WoW players unfit to take a role in office

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology...

Yes its true, because a certain candidate plays a Rogue in her free time, she is being attacked by her opposition for being a back-staber and murderer. in one section the opposition "questions her maturity and her ability to make serious decisions for the people of senate district 25." Apparently she has made several comments about her playing but each of them seems to be giving the opposition more ammunition but all of it still sounds pretty ridicules. As a community where we have functional lives, jobs and play video games, the sheer absurdity for this is makes me chuckle on the inside.

Thats what you get for ninja looting.

For people like us games playing is just part of your recreation, but there's a section of the electorate who view it as kid's stuff. She'd get the same kind of heat for being a LARPer. Fair? No. But this is just politics. People can refuse to vote for whatever reason they want.

I have to admit, I'd have a tough time voting Horde in November.

questions her maturity

And given that there are still 10 million active subs, with people ranging from younger players to mature adults who use it as a relaxation/challenge in their free time, this is a pretty stupid attitude to take. Does the Republican candidate in Maine like to hunt/fish? I'm sure we could find soemthing of that candidate talking about how much they love shooting innocent animals. *rolls eyes*

Given that this district is heavily populated by a college town too, I can see this actually backfiring.

Either way, my question is, at this late in WoW's life, how is she only level 65? Get to 90 already noob!

If this is the dirt that can be dug up, I think she is relatively safe.

Either way, my question is, at this late in WoW's life, how is she only level 65? Get to 90 already noob!

My highest is 64. And that is a death knight. (I do have a 63 druid too)

fangblackbone wrote:
Either way, my question is, at this late in WoW's life, how is she only level 65? Get to 90 already noob!

My highest is 64. And that is a death knight. (I do have a 63 druid too)

...did you want me to call you a noob too?

I'm sure if it was a white male, human paladin this wouldn't be an issue

I dunno, man. She's Horde.

But, more seriously, even if she was a twinked out L85 rogue (or is it 90, now?), who cares?

And the fact that she hasn't even hit max levels means she doesn't play it that seriously... it means she stays busy.

The fact that she's Horde only makes me want to vote for her... but I don't live in Maine.

People are allowed to have hobbies. Stuff like this is just idiotic - but it shows that political parties (I'm not a fan of the "both sides" meme, but I think it applies here) are willing to attack anything and do anything to get back into power.

One commenter at the WoW forums suggested a debate question: "If elected, would you nerf mages?"

BTW, she's level 85.

Funkenpants wrote:

For people like us games playing is just part of your recreation, but there's a section of the electorate who view it as kid's stuff. She'd get the same kind of heat for being a LARPer. Fair? No. But this is just politics. People can refuse to vote for whatever reason they want.

That section of the electorate are exactly the people who we don't want/need in government. They are so out of touch with today's reality that they are literally dinosaurs. Gaming is a past time. No more or less significant than golfing, fishing or reading.

Seriously, my 67 year old mother plays Plants vs Zombies & Angry Birds. Using the republican logic here, she has deep seated anger issues which force her to inflict pain on zombies and birds.

I've never played a rogue, so I don't know their mechanics well, but that looks like about the best you could do for loot if you primarily play solo. She looks very competently geared.

I can think of an awful, awful lot of politicians that wouldn't do that well.

I am reminded a bit of John McCain;s presidential campaign 4 years ago when he was asked about his low approval among internet users. His campaign responded that they do not care what a bunch of dungeons and dragons players in their basements think.

And, as the election demonstrated, neither did we particularly care for Mr. McCain's opinion.

emyln wrote:
Funkenpants wrote:

For people like us games playing is just part of your recreation, but there's a section of the electorate who view it as kid's stuff. She'd get the same kind of heat for being a LARPer. Fair? No. But this is just politics. People can refuse to vote for whatever reason they want.

That section of the electorate are exactly the people who we don't want/need in government. They are so out of touch with today's reality that they are literally dinosaurs. Gaming is a past time. No more or less significant than golfing, fishing or reading.

