I'm in Oregon, I don't think an election has ever been decided by what side we vote for, regardless we vote my mail in ballots that may be dropped off at collection boxes. Basically I will have already voted by November 1st.

While we're talking about the election, why the F*#% are we still using the electoral college system?

somonels:
I'm to lazy to even eVote or mVote. The biggest lie in local politics is that it matters.

If it comes down between two large corporation backed interchangeable yes men then you have a point, and yes that is ever increasingly the case in this country. Regardless the only power that the average citizenry have is their right to vote. If you don't vote you can't complain. Why else would both side spend so much money transporting people to the election offices to vote. Also why else would they spend so much time redistricting counties to that votes shift from one party to the other.

Personally I want a bill to be drafted into law requiring all new laws that pass through congress to have to be voted on in a general election, provided it is not directly tied to a time sensitive matter. Maybe then some shit would actually get passed or fixed.

I object to this "gaming is about fantasy" bit that snook in at the end. Fantasy is a part of gaming but not the whole of it. The whole simulation genre is devoted to having as much realism as possible. There have even been any number of political sims over the years and those are much more about exploring political issues than playing fantasy president.

There seems to be a subset of gamers who think gaming should be kept in a bubble, separate from the real world, so that they can be sure that burying themselves in a game will in no way force them to confront any facet of reality. Me no likey. More reality please. More politics, more culture, more society, more philosophy, more history, more humanity and, above all, more truth.

OT: When a conspiracy theory gets supporting evidence, it ceases to be a conspiracy and the conspiracy theorists get bored and wander off. Don't have that trouble here. Load of old cobblers. Poor showing by MS though. Have a bit more respect for your nation's traditions.

It makes more sense that the election day release is more intended to tie in with important events as a memory cue. "I need to go vote, and I guess I'll pick up the new Halo game while I'm out" seems a more likely response from young adults than "I could vote, but I'd rather play Halo".

I pass 3 areas that I could vote on the way to the nearest game store, and I'm sure that many people pass several game stores on their way to vote.

AdamRBi:
While it certainly is possible, as politics isn't the most straight of operations, it doesn't sound like a move a software company would make.

Does make me wonder WHY they did choose that dat as opposed to say November 7th or even the following weekend. What is it about that Tuesday that makes them want to release it?

Only reason I could think of is that a release in November gives stores time to restock the game for Black Friday after the initial launch. But middle of the week and corresponding to an important date in American politics... Unless there's a crafty ad campaign coming out of this I'll see little point to it.

An awesome ad campaign around this though would be cool. Vote and then pick up Halo 4.

As for 'why that Tuesday in particular,' I really can't say, but just to clear the air, the reason most big games are released on Tuesday is because sales charts come out on Monday, so if they release Tuesday they have 6 whole days to sell as many copies as possible and get good sales figues.

PsychedelicDiamond:
You know... i think people who would rather play a video game instead of voting in one of the worlds most important political elections have no business voting anyway. I mean, dude, the game can wait.

Most definitely this.

If I can buy the game on that date I would simply do one of the following:

1) Go vote, then go buy the game, and then go home and play it.
2) Go buy the game, then go vote, and then go home and play it.

Chances are I'd do the first option. It's what the Forerunners would want and ask of me.

`

Kind of a side note: Ugh... both Democrat and Republican candidates are horrid. Anyone know the name of the Independent candidate?

newwiseman:

If it comes down between two large corporation backed interchangeable yes men then you have a point, and yes that is ever increasingly the case in this country. Regardless the only power that the average citizenry have is their right to vote. If you don't vote you can't complain. Why else would both side spend so much money transporting people to the election offices to vote. Also why else would they spend so much time redistricting counties to that votes shift from one party to the other.

Personally I want a bill to be drafted into law requiring all new laws that pass through congress to have to be voted on in a general election, provided it is not directly tied to a time sensitive matter. Maybe then some shit would actually get passed or fixed.

That makes absolutely no sense. Someone refuses to vote on the basis that either choice is essentially the same destructive person, but unless they perform a symbolic act they aren't allowed to complain about it? Unless they lend what little legitimacy they can to a person they don't like, they aren't allowed to talk about why they don't like them? Which is funny, because voting is not the only power the average citizenry has. Another big one we have is...*drum roll*...complaining! You know, writing to congress, protesting, etc. I dare say complaining is more effective at changing the system than voting.

