Nerd life forever


Oh, no, there are more reasons I can never run for public office in the United States.

Colleen Lachowicz is a Democrat running for the state senate in Maine. The Republicans are running attack ads against her, arguing that she isn’t fit for office because she plays an orc rogue in World of Warcraft. It’s not clear whether she’d be OK if she’d been playing an elf paladin.

Alas, I think I’m worse. I play an undead warlock. Also, I’m an atheist. Doooomed.

Oh, no! I just noticed in that picture…I’m also wearing a dress! Crap, I’m just going to have to resign myself to spending the rest of my life sucking at the public teat, never contributing anything, aren’t I? I’d move into my mother’s basement, but she doesn’t have one.

Comments

  1. peterhearn says

    I wouldn’t support her, either. Orc rogues look ridiculous. Its like seeing a Tauren mage. If she makes ridiculous decisions for her WOW character, what does that say about her decisions in the state senate?

  2. anteprepro says

    I can only imagine the uproar if it turned out that she played Mafia Wars. Or, heaven forbid, Robot Unicorn Attack.

    But I can kind of see a point in bringing up that she plays WOW> WOW disgusts me. I spit upon it and all of its other filthy MMORPG kin. JRPGs, Baldur’s Gate, Elder Scrolls and tabletop RPGs all the way.

  3. Janine: Hallucinating Liar says

    I’d move into my mother’s basement, but she doesn’t have one.

    Just dig out a little crawlspace under her house. It would be perfect for an undead warlock like you.

  4. Shawn says

    Jebus do no republicans play WoW or a good FPS? I’m sure Quake 1 scares the crap out of them.

    I mean what games can a good republican play without being bound of hell? Bejeweled?

  5. bakedleech6 says

    As a druid, I can adapt to the rapidly changing political scene.

    /one respec away from doing your job better than you

  6. dysomniak, darwinian socialist says

    I feel compelled to point out that pre-Cataclysm (ie, when I still played) a female orc was the smallest model available to horde players. Combined with the right shade of green skin this can be an edge when stealthing. FOR THE HORDE!

  7. says

    Southshore. Gilneas. There is no way you undead monsters can blame these on the Lich King. The Forsaken are why I play the Alliance.

    Well, except for a Tauren shaman. If I’m going to be looking at someone’s tail all day, give me someone who’s “strong like bull.”

  8. fastlane says

    But that’s a stylin’ hat. Gotta give props for that. I haven’t played an MMO since DAOC. I quit just before WoW came out.

  9. says

    They’re highlighting the fact that she talks about enjoying stabbing and poisoning people. To me, that sounds (metaphorically) like an important prerequisite for the political life….

  10. dysomniak, darwinian socialist says

    @shawn If karmak god didn’t want us to strafe jump he would have written a better physics engine.

  11. Ben P says

    I mean what games can a good republican play without being bound of hell? Bejeweled?

    No forms of “nerd” entertainment are acceptable for politicians, except for perhaps Sid Meier games like Civilization. They’re just weeeiiiirrrdddddd!

    The only acceptable form of entertainment for a male politician is watching sports, preferably football and/or basketball.

  12. anteprepro says

    They’re highlighting the fact that she talks about enjoying stabbing and poisoning people. To me, that sounds (metaphorically) like an important prerequisite for the political life….

    Perhaps the problem is that she is a Democrat and this sounds too Republican? They don’t like it when someone is encroaching on their turf, even when it is only metaphorically.

  13. anteprepro says

    The only acceptable form of entertainment for a male politician is watching sports, preferably football and/or basketball.

    I think they also allowed to watch news programs. When it comes to a financial segment, they are obliged to light up a cigar with a burning $100 bill and laugh hysterically for its entirety. It is part of the complex rules of etiquette in higher society, I am led to believe.

  14. cheesynougats says

    BTW, is that a screencap of your warlock? Cause if it is, I want to know where that hat came from…

  15. nesetalis says

    Asuran (mini charr) Warrior reporting in.. :D oh wait.. Fuck Wow, guildwars 2 all the way!

    Back when I played Wow I was a gnome rogue and draenei priest. (Pre cata mind you)

    As for the stupidity of the article. There is still an older smaller segment of society that thinks only social rejects play games like D&D and video games are an extension of that.

