Gaming and Politics.

In video games there are politics just like there are in the real world. Anyone that’s played an online video game long enough will find that the politics in games is almost as bad, if not worse than that of the real world.

We’ve been in multiple guilds and clans through out our gaming history and weve found people from all walks of life and enjoyed the company of others. After a while though you tend to start to see events form that lead to friction amongst others. Leaders clash with members, members clash with one another and so on.

The main reason for this is the politics of the game. One of the main issues is Fear.
Fear of rejection is one (just one) of the problems behind the key issue of gaming politics, vehement dismissal. We dismiss any criticism instantly.

The second key issues are Violence, racism and sexism, they are all issues that despite continual data from the best social researchers on earth always leads to scapegoats, folks taking the blame instead of looking at the obvious social costs and scary reality of our times. But the problem is huge amongst us gamers.

Now obviously, we don't have to take every claim of racism, sexism, homophobia, and violence seriously. Some really are frivolous. But all could open really vigorous discussion of the problems still facing the game industry. More often than not, the reactions are instantaneous and visceral. They're non-rational, and just angry. They're just natural fear reactions.

I react in fear. You react in fear. Gamers fear rejection (although obviously they have other emotions as well). But we won't be able to have really effective social debate over any of these issues or over gaming in general unless we can, as a whole (not everyone, just the majority), get over our fear of rejection. Unless we accept that we can game critically and not spoil everyone's fun.

We can take politics seriously and still play the games we enjoy.And you can be uncomfortable about the racial make-up in Resident Evil, and still play the game with an open mind or you can watch "Birth of a Nation" for the historical value and still discuss the racism of it, and discuss the impact on racism in the film. It isn't a reject all/accept all dichotomy. It isn't either/or.

There are many aspects in our gaming worlds that will eventually come down to politics, whether it be a racial,sexual or violent debate the political side of the matter will allways be present.