
World of Warcraft hobby sparks US political row - zappy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19842704
======
Xion
Bringing up quotes with game-specific terminology without proper context -
like "I got deeper into assassination" - makes me wonder how you could twist
the perception of, say, programming in a similar way.

Maybe "She puts children on a tree and removes their parents!".

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
maybe a better example would be anything to with "master" "slave"
relationships.

~~~
ryanisinallofus
A coworker and I were de-duping records in a database. One of us said while
pairing on the script "well, every slave needs a master."

An african american woman in the office turned to us and said "maybe it's the
master who needs the slave?"

She wasn't really offend or anything and she said it with a sincere smile. She
was just calling out our idiotic computer lingo for what it was.

After apologizing feeling like complete idiots we quickly changed our
terminology both in words and in the script to parent/child.

------
think-large
I can't believe how ridiculous this is. I think that this will definitely just
earn her a bigger following among her fellow players and only alienate the
older crowd who wouldn't like her anyway.

Politics makes me sick.

~~~
mibbitier
> bigger following among her fellow players

Most of which don't vote.

> and only alienate the older crowd

Most of whom do vote.

~~~
cciesquare
"who wouldn't like her anyway" Yea you missed that part, because it's true.
Most of the older crowd in Maine are hard core conservative republicans.

~~~
think-large
Thanks, that was my point.

------
nicholassmith
If you're resulting to insulting someones orc in a political campaign, you're
clearly running desperately.

~~~
sonnekki
Correct!

What matters is whatever they are blabbering about actually gets them out of
office or paints a negative picture to enough people that it makes a
difference.

If it is not effective, that's when things get interesting, I believe. It
could mean a number of things; younger people are voting more, games are
becoming more widely accepted as not a bad thing, for instance.

In the latter case, one could argue that the perpetrators are very much out of
touch.

~~~
nicholassmith
If it works (and I hope it doesn't) then I guess it can be viewed as a
successful way to win, but it's a bit desperate if they're resorting to
attacking something like that over policy or similar.

If it doesn't work, I hope for the most part it means the wider population
assumes she'd be good at her job and what she does online is her own business,
but if it means younger people think of voting that's also a good thing.

------
tibbon
If it didn't say BBC at the top, I'd assume this was an Onion article.

I'd vote for her because, you know, For the Horde!

------
jiggy2011
The main thing that this will probably achieve is pissing of WOW players who
are eligable to vote in US elections.

------
tatsuke95
The despicable world of American politics continuously out-does itself.

Who cares what the politicians are doing when not at work, especially if it's
a harmless hobby?

~~~
sp332
Nobody. As a native of New Hampshire (right next to Maine), I can attest that
no one really cares.

------
duiker101
I really hope that what will happen now is that those who do not care about
games will do not care about this, and the gamers will be pissed, voting for
her. Also as others have pointed on reddit the fact that she managed to get in
a good position have a family and play a game show that she knows how to
manage her time.

------
enraged_camel
Personally, knowing that a politician plays video games in their spare time
makes me want to vote for them! It means they are more likely to be able to
identify with my demographic.

~~~
mibbitier
Video games are fine. For me, WoW crosses a line to addictive obsession. I
don't think games like WoW are good for society in general, just because they
are _too_ addictive and consuming. Before you know it, you've lost 5 years of
your life and achieved nothing.

~~~
cjrp
I think that's more about the player than the game. Most people would consider
Halo a pretty casual game, but I've lived with people that played 4-5 hours of
it per day (on average). Similarly, I used to play WoW for a few hours per
week, and then just got bored and stopped. Not exactly addictive.

~~~
enraged_camel
I think a case _could_ be made that games like WoW are designed to attract and
exploit addictive personalities. The WoW playerbase probably contains a higher
percentage of addicts than most other games, since the game's quest structure
is fine-tuned to balance the frequency and quality of rewards. That said,
you're absolutely right, this does not mean that everyone who plays WoW is a
basement-dwelling addict.

~~~
pi18n
WoW is ethically worse than, say, Mario, but better than a slot machine, which
is in turn better than everything from Zynga.

~~~
jetti
How are ethics involved in WoW? (Sincere question)

~~~
pi18n
Oh, I mean in the sense that it is manipulating players into continuing, I
think it's ethically questionable.

~~~
jetti
See, as somebody who was addicted to the game for a few years during college,
I don't see how it is manipulating anybody? The game is fun and it has a lot
of content and they keep adding content. It was MY lack of self control that
led to me playing the long hours I did, it had NOTHING to do with Blizzards
"manipulation".

Blizzard is in the business of making money through making games. It is in
their interest to keep users playing month to month because of their recurring
fee. In order to do that, they need to keep the game fresh so they introduce a
lot of content. People want to play this new content so they keep playing.

~~~
pyre
The idea of manipulation in games is when they add specifically add game
elements meant to keep the user in the game, and encourage them never to
leave. Sure it's all a matter of self-control. Not losing your life-savings at
a casino is also about self-control. That doesn't mean that casinos can't do
ethically dubious things to take advantage of people without self-control.

E.g. The inside of a casino always looks the same, even at night. No windows
(being near the entrance is the exception), lots of bright lights. It makes it
easier for a gambler to lose track of time.

------
stevoski
Obama, for one, plays poker and drinks beer. Both of which have a dark side. I
bet he bluffs in poker.

Will someone make a website saying not to trust him because he is deceitful in
poker?

------
sirclueless
I'm curious how this will turn out. Is videogaming as much of a campaign-
killer as atheism?

~~~
efnx
No, most definitely not. Atheism will get you nowhere in American politics.
We'll have a gay president before we have an atheist president. Which, truth
be told, I would love a gay atheist engineer for president. Let's get our
priorities straight :)

~~~
cpeterso
American voters would rather elect a gay or Muslim president than an atheist.
Here is a 2012 Gallup poll:

[http://www.gallup.com/poll/155285/Atheists-Muslims-Bias-
Pres...](http://www.gallup.com/poll/155285/Atheists-Muslims-Bias-Presidential-
Candidates.aspx)

~~~
efnx
That's an interesting poll, thanks!

------
jeremyarussell
Blizzard should make her a skin, and also a super PAC. That would be so great.

------
revelation
As much as I would like to attribute this purely to political banter, I think
it reflects a general attitude in the broader society: video games are still
not considered equal to the arts, often considered "a waste of time" and
childish. Just look at the reporting when theres been another school rampage.

(Of course, the same crowd clamoring for a ban on videogames has no problems
with splatter horror movies in the theater, which from my experience surpass
any game in realism and pointless violence)

------
blktiger
Is it just me, or has there been a more-than-normal amount of mud-slinging in
politics this year?

~~~
protomyth
nope - same old same old <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_zTN4BXvYI>

at least nobody called anyone a "hatchet-faced nutmeg dealer" yet

~~~
dagw
The level may be the same, however the sheer volume of mud slung in this
campaigns cycle dwarf anything seen before, thanks largely to super PACs.
We're probably not going to see anything like this again, until the next
election cycle.

~~~
protomyth
Per capita, I doubt it. We have a lot more avenues to escape this kind of
stuff now, and politics was much more of a concern of folks back then.