  16. Ben P says

    If I wanted 50 hours of hearing the Male 12-24 demographic scream cunt and fag at me id go troll Abbie Smith

    I think you’re thinking of Call of Duty.

    There are certainly plenty of immature players, but in my experience WoW trends quite a bit older. There’s a lot of college age kids into 30’s and a smaller but solid population of older people, but not many sub-18 kids. I think primarily because it is difficult for many kids to convince mom or dad to sign up for a $14.50 a month reoccurring charge without explaining to them what it is.

  17. ChasCPeterson says

    Speaking as an old, unaddicted (to computer games)(are they called that?) semiLuddite, it occurs to me that there is a growing trend to substitute virtual experiences for real-life experiences.
    The road is paved all the way to the Wall-E scenario.

  18. peterhearn says

    If she would have had the political sense to pick the new Panda race no one could criticize her because they’re an endangered species.

  19. jose says

    The article quotes her response, it’s perfect. You just have to laugh at these pitiful tactics.

  20. Loqi says

    Tauren shaman. I spend my days making up to four graven images at a time. I even picked up the minor glyph that drops three dummy totems every time I place one real one, just to increase the blasphemy.

  21. anteprepro says

    If she would have had the political sense to pick the new Panda race no one could criticize her because they’re an endangered species.

    You don’t know Republicans very well, do you?
    Oh wait, it’s peterhearn. That was probably meant to be an insult to Democrats, right? Because they are just silly to worry about making unique species go extinct. Stupid, earth-worshiping hippies!

  22. NitricAcid says

    I have been known to dabble in Diablo, but I generally stick to face-to-face 1st Edition AD&D.

  23. otrame says

    I have always lived by the epigram that the only good gnome is a chicken-fried gnome.

    Seriously, I’ve TRIED to play Alliance because they stole the coolest of the newer races. Bastards. The whole bunch are just too goodie-two-shoes for me.

    But lately, I have actually been playing a human (and a sylvari). On Guild Wars. With others, I just don’t enjoy WoW as much since Cataclysm.

  24. wmdon says

    Because no one else has…

    For the Horde!

    I also played an undead warlock but – and I know this particular bit will win me no favors from our benevolent overlord – I found my terrorizing effect lessened somewhat by having a very small white cat follow me around everywhere.

  25. Amphiox says

    re #30;

    Right. She obviously needed the power to see into the future and know exactly what characters would be in an expansion pack that did not yet exist when she was choosing her character, and obtain the services of a temporal hacker to extract the source code from the future so she could use it in the game, before having the temerity to think about running for political office.

  26. Brownian says

    Speaking as an old, unaddicted (to computer games)(are they called that?) semiLuddite, it occurs to me that there is a growing trend to substitute virtual experiences for real-life experiences.

    Oh, pshaw. Film, theatre, and books have been around for like, ages ‘n’ shit.

  27. AlanMac says

    She is also a known extrovert and an practicing homo sapien. It is rumored that some members of her family might be thespians.

  28. Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper says

    I only play the classic http://www.atari.com/battlezone and I sneer at all your new-fangled sorcery. N00bz, as you kids would say.

    Republicans would probably approve of battle tanks shooting off big guns, wouldn’t they?

  29. Akira MacKenzie says

    Great. All we need are some Christian assholes shrieking about Satanic cults and it’s 1984 all over again!

    Speaking as another anti-computer-game “Luddite” (I just don’t find them as interesting as most people do. That, and the motion sickness doesn’t help.) I prefer paper-pencil-miniature RPGs. However, my fucking work schedule has put a serious cramp in my gaming as of late. Last game I played was a game of Empire of the Petal Throne where I played a Pé Chói (an insectoid alien race) magician hired along with my fellow adventurers by a local noble to close a magical portal.

  30. DLC says

    Orc Rogue ? bah, I got a Tauren Boomer. I do more DPS than you and I look like a giant owlbear doing it!

    So, let’s see. I’ve knocked down whole villages with my mad AOE damage, and they’re worried about a rogue going stabbity-stab ?

    Remind me not to run for office. Between this, D&D and Non-believing, I’d get my own vote and that’s about it.

