Why are most gamers liberal?

regnad · Jul 24, 2019

I'm going to answer the original question as briefly as I can:

Most gamers are relatively young. Not all, of course, but the average gamer is younger than the population as a whole.

Most young people are liberal. Not all, of course, but more young people are liberal than the population as a whole.

And there you have it!

mesakagi · Jul 24, 2019

You have to remember that things like gamergate happened and communities like oneangrygamer, 4chan and dsogaming exist, so we at least know there's a large portion of the gaming community who are firmly not left leaning at all. There are also lost of communities in which native advertising is deeply embedded in the forum culture and those sites will always cater to and generally foster a community of people who have liberal ideals, still, it's rather hard to accurately gauge just how much of the gaming community as a whole actually is liberal or not especially when silent majorities cant be taken account for. There are a lot of people who play games from all over the world though, simply playing games especially online it's rather hard to be right wing when you're mixing with so many people from all different countries and backgrounds and perhaps it's because of this, the constant mixing of people and indirect exposure to other peoples cultures and ideals that most will becoming left leaning but even that depends on so many factors around the individual themselves and how they form their belief systems and their own personal set of values. It's an interesting thread topic nonetheless.

Deleted User · Jul 24, 2019

Silent_Gunner said:
This is somewhat on point...for fundamentalist Christians only in my experience. Think the ones that support Tim Tebow because he had John 3:16 on his shades that American football players put on their cheeks (I forget what they're called, there's a term for it) or putting their support behind whatever is considered as part of their in-group. But it's not just any Christian, especially if it's a Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, or one of those country clubs known as community churches. It has to be a born again, Old King James Bible-believing, Jack Hyles-loving (this is the especially fucked up part as my father did go to this piece of shit's college that he described as being old-fashioned and shoddy. Hyles' son-in-law was actually the guy in the video I'll be linking at the end of this post who got caught taking a minor across statelines for sex), John R. Rice-loving, Duggar-loving, homeschooled, abortion-hating, gay marriage-hating (even if they aren't open or blunt about it, they'll make negative comments about it when the cameras are off and there's no chance of their comments being made public), traditional gender roles supporting individual, male preferred, but not necessary.

The only way I even know about all of this is that yours truly's Aspergian ass had the pleasure of growing up in the Old Independent Fundamental Baptist conglomeration of churches. Emphasis on the Old as I was spared the insanity of Steven Anderson as he wasn't around when I was growing up and, thankfully, my parents had enough common sense to know what is plainly clear as bullshit. They were very supportive of yours truly's Asperger's growing up and able to help me get to a point where, to be frank, it's honestly only a diagnosis to me at this point. Still, I had the honor of having to deal with a certain school teacher not being supportive, something that went so well that I was eventually kicked out of the private school and sent to the "den of immorality" that was public school where, in an ironic twist of events, I got the help and support needed and am now a functioning adult with a job who's working on moving out so he doesn't ever have to be associated with whatever OIFB has the potential of morphing into if one of my older brother's and his lack of vaccinating his kids is any indication of where the movement is headed along with the New IFB it spawned!

I'm sorry, that's terrible. I've never been involved in a church and don't want to be, because most of them are corrupted anyways.

Can I ask you, did the OIFB ever let you read a Bible, or did they just try to cram the stuff down your throat? I'm really sorry about these horrible people and I'm glad you got through it, but the Bible is not what they make it out to be.
Nowhere does it say to hate unbelievers, homosexuals, or people who have aborted their babies. God says your in danger of Hell for even just hating your brother (in other words, fellow human being). Rest assured, they won't get away with it. I'm going to be unpresent to answer you, so when I get back I would love to speak to you about it. I know you don't want to here what I have to say, cause I'm a Christian, but I can understand why and I hope you don't mind discussing it.

Deleted-401606 · Jul 24, 2019

yuyuyup said:
Gee I wish the OP would answer the first question asked of him in this thread

Your question isn't worth answering. I have no idea why GBAtemp allows people like you to even participate in the forums, if you have to ask whether this thread is a troll or not clearly either you lack intelligence or you are trolling yourself. I asked a question about switch hacking and I had a guy say the same thing you did, I usually don't waste my time responding to immature comments but seeing as you insist there you go.

