The Big Picture: One Day in November

[Urameshi13]

I'm with you, Bob; I'm guessing this is pretty innocuous.

I often encourage my fellow citizens to get involved in the election process. Generally, that includes openly mocking those who proclaim with seeming zeal how they did not vote and those who did are marks.

That being said, I also believe there are far FAR too many people who are more concerned with Snooki and other bullshit like that.

My point is that maybe, if you're too consumed with a video game to participate in choosing the MOST POWERFUL PERSON IN THE WORLD, then maybe it's best for everyone that person just sit their dumbass at home.

 

[XDravond]

Well aren't gamers supposed to be able to multi task... you know "frag noobs whilst voting"!..
Or why not just go vote and then go pick up game and frag noobs... OK I'm not interested in Halo so I wouldn't "get it" anyway ....

So far I've voted in 6/8 things I could vote in and the two I didn't, well it's because it's to weird/absurd to vote in anyhow... And the american political system is f*cked up since most of the politicians work way to hard to please big corps and to little to help the "little" guy...

 

[Redd the Sock]

It's hard to think the release date was picked by accident, particularly when there's no law to day you can't release a game on a Wednesday, or Friday and it isn't unprecidented for big ticket games to do that. Still, conspiracy theorists get it backwards by assigning desired motives to actual actions instead of taking an objective view.

On the one hand, yes, this could surpess the youth vote, on the other hand since the game (while not Call of Duty) is perhaps more the taste of NRA members perhaps they're the ones being surpressed. Or on the third hand, some that might not have voted may asy "well, as long as I'm out of the house..." thus promoting either group to vote.

My theory, they want the free publicity this will get from the pundants that come up with the same half assed theories. This kind of thing is not ending up on Stewart or Colbert.

 

[Evil Alpaca]

The youth vote, one of the most useless campaign statistics to watch in the election year.

Look up voting registration

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/elections/voting-age_population_and_voter_participation.html

You can see that the registered youth make up a tiny fraction of registered voters. Here's an example,

in 2010 there were 12 million youth registered, of those, 49 percent stated that they voted in the election; compare that to 80 million registered senior citizens in the 2010 of which 70 percent voted.

Young people do not go out and vote as much as any other age demographic. That has been a statistical fact. The idea that any corporation would try to influence the election via the youth vote implies implies that they are betting on the race being so close that it could be decided by a few million votes.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

At 4:45 - However
I almost plotzed.

Oh well another reason to get Halo 4 I guess?

(as a non-american person, this is a spoof, right? Noone believes this,,,, right?)

No, I don't believe that they did this on purpose. I believe someone over there deciding the dates thought "Hey, this is an election day" and then proceeded to not care.

But still, a pretty valid point. Taking the day off to play video games is a much more common thing than people think it is, so I think a few voters aren't gonna be out there.

What really concerns me is why the guys over at 343 really wanna compete with CoD sales.

 

[MB202]

I get the feeling that, since Halo appeals more to the war-loving conservative base, THOSE people will more likely go out and buy Halo, meaning that Barack Obama should have an easy (or easier) win. It makes a lot of sense, in my mind anyway...

That almost completely contradicts every stereotype that people assume Republicans have or that they place on the gaming culture in general.

For example, aren't all Republicans stuffy old people who don't like new fangled video games, especially since they cause violence in all youngsters, as per this Fox News report?
So then why would any republican give up voting for their party for a video game.

In fact, its Bob's whole point that the youth vote is more likely to vote Democrat, and that Halo 4 would take away said votes.

We're not talking about 'real' adults, the age 35+ with families who have effectively made up their minds months (or years) ago, we're talking about the youth vote. The demographic that is most likely to vote for both Barrack Obama and have Video Gaming as a hobby.
Besides, I assure you I have friends who enjoy the likes of the MW series and Halo, who're voting Democrat, so they most certainly exist.

Edit: Me, I'll probably end up Midnight Releasing Halo 4 and voting anyway, assuming either candidate inspires anything in me.

I dunno, I was thinking of this old thing that "Conservative Culture Critics" were saying thas "Video games are more patriotic than movies, because Hollywood is controlled by liberals".