  31. says

    I think it’s ironic that the Republican website criticizes Lachowicz for living in a fantasy world just because she plays WoW when they ignore parts of reality they don’t like (AGW, evolution). Talk about living in a fantasy world.
    I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they aren’t doing their research when they call a hobby millions of Americans participate in a “bizarre double life.” They’re indeed out of touch with the times. Do they not think that Republicans play WoW (or other games where you kill/stab people)? Or do they think that people will think, “well, I play, but I certainly don’t want my senator to play because what they do in their free time is an unprofessional reflection on their character”?)

    Although there are people that don’t exactly like WoW, I can’t help but think that highlighting the fact that she plays MMOs would make her appeal to more people while at the same time making them seem like poopyheads.

    I used to play Wow (For the Horde!), before Wrath of the Lich King, but I don’t have time anymore. I enjoyed it, though I don’t have much experience with other MMOs, and I miss my flying mount and the scenery sometimes. For me, the fact that she plays is a positive thing. I relate to the need to sometimes kill some NPC to relieve stress.

    I do wonder if her “race” has anything to do with the criticism. Would she be getting the same amount of flak if she were playing a Blood Elf or a Human on the Alliance side?

  32. Cliff Hendroval says

    Pish, tosh!

    No one should vote for anyone who plays World of Warcraft, when there’s the clearly superior LotRo available for the discerning!

  33. tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderach says

    Oh, pshaw. Film, theatre, and books have been around for like, ages ‘n’ shit.

    Not to forget that imagination stuff. I hear that some people (and I’m sure you know the sort I mean) use it to pretend there ain’t no Gawd! String’em up by their not-evolved-away tails, Ah say!

  34. yoav says

    The only acceptable form of entertainment for a male politician is watching sports, preferably football and/or basketball.

    If you had the misfortune of hearing Newt Gingrich this week you would have known that watching (or playing) basketball indicate that you’re lazy and “not a real president”, I guess a real red-blooded american politician would be spending his time cheating on his wife and dumping her when she’s in the hospital instead.

  35. Utakata says

    @ PZ Myers:

    “A gnome mage dares to admit his perversion on an undead warlock’s site?”

    What’s wrong with Gnome Mages? O.o

  36. Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper says

    I am going to remember this the next time I hear an NRA member defend his guns and his shooting practice as a “hobby” or “sport”.

  37. michaellatiolais says

    The Horde destroyed Theramore. They killed Rhonin and Kinndy(the second best Gnome mage, after Millhouse Manastorm). As long as Garrosh Hellscream is Warchief, there will be no peace! This I swear!!

  38. says

    Hmm. My comments:

    1. WOW is Everquest Lite. Too easy to level to top ranks, and there latest expansion, with the monk pandas, was already our in EQ2 like.. 4-5 expansions ago. They just made their version “meaner”, so like… they would be “different” or something.

    2. The last election, or maybe it was the one before that, they had a mock election in WOW and found that liberals tended to be Horde, while conservatives tended to be Alliance. Why? Well… lets just say that one factor seemed to be that the Alliance where all human like, with the only real differences being height issues, or funny ears.

    3. Games I play – Never met Vile Rat, but I could have, and had heard of him, long before I found out that he was a US ambassador, so yeah, I play Eve Online some. I play EQ2, though less often than I did, as a Kerra (cat people). I play Second Life, as a Kitsune (fox person), where the City of Lost Angels post-apocalyptic city does real role playing (there are no NPCs, except a few rare boss like types, and then they are run by GMs, or some player that volunteered), combat is done via a scripted systems, and gets bogged down when a lot of people do it, so is often avoided, and the “story” is entirely driven by the “players”. And, played a bit of Star Wars: Old Republic recently, until I ran into the “You are not finishing this phase of the story line without raiding”, point, which I bloody hate when I don’t want to have to do it, as a Jedi Twi’lek.