Hanafuda · Jul 24, 2019

Xzi said:
It's probably just as you theorize: right-wingers seem to have a need to be perceived as more masculine, so they seek hobbies which will perpetuate that image. Hunting, fishing, NASCAR, (American) football, auto repair, etc. It's largely illogical of course, I myself enjoy two of the five in that list, but most things colorful and creative tend to be viewed by the right as childish or feminine. Gaming included.

We all know "MAGA" isn't a neutral slogan denoting that you're a conservative, though. It's a slogan which denotes that you're part of a cult of personality centered around a singular, divisive political figure. So it isn't surprising that it gets a lot of negative reactions.

It's a political question so I guess it's fair to politicize as you've done there, but I really think your analysis is too focused on trying to demonize people and opinions you don't like. It's a lot more simple than that, I think. Young people who haven't yet endured the hardships of an adult working life and haven't endured the sorrow of significant loss and/or tragedy, are more likely to be liberals, or at least think they are. And, I think it's fair to say the "gamer" community skews to younger folk, at least online. I'm 52 and when I was in my early 20's all my friends were patchouli using potheads with dreads and mostly either in school and still living off mommy&daddy, or working part-time jobs. No responsibilities. They were all, of course, revolutionary socialists in their minds. And I considered myself more or less aligned with them. That lasted until I was about 30, and I've been progressively leaning more conservative ever since. But I'm one of those somewhat libertarian-type conservatives that thinks "conservative" means the government stays out of your personal business, that the Federal government should be strictly limited to the scope and authority given by the Constitution (no administrative agencies, for example), and the government shouldn't borrow money so it can 'support' people with welfare. So I really can't find much to like about the 'platforms' of either major political party.

I don't know if it's an accurate quote ... those can be difficult to verify these days (don't believe everything you read on the internet - A. Lincoln), but I have heard this one attributed to Winston Churchill. Whether he was the first to say it or not, no matter. It is quite true, from my experience.

"If a man at 20 is not a liberal, he has no heart. If a man at 40 is not a conservative, he has no mind."

.

FoxMcloud5655 · Jul 24, 2019

I hate politics. I try to steer clear from it as best as I can, within reason, but I'm not afraid to voice my own opinion if challenged. Since I'm in America, as others have said, the only parties that have any say in anything are the Republicans and the Democrats here. I view both of these parties as corrupt and evil. I mean, look at Trump; regardless of how you view him, it's funny that even the Republicans were trying to get rid of him after he was elected because he is technically a third party not associated with the Republicans.

With all of that said, if I had to pick a side, I'd lean right. I love myself a well crafted video game; shoot, I even make my own video games. Not a day goes by that I don't either play, make or watch someone play video games.

I haven't read many of the other posts here, but I do want to at least say that even if the majority of people online declare themselves liberal, I have met many others out there that there are like me. Maybe it's just that I got "lucky", but I also don't really like to get out that much, so there's that

notimp · Jul 24, 2019

I hate politics. I try not to read too much. You know, like most people. But I'm American. As most people in here.

I think that how all kinds of venues are explored by political parties on how to get rid of a president that caused all of americans foreign relations to suffer, and the world economy to steer towards recession, is remarkable. But because I see how bad the american political system actually is - I understand, that nothing matters - other than public opinion (minus jerrymandered opinion, minus votes that arent registered, minus the electoral delegate system), so that he will stay in office regardless.

I mean, I dont know to much - but I play videogames. I even make them.
And I'm left leaning.

Copy me. Like you do with answers to forum polls.

Award
LOL

(50% of the content in this post (the human interest stuff) is made up. You have to read, when it comes to politics. Not copy sentiments. Informed opinion is all what its about.)

