World of Warcraft Character Becomes Campaign Issue

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

World of Warcraft Character Becomes Campaign Issue

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 4, 2012 @11:25AM from the by-my-axe! dept.

Dr. Gamera writes "Maine state senate candidate Colleen Lachowicz plays World of Warcraft. The opposing party in Maine has issued a press release attacking her for her Level 85 Orc Assassination Rogue. From the article: 'In an unusual press release issued Thursday, the Maine GOP attacked Lachowicz for a “bizarre double life” in which she’s a devotee of the hugely popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft. In the game, she’s “Santiaga,” an "orc assassination rogue" with green skin, fangs, a Mohawk and pointy ears.' Her incumbent, much to his credit, rejects the attack as 'mudslinging politics.'"

30 of 381 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

I bet.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 11:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

I bet she just gained a shit ton of voters in the 18-30 range.
1. Re:I bet.. by drkim · 2012-10-04 12:44 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Her comeback to this should be, "I KNOW the difference between fantasy and reality. Apparently, my opponent does not."
2. Re:I bet.. by ZiakII · 2012-10-04 13:43 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  god damn it Slashdot why is there no way to undo mods... posting to revert incorrect moderation change
3. Re:I bet.. by Doc+Ruby · 2012-10-04 15:18 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Yes, Libertarianism is an excellent way to run an imaginary world. The real world requires compromise with reality. Like the people forming governments to protect themselves from each other. Especially from bands of marauding warlords.
  
  --
  --
  make install -not war
4. Re:I bet.. by Dunbal · 2012-10-04 17:04 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I'm in the fortunate position of not having to work for someone else. However if my employer thinks I just disappear at 5pm and magically re-appear at 9am, and during this down-time I spend all night thinking of better ways to do my job, well, s/he can go fuck her/himself. There's nothing wrong with having hobbies.
  
  --
  Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
5. Re:I bet.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 17:09 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Via quests, I was paid by the leaders or governing bodies to instill discipline workers, to catch thieves, kill murders, and quite frequently to steal supplies, even from commoners on my own side. Considering every adventurer wandering through the town gets offered that too, that sounds like a police force and tax system. They even have this socialist welfare system where they basically pay to walk five feet and talk to someone else. Doesn't sound very Libertarian to me, just a lot less bureaucracy and organization.
6. Re:I bet.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 19:22 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Considering the 10x difference between sell price and buy price at vendors and the rather significant auction house taxes I'd say that the Alliance and Horde war machines are funded by sales tax. Many of the quests are carried out for people in the alliance or horde military, which implies that in fact WoW is a government contractor simulator - now that's a sexy marketing slogan.
7. Re:I bet.. by Krneki · 2012-10-04 19:24 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  WoW is not Liberal, it's run by totalitarians (moderators) who will strip you from every item and kill you (ban) if you don't play by their rules, without a trial.
  