    But, back to WOW… They seem to have either forgotten that “conservatives” play WOW, or they are annoyed, that she is what? horde, like a lot of liberals proved to be the last time they had a mock election on there? lol

  39. peterhearn says

    I have a lvl 90 character of every class across multiple accounts. My mains are in full purp and orange gear and in PVP can kill noobs in greens with one hit. Since I’ve conquered everything in the game multiple times I now just sit in Orgrimmar in my epic gear doing a pretty little fashion show while noobs come up and drool at my glory with envy. My mom is super proud. Damn, I’m cool.

  40. dannicoy says

    For some reason I just pictured you as Eddie Izzards running mate (Izzard has plans to enter politics this decade)… For some reason that idea really appeals to me

  41. gworroll says

    Tauren Druid. So I suppose I’m some sort of devil worshiper to them, only worse, since I try to pretend I’m not.

    Or maybe they don’t like the impromptu “cliff safety lessons” I deliver to alliance standing too close to the edge.

    Bah. There’s exactly one rational response her campaign can issue “Dude, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

  42. Loqi says

    Gworrell, you can give similar cliff safety lessons to fellow Hordies, if you are so inclined

    Never get into the passenger seat of a druid’s mechano-hog near a cliff.

  43. says

    @Kagehi #54 –

    The last election, or maybe it was the one before that, they had a mock election in WOW and found that liberals tended to be Horde, while conservatives tended to be Alliance.

    Odd: I go with the Alliance because the warrior culture of the Orcs and the atrocities committed by the Forsaken (see my comments above about Southshore and Gilneas) kind of put me off; those really seem more Tea Party activities. And the religion of the Light is rather to this liberal: not only is it atheist and emphasize respect and compassion, you can pop over to Shattrath and chat up some of its “angels”, the Naaru. And between the Blood Elves’ relentless quest for power and the Goblins’ pure laissez-faire capitalism… well that just screams Republican through and through.

    Then again, with 26 character slots in two accounts, I have only six Humans: one is an undead death knight and three are werewolves. I suppose that says something.

  44. Ichthyic says

    I don’t understand this shit at all.

    hell, I wouldn’t give a rats ass if a candidate for office played a fucking Nazi SS officer in a video game.

    it’s a fucking video game.

    sweet jesus, are people that disenamored with reality that they now prefer the trite fictional realities of video games for reference??

    To me, that’s no different than Dan Quayle claiming the life choices of Murphy Brown have relevance.

    to anything.

  45. says

    @Ichthyic #63 – I’ll do you one better and provide a link to Spiffworld’s YouTube page.

    For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, Spiffworld makes videos using World of Warcraft. Most of the songs are taken from Jonathan Coulton, who has released a lot of music through Creative Commons, and Paul and Storm. Watch “Skullcrusher Mountain” then the follow-up “Live” for a short story arc. Several characters make repeat appearances: I’ll leave finding them as an exercise to the reader.

  46. whheydt says

    You missed the *good* headline (and subhead) from The Register, here:
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/05/world_of_warcraft_colleen_lachowicz_attacked_by_republicans/

    Does make me wonder what kind of spin the Rethugs would have given it if she played LotRO…probably would have accused her of being an elitist Anglophile, I guess.

    I saw bits of WoW when my son played it in beta. Never played it myself, but I did play Asheron’s Call and Asheron’s Call 2. AC2 from beta to server shutdown. Now I have 10 level capped characters in LotRO and an expansion (with 10 more levels) coming in 10 days…

    For those doing table top RPGs….I’m one of the people that run an annual, regional convention (DunDraCon). So far as we know, we’re the oldest RPG convention in existence. Next year will be DunDraCon 37.

    In any case, the Rethugs may have just written off the entire gaming community. Maybe another 47%? (The Democratic candidate is quoted as saying there are 183 million on-line gamers in the US…so maybe *more* than 47%.)

  47. Ichthyic says

    The only acceptable form of entertainment for a male politician is watching sports

    at first I thought that said “water sports”

  48. hexidecima says

    so it seems that people who want to play lets pretend I have an imaginary friend, are attacking someone who plays a game and knows it. Hmmm, who would I vote for? Oh yes,the person connected with reality.

  49. fernando says

    Sorry about this, but i will never vote for someone that plays WOW!

    But if that person plays Lineage 2, that is a diferent story…
    ;D

  50. says

    @72: The difference between gamers and the religious is that former *know* it’s just pretend.