FAST6191 · Jul 24, 2019

mesakagi said:
You have to remember that things like gamergate happened ...so we at least know there's a large portion of the gaming community who are firmly not left leaning at all. There are also lost of communities in which native advertising is deeply embedded in the forum culture and those sites will always cater to and generally foster a community of people who have liberal ideals

still, it's rather hard to accurately gauge just how much of the gaming community as a whole actually is liberal or not especially when silent majorities cant be taken account for. There are a lot of people who play games from all over the world though, simply playing games especially online it's rather hard to be right wing when you're mixing with so many people from all different countries and backgrounds and perhaps it's because of this, the constant mixing of people and indirect exposure to other peoples cultures and ideals that most will becoming left leaning but even that depends on so many factors around the individual themselves and how they form their belief systems and their own personal set of values. It's an interesting thread topic nonetheless.

A) was gamergate a right wing affair? and B) was it that big a deal beyond a few media companies getting a black eye?

Native advertising? I always knew that as the practice some where places write articles but in reality they are thinly veiled adverts. What does that have to do with anything here? I am not even sure what you are heading for here.

I am also at a loss for how playing games online makes it hard to be right wing. Voice chat is largely optional and shoot them in the head, win the race, punch/flying spin kick them in the dick, build the best city/ship/country... minimal chance for expression there or for right wing types of whiny nature to drop a monocle and have to quit lest they be seen to associate, even in such a passing fashion, with someone which is OK with helping starving people in the street or something.
Less sarcastically how would mixing of people and exposure to cultures necessarily make someone less right wing? At best I would see it as avoiding an echo chamber or demonising the other group(s), both of which are nice things and sadly not nearly as borderline universal as they have been in the past. Or are you assuming right wing is the same as complete and utter bigot? Because it really is not. Exposure of bigots to the "hated" group often does very well at making them not be bigots but that is surely a different discussion.

FoxMcloud5655 · Jul 24, 2019

notimp said:
I hate politics. I try not to read too much. You know, like most people. But I'm American. As most people in here.

I think that how all kinds of venues are explored by political parties on how to get rid of a president that caused all of americans foreign relations to suffer, and the world economy to steer towards recession, is remarkable. But because I see how bad the american political system actually is - I understand, that nothing matters - other than public opinion (minus jerrymandered opinion, minus votes that arent registered, minus the electoral delegate system), so that he will stay in office regardless.

I mean, I dont know to much - but I play videogames. I even make them.
And I'm left leaning.

Copy my. Like you do with answers to forum polls.

Award
LOL

(50% of the content in this post (the human interest stuff) is made up. You have to read, when it comes to politics. Not copy sentiments. Informed opinion is all what its about.)

Can't tell if this is supposed to mock my statement or is a well crafted troll... Either way, I have one word.

noice

TheDarkGreninja · Jul 24, 2019

The statement seems pretty sweeping to me, and as far as my own personal experience in the circles that I am personally a part of they generally lean right. So it might just be down to where you are on the web. Reddit leans a lot more left than it does right, for example.

But once again, this is all anecdotal and trying to say that gamers as a group are one thing or another is probably impossible, other than to speculate a particular reason for gamers to be that one thing and not the other, though I am sure there are many ways you could reason that gamers are the other thing.

notimp · Jul 24, 2019

FoxMcloud5655 said:
Can't tell if this is supposed to mock my statement or is a well crafted troll... Either way, I have one word.

noice

Trolling.

Your phrasing was so sympathico, that it made me think about becoming a conservative.

Then I realized, that copying peoples political sentiments, because of sympathy, or having similar hobbies, might not be too great of a thing.

Then I trolled, but only because your statement was very, very personable, and likable.

Deleted-401606 · Jul 24, 2019

FAST6191 said:
A) was gamergate a right wing affair? and B) was it that big a deal beyond a few media companies getting a black eye?

Native advertising? I always knew that as the practice some where places write articles but in reality they are thinly veiled adverts. What does that have to do with anything here? I am not even sure what you are heading for here.

