Business before politics

Draginol = Brad Wardell

Published on April 18, 2004 By Draginol In Blogging

I'm not sure which email made me decide to do it but at some point, a threshold was crossed.

I think it was when I saw the third or fourth reviewer ask me "Do you think your right-wing leanings are affecting the objectivity of The Political Machine?"

That question shouldn't even be asked. It's not appropriate in my opinion. Play the game should be the answer. And I find the question problematic on so many levels.

1) Those who think I'm "far right" need to back up that statement. I bet they cannot find a single opinion I hold that is far outside the mainstream. The closest opinion I have to being outside the mainstream is that I'm not religious -- and that would be a left of center position.

On the main issues I'm a bit left and a bit right.

a) I'm pro-choice which is a left of center position.

I am for fairly strict environemental regulation which is a left of center position.

c) I believe in government regulation of businesses which is a left of center position.

d) I am quite strongly in favor of what we are doing in Iraq. Sure, that' right of center but the largest plurality of Americans (if not an outright majority) agree with me.

e) I am strongly against higher taxes. But do favor a progressive tax system which puts me probably right in the middle.

f) I am very strongly in favor of the policy of premption which is right of center but hardly outside the mainstream.

g) I am against additional welfare programs but do not advocate eliminating any major welfare programs that we have today which is probably right in the middle.

I fully admit to overall leaning to the right because I am very much a believer in capitalism as the best way we have to making the lives of people better. And I believe strongly in personal responsibility. But I'm hardly out there on any political issue. But I get the distinct feeling that some people, particularly on the left, believe in liberal orthdoxy. This is the same treatment Bill O'Reilly gets. If you aren't PURELY left-wing on every issue, you're right wing. And if you aren't left-wing on the correct issues you're not just right wing, you're a right-wing kook.

Running a business is difficult and eye opening. Few business people I've ever met are liberal on domestic issues. That's because most business people are capitalists and they see the benefits capitalism brings to people. They also see, from first hand experience, how socialism creates misery.

2) At the end of the day, I'm a software developer. I'm not a politican. I'm not running for office. I don't run a PAC. I don't campaign for any political candidates. I'm like most other people around here who debate politics -- people who find the topics of the day interesting and like to discuss them. Therefore:

a) I'm not going to risk my business in favor of some tauldry political agenda. I'm not an activist. I like to espouse my opinions just like many others. But anyone who thinks that my writings are designed to promote some agenda need to get a life.

I run a company with dozens of people employed by it. I don't want a situation where the hard work of our people is trivialized by someone thinking that one of our products and services is somehow tainted by political agendas.

3) It gets a bit annoying debating the war in Iraq with someone who thinks we're there as part of some vast right wing conspiracy to "get more oil" only to have them privately email me that they'll never buy products from us again.

As a result:

I'm not hiding the fact that Draginol = Brad Wardell. Just like I don't hide my handle on WinCustomize and other sites is Frogboy and those who are into this stuff know that is my handle. But at the same time, I don't want some lurker who is just browsing to make an illinformed decision on our company's products and services because of my opinion on some issue.

Like I said - I'm a software developer. I make software. That's my job. When I make a game, my job is to make it as fun as I can. So when we make The Political Machine, our goal is to make it fun and intelligent. That means whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or somewhere in between the issues and events seem both logical and fair.

Comments

greywar

on Apr 18, 2004

Good points. I also tend to find that people who say "I will never buy your product again." tend to have never been a consumer of it in the first place. They just say that because it is an easy stick to reach for.

mittens

on Apr 18, 2004

Don't worry Brad, I still love you.

Anthony R

on Apr 18, 2004

I think a radical left wing fringe has co-opted JU.com

Draginol

on Apr 18, 2004

I don't think any fringe can co-opt a site like JoeUser.com. I see opinions from all sides here.

I tend to vote Republican. But I definitely don't consider myself far right. I'm an independent. I'm left wing on some things, right wing on others.

Anthony R

on Apr 18, 2004

If you heard Kerry speak this week, it is apparent that he is breaking the
news to the anti war crowd that the US will be at war for years no matter who is
in office. The average Democrat is not happy with Kerry's recent "stay the
course" speeches about Iraq. A professor heckled Kerry about staying the course
in Iraq.A sound byte of the kook professor is available at Limbaugh's site, the
professor was very angry at Kerry and said that people will hate him like they
hate Bush if he stays the course in "an imperialist war."

Rush discusses kooky professor

peterb

on Apr 18, 2004

I didn't ask you whether your opinions would colour the game, but I did express my fear in my review on my weblog.

I dunno, Brad. Your question reminds me of a friend who just couldn't get a second date who would always complain about it, but never actually stopped and asked himself "Hey. 15 chicks have not gone on second dates with me. Maybe it's something I'm doing?"

If every reviewer in the world starts their question with "...so, being that you're so right-wing and all, yadda yadda yadda," then maybe the thing to do is to ask yourself "Where am I giving the impression of being right wing?" rather than saying "Wow, who are all these people hallucinating that I'm right wing."

It's entirely possible for you to be a liberal pinko commie yet still somehow give the _impression_ of being an extreme right winger. Stranger things have happened. But at the end of the day, you can't control how people interpret what you say. All you can do is be sure that what you're saying is what you mean.