    And as I’ve said before in this space: the proper attitude to take towards religions, is that they are live-action RPGs being played by other people. By all means, they should be allowed to play them — I’m very much in favour of there being as large a legal and social space as possible for personal hobbies and eccentricities — up until it starts to spill out and interfere with other people’s lives. You can no more make me live by the rules of Sharia or Catholic morality than by those of WoW.

  51. Stardrake says

    Not a MMORPG player–largely due to the expense and time-suck factors–but an old line gamer (RPGs since 1974, Avalon Hill & SPI before that). And if a mere Orc Rogue upsets them, I can just imagine what they’d think about some of the characters I’ve played….

    But we have not yet asked the most important question! Has the candidate ever indulged in philately? Perhaps even for money!? Horrors!

  52. F says

    Jamie @47

    Yes, for Republicans, living in a real fantasy world is honorable, playing games in a fictional fantasy world is for lower forms of life.

  53. Tenebras says

    I play a male Tauren feral druid. Which I guess would make me an atheist, tree-hugging, cross-dressing furry? So I’m even more doomed than you, PZ. At least your character has one thing the Repubs can relate to: ghoulishness.

  54. John Horstman says

    Did the Republican Party somehow miss the last two decades of cultural evolution? Actually… never mind.

    Also PZ, GW2 is amazing – come join Godless! (Unless I missed the bit where you already did.)

  55. Kaguya says

    Warlocks are definitely the most fun for me.

    Are you picking up the extra SIN Points from your specs being Affliction and Demonology? I am~

  56. ckitching says

    @Gregory in Seattle #622

    Odd: I go with the Alliance because the warrior culture of the Orcs and the atrocities committed by the Forsaken (see my comments above about Southshore and Gilneas) kind of put me off; those really seem more Tea Party activities.

    On the surface, the Alliance really do look like the good guys, and their representatives certainly try to convey that image, but there is a lot of sordid history under their banner, as well. If you look at a lot of the backstory, the humans in Warcraft are probably tied with the bloodlusted orcs for the most genocidal out of the bunch. The Horde may be violent, and savage, but at least they’re not sanctimonious.

    One thing that strikes me as odd is the fact that the Darkspear Trolls, despite their ominous new character introduction, have been one of the most noble factions in the game. This, despite the fact that every other new dungeon tended to be about killing trolls.

  57. OlliP says

    Easy solution:
    1) get glyph of sap
    2) sap your opponent at start of political debate
    3) profit

    For good measure use pick pocket on him too!

  58. laurentweppe says

    No forms of “nerd” entertainment are acceptable for politicians, except for perhaps Sid Meier games like Civilization. They’re just weeeiiiirrrdddddd!

    You just reminded me of the day I ended up reading a bunch of far-right activists describing their games of civilization and Europa Universalis. These games are like porn to them: they’d describe in great detail how they enjoy converting by force all the Middle East, how they would know how to keep Africans from launching successful anti-colonialist rebellions, or how in Civ 4 they round all the Muslim population in 4 or 5 cities then nuke 90% of them, wait until the radiation level go down and their population starts growing again, nuke them again, wait until the radiation level go down and their population starts growing once more, nuke them one more time, again and again and again and again and again and again.
    Urk, just remembering that makes me want to punche my computer.

  59. Sids says

    But Jesus was an undead warlock (as close as you’ll get to a lich).

    Them atheists are just wanting to get rid of the gods so they can make themselves gods!

  60. ckitching says

    @laurentweppe #85

    nuke them one more time, again and again and again and again and again and again.

    Until you’ve effectively engineered radiation resistant form of humanity that can shrug off nukes, that proceeds to conquer your lands using little more than radioactive arrows. Of course, Civilization doesn’t play like that, does it?

  61. says

    I played WoW for a month back in 2007.
    After a month I cancelled. I’d progressed pretty far.

    Far enough that I stopped calling it “playing WoW” and started calling it “running errands.”

    Because that’s all you do. Travel days to get some dragon tooth, travel days to trade it for some crystal, travel days to trade the crystal for some pie then travel days to get hamhocks to put in the pie so you can travel days to kill the Hamhock PieGod and get his pendant so you can take it back to the guy who gave you the tooth so he’ll reward you with a scroll that if you travel days you can get to a door the scroll opens wherein you’ll find a guy with an enchanted sword he wants you to take to someone on another continent.