  --
  Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
8. Re:I bet.. by drsquare · 2012-10-05 00:23 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Azeroth is actually communist, as all workers have free access to the means of production (anvils, forges), as well as natural resources (fishing pools, herbs). If Azeroth were libertarian, you'd have to pay a private owner for access to his copper nodes.
9. Re:I bet.. by Kelerei · 2012-10-05 03:31 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I can't imagine hiring someone dumb enough to list WOW on a resume. (Hint: employers want to hire people who want to WORK.)
  Coming from the perspective of an officer of a large guild and raid leader, I can. This is going to come across as a personal anecdote, but what the heck.
  Let's take your average raid team. This is a group of folks playing different classes, different specs, having different roles, playing the game their own way. I have to bring them all together and co-ordinate their efforts in order to defeat the raid encounters. For all of us, that's some serious teamwork right there. For me, it's a test of my own leadership abilities: giving the correct strategy to defeat the encounters, being able to identify any problems (such as "OK, we hit enrage on Zon'ozz because ranged was standing too far away from the boss, and the ping-pong ball was taking too long to travel. If you guys stand closer, that may buy us the time we need" -- and next pull, they did that and we got our first heroic kill), and having the ability to see the bigger picture. (In my case, being INTJ helps... :)
  Now, these are all skills that one could bring into the workplace, and indeed into real life. Sadly, the masses out there think that gaming is a real waste of time, induces psychopathic tendencies in people -- we see this brought up all the time whenever some random kid goes on the rampage and shoots/blows up a whole lot of people. And this isn't restricted to World of Warcraft only; we've seen Doom blamed for Columbine, we've seen Call of Duty shouldering blame for last year's Norway attacks (Breivik did admit to use the game as "target-simulation", but here I'd argue that if he were to do that, there's a more fundamental psychiatric issue in there)... it's a rather lengthy list. What a lot of people don't realise is the positive effects that gaming could have. Member of a raid team? The guy knows the importance and value of teamwork. Raid/guild leader? He knows how to lead, and the burden of doing so. (In my case, being unexpectedly thrust into the raid leader role after the established guard suddenly quit the game in favour of SW:TOR has, over the last few months, taught me that I have leadership abilities that I previously never realised I had.) That's just some examples from one game; there's bound to be plenty more from others.
  That being said, if you're going to put this kind of thing forward to prospective employers, know your prospective employer. If your employer understands this kind of thing (mine does: we're a fairly large and well-respected ISP in our part of the world), they'll be far more receptive to this kind of thing (a lot of folks play World of Warcraft here, including my direct manager). If your prospective employer doesn't (let's say a large financial institution), then that's probably going to count against you, for reasons I've put forward above.
  At the end of the day, what one does outside of the workplace is totally up to them (obviously, so long as it doesn't negatively affect what they actually do in the workplace!). As one of the other people who have replied to this post says: "there's nothing wrong with having hobbies". We're not all mindless drones; we all have a need to get out there and enjoy ourselves. If we get enjoyment from hacking on the Linux kernel, from socialising with friends, from playing games... so be it.
Not surprising by Mashiki · 2012-10-04 11:29 · Score: 1, Insightful

Gaming still isn't mainstream outside of the "sub 35" group in turn this makes them into a loner, even within geek circles(and don't deny it) MMO's still hold that, same with MP games that old stereotype still holds sway with some people. It'll take another few decades before that opinion changes, though it's ugly politics at it's finest and the GOP candidate should be called on it.

--
Om, nomnomnom...
1. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 11:38 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Gaming still isn't mainstream outside of the "sub 35" group
  
  I'd say that number is at least 45 now, and gets bigger with each passing year.
2. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 11:50 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I fully agree with this statement. I am 41 myself, and my peers/friends in the same age range (+10 yrs) all grew up playing video games from the dawn of their creation; Pong, Atari 2600, Vic20s, Ti99s, etc.., and continue to do so today.
3. Re:Not surprising by LordLimecat · 2012-10-04 13:53 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Nevertheless when you read some of her posts it does look like she has a serious maturity issue. Anyone who resorts to calling the opposing party "teabaggers" probably isnt going to be non-partisan, and probably isnt senate material.
  I mean, not a huge fan of this kind of politics, but her maturity and partisanship certainly are relevant.
She'd have my vote! by bl968 · 2012-10-04 11:30 · Score: 4, Insightful

They say that like it's a bad thing?

--
"GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 51230 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Setec Astronomy)"
Armory link by goodmanj · 2012-10-04 11:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

You're all going to do it anyway, so I'll save you the trouble. Here's her character:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/garrosh/Santiaga/simple
My question is, how the hell can we trust her to work hard for the citizens of Maine when she can't even find the time to pug a few heroic dungeons? Her gear is terrible! Does she even know where the justice point vendor is?
Seriously though, it looks like she played heavily up until a few years ago. I guess she's spent more time lately on real-life issues. Like running for Senate.
Re:Stupid gamers can't even read TFS by mrchaotica · 2012-10-04 11:51 · Score: 3, Insightful

It doesn't really matter that it was "technically" the party's SuperPAC that did it; they did it on his behalf and he should be held responsible. Maybe the party would learn to back off a little (although overturning Citizens United is required to fix the problem completely).

--
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
This might lead to her losing a lot of votes by VAElynx · 2012-10-04 11:52 · Score: 5, Insightful

from voters playing Alliance characters.
That said, I love the fact that her "secret life" involves a computer game while that of a lot o republicans involve fucking men in public bathrooms.
Re:In my experiance... by Mike+Buddha · 2012-10-04 11:53 · Score: 4, Insightful

In my experience it hasn't been nearly as cut and dried as this. There are jerks of every ilk.

