Democracy 3 data suggests players are more "rigidly liberal than socialist"

Those who play the game Democracy 3 tend to be rather liberal, according to data compiled by the developer.

According to numbers crunched by Cliff Harris at developer Positech, over 200,000 players "opted for more socialist and liberal policies" over more conservative and capitalist ideals.

"One of the interesting aspects of the game is that people almost always play with their own beliefs and morals and attitudes, and are determined to prove that they are ‘right’," said Harris. The game can be ‘won’ with any strategy, you can get re-elected as a socialist, a capitalist, a conservative / liberal / religious extremist… it all depends how carefully you play.

"This means that there are two big global ‘leaderboards’ showing every players average position on both those spectra. And harvesting that data and sticking it into a graph gives an interesting picture of how players of Democracy 3 fit into the political compass.

"It's probably not much of a surprise to see a concentration in the bottom left. Game players are probably on average younger than the average voter, and younger people tend to be both more left wing, and more liberal. It is kind of amazing how many people have tested the limits and somehow burst out of the range entirely on the right and the conservative scale. I can’t imagine what their countries were like on election night."

Harris said according to the data, players appear to be more "rigidly liberal than socialist" and plenty shift towards the middle on the left and right spectrum.

For those following politics in the UK, polls suggest Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn will win his bid for leadership of the party in September. Maybe Corbyn needs to start courting PC gamers if he wants his party to beat the Torries in 2020.

Democracy 3 is a political strategy game where players take on the role of the prime minister or president and try to stay in power while doing the best they can for the country.