    Or you can keep going back to the same familiar field/woods/cavern to repeatedly kill the same creatures over and over again to gather gold so you can buy that rare black silk shirt that has no powers but looks cool. Or something.

    Before long I’d given up and just explored. Swam entirely around every continent, exploring every crevice (found an old shack.)

    Climbed into the mountains and found a tedious way, jumping from outcrop to outcrop, to get from the safe humanoid level 1 training area into the “everything’s on fire and you die” lava area… (falling onto a biplane on a ledge in the process).

    Climbed out on a massive tree branch above a waterfall, jumped off and enjoyed a five-minute long free-fall into the ocean below.

    Gets boring FAST.

    Bleh.

  62. Ichthyic says

    Because that’s all you do. Travel days to get some dragon tooth, travel days to trade it for some crystal, travel days to trade the crystal for some pie then travel days to get hamhocks to put in the pie so you can travel days to kill the Hamhock PieGod and get his pendant so you can take it back to the guy who gave you the tooth so he’ll reward you with a scroll that if you travel days you can get to a door the scroll opens wherein you’ll find a guy with an enchanted sword he wants you to take to someone on another continent.

    *remembers*

    huh, that’s a pretty good summary from what I recall.

    add on the endless trading between alts so you can get the best of everything for your primary character…

    which of course means all your alts also do all the trading and travelling and…

    yeah, I gave it one more month than you did, but only because I lucked into a really good guild.

  63. spamamander, internet amphibian says

    I find myself quite offended at her horrible lifestyle!

    Real gamers play masochistic Korean-style MMOs, like Lineage 2 and Aion.

    (Deira lev 60 Elyos cleric, Gwyndolyn level 59 Elyos sorcerer, Callipygos level 3x Asmodian spiritmaster, Nephthyss level 4x Elyos gladiator, Siel server)

  64. ROTATO says

    And lo, from up on high enters PHILLIO. GNOME PRIEST. Atop his magnificient flying carpet he rains down holy fire and smites his foes, inadvertently healing his allies!

    WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?!

  65. vaiyt says

    Colleen Lachowicz’s only defect is being a Democrat. That automatically makes anything she does bad.

  66. michaelvieths says

    Guild Wars 2 is available for the Mac (in beta form currently):

    https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-guild-wars-2-for-mac-beta/

    As for WoW, I have numerous 85s of both factions (mostly Tauren and Dwarves, ’cause I likes ’em fuzzy). Haven’t picked up Mists yet. I played the beta, liked the starting zone, got to Orgrimmar and thought… now I have 75 levels of the same crap I’ve been doing for years before I get new stuff again. Kinda made me sad. I’ll probably return, but for now GW2 has lots of shiny newness going for it.

  67. says

    Half-elven cleric of Calistria here (Pathfinder), table top gaming. Never played WoW, played plenty of Guild Wars. Typically a human rogue. I also play the same role in LotRo.

  68. Shplane, Spess Alium says

    Well, I used to say that I would vote for you if you ever ran for office, but I can’t any more. Not in good conscience. If your ability to choose good video games is that awful, I can only imagine what you would be like with fiscal policy.

  69. Gregory Greenwood says

    Big mistake on the part of the Republicans here. I imagine with pleasure the look of uncomprehending fear on the faces of the Old White Men’s Party when their next political rally is crashed by screaming masses of geeks yelling “Lok’tar Ogar! For the Horde!” at the top of their lungs…

    As for World of Warcraft, I played for a few weeks a couple of years ago, but I have never really been one for MMORPGs, and as much as I love Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack The Frozen Throne it just wasn’t enough to keep me playing WOW. Endless grinding and fetch quests just don’t appeal to someone like me who prefers to view computer games as another story telling medium.

    That said, I greatly enjoyed Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, and I am very much looking forward to Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.

    Now, if only Blizzard would announce Warcraft 4…

  70. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Haven’t logged into WoW in years. Only played for a year or so. Been chasing that MMORPG that will recreate the first time I logged into EQ1 beta. Vanguard, despite it’s issues, was the only thing that came close.

