World of Warcraft Character Becomes Campaign Issue

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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.'"

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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 2.7182 · 2012-10-04 11:30 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'd rather vote for an orc assassination rogue than a democrat or republican.
2. Re:I bet.. by flyingsquid · 2012-10-04 11:46 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  It doesn't matter whether you vote for the Horde or the Alliance. It's not a real choice because ultimately both of them are owned by the moneyed interests of the guild banks and the vendors, and will do anything for a few gold pieces and some high-level items. Until we break free of this two-faction system there will never be any change in Azeroth.
3. Re:I bet.. by Narcocide · 2012-10-04 11:49 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  STFU, Panda coward!
4. Re:I bet.. by Culture20 · 2012-10-04 11:56 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Well, I for one am voting for a third party Panda Bear.
5. 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."
6. Re:I bet.. by flyingsquid · 2012-10-04 14:14 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I would suggest voting Libertarian, but Azeroth is already a Libertarian paradise: no taxes, neither the Alliance nor the Horde maintain a police force, fire department, or public library system; there's minimal public investment in infrastructure like roads (in fact virtually no government to speak of), government does nothing as demons and undead stalk the land (I don't know what the official Libertarian position on a plague of the undead is, but I assume Ron Paul would argue that this should be left up to the private sector). Plus, everyone's on the gold standard!
7. Re:I bet.. by jd2112 · 2012-10-04 15:06 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Her comeback to this should be, "I KNOW the difference between fantasy and reality. Apparently, my opponent does not."
  Knowing the difference between fantasy and reality could be a handicap in the world of politics.
  
  --
  Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
8. 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.
  
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9. Re:I bet.. by Z34107 · 2012-10-04 15:49 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  You may be surprised to learn that the Libertarian party agrees with you 100%.
  
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  DATABASE WOW WOW
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. Re:I bet.. by Zelucifer · 2012-10-04 17:31 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Just level 85? At this point 100 hour, potentially 75. No way of knowing how many years that was spread throughout, as the game has been out for 6+ years now.
  
  --
  The corner of a round room
13. Re:I bet.. by Anubis+IV · 2012-10-04 18:42 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  No taxes? Last time I visited Azeroth (admittedly, a few years ago), they imposed a levy on every transaction via the (government-owned and monopolized) auction house, and because my work (raiding) provided benefits, the government effectively forced me to share my hard-earned wealth with the lower and middle-classes of Azeroth. They didn't call it "taxes" in that case, however. Instead, they called it things like mandatory "repair bills" and "reagent costs" that were the result of them working in collusion with private sector members who got kickbacks like prime real estate in capital cities. And that's hardly the least of their sins.
  Rather than leaving the private sector alone to manage itself, as they should, they went on that "Burning Crusade" reform campaign while I was visiting, during which they imposed stricter limits on the number of people allowed to work on a job at any given time. That, in turn, forced my company to eliminate 15 paid positions on their raid team, leaving me destitute and begging for scraps.
  And no police? As if! Not only do they have police (who they refer to as "guards", for some strange reason), but the police habitually discriminate against foreigners, even going so far as to physically assault them for doing nothing more than being in the vicinity of a city. I can't tell you how many times I invited friends to visit me, only to have the guards insist that my friend was most unwelcome.
  The public transportation system is a hodge-podge as well. The privatized zeppelin transportation seemed to be doing fine, but the publicly-funded tram system was regularly plagued by...odd problems.
14. 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.
  
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  Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
15. 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.
16. Re:I bet.. by NeutronCowboy · 2012-10-05 03:00 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Funny. And, living on a PvP server, I am pretty sure that the results are very similar to what you would get in a libertarian world: don't venture outside unless you have a max-level PvP-geared killer on call (whether via an Alt or a guildie), gathering materials frequently involves killing off the competition, and then guarding the spawn points with your friends, your own city gets raided for shits and giggles, at which point everyone who isn't a max-level character can just log off or hide somewhere in the lesser-traveled regions, etc.
  Then again, being fully-geared, fully-leveled is kinda fun when you run into some lower levels. Unless, of course, they call in their guild, and proceed to corpse camp you.
  Yay libertarian paradise!
  
  --
  Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
17. 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.
She'd have my vote! by bl968 · 2012-10-04 11:30 · Score: 4, Insightful

They say that like it's a bad thing?

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"GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 51230 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Setec Astronomy)"
The Sword of a Thousand Truths by Steve1952 · 2012-10-04 11:32 · Score: 4, Funny

...But the sword was considered to be too powerful for anyone to possess, so it was removed from the game and stored on a one gig flash drive. But it was foretold that one day players who could wield the sword might reveal themselves...
I'm sorry, but.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 11:35 · Score: 5, Funny

Someone with an empty socket in her belt does not deserve our sympathy.
Stupid gamers can't even read TFS by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 11:36 · Score: 3, Informative

From TFS, "Her incumbent, much to his credit, rejects the attack as 'mudslinging politics.'"
1. 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
2. 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.
3. 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."
4. Re:Stupid gamers can't even read TFS by SydShamino · 2012-10-04 13:28 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  See the Colbert Show episodes where he hands control over his super PAC to John Stewart for just what is "legal".
  
