"Historicals Analysis" Topic

We recently ran a poll, suggested by Flashman14, that broke gamers down by political preference and how they felt about historical gaming. TMP link

Breaking down the results…

prefers historical gaming

Of this group:

33% politically liberal
33% politically conservative
26% politically centrist
8% apolitical

prefers some genre other than historical gaming

67% politically liberal
33% politically conservative
0% politically centrist
0% apolitical

games everything

41% politically liberal
44% politically conservative
9% politically centrist
6% apolitical

Of those who expressed a preference:

53% prefer historical gaming
4% prefer something other than historical gaming
43% game everything

and:

38% identify as politically liberal
38% identify as politically conservative
18% identify as politically centrist
9% identify as apolitical

politically liberal

Of this group:

46% prefer historical gaming
7% prefer something other than historical gaming
46% game everything

politically conservative

46% prefer historical gaming
4% prefer something other than historical gaming
50% game everything

politically centrist

77% prefer historical gaming
0% prefer something other than historical gaming
23% game everything

apolitical

60% prefer historical gaming
0% prefer something other than historical gaming
40% game everything

How many people participated in the poll?

104

Interesting that most of the votes were for "this is ridiculous."

Piqued interest from the other side of the Pond…

Your state may give you the opportunity to declare your political party affiliation on your voter registration card.

USA – Voting

Y'what Y'All? (Excepting that you need to have affiliated with a party in order to participate in a closed causus vote.)

Here in Blighty your voting preference and actual ballot is "secret". And it is considered extremely rude to question how someone voted.

(Secret NB: Excepting that MI5 – apparently – record and compile voting from a secret location in Somerset. It is to be noted that at the Polling Station the staff _very_carefully_ record your electoral roll number on the ballot paper.)

Stoppage, in some states, voting in a party primary is restricted, which prevents "strategic" voting--that is, voting in the primary for a candidate you think will be less attractive in a general election, giving the party of your allegiance a better chance. In those states, you have to declare a party preference in order to vote in the party primary. My father for many years did not vote in primaries for just that reason.
Understand, none of this prevents voting for anyone except that in the primary, you only pick from one party. And I have the word of the government that they keep no record of my vote.

Yes, that's the difference. We don't have the primaries system here.

Each party selects their candidate for each constituency by whatever means they choose.

Most constituencies have at least half a dozen parties on the ballot paper – that would be a lot of primaries if we did it that way!

Oh, we usually have three or four parties on the ballot here and sometimes more, and the number of parties doesn't mean "a lot of primaries"--just that when you go to the polling station (or vote absentee) for the single primary election, you only get the ballot for your specified party. It does require a single primary, but it does avoid fights over who speaks for a given party, and gets to choose the party candidate. How do you avoid those?

Not "most" OC, but a plurality. Actually, "this is ridiculous" "no opinion" and "not willing to reveal politics/preference" outweighed "prefers historical gaming" altogether.

Robert – interesting!

Our parties choose their own candidates. How they do it depends on the party. I believe mostly the local constituency branch will interview candidates and select one. To be honest I don't really know or care. I suspect most people in Britain don't!

Any wrangling about choosing candidates is an internal party affair. And very few people are actually members of political parties, although turnout for General Elections is usually quite high. I would also guess that Brits are more likely to change the party they vote for than Americans?

I would also guess that Brits are more likely to change the party they vote for than Americans?

No idea, since we have a secret ballot.