    Never going to happen I’m afraid.

    Don’t really play anything these days. Occasionally GW2 but that’s extremely rare.

  71. Anri says

    I play World of Tanks (protip: do not ever, ever, ever ask the playerbase any sort of question. Talk about toxic macho bullshit, with a lovely dose of reactionary nationalism thrown in. Any game that regularly has to ban substantial numbers of Clans for adopting Nazi names and iconography… but I digress).

    I also play City of Heroes. Not for much longer, though, sadly. Best playerbase in the known universe.
    Real shame.

  72. nms says

    Not that I would recommend playing GW2, but it’s not Windows only. The OS X beta client has been out for about two weeks.

  73. nms says

    do not ever, ever, ever ask the playerbase any sort of question. Talk about toxic macho bullshit, with a lovely dose of reactionary nationalism thrown in.

    It’s not every game developer that would think up this event for International Women’s Day, either.

  74. Ichthyic says

    ITS not it’s

    yeah, i do that all the time too.

    brain must rebel against the rule or something.

  75. Callinectes says

    I read a study some years ago that found that of those questioned, Alliance players are fairly evenly split between the political left and right, slightly in favour of the right; while Horde players are overwhelmingly left-leaning.

  76. gravityisjustatheory says

    ckitching
    5 October 2012 at 7:27 pm

    @Gregory in Seattle #622

    Odd: I go with the Alliance because the warrior culture of the Orcs and the atrocities committed by the Forsaken (see my comments above about Southshore and Gilneas) kind of put me off; those really seem more Tea Party activities.

    On the surface, the Alliance really do look like the good guys, and their representatives certainly try to convey that image, but there is a lot of sordid history under their banner, as well. If you look at a lot of the backstory, the humans in Warcraft are probably tied with the bloodlusted orcs for the most genocidal out of the bunch. The Horde may be violent, and savage, but at least they’re not sanctimonious.

    I’m not sure about that. Okay, I agree about the Alliance being a lot darker than they might appear at first, but (despite being a Hoardie myself back when I played) I think the Hoard itself is a lot nastier than it is presented.

    For example, there is the veneration of Gromash Hellscream (which seems to extend to the lore writers as well as their characters) who was substantially responsible for the original corruption of the Orcs and casually slaughtered humans in Kalimdor for fun and against orders, but is practically worshiped because he helped kill Mannoroth. IMO that’s like hero-worshipping Stalin because he (eventually) helped defeat Hitler.

    Likewise the veneration of Doomhammer. The Orcs under his leadership were every bit as genocidal as they were under Gul’dan, and – asper the WCII Horde ending – wouldhave pretty much exterminated everyone in the alliance had he won the Second War. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=idOV_Q3XAJo#t=32s

    And then there’s the behaviour of the Horde towards the Dranaii after returning to Outland – rather than trying to make ammends for the past atrocities of the Orcs they all go to war with them. And the Mag’har immediately side with them.

    Or consider the old Onyxia’s Lair attunment quest: Alliance seek the help of good dragons; Horde kill a load of good dragons to trick the bad guys into trusting them.

    I don’t mind playing the “evil” side in computer games, but I don’t like the way Blizzard seem to portray the Horde as being “okay really” when it is actually extremely brutal (and quasi-fascist in the case of the Orcs).

    Of course, being an MMO, all factions suffer from the “We have a problem – go kill x sentient being who are vastly weaker than you to solve it” questing.

  77. flek says

    I know I’m late to the party, but a year or two back when you mentioned you played WoW for some reason I figured you’d probably be a Shadow Priest. Or a TG Warrior who occasionally went SMF.

    Also, if that’s Lachowicz’s main which is named in the article she’s a very causal player. It’s quite a bit over the top to point to it at this point in time and say she lives any kind of double life. ….and besides, stabbing Death Knights and Paladins in the back is something that anyone, Republican and Democrat alike, can enjoy. Well, anyone but the Death Knights and Paladins getting stabbed.

  78. thegoodman says

    As a gnome mage, I have submitted to the wills of Undead Locks numerous times (don’t remind me of BC…please) and I am sure I will continue to do so for some time.