Edit: fixed the quote

Is anyone else now thinking "Movie Bob for 2016"?

scotth266:
The conspiracy theory is just that: a conspiracy theory.

DVS BSTrD:
Why couldn't you put this much effort into understanding ME3?

Seriously? Just drop it already. The ME3 thing is over. It's done. He had an unpopular opinion. Let. It. Go.

An opinion he's continued to passive-aggresively toss otu as recently as last week.

LordLundar:

DVS BSTrD:
It's just insulting that he dismissed Retake Mass Effect out of hand, but goes to the trouble of calling the freaking president over something as trivial as a Halo/Republican conspiracy theory. Does he REALLY have so little respect for gamers that he has to address the possibility that they might not be a capable of voting and buying a game on the same day?

He didn't call the president (doubt he'd get through anyway), he called the campaign office. Probably his local one which is one of several hundred in the country and are there for exactly that purpose.

Next, let's compare the two topics shall we?

- Electing the next 4 year leader of the country you live in in a time period of the country being the most divided it has been since the Civil War.

- Causing an uproar because a company didn't make an ending of a game precisely the way they wanted.

You are trying to say that the latter is CLEARLY more important than the former?

You need to look at your priorities.

Both are equally wacky if you think on it. Microsoft pays Romney very little to help him win the campaign by getting Halo 4 to release on the same date as the campaign to draw voters for Obama away so Romney can win, but then disguise it with it also being released universally so it looks like just a giant coincidence.

Honestly its low repect for people that play games that pisses me off. So your telling me that I can't walk down and place a pre-order on Halo then go vote, come back, get it and play for the next twenty hours? Honestly, voting takes about a hour at least where I'm currently at, and walking to the gamestop from there would be another hour, then a hour walk home, so I'd be home at about three in the afternoon.

We could very easily suppose that a movie released on Election Day that could be assumed that its goal is to net in their President-Of-Choice's foe away with said movie would be easily dismissed by Movie Bob as a Patriotic Film or that they would have time to do both, but gaming suddenly means that I can't do the blindingly obvious which is go here, buy Halo then go vote, come home and play?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As said above, if we switched Halo with a movie instead, Movie Bob would be excusing the theories with things like its just a Patriotic Movie and they can do both, watch it and vote.

From what I see, he has a very sterotyped version of Gamers which is that they can't stop playing or thinking about games all day long, and thats all they do and its harms those around them because they won't stop for anything which is utter bull shit if I have anything else to say.

Whats stopping me from simply buying Halo 4 before or after I go voting? Hell, if I pre-order it I can get it with no line so thats even smarter. Theres nothing stopping me from doing both, and simply thinking that Games take up one whole day is simply absurd. They can take up several hours, but you don't drop everything to go play Call of Halo Battle 72 for the XTREME!

You can do both things on the same day. You can't own a day.

I won't be buying Halo and I doubt I'll be voting (for president anyway) this year, so I don't exactly carry much weight.

I thought "the redneck republican gun lovers" were the ones that played Halo the most anyway?

LetalisK:

newwiseman:

If it comes down between two large corporation backed interchangeable yes men then you have a point, and yes that is ever increasingly the case in this country. Regardless the only power that the average citizenry have is their right to vote. If you don't vote you can't complain. Why else would both side spend so much money transporting people to the election offices to vote. Also why else would they spend so much time redistricting counties to that votes shift from one party to the other.

Personally I want a bill to be drafted into law requiring all new laws that pass through congress to have to be voted on in a general election, provided it is not directly tied to a time sensitive matter. Maybe then some shit would actually get passed or fixed.

That makes absolutely no sense. Someone refuses to vote on the basis that either choice is essentially the same destructive person, but unless they perform a symbolic act they aren't allowed to complain about it? Unless they lend what little legitimacy they can to a person they don't like, they aren't allowed to talk about why they don't like them? Which is funny, because voting is not the only power the average citizenry has. Another big one we have is...*drum roll*...complaining! You know, writing to congress, protesting, etc. I dare say complaining is more effective at changing the system than voting.

Edit: fixed the quote

Except the whole reason that said congressman is going to do anything about the complaints is because they are banking on the idea of reelection. If you outright aren't voting then why should your congressman give a shit. Sure if your loud enough you may influence actual voters, but the crux is they're working for votes.

