Political Trends on a game server.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

I play a lot of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory on the "Shit Storm Chaos" server. It is a nasty, violent and bloody war game. It is a hell of a lot of fun. It is just pixels.

The interesting thing is that the amount of negative things that are being said about Da' Chimp, more and more, is just amazing. If someone tries to chime in with something complementary about Chimpy, that person gets their ass handed to them.

A very interesting thing I just did not expect to see.

[ScrewyRabbit]

1. Frag the freepers, baby

in a virtual way!

[GimmeDANEger]

2. same with Battlefield Vietnam

The other teens and young adults (a majority of those playing) are really waking up out there.

[A_Possum]

3. That IS interesting

until recently most of the fps gamers I know are raging RW'ers, or at least the loud ones are.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. AHH...the loud ones...

We call them "assnipples". ;-)

[Protected]

5. Heh, I still play a bit of Quake II

and I just have to laugh when I see pro-Bush/anti-Kerry nicknames pop up on the roster.

I still haven't figured out how to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein or Enemy Territory. I always get my ass handed to me when I try to play that game online while others rack up the points. It's still a great game, though.

[necso]

6. Perhaps this is not such a surprise,

the young have not picked up that helmet yet -- you know, the one with slits for eyes.

[Julien Sorel]

7. I've noticed something similar.

I play FPS too, and have noticed a lot more balance between this year and 2000. In 2000, 4/5 of the people seemed to be Bushites, this year it's about 50-50.

But it makes sense, if you think about it. There's a class implication to playing online videogames. The computer costs money. Gaming computers are more expensive still. The game costs money. The online connection costs money, broadband even more so.

In 1999-2000, I was something like 1/5 people with a broadband connection to the internet; now a lot more people have one as DSL and cable has been rolled out in more and more neighborhoods and the price has dropped some. The DSL connection I paid $90 a month for in 2000 now costs half of that.

Computers have also become cheaper. An entry level computer with a competent videocard can be had for $500 - $600 now; in 1999 it was more like $2000. A game like Half-Life, which people still play in droves, can be had for $9 in the bargain bins.


Add it all up, and I think more people from working class and true middle class homes are online playing videogames than in 2000, and so you have more Democrats.