I am also at a loss for how playing games online makes it hard to be right wing. Voice chat is largely optional and shoot them in the head, win the race, punch/flying spin kick them in the dick, build the best city/ship/country... minimal chance for expression there or for right wing types of whiny nature to drop a monocle and have to quit lest they be seen to associate, even in such a passing fashion, with someone which is OK with helping starving people in the street or something.
Less sarcastically how would mixing of people and exposure to cultures necessarily make someone less right wing? At best I would see it as avoiding an echo chamber or demonising the other group(s), both of which are nice things and sadly not nearly as borderline universal as they have been in the past. Or are you assuming right wing is the same as complete and utter bigot? Because it really is not. Exposure of bigots to the "hated" group often does very well at making them not be bigots but that is surely a different discussion.

Can you explain what he means by native advertising? I never heard that terminology before.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

TheDarkGreninja said:
The statement seems pretty sweeping to me, and as far as my own personal experience in the circles that I am personally a part of they generally lean right. So it might just be down to where you are on the web. Reddit leans a lot more left than it does right, for example.

But once again, this is all anecdotal and trying to say that gamers as a group are one thing or another is probably impossible, other than to speculate a particular reason for gamers to be that one thing and not the other, though I am sure there are many ways you could reason that gamers are the other thing.

Reddit,Temp, and Twitch. What gaming communities do you visit that lean right?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

FoxMcloud5655 said:
Can't tell if this is supposed to mock my statement or is a well crafted troll... Either way, I have one word.

noice

Notimp is a troll that mods allow since he is left leaning, but he usually resorts to ad hominem attacks and gets away with it since mods agree with him. I personally don't even bother replying to his posts.

dude1 · Jul 24, 2019

mesakagi said:
You have to remember that things like gamergate happened and communities like oneangrygamer, 4chan and dsogaming exist, so we at least know there's a large portion of the gaming community who are firmly not left leaning at all.

left leaning people can want ethics in game journalism just as much as right leaning people.
also you don't need to be right leaning to be against SJW/PC propaganda in media whether it be it gaming or anything else because SJW "virtue signaling" and Political Correctness is just a form of Identity Politics and the majority of both the left and the right believe in individuals, meritocracy etc. and not group identity like that

it sounds like you've spent too long online and are buying into these hateful naritives being pushed by mainstream media.

kevin corms · Jul 24, 2019

play call of duty online, tell me most of them are liberal. I think most people who chat about games online might be liberal, more conservative people likely would think its a waste of time.

FAST6191 · Jul 24, 2019

Maluma said:
Can you explain what he means by native advertising? I never heard that terminology before.

I did in the quoted post but could go a bit further if you want.

Native advertising, sometimes also called advertorials, is where something that appears at first glance (all the formatting, text styles, often even full content) like a conventional article is inserted into the newspaper, articles, reviews or whatever in exchange for payment, or blend in with the native content if you prefer. It can skip advert blockers* and many even read them if they are just reading an article.
Legally speaking in many places they are supposed to have a line in it saying a consideration was offered in exchange for this space but it will be at the end and at that point you have already viewed the advert or whatever it happens to be.
I don't know when the practice was first undertaken** but it got massively popular a couple of years back when newspaper and whatnot revenues plummeted. As far as journalistic ethics goes it is a hotly debated topic -- technically journalistic integrity is not compromised but the appearance of such things is something many seek to avoid, in addition to the whole "tricking the reader" thing. On the other hand they often pay a lot more money for said articles than they might for conventional advertising. You can also see a lot of this among the video making set wherein schedules, final approval and whatever are agreed in return for a "review" or contemplation of a product but that is probably a different discussion, for a jumping off point though then that Shadow of Mordor thing a few years back is a good one as a lot was written about it ( https://www.geek.com/tech/warner-br...hadow-of-mordor-and-hide-sponsorship-1661411/ ) and even the FTC got involved.

*facebook did a somewhat related thing here where they made their adverts appear as normal posts in feeds and thus be hard to reliably filter, only for the ad blockers to turn around and say "you already trained us to accept partial feeds, who cares about a few false positives?".

**not to mention there are probably some blurry lines between what is an open letter, how separate are advertisers really, what product provided reviews are, what inviting people to experience you thing is, sponsored posts for an event, what paying a journo for a speaking engagement... all are. Some would make a distinction based on payment, how covert it aims to be, what editorial control the money giver has and so forth, which is probably fair, but I don't think there is any kind of consensus on the matter.