Seriously, my 67 year old mother plays Plants vs Zombies & Angry Birds. Using the republican logic here, she has deep seated anger issues which force her to inflict pain on zombies and birds.

Well, I mean, everyone hates zombies, that's natural.

Xeknos wrote:

The fact that she's Horde only makes me want to vote for her... but I don't live in Maine.

No problem. I don't think Maine's gotten the voter ID laws in place yet so it's wide open for fraud. Just drop by a few polling station in Maine on election day and toss in a few votes for her. /voterfraudisnotanissuederail

Kehama wrote:
Xeknos wrote:

The fact that she's Horde only makes me want to vote for her... but I don't live in Maine.

No problem. I don't think Maine's gotten the voter ID laws in place yet so it's wide open for fraud. Just drop by a few polling station in Maine on election day and toss in a few votes for her. /voterfraudisnotanissuederail

Not for lack of trying.

I am reminded a bit of John McCain;s presidential campaign 4 years ago when he was asked about his low approval among internet users. His campaign responded that they do not care what a bunch of dungeons and dragons players in their basements think.

I'm put in mind of Spinal Tap. "...But don't worry, Sen. McCain, internet users are not a big voting constituency". You have to picture the "please don't think it through" eyeroll in your head, however.

Stengah wrote:
Kehama wrote:
Xeknos wrote:

The fact that she's Horde only makes me want to vote for her... but I don't live in Maine.

No problem. I don't think Maine's gotten the voter ID laws in place yet so it's wide open for fraud. Just drop by a few polling station in Maine on election day and toss in a few votes for her. /voterfraudisnotanissuederail

Not for lack of trying.

Truth.

And yes, if this is the worst Maine Repubs can dig up on her, we needn't be worried. Though the fact that there's an entire website devoted to discrediting her via her WoW makes me sad for my fellow Mainers.

I love that the tagline of the site is, "Maine needs a State Senator that lives in the real world, not in Colleen’s fantasy world." As if conservatives live in the real world. Oh, the irony...it's almost as strong as the drink in my hand.

The thing is depending on the role she played, MMOs can teach many valuable leadership roles (or how to follow well). Like many things, it's about proving your worth for the role you're pursuing, in this case governing. If someone came to me saying "I organise a weekly activity of a few dozen people with varying skills", does it really matter if it's pet grooming, truck racing, orienteering... or dragon killing, arena PvP, auction house manipulation, etc? The difference I see is virtual versus real-world, and her opponents are just trying to find something weird and scary to some of the electorate.

edit: That's before you get to things like EVE.

Scratched wrote:

The thing is depending on the role she played, MMOs can teach many valuable leadership roles (or how to follow well). Like many things, it's about proving your worth for the role you're pursuing, in this case governing. If someone came to me saying "I organise a weekly activity of a few dozen people with varying skills", does it really matter if it's pet grooming, truck racing, orienteering... or dragon killing, arena PvP, auction house manipulation, etc? The difference I see is virtual versus real-world, and her opponents are just trying to find something weird and scary to some of the electorate.

True story. I put that I was a healing team leader on my resume for when I applied for jobs... the interviewers asked me with trepidation what that meant, but when I explained how that meant organizing people and juggling their skills so we could accomplish goals... they loved that.

My son has been participating in raids since he was 8 or so, and leading them at times for years. He's a natural organizer of people, and it's already showing in his first year of college. As far as I'm concerned, he learned it in gaming. Certainly I'm not that good at it.

Wait- aren't Democrats supposed to be progressive? How can you call yourself a progressive when you haven't embraced the Guild Wars 2 revolution?!? Fight the power - our time is now! Occupy Stormwind! Well, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and call her a blue dog.

Ok, GW fanboi trolling aside, it's ridiculous to me that somebody in this day and age would make a big deal about video games. From what I can tell from her profile, she doesn't seem to be a hardcore player who spends most of her time in game. Heck, if you can manage a political campaign and carve some time out to play, color me impressed. I've known several friends who ran for local office and could barely find time to exercise and see their families once in a while, much less engage in hobbies.

jdzappa wrote:

Ok, GW fanboi trolling aside, it's ridiculous to me that somebody in this day and age would make a big deal about video games.

