times if you can just get a hold peoples utility bills.

I...

Binders full of women.

I'd love to play this title.

:(

@rebgav said:

@Kerned said:

@McGhee said:

I would rather vote for a sandwich than for either major party candidate. But I don't like the looks of that plunger water bottle robot.

...I'm pretty sure that's an enema applicator and a shit sandwich.

*walks out room*

I feel like I wandered into the comments section of a Huffington Post article.

@Arrested_Developer said:

@Puddlesworth: I don't know, I kinda turned the corner on Voter ID when that democrat had to resign from his fathers campaign after getting caught on film talking about how easy it is to vote multiple times if you can just get a hold peoples utility bills.

Roughly 20% of the US population does not have a picture ID; maybe fifty million possible voters. Expecting them all to get one a couple months before an election is unreasonable. That's fifty million compared to the three or four votes that a few entrepreneurs try to fraud.

Simply put, it doesn't even make sense to commit voter fraud in that fashion unless done on a grand scale, which is nigh impossible. I'd rather those fifty million be able to vote rather than to go out of our way to prevent just a few frauds here and there.

If this wasn't so close to the election it might not be as bad, but it's just terrible politics to pull it like they did.

@PulledaBrad said:

@Puddlesworth: I simply cannot agree woth your argument that it is a tax. Im sorry.

Getting photo ID ain't that easy for a lot of people. If you're homeless or living paycheck to paycheck, the 20-100 or so dollars needed in order to acquire the necessary documentation for photo ID (depending on what you already have on hand) would break the bank for a lot of these families; leaving for a lot of people just declining to vote instead. I would definitely call that a voter tax on the poor, just like they did in the old days.

I would love to see more games incorporate politics, social issues, philosophy, really, just overall more intellectual content.

Nice article Patrick. A shame about some of these comments.

Interesting read. I think there are games that deal with politics in more subtle ways though. The Oddworld series, for example.

Great article once again. I'd totally buy a "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" game if it was all about this.

And now I bring you Bachmann eyes:

American debating is all about hating people with different opinions?

I can't believe you wrote this

@drakesfortune said:

Oh wow you mean the entertainment industry is making liberal leaning political games and forcing conservatives o play them. I challenge Giant Bomb to find a conservative leaning game and have one of he liberals at Giant Bomb, ie anyone working at Giant Bomb, to play that. Vote Romney, or you keep the hateful, racist left in the White House. The real racists, the dividers, like Obama are right before your eyes. Republicans are talking about fixing the issues we face as a country, and Obama is running a campaign of hater tearing Romney, accusing him of murder by cancer, then denied they had anything to do with it, only to proven wrong. Obama has lied, he has failed on every level. You have to be nuts to vote for more failure.

what

@EuanDewar said:

I can't believe you wrote this

@TadThuggish: Confirmation bias and propaganda. This unfortunate soul here is either a troll, or has been reading blogs that confirm his point of view.

BILLY, HAVE YOU DONE BEEN READIN' THEM BLAWGS AGAIN?

I hate it when Americans are put up to the vote. It's all the internet can write and talk about, I was surprised that even Giantbomb had to shoehorn an article in. Shrug!

I would love a Advance Wars game that was about politics but not modern politics, like it would be Assassin's Creed but Advance Wars art style and gameplay. Also Sengoku Rance.  
@Phished0ne: I believe it is BOPS2, not unlike Sock 'Em Boppers, which have been known to be significantly more enjoyable and enthralling than something like a pillow fight.  
 
Also, stuff like this makes me realize how I can't stand anything ever. And this article wasn't so bad, but bad for Patrick though. 

@Dan_CiTi said:

I would love a Advance Wars game that was about politics but not modern politics, like it would be Assassin's Creed but Advance Wars art style and gameplay. Also Sengoku Rance.

A 1930s-1960s American Politics Advance Wars game.

Followed by an American Civil War Advance Wars game.

@TruthTellah: Or they do like 5 campaigns and it is like this huge game like Age of Empires 2 but Advance Wars and also time travel. Fuuuuck yeah let's call Nintendo. 

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@bunnymud said:

He isn't a liberal, he's a radical liberal. Never the less, how am I a racist for voting for Romney?

P.S. accidental PM

Never said you were, you must fall into category B a gullible idiot or someone than treats the RNC like a sports team!

"@jony2shoes said:

What the fuck kind of idiot votes for Romney? Jesus christ.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

A Racist or someone that treats their political party like a sports team.

But then again, you also said that you are not an American, thank God, so your opinion is moot.

Also I voted with logic. This guy did a shitty job as president and thus needs to go.

Takes balls to write a piece like this on a video game website. Enjoyed reading it!