Your representatives wants to keep their $174,000 a year jobs that have 40-60,000 dollar pensions if they are over 50 and manage to serve for 5-20 years, or any age if they serve 25 years. They also get top notch free health care and over a month of vacation every year. Not to mention all the "Campaign Contributions". It's a damn good job to land.

Oh no, you should vote instead of buying/playing a video game! I mean your vote matters!!!!! At least on the news it does... For those spiffy popular vote graphs... That don't actually mean anything... That doesn't help your candidate get elected... That actually can't bring about any change...

Actually let's change that.

What I mean is,

If you're one of the 538 people who will be carted off to vote with purpose... Then yes, please by all means skip this release and vote, (Though you were bound to do it anyway.)

Otherwise, do you realllllly think your vote matters?

newwiseman:

somonels:
I'm to lazy to even eVote or mVote. The biggest lie in local politics is that it matters.

*words*
If you don't vote you can't complain.
*more words*

And that is where you made your mistake, believing another common lie. I can, I should, I will.
Otherwise a good post.

The biggest lie in the world is the belief that presidential elections mean anything. People vote for their favorite candidate, sure. But then other, more powerful people get to control the president. This isn't a conspiracy theory, it's how politics works. Politicians are being run by lobbyists. It's the sad reality. People get the illusion of democracy, and it's good enough for most of them. The problem is, people are waking up. The more you fuck with them the faster they're gonna wake up. Internet is the biggest contributor to that. No wonder corporations want it censored. I can say with 90% certainty that by the end of this decade people will be fed up with all this bullshit.

newwiseman:

LetalisK:

newwiseman:

If it comes down between two large corporation backed interchangeable yes men then you have a point, and yes that is ever increasingly the case in this country. Regardless the only power that the average citizenry have is their right to vote. If you don't vote you can't complain. Why else would both side spend so much money transporting people to the election offices to vote. Also why else would they spend so much time redistricting counties to that votes shift from one party to the other.

Personally I want a bill to be drafted into law requiring all new laws that pass through congress to have to be voted on in a general election, provided it is not directly tied to a time sensitive matter. Maybe then some shit would actually get passed or fixed.

That makes absolutely no sense. Someone refuses to vote on the basis that either choice is essentially the same destructive person, but unless they perform a symbolic act they aren't allowed to complain about it? Unless they lend what little legitimacy they can to a person they don't like, they aren't allowed to talk about why they don't like them? Which is funny, because voting is not the only power the average citizenry has. Another big one we have is...*drum roll*...complaining! You know, writing to congress, protesting, etc. I dare say complaining is more effective at changing the system than voting.

Edit: fixed the quote

Except the whole reason that said congressman is going to do anything about the complaints is because they are banking on the idea of reelection. If you outright aren't voting then why should your congressman give a shit. Sure if your loud enough you may influence actual voters, but the crux is they're working for votes.

Your representatives wants to keep their $174,000 a year jobs that have 40-60,000 dollar pensions if they are over 50 and manage to serve for 5-20 years, or any age if they serve 25 years. They also get top notch free health care and over a month of vacation every year. Not to mention all the "Campaign Contributions". It's a damn good job to land.

I don't disagree with anything here. The reason your congressman gives a shit is because he wants your vote. He wants you to vote in the election, specifically for him. Realistically, most people in most districts don't wildly switch parties one election from the next. Where the most contested votes are going to be found is going to be the occasional voters, the people who don't always vote for a variety of reasons. Enter Get out the Vote campaigns, driving voters to polling places, etc. The complaints of the potential non-voters end up being listened to more than the complaints of consistent voters and campaigns get shaped around getting non-voters to vote.

Now, this is a tangent. The above is what happens. What I'm disagreeing with is what you think should happen. If someone looks at the candidates and sees little difference between them and hates what he sees, why should he be forced to vote in order for his complaints to be valid? Why must he lend his little bit of legitimacy to people he does not believe in? In fact, isn't that counter-productive? How can his complaints be taken seriously if he turns around and votes against what he believes? He could go in and vote "Mickey Mouse" as a statement that he doesn't like anyone, but not voting accomplishes the same goal by sending the message that the non-voters didn't like anybody enough to bother. And thus we come full circle back to the reality of the situation, where politicians try to get non-voters to vote, etc.

edit: Removed bolding because it wasn't relevant to my post anymore.