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  It doesn't hurt to be nice.
5. 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.
  
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  make install -not war
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.
1. Re:Armory link by jhoegl · 2012-10-04 11:42 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  And level 85 was so 1 week and 2 days ago.
In my experiance... by Kaenneth · 2012-10-04 11:37 · Score: 5, Interesting

People who roleplay 'evil' characters are much nicer than those who play 'good' characters...
Those who play 'good' (particularly Paladins) tend to think they are always right, while 'evil' (Necromancer players for example) are more open minded and accepting.
YMMV
1. 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.
2. Re:In my experiance... by Anne_Nonymous · 2012-10-04 12:10 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  >> There are jerks of every ilk.
  Don't get me started on the people who play as ilk.
3. 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: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.
Re:Blind Slaves, most of you... by Mike+Buddha · 2012-10-04 11:46 · Score: 5, Funny

Have you seen that study that suggests that tinfoil hats actually attenuate radio signals? I'll just leave this out here.

--
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
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.
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:And thus... by Mike+Buddha · 2012-10-04 11:54 · Score: 3, Funny

I'd never vote for someone in the Horde. I hope her opponent is Alliance, otherwise I'll have to write in, yet again.

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by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
https://www.mainegop.com/ by bogidu · 2012-10-04 11:59 · Score: 3, Funny

503 - Service Unavailable . . . . HA!
Re:Not surprising by foniksonik · 2012-10-04 12:38 · Score: 4, Funny

West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

--
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 13:15 · Score: 4, Funny

You wait too long and night comes.
You are eaten by a Grue.
Re:Not surprising by Minupla · 2012-10-04 13:25 · Score: 4, Funny

> open mailbox
OK.
> mail absentee ballot
OK.
> wait
Nothing changes.
The future is dark.
You are eaten by a guru.

--
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
Level 85? by SuperMog2002 · 2012-10-04 13:26 · Score: 3, Informative

She's a devotee of the hugely popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft
She's still level 85. She's clearly not that devoted.

--
Sunwalker Dezco for Warchief in 2016
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.
Her opponent is reasonable about it ... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-04 14:07 · Score: 3, Informative

Her comeback to this should be, "I KNOW the difference between fantasy and reality. Apparently, my opponent does not."
No, it should not be, that would be as dumb and misinformed as the party's statement:
"Martin said he was unaware of the state Republican Party’s press release or Lachowicz’s hobby until contacted by POLITICO. He said he’s met his opponent once so far and she “seemed like a nice lady.” He said he deplores “mudslinging politics.” ... “Somebody’s personal life is their personal life. What you do in society and in the community is what matters."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82043.html#ixzz28O03FLVo
1. 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
2. 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
3. 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."
Lying creep by PopeRatzo · 2012-10-04 15:02 · Score: 4, Informative

Her incumbent, much to his credit, rejects the attack as 'mudslinging politics.'"
Credit my ass.
Is there still anyone in America who doesn't realize that when the party apparatus slings mud and the candidate then "distances" himself from the remarks that it's all bullshit?
It's like the fiction of SuperPACs and campaigns not coordinating their efforts.
It's like those fuckers are laughing at us.
I have to say that I'm impressed with the American people's willingness to overlook this kind of stuff and suffer silently. If it were up to me, there would be pikes around capital buildings with the heads of politicians who lied on them. Of course, we'd have to ramp up pike manufacturing, but that's heavy industry and would be good for the economy.
Tell me most Americans wouldn't feel better to see some politicians' heads on pikes. It improves my consumer confidence just thinking about it.

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You are welcome on my lawn.
Re:Could be much worse by Nemyst · 2012-10-04 15:08 · Score: 5, Funny

Farmville actually qualifies you to be a lobbyist. You get to learn how to nag people until they give up and comply or bribe the system if you don't get what you want fast enough, all while doing absolutely nothing good for society.
Re:Not surprising by Doc+Ruby · 2012-10-04 15:28 · Score: 4, Interesting

Calling those nincompoops "teabaggers" is polite. Pretending that someone running against the Maine Republican Party in 2012 should be "non-partisan" is immature.

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make install -not war
Sufficiently ... by Martin+S. · 2012-10-04 19:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

... subtle satire is indistinguishable real world politics.
1. Re:Sufficiently ... by rsborg · 2012-10-04 20:20 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  ... subtle satire is indistinguishable real world politics.
  There is actually a law similar to this [1], and the modern GOP is comprised of a good chunk of various extremists (authoritarian, fundamentalist, libertarian) and their corporate enablers.
  [1] http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poe's_Law
  
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  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.

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A glitch a day keeps the bugs away.