While we tend to shy away from overt political opinions here on Armchair Arcade for obvious reasons (i.e., some people can be extremely sensitive about certain topics), I just wanted to say that I really felt good about Senator Obama's big victory last night, both as an American and as someone who has a generally positive outlook on life and the future. My network of choice during this historic Presidential run has been CNN in HD. They've become a bit infamous for their overt use of technology during their coverage, particularly for their "magic map", which is a type of multi-touch device that has all kinds of nifty features to dig deeper into the data. What caught my eye in particular last night though was their use of a pseudo-hologram technology and placing an animated, 3D capitol building on one of the conference tables. I don't have a link to the 3D capitol building, but I did find some instances on YouTube of the other technology that they've been using.

Joe Biden, the man chosen by Barack Obama to become his vice-president, seems to be a strong supporter of copyright. His enthusiasm for civil rights seems to be a bit less.

I've been reading today about the Video Game Voters Network, an online effort to unite videogamers against the threat of hysteria-riding, deliberately misinformed politicians like Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman. The VGVN's mission is to "empower Americans who play video games to take action against threats to this entertainment medium and to stay informed about the latest issues that could affect our choice in video game entertainment." I expect that initiatives like this will become ever more necessary as two generations collide: A majority of working adults who grew up a controller in their hand and an older generation of older politicians who just don't get it and never will. I don't know about you, but I'm scared to think how much damage a generation of hysterical luddites could wreak upon the gaming industry.

On a smaller scale, though, all of us could help out just by speaking up for games and letting our older family members know that there's nothing to worry about--it's just a few desperate politicians groping for power and seizing it wherever they can find folks gullible enough to listen. Check it out on the Daily Show.