Using the Huffington Post's Fundrace 2008 website 1UP ran a piece detailing the presidential campaign contributions made by a variety of video game industry employees across all hierarchies. As Gamepolitics remarks:
It’s worth noting that a fair amount of the money donated went straight into the black hole of failed campaigns. [Activision CEO Bobby] Kotick and his wife, for example, each gave $2,300 to Republican Mitt Romney’s ill-fated bid. Valve’s Gabe Newell, creator of the Half-life series, gave Democrat Chris Dodd $2,300, while Spore designer Will Wright sent $3,500 Rudy Giuliani’s way (and made us wonder what Will thought he saw in the irascible former Big Apple mayor).
One of Gamepolitic's readers has a possible answer to that:
Clearly Wright supported Rudy because the creator of SimCity has always had an intense fascination with the way mayors handle catastrophic disasters affecting their cities, and 9/11 was as close to the game’s Godzilla button as you’re going to get.
Here's the full list:
Activision Brian Kelly, Co-Chairman $4,600, John McCain (R) Ron Doornick, Director $2,300 Mitt Romney (R) Nina Kotick, CEO $2,300, Mitt Romney (R) Robert Kotick, CEO $2,300, Mitt Romney (R) Brian Barnes, Game Designer $2,000, Ron Paul (R) Erol Otus, Designer/Illustrator $700, Ron Paul (R) Charles Homic, Programmer $400, Ron Paul (R) Travis Stansbury, Attorney $325, Ron Paul (R) Chris Nelson, Programmer $285, Ron Paul (R)
TOTAL: $15,210 to Republicans
ZeniMax Media (Bethesda Softworks): Brendan Anthony, Game Programmer $352, Barack Obama (D)
TOTAL: $352 to Democrats
Blizzard Entertainment: Kyle Harrison, Technical Artist $500, Mike Huckabee (R) Christopher Ryder, 3D Artist $500, Ron Paul (R) Jesse McCree, Video Game Designer $250, Ron Paul (R)
TOTAL: $1,250 to Republicans
Electronic Arts: William Wright, Vice President, Designer $3,500, Rudy Giuliani (R) Cindy Nicola, VP, Talent Acquisition $4,600, Barack Obama (D) Steven Schnur, Worldwide Executive Mark (?) $4,600, Hillary Clinton (D) John Taylor, Technical Arts $2,365, Ron Paul (R) Michael Lawson, Software Engineer $2,300, Fred Thompson (R) Ian Schmidt, Sales $1,300, Fred Thompson (R) Sharon Zezima, Attorney $1,000, Hillary Clinton (D) Jason Horwath, No title listed $840, Barack Obama (D) John E. Taylor, Technical Artist $500, Ron Paul (R) Timothy Cotton, Game Designer $234, Ron Paul (R) Jason Fisher, Software Engineer $225, Ron Paul (R)
TOTAL: $10, 424 to Republicans; $11,040 to Democrats
Ensemble Studios: Mike Wagner, Computer Stuff $221, Ron Paul (R)
TOTAL: $220 to Republicans
Flagship Studios: Christopher Lambert, Game Programmer $500, Barack Obama (D) Jeff Lind, Software Developer $340, Barack Obama (D)
TOTAL: $840 to Democrats
Firaxis Games: Sergey Tiraspolsky, Software Engineer $230, Barack Obama (D)
TOTAL: $230 to Democrats
Obsidian Entertainment: Michael Edwards, Computer Programmer $355, Ron Paul (R)
TOTAL: $355 to Republicans
PopCap Games: John Vechey (Quarter 2, 2007), Game Developer $2,800, Barack Obama (D) David Haas, COO $270, Barack Obama (D) John Vechey (Quarter 1, 2007), Manager $250, Hillary Clinton (D)
TOTAL: $3,320 to Democrats
Valve Software: Gabe Newell, Managing Director $2,300, Christopher Dodd (D) Bill Van Buren, Producer $250, John Edwards (D) Christopher Green, No title listed $500, Barack Obama (D)
TOTAL: $3,050 to Democrats
-Jens