From my perspective, if many people wrote to me and said "I think your writings mean 'x'," when that wasn't what I intended, I would give serious consideration to the thought that maybe I'm not expressing myself as clearly as I needed to.

I'll be glad to comment again, later, if you like, noting exactly what on your blog gave me the impression that you're far to the right of center; but I don't have time tonight.

I sympathize with your desire to not have your public statements reflect badly or influence Stardock/Drengin. But, y'know, that's not your choice to make. Part of being in a capitalist economy is that we get to decide to buy or not buy products for good reasons, bad reasons, or no reason at all.

I wouldn't buy a product from a company who had a lead programmer who said things like "I hope lots of Americans die in Iraq, because they're imperialists!" in a public forum. And I don't think that's wrong of me. So I don't think you can have your cake and eat it too on this issue. I support your right to say whatever the hell you want, and I support anyone else's right to think whatever the hell they want about you, and buy or not buy your company's products, based on what you say.

(and I just resubscribed to drengin.net

just a newbie

on Apr 19, 2004

Brad,
One comment and one question. If you promote your software on the same website as you promote your personal views then you should not be surprised if people associate the two.
My question is who decides what new articles get posted on the front page of JoeUser?
Tony

Solitair

on Apr 19, 2004

Brad,
I never assume your political leaning would bias the game at all. And even if it did, during beta testing it would be noticed and you have an excellent history of modifying games during beta testing to improve them.

One thing I have noticed in American politics is that almost everything is a black and white issue. Anyone to the left of you is far left. Anyone to the right of you is far right. There seems to be very little greyscale involved, especially in the media. I think much of it comes down to negative politics. Demonising the opposition by suggesting their policies are far wing rather than fairly main stream is very common.

Paul.

Draginol

on Apr 19, 2004

"Just a newbie" makes my point - that is precisely the point. I shouldnt' be surprised if people associate the two. Hence, I'll go with a handle.

peterb: You are making quite an assumption. You are the only perso who has indicated that I am a "right wing kook". What I've gotten from other reviewers is more along the lines that I'm outspoken in my political views and have my politics colored the game? I'd rather not deal with that.

Plus, even on this site, there have been several instances in a debate or in email where someone has said they won't purchase software from our copany because they didn't lke my response.

I believe that those people who know me (i.e. regulars) know me well enough to know that I seperate my hobbies from work like everyone else.

peterb

on Apr 20, 2004

Draginol,

Coult it be that what maybe you're seeing is that because I don't have any particular axe to grind (and, perhaps, since I'm _buying_ the games I review, rather than relying on courtesy copies, which makes me not reliant on maintaining good will with developers a requirement), I'm the one that's not bullshitting you? Obviously, I don't know the reviewers that you're referring to, so I'm just hypothesizing: I could be completely wrong.

"Outspoken in your political views?" Come on. When was the last time you heard someone say "Oh, yeah, that John Smith, he's such a raging moderate. He'd better be cautious about so vehemently expressing all those mainstream, completely uncontroversial views." The fact that the question was asked at all should be a warning flag to you that the content has made people sit up and take notice, which is basically what you said earlier you _wanted_. If you make people notice you, you need to accept that some of that notice is going to be negative. Note that I'm not saying you should shut up and never express an opinion. I'm just saying that you shouldn't kid yourself about its meaning.

Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone (or witnessing someone meet someone else) who had gained a _ton_ of weight since you saw them last, and the question comes out "Uh, so, uh....gee, you look like you've lost a lot of weight!" I think the politeness of the question as put to you stems from a very similar motivation.

I understand that you don't want to deal with reviewers asking you the question, but I think it is unrealistic to expect them not to be thinking about it; in fact, I'd say it would be a sign of inadequate contemplation if a reviewer wasn't at least _thinking_ about it, and I don't think there's anything wrong with making the question explicit. You wrote a game _about politics_. You've expressed strong political opinions. If I was buying a cookbook from a chef that wrote articles talking about how the use of salt was misguided and naive, it would be reasonable to believe that maybe that would express itself in his work. I'm glad that your commitment to making games fun has allowed you to rise above that -- and you'll note that I emphasized in my review that you had achieved that -- but I think it's a natural and legitimate concern for people (both players and reviewers) to have.

Draginol

on Apr 20, 2004

One thing I have noticed in American politics is that almost everything is a black and white issue. Anyone to the left of you is far left. Anyone to the right of you is far right. There seems to be very little greyscale involved, especially in the media. I think much of it comes down to negative politics. Demonising the opposition by suggesting their policies are far wing rather than fairly main stream is very common.

I think that the left/right thing in the US omes largely from only having two major poltical parties.

Draginol

on Apr 20, 2004

peterb: Look, we agree on the core issue here - I want to be able to write eye raising articles as part of my effort to make JoeUser.com interesting.

However, I don't want to have to deal with someone skimming the site and making assumptions about my political views from it. If they want to become a regular user and see the multi-dimensional views in action, then they'll of course learn, over time, that Draginol = Brad.

I can't imagine you disagree with someone taking a handle, "Peterb".

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