Do Game Industry Luminaries Lean Left?

Leave it to GamePolitics to tease (if not quite answer) that question by pulling together an ad hoc list of republican and democratic contributors that at first blush looks awfully Obama-friendly. Using publicly available records provided by Newsmeat ("America's Most Popular Campaign Donor Search Engine") GamePolitics typed in various names of game biz notables and compiled a quick comparison between McCain and Obama donors. The results? An Obama landslide.

Of course the results could just look Obama-heavy because of the arbitrary top-of-your-head check method as well as lack of comprehensive sample population contributing. Open a video game manual and scan the credits and you'll find the ratio of Actual People Who Worked On The Game to "headline grabbing bigwigs" in tip-top masthead spots can be anywhere from a dozen through a hundred to one. Without a thorough sampling of all of those, plus some way to address everyone who simply has never donated, there's no meaningful way to generalize these results out to the broader electorate.

The list as of Tuesday, October 7th (with a few modifications):

Republican contributors

Will Wright (Designer, Maxis)
Bobby Kotick (CEO, Activision)
Curt Schilling (Designer, 38 Studios)

Democratic contributors

Strauss Zelnick (Chairman, Take-Two)
Ben Feder (CEO, Take-Two)
Sam Houser (President, Rockstar)
Patricia Vance (President, ESRB)
John Riccitiello (CEO, Electronic Arts)
John Smedley (President, Sony Online Entertainment)
Richard Garriott (CCO, Destination Games)
Alex Rigopulos (CEO, Harmonix)
Kathy Vrabeck (President, EA Casual)
Kenneth Doroshow (General Counsel, ESA)
Gabe Newell (President, Valve)

Have a look at the GamePolitics breakdown to see specific amounts and who these folks contributed to. GP's keeping the list updated as new info drops in. I've removed a few names of people who don't count as current "game industry" proper (Doug Lowenstein, former ESA prez) or others who never really did (George Lucas).

Also, be very careful if you opt to drop names into Newsmeat yourself. Type in 'Tim Cain' for instance (Fallout and Arcanum designer) and you'll get someone with Ash Grove Cement Co. Sales in Arkansas or an attorney in South Carolina. Not everyone's in here, and not everyone's who they seem to be, as GamePolitics discovered for themselves after putting John Carmack on the list (except not the John Carmack, but rather, I'm assuming, this Legacy Bank of Oklahoma Director in Waco, Texas).

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