Developer Cliff Harris has been compiling data taken from his political simulator Democracy 3, and it turns out that his audience has something of a liberal leaning.
The majority of the game’s 200,000 or so players opt for left-leaning, liberal policies, which might not be a total surprise given the average age of gaming fans.
“One of the interesting aspects of the game is that people almost always play with their own beliefs and morals and attitudes, and are determined to prove that they are ‘right’,” Harris explains.
“Game players are probably on average younger than the average voter, and younger people tend to be both more left wing,” he continues.
There are caveats – Harris notes that his player base might claim that certain policies make the game easier to ‘win’, and players who own a GOG.com-bought copy of the game have the political compass that records the data disabled.
Still, it’s an interesting glimpse at the political outlook of the average modern gamer. Or at least those who play political simulators, anyway.