I didn't realize this was a real thing until Bob brought it up. Which raises the question if bob made it up first & is now leaving us in the comments and forums to debate it & spread it around? That dastardly cad! How dare he?!

LetalisK:

snip

I follow ya.

My original post was in response to Somonels,"I'm to lazy to even eVote or mVote. The biggest lie in local politics is that it matters."

My point is that is does matter except in the instance of interchangeable yes men; and that if your not going to even bother to vote why would you even bother to complain.

Well, it is a good theory, and would work if cod and say SWTOR came out with expansions on that day, Halo just won't cut it.

I think the main reason for the release date is Microsoft need to get the game on store shelves before black ops 2 hence the reason they said that it is a coincidence that the date is the same as the election.

The American voting system is fucked. It's pretty shit here in Australia as well, since it's a pain in the ass to have to go to vote only to wind up with one of two variations of the same party, but to call yourself a democratically elected president with less than half of the people's vote just seems illegal.

I think the biggest concern raised by this video can be summed up in three words.

"Weaponized Adam Sandler"

Nice video and a good bit of journalism. The conspiracy sounds like a tv show plot.

In my state voting is done by mail so me waiting in line to vote is as likely as me waiting in line to buy halo 4.

What about abscenties?
Obama still has a huge lead with women and latinos/hispanics. And Romney's Southern strategy seems shot to shit on the grounds that he's not all that great. No republican since Nixon has been able to win without a strong Southern strategy and latino/hispanic vote.

On a less serious note: Obama should start running attack ads on Halo 4.

Vault Citizen:
Can't people both vote and buy Halo 4?

That seems logical. The people who get Halo 4 at midnight will likely be awake when the polls open and could easily vote before going to sleep that day.

I can kind of see where Bob is coming from based on past experiences with game releases causing people to stay at home that day but...well...this isn't Dragon Quest and we're not living in the far east. I'm not voting anyway but I can even that out by not buying/playing Halo 4. Can't be blamed if the wrong guy is picked and I retain the right to complain either way (according to the late George Carlin anyway)

Forget about this post.

Bob, dont do conspiracies, they can be fun but like you said they are so far fetched

newwiseman:

LetalisK:

snip

I follow ya.

My original post was in response to Somonels,"I'm to lazy to even eVote or mVote. The biggest lie in local politics is that it matters."

My point is that is does matter except in the instance of interchangeable yes men; and that if your not going to even bother to vote why would you even bother to complain.

Okay, yeah, I can agree with that. If someone doesn't vote because of apathy instead of it being a conscious decision they made, then I can see how them complaining doesn't seem to fit.

Caramel Frappe:
.. Must say, I might not vote for ether person to be president. Obama hasn't done much anything and the other guy I don't trust at all (and for history wise). Wonder why America isn't the same it used to be, it was for the people. Now it's like trying to get presidents who only will benefit Congress rather then the people. Sorry about that, just wanted to rant a slight bit.

OT: Even if Microsoft did this on purpose, it's up to us the community to understand what's going on. Games are fun, and I used to really like Halo 4 but election day is bigger to me then even the release of games like Skyrim for example because this president can suddenly go in favor of restricting games due to violence theories and then what? So I want to know what we're going into for the next 4 years when this president runs.

But also how I see things- the people behind Halo 4 just thought it'd be cool to release it then. If I was releasing a game, I think that would be cool releasing a game on an important holiday or around it at least.

In American politics, it's all about voting for the lesser of the 2 evils

Marik2:

Caramel Frappe:
.. Must say, I might not vote for ether person to be president. Obama hasn't done much anything and the other guy I don't trust at all (and for history wise). Wonder why America isn't the same it used to be, it was for the people. Now it's like trying to get presidents who only will benefit Congress rather then the people. Sorry about that, just wanted to rant a slight bit.

OT: Even if Microsoft did this on purpose, it's up to us the community to understand what's going on. Games are fun, and I used to really like Halo 4 but election day is bigger to me then even the release of games like Skyrim for example because this president can suddenly go in favor of restricting games due to violence theories and then what? So I want to know what we're going into for the next 4 years when this president runs.

But also how I see things- the people behind Halo 4 just thought it'd be cool to release it then. If I was releasing a game, I think that would be cool releasing a game on an important holiday or around it at least.

In American politics, it's all about voting for the lesser of the 2 evils

isn't that life in general TBH?