What it has to do with anything in this discussion here, or what term the poster I quoted intended to type but had a brain-fingers disconnect, I do not know.

Maluma said:
Notimp is a troll that mods allow since he is left leaning, but he usually resorts to ad hominem attacks and gets away with it since mods agree with him. I personally don't even bother replying to his posts.

Is that what you think? If everybody of suspect debate skills at times was dropped then there would be a whole lot less people around.

Silent_Gunner · Jul 24, 2019

Maluma said:
Your question isn't worth answering. I have no idea why GBAtemp allows people like you to even participate in the forums, if you have to ask whether this thread is a troll or not clearly either you lack intelligence or you are trolling yourself. I asked a question about switch hacking and I had a guy say the same thing you did, I usually don't waste my time responding to immature comments but seeing as you insist there you go.

Probably a Waygeek alt you're responding to. Dude accused me of "derailing" a thread (not this one, I fully admit I may have derailed the thread a bit here with some of my posts from before) even though I was the first motherfucker to post shit in the thread. Not to mention being classy enough to call me stupid. Way to stoop to what you perceive as Trump's level, guy!

Deleted-401606 · Jul 24, 2019

FAST6191 said:
I did in the quoted post but could go a bit further if you want.

Native advertising, sometimes also called advertorials, is where something that appears at first glance (all the formatting, text styles, often even full content) like a conventional article is inserted into the newspaper, articles, reviews or whatever in exchange for payment, or blend in with the native content if you prefer. It can skip advert blockers* and many even read them if they are just reading an article.
Legally speaking in many places they are supposed to have a line in it saying a consideration was offered in exchange for this space but it will be at the end and at that point you have already viewed the advert or whatever it happens to be.
I don't know when the practice was first undertaken** but it got massively popular a couple of years back when newspaper and whatnot revenues plummeted. As far as journalistic ethics goes it is a hotly debated topic -- technically journalistic integrity is not compromised but the appearance of such things is something many seek to avoid, in addition to the whole "tricking the reader" thing. On the other hand they often pay a lot more money for said articles than they might for conventional advertising. You can also see a lot of this among the video making set wherein schedules, final approval and whatever are agreed in return for a "review" or contemplation of a product but that is probably a different discussion, for a jumping off point though then that Shadow of Mordor thing a few years back is a good one as a lot was written about it ( https://www.geek.com/tech/warner-br...hadow-of-mordor-and-hide-sponsorship-1661411/ ) and even the FTC got involved.

*facebook did a somewhat related thing here where they made their adverts appear as normal posts in feeds and thus be hard to reliably filter, only for the ad blockers to turn around and say "you already trained us to accept partial feeds, who cares about a few false positives?".

**not to mention there are probably some blurry lines between what is an open letter, how separate are advertisers really, what product provided reviews are, what inviting people to experience you thing is, sponsored posts for an event, what paying a journo for a speaking engagement... all are. Some would make a distinction based on payment, how covert it aims to be, what editorial control the money giver has and so forth, which is probably fair, but I don't think there is any kind of consensus on the matter.

What it has to do with anything in this discussion here, or what term the poster I quoted intended to type but had a brain-fingers disconnect, I do not know.

Is that what you think? If everybody of suspect debate skills at times was dropped then there would be a whole lot less people around.

He calls people he disagrees with idiots, I personally don't think that immature people should be allowed to post in the politics section. If you are going to insult people I don't think you should be allowed to access the politics subforums. I also believe that trolls/jerks should be banned from the switch sections since they discourage new members from asking questions and as a result bricks/other errors can happen. It happened alot with the 3ds hacking where people wouldn't ask questions since they didn't want to put up with the abuse and they ended up with bricked units. I don't think GBAtemp is the right place for people with superiority complex.

In my opinion jerks should be temp banned and warned of a permanent ban if they do it again, it would be amazing for forum morale and would quickly shift the forum culture when people realize they have to use their manners in order to participate. Unfortunately this issue has been going on for years and nothing seems to happen besides mods getting burnt out only for us to get new staff every couple of years. No grown adult wants to deal with bullying on a gameboy forum.