From what I can tell, this isn't about games so much as it is finding things to quote out of context so they sound bad. Dodgy analogy time. As far as I can tell it's as though the political campaigners found a brick she left lying around, now a brick can be used to build something, or it can be used as a lethal weapon... oh my god she's a mass murderer.

It's all very silly.

Scratched wrote:
jdzappa wrote:

Ok, GW fanboi trolling aside, it's ridiculous to me that somebody in this day and age would make a big deal about video games.

From what I can tell, this isn't about games so much as it is finding things to quote out of context so they sound bad. Dodgy analogy time. As far as I can tell it's as though the political campaigners found a brick she left lying around, now a brick can be used to build something, or it can be used as a lethal weapon... oh my god she's a mass murderer.

It's all very silly.

It seems less like using a brick to build something and more like throwing that brick through somebody's window, but yeah dodgy analogy.

Tagging so maybe I'll remember to view the election results, I can't wait to see what happens.

This is the kind of generational politicking that would probably have played better eight years ago. I don't think the older generation of politicians (or their campaign teams) have realized the effect that the generational shift plus mainstreaming via Facebook and the like. The minimum age limit for presidential candidates is 35, and Vietnam has only recently become irrelevant for the elections. There's probably still a big chunk of the electorate who view this as a valid argument, unfortunately, and I'd suspect that the seriously politically active people are somewhat less likely to be gamers. (They've already got a hobby.)

This will be resolved within a couple of cycles; sooner if someone like Obama declares that they're a gamer to connect with a perceived audience, or if the CIA makes running ops in EVE a prerequisite for recruitment, or something.

I had a shrink who told me to stop playing WoW. "Widdeo games are a children's t'ing," he said. I was thinking, "Dude, I'm not the one with a shrine to an elephant in his office."

So I went to the Coleens World website and now I'm a little torn on how to feel about this. The Republican site lists some of the more embarrassing things that she's said online, not just about WOW but also about slacking at work while she checks gaming sites and some of the pretty rude things she says about conservatives on chat boards. In other words, she's seems rather naive about running for office. She also -and I'm not sure how to say this'll - seems to love flying her gamer freak flag. I recognize it's not fair that geeks get called out for loving games. Heck, we've got a candidate running for state commissioner who's main qualification is he played pro football in the 70s, yet people see his football obsession as a plus. But theres a way to talk about being a gamer that makes you sound like a well adjusted adult with a perfectly reasonable hobby. Sorry but comments about how much you like to stab things as a stress reliever do the opposite.

And I'm sure if you recorded her opponent's conversations with his buddies on the golf course or on a hunting trip with the guys you would find nothing but the most uplifting of commentary. She was on a message board, discussing her favorite game with other players.

For that matter, how much of the finger->butt commentary around here looks good, taken out of context? It wasn't meant to be part of her professional life, any more than our comments here are meant to be part of ours. Though, for the record, my immediate boss and all my children lurk here at least occasionally, I know several long-time posters in both a professional and church capacity, and our company president is a fan and sometimes give me input on my articles. I have to be good. (I'm not all that interested in not being anyways)

And dinging her for being on game websites during working hours with a post on this website is a delicious irony to me.

I do have some concerns. Not about her, per se. She and I aren't on the same political wavelength anyways. But in the bigger picture this whole thing stinks.

Yes, this whole thing is a horrible indictment of social media culture - people had better start taking a long, hard look at the legacy they've left themselves online. Especially in the next 10 years when the MySpace and Youtube-happy millennials start getting old enough to run for office. You only have to be 35 to run for Congress, and I'd actually like to see more of the younger generation up on the Hill. And I don't care if they play Farmville.

I hope it's a strong wakeup call for anyone who thinks real name authentication would actually solve any problems in our online world. What little gains it would give are vastly outweighed by the damage that interested parties can cause others, and as of right now there is no way to effectively rebut or fight back.