--
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
Re:Stupid gamers can't even read TFS by Intropy · 2012-10-04 13:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

Absolutely right. And let me just add that anyone who disagrees is a Nazi.
-- Paid for by the mrchaotica fan club.
Re:Stupid gamers can't even read TFS by phantomfive · 2012-10-04 13:13 · Score: 4, Insightful

If negative ads didn't work, you wouldn't see them. Parties use them because people see them and are influenced as a result. They work.

--
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Re:In my experiance... by Gryle · 2012-10-04 14:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

As a professing Christian myself, I'm gonna say you're running close to a no-true-scotsman fallacy on this one. Sadly it is possible for people to be Christian and to still use the Bible to push some bizarre agenda over issues God really isn't concerned with. If Islam has to claim the fanatics who detonate themselves because of false teachings from corrupt imams, then Christianity has to take responsibility for the Paul Hills and Jerry Jones of the world. Bottom line: we aren't perfect. Anyone who claims to be is lying. We're just sick people telling other sick people where we found a doctor.

--
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein
Re:Her opponent is reasonable about it ... by retchdog · 2012-10-04 14:57 · Score: 3, Insightful

plausible deniability gets one the best of both worlds. nothing to see here.

--
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Re:Stupid gamers can't even read TFS by Doc+Ruby · 2012-10-04 15:24 · Score: 3, Insightful

He's lying. The only way the Republican Party (that's funding his campaign and staffing it) would do that is if they know he accepts it. Why shouldn't he lie? It worked on you.

--
--
make install -not war
Re:Her opponent is reasonable about it ... by retchdog · 2012-10-04 16:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

no, i understand just fine. he gets to look like a white knight to the privacy people, while slurring his opponent to the christ-bothering meddlers at the same time through the side-channel. makes perfect sense.

--
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Re:In my experiance... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 18:32 · Score: 2, Insightful

a person dedicated to living his life as Christ-like as possible-
Yells at trees for not bearing fruit out of season - Mark 11:12–20
Hates his family - Luke 14:26
Doesn't plan for his future - Matthew 6:25
I think I met him, he's living in a cardboard box over by the overpass....
Sufficiently ... by Martin+S. · 2012-10-04 19:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

... subtle satire is indistinguishable real world politics.
Re:Her opponent is reasonable about it ... by drkim · 2012-10-04 19:52 · Score: 3, Insightful

Her comeback to this should be, "I KNOW the difference between fantasy and reality. Apparently, my opponent does not."
"Martin said he was unaware of the state Republican Party’s press release...
"I had no idea that my campaign manager, ahem, PR organization, um, "some group I've never heard of/Republican Party" did this horrible thing."
Weasel words by rsborg · 2012-10-04 20:26 · Score: 2, Insightful

He said he’s met his opponent once so far and she “seemed like a nice lady.”

He should disavow his ad in more clear terms than just not taking credit for it.
Also another reason SuperPACs are the bane of our society - they keep all the connections neatly hidden so proper attribution/consequences for atrocious attack ads or or paid puff-pieces can never be worked out and corporate owners can basically buy elections for their favored rubber-stamper.

--
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Seriously... by xonen · 2012-10-05 01:01 · Score: 3, Insightful

What is that with Americans playing on the person all the time?
In Holland, we have had politicians who were publicly known to visit SM dungeons and black rooms. Are publicly gay. Or just unmarried, like our current prime minister. And no-one, literally no-one, makes a fuzz out of that.
Any debate will be about political issues. The worst accusations regarding personal lifes is about possible activist behaviour in the past. Working for greenpeace for example, like the current leader of the big labour party who has been arrested at least 10 times due to his activist history.
So.. I think this is a good thing. I'm not seeing how a politicians personal life, sexlife, hobbies, children, wife or man, has anything to do with the quality of the person as politician, and the message he or she brings. They are ordinary humans just like you and me with human desires, emotions and errors.
So, why with 'you' it is an issue if a politician plays a rogue in WoW? I wouldn't know, and have no issue with it myself untill she ganks me. If any, it only proves she's just as human as the 2 million other rogues around in this game, and is in for some fun and entertainment at a time, proving she's got a modern youthful mind..
2 cents from over the atlantic.

--
A glitch a day keeps the bugs away.