Silent_Gunner · Jul 24, 2019

Maluma said:
He calls people he disagrees with idiots, I personally don't think that immature people should be allowed to post in the politics section. If you are going to insult people I don't think you should be allowed to access the politics subforums. I also believe that trolls/jerks should be banned from the switch sections since they discourage new members from asking questions and as a result bricks/other errors can happen. It happened alot with the 3ds hacking where people wouldn't ask questions since they didn't want to put up with the abuse and they ended up with bricked units. I don't think GBAtemp is the right place for people with superiority complex.

In my opinion jerks should be temp banned and warned of a permanent ban if they do it again, it would be amazing for forum morale and would quickly shift the forum culture when people realize they have to use their manners in order to participate. Unfortunately this issue has been going on for years and nothing seems to happen besides mods getting burnt out only for us to get new staff every couple of years. No grown adult wants to deal with bullying on a gameboy forum.

I mean, I agree, but at the same time...welcome to the Internet!

I wouldn't trust forums anyways per se over a well written guide or a good YT video when it comes to hacking. Like I mentioned in my previous post, there was this guy who apparently has no girlfriend who accused me of being a fan of Peterson and Trump just because I shared two video clips of them when, if you look at the context (a word that liberals seem to hate when it comes to women and sexual assault...curious), I was using it in jest, but he's not attacking a strawman at all! He's just going, "man, no wonder you're such an idiot if you post videos about Trump and Peterson", two individuals who Republicans (that don't dislike Peterson because he isn't a fundamentalist Christian explicitly) just happen to have a lot of respect for. Doesn't mean that the videos posted are yours truly intending to spread whatever the alt-left considers to be alt-right propaganda when I'm furthest thing from that BS!

TheDarkGreninja · Jul 24, 2019

Maluma said:
Reddit,Temp, and Twitch.

I wouldn't say temp leans left, though I guess it might come down to use because most of the political threads I've been on typically have people who lean more on the right side of the spectrum.
We've also got to take into consideration the fact that what is viewed as left and right differs from country to country. I personally wouldn't call Obama all that left other than a few policy decisions but that ultimately comes down to the fact that in the UK being a strong leftist usually means being a socialist which is shone in a pretty negative light in US media.

As far as my circles, they're a lot of discord groups that I'm a part of surrounding the discussion of games. Temp is the only forum I (somewhat

) regularly discuss in.

Deleted-401606 · Jul 24, 2019

Silent_Gunner said:
I mean, I agree, but at the same time...welcome to the Internet!

I wouldn't trust forums anyways per se over a well written guide or a good YT video when it comes to hacking. Like I mentioned in my previous post, there was this guy who apparently has no girlfriend who accused me of being a fan of Peterson and Trump just because I shared two video clips of them when, if you look at the context (a word that liberals seem to hate when it comes to women and sexual assault...curious), I was using it in jest, but he's not attacking a strawman at all! He's just going, "man, no wonder you're such an idiot if you post videos about Trump and Peterson", two individuals who Republicans (that don't dislike Peterson because he isn't a fundamentalist Christian explicitly) just happen to have a lot of respect for. Doesn't mean that the videos posted are yours truly intending to spread whatever the alt-left considers to be alt-right propaganda when I'm furthest thing from that BS!

What word are you referring to? It seems white knights that don't even get girls love to argue about any little thing that may even joke about saying something negative in regards to women. I personally think that people that aren't successful sexually carry an inferiority complex that they try to compensate for by being overly politically correct.

Why are most gamers liberal?

Button Masher

Well-Known Member

Deleted User

Guest

Deleted-401606

Guest

Well-Known Member

GBATemp Developer

Well-Known Member

Techromancer

GBATemp Developer

Listening to a song ad nauseam

Well-Known Member

Deleted-401606

Guest

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Techromancer

Crazy Cool Cyclops

Deleted-401606

Guest

Crazy Cool Cyclops

Listening to a song ad nauseam

Deleted-401606

Guest

Similar threads

Popular threads in this forum