Gamer Becomes Mayor of French Town

March 13, 2008

GamePolitics readers may recall our coverage of David Hecq, the gamer and game shop owner who was running for mayor in the French town of Anzin Saint-Aubin.

Well, he won!

Longtime GP reader Soldat Louis, who often provides us with game-related news from Europe, has posted a message in the GP/ECA Forums about Hecq's victory:

Last sunday march 9th, there were municipal elections in France. And Hecq's team "Pour Anzin-Saint-Aubin : une nouvelle équipe pour de nouvelles ambitions" (litterally, "For Anzin-Saint-Aubin : a new team for new ambitions") received 57.18% of votes, against 42.82% for the former mayor's team. Details are shown on Hecq's campaign blog (in French)

...David Hecq is also credited for the creation of games retail store Objectif Games, which became Ultima Games, a chain of stores located in many French towns.

Posted in

Comments

Submitted by Unrated (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:39.

In the big picture, everything matters, thats why its so BIG.

Submitted by KayleL (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 10:13.

congrats David Hecq. Good luck.

Submitted by JB (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 05:58.

Congrats!

Submitted by Vany (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 06:19.

Ah, if only Troy had a gaming mayor...

Submitted by Bob (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 06:23.

Its beginning. Out go the old generation who condemn games as kids stuff, and in come the new Generation 30/40yo gamers taking position. Soon we shall rule the world *insert evil laugh*

Submitted by JC (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 06:29.

Feliticiations! I forget my French....

Hopefully this guy doesn't let the power go to his head and do what a mayor is suppose to do.

Submitted by GregoriusH (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 06:31.

@JC

Creation of an 'Pwning Noobs' class at the local youth centers?

Submitted by JC (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 06:35.

@GregoriusH

I personally hope not. Or something silly like spending tax funds to make his own gaming rig...

Could be worse though. I say its better to look at this as a hope of a new start to phase out gamer ridicule. It's best that he focuses on the issues facing the city and manage the budget well. Basics first, then improve.

Submitted by DeusPayne (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:12.

If only france mattered in the big picture. :p

Submitted by Vany (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:20.

Well in the big picture, nothing really matters at all...

Submitted by LoopyChew (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 07:24.

Félicitations! Hop Hecq!

Submitted by Soldatlouis (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 09:05.

Thanks for the credit :)

To be fair, it's a very small town : 2500 inhabitants only. And as I've previously said, he is also a former municipal employee, involved in local politics, and in touch with internet and blogging, (contrary to his rival). So it helped a litte bit.

This being said, although he's fan on violent games such as "Silent Hill" and "Resident Evil" series, he has unorthodox opinions about game ratings and accessibility of violent games to kids (I mean, "unorthodox" to gamers and game industry).

Submitted by Ian Cooper (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 09:20.

If it wasn't for France, the US would probably still be a colony of the British Empire, so you Yanks shouldn't be too hard on the French. Oh, and don't be too hard on the British either - if it wasn't for their intervention in the French and Indian War, people in the US would be speaking French today. So those who like an independent and English speaking America should remember which countries stepped in to help.

Submitted by Bob (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 09:34.

And america gave us Halle Berry, so we're all about even.

Ramen to that !
As a brit though its a fist shaking, cursing moment that the first story I read about a gamer politician is bloomin French. Sigh.

Submitted by Kris O. (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 09:37.

I'm excrutiatingly pleased to see a modern-day adult in a public office. I'll be keeping my eye on him, to see how this position plays out. I'm hoping for the best, of course, but reality isn't so warm and fluffy.

Submitted by Ebonheart (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 10:22.

A congradulations is in order. And good luck in the term, would like to see him win another mayoral election once his terms up.

Submitted by Shih Tzu (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 11:31.

Cool!

Submitted by Saladin (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 11:42.

Congrats brutha!

Submitted by King of Fiji (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 11:42.

Huray now lets get a African American female gamer into the white house!

Submitted by Guiguibob80 (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 13:34.

In the big picture, everything matters in average as much as anything else... that's called symetry...

Submitted by Nic Schweitzer (not verified) on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 21:39.

All that matters is that we know through games what to avoid in life, & so by learning what is good & what it Spitzer one can make a great run in office. Good luck, don't pull a Spitzer... please? The industry has enough crap as it is!

Submitted by Andy_UK (not verified) on Fri, 03/14/2008 - 03:39.

Well done Sir!

Submitted by Altair (not verified) on Sat, 03/15/2008 - 23:14.

W00T! Oh yeah, and as a PSA, lets not use this article as an excuse to slam other countries! I can understand being dissapointed as the first gamer mayor not being English *looks at Bob*, because were just as dissapointed that he wasnt American. This is a huge victory for the gaming industry WORLD WIDE! Our voice is finally being heard more clearly! Allow me to be cheezy and say

GAMERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! =3

Poll

Shout box

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E. Zachary Knight: That is absolutely nuts there. As bad an experience XBox Indie Games was, the problems weren't with the self published side of things. Forcing a publisher onto independent studios is not going to help.05/22/2013 - 10:43am

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E. Zachary Knight: AE: You beat me to it. That's what I get for taking the night off.05/22/2013 - 7:40am

E. Zachary Knight: To continue the confused and convoluted messaging system present in EA, They are making Wii U games: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192753/EA_is_working_on_Wii_U_games_after_all.php05/22/2013 - 7:33am

Imautobot: I gotta admit, I seriously believed Microsoft was going to "Bring It" with this new console. But they failed, and I think that failure might be Epic.05/22/2013 - 7:27am

Andrew Eisen: Well, the Xbox One reveal certainly had an interesting affect on the big 3's stock prices. https://twitter.com/AndrewEisen/status/33705126448977100805/21/2013 - 10:45pm

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/so-the-xbox-one-reveal-screwed-up-a-lot-of-peoples-kin-509179256 So The Xbox One Reveal Screwed With Some People's Kinects05/21/2013 - 10:36pm

Zen: On a funny side note...both of my boys have already voted NOT to get the Xbox One as soon as they found out Minecraft won't transfer lol. Some people have priorities damnit! ;)05/21/2013 - 9:27pm

Andrew Eisen: Here's the full quote on EA making Wii U games according to Neogaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56112105/21/2013 - 8:19pm

Andrew Eisen: Xbox One may not be always on but that doesn't mean you can use it without an internet connection. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-50916410905/21/2013 - 7:39pm

Andrew Eisen: Polygon says EA's CFO says it is developing games for Wii U but doesn't provide that quote. http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4351844/ea-developing-wii-u-games05/21/2013 - 7:11pm

Andrew Eisen: Well, I was right. Both Sony and Microsoft's consoles will be out by the year's end and both will be significantly more powerful than the current gen.05/21/2013 - 5:06pm

james_fudge: thnx05/21/2013 - 4:47pm

Zen: Just to let ya know...you called it the "Xbox 260" in the backwards compatibility article lol.05/21/2013 - 4:26pm

Zen: @PHX Awesome, I will hit those up after class tonight. Going back to college finally! :) My kids have had a blast telling ME to do my homework now lol.05/21/2013 - 4:19pm

PHX Corp: @Zen I sent you a friend request on both PSN and XBL, just a heads up05/21/2013 - 4:16pm

Zen: I noticed it with the football players when EA showed off Madden as well.05/21/2013 - 4:11pm

All shouts

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