Maybe it doesn't really make sense, but that's just how I saw it... for a time, anyway. You're also right.

 

[WanderingFool]

Well, Im not sure who to respond to this without some element of snarky-ness.

Im curious as to how hard is it to vote? Maybe its because I live literally less than a hundred steps from the school that I go to vote, but I cant see driving to your local voting place and actually voting taking up more time than standing in a line at the local gamestop to pick up Halo 4.


I also feel that most of the young votes that got Obama in office pretty much voted him in because he was different than the other 43 guys before him. Nevermind bothering to ask them what his policies were.

 

[FrostyChick]

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

He only did that to stir up controversy and therefore get more views. Even if he did read into it, he'd keep the apology silent because he knows people like you will be looking for one and potentially net him more views. He has said he does this. I can't remember the exact video though.

Smart thing to do would be to take everything Bob says with a mountain of salt. His stuff on here is dripping with his own biases and opinions, not to mention a hefty helping of fan baiting. This is his job remember, he has to bring in views somehow.

 

[LimeWarrior]

Has no one heard of ABSENTEE BALLOTS? Geez, it's the easiest thing in the world. Get it in the mail, check some boxes, mail it back. Go buy Halo on election day. A win for everyone. Maybe not every state offers absentee ballots. Can someone help me out here?

 

[Griffolion]

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.

Indeed. I personally wouldn't want any person who sees Halo 4 (or any other big release for that matter) as more important than contributing to the future leadership decision of your country to actually be voting in the first place.

OT: Yeah, I think this is purely coincidental.

 

[ewhac]

GameStop has announced that persons wishing to buy Halo 4, in order to actually receive their copy on 6 November, will be required to produce their ballot stub*. Persons without a ballot stub will have to prove they are ineligible to vote (too young, felony conviction, etc.). All others will be able to pick up their copy the following day.

[small](*not really.)[/small]

 

[Nimcha]

So the basic message is 'Vote!'. I can only agree with that. I'm not in the US, but I will be voting come September.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

What's this? Research? Balanced opinions? Use of sources in context? No ignorant bile directed at Halo or the people who enjoy it?

THIS IS MADNESS! IT'S THE ENDTIMES!

FIRE RAINING FROM THE SKY, RIVERS AND SEAS BOILING, THE DEAD RISING FROM THE GRAVE, DOGS AND CAT LIVING TOGETHER, MASS HYSTERIA!!!!

 

[Falseprophet]

Do they not have advance polls in the US?

Only an option in a few places.

Thanks for enlightening me, I appreciate it.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I still wish Halo 4 would just not come out at all. Or, if it did, they'd at least have the decency to call it Halo 5 or 6.

 

[hentropy]

Well, color me a conspiracy theorist because I don't think this was "coincidental" at all. I love how they act like the date was handed down to them by the angel Gabriel. Don't be surprised if they start making arguments about artistic integrity to defend the release date. However, I do think it's silly to think it will have a large impact on overall turnout or something, but I think Bob left out a key point in his analysis.

This election will likely not only be divisive, but CLOSE. What 2000 (should have) taught us is that we don't really have national elections, we have Florida elections. 2008 wasn't really a close election in terms of national mood, but the two before that came down singularly to Florida. It's especially important for Romney, if he loses Florida then the math becomes all but impossible for him, he would have to win a historically blue state like Pennsylvania with all of the other 04 Bush states in order to win. If Obama loses Florida, the math also becomes hard, but less so because he would just need to win some of the states he won 08.

So if the race is more or less a statistical dead heat and very close, all it will take is a tiny amount of voters staying home to win the election. If it does come down to a recount or something in Florida again, those handfuls of young voters that chose Halo over voting might be enough to swing the whole thing, regardless of what the popular vote is nationally.

Microsoft also has pretty much nothing to lose besides a tiny bit of PR points, something they haven't cared about much ever. If it is a silly strategy then it won't matter, but if it works then the stuffed-shirted executives at the top of Microsoft will get their guy.

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

I love how people act like voting is some all important thing that everyone should do like it will make some god damn difference.

Obama is still corrupt.

Romney is still corrupt.

Nothing changes. Doesn't really matter who anyone here votes for because we're still continuing our downward spiral regardless.