There are two kinds of creatures in this next story. One group revels in a lawless world where they’re free to slash and burn and loot everything in sight, consequences be damned. The other one plays an Orc in a harmless video game:
The Week— A REPUBLICAN campaign to expose a Democratic candidate’s penchant for playing the World of Warcraft has been described as “absurdly pathetic” by gaming fans.
Colleen Lachowicz, who is running for state senate in Maine, is a level 85 orc in the ‘massively multiplayer online game’, which is set in a fantasy world where characters learn skills, join guilds, fight one another and complete quests.
But as part of its election campaign against Lachowicz, the Maine Republican Party has accused the Democrat of living a “bizarre double life” and has set up a website to ‘out’ her participation in the game.
I would think sheer statistic would be enough to drive the point of this double-edged sword home, i.e., there are millions and millions of current and past WoW players in the US alone. But as logic and presumably mathematics are not a Tea Party strong suit, I’ll say it this way: fair warning, I happen to know to a 100% metaphysical certainty that democrats are not the only partisan players in Azeroth by a long, long shot. In fact there are entire families who play this game, from nana to mom, pop, little Mikey and sweet baby Jane Doe.
That’s just for WoW, there are many other video games, some of which would come off a lot bloodier and lot more violent to the laypublic than World of Warcraft, in large part because they are more violent. Do you conservo-creeps really want to make this an election issue?
Personally, finding out that she was a gamer made me want to vote for her more. Meh, I wish there was a candidate in Texas that played WoW…
This tactic might be quite effective with the sort of people who think that Harry Potter and yoga are demonic. Of course, those people wouldn’t have voted democrat anyway.
I hope it’s counterproductive with moderate republicans.
Routine, no surprise.
The Tea Party is going after the votes of those who live in demon haunted darkness. The christofascists.
Fundies live in world populated by immense numbers of scary things. Harry Potter books, Tarot cards, Yoga, Video games, rock music, Democrats, atheists, uppity women, nonwhites, Moslems, scientists, science, gays, and on and on.
Plus of course, the old standbys from the middle ages, demons and their other god, satan.
Of course this demon haunted darkness is self created and imaginary. If you don’t believe in demons, satan, Harry Potter, orcs, trolls, or video games, nothing happens to you.
Is yoga bad now?
Yoga has been satanic and demonic for a long time. Right up there with Harry Potter and Tolkein’s books.
Stephen, you really have to keep up with all the scary things out there in the darkness. There must be a list somewhere although I haven’t looked for it. It’s probably a very long list. I’m sure I’m on it anyway. I’m also sure they will add Freethoughtblogs in a few years when they become aware of it.
LOL, I had no idea yoga was now considered bad. Expect enrollment to skyrocket among high school students.
I rememeber some Catholic bishop saying that Harry Potter and yoga were satanic (or was it demonic)?
Everyone in my yoga class thought this was hysterically funny, and most of use were planning to read Harry Potter as soon as we got home.
There must be so little dirt on Lachowicz that the Republicans are reduced to exposing how she shares a hobby with millions of other Americans.
Where were you in the 70s? (Or likely 60s as well.) Not explicitly status quo-Christian = satanic (or whatever). For some weirdos, anyway.
Whatever, this is a response to another comment I had made elsewhere: Yes, for Republicans, living in a real fantasy world is honorable, playing games in a fictional fantasy world is for lower forms of life. [Or satanic.}
In the 1970’s Eastern religion was fashionable. I got involved with a particular Hindu sect called Ananda Marga, moved to Denver to work in the national office. Lost my faith in it after five years. Very depressed, I spent a year playing Dungeons and Dragons; I consoled myself with the thought “At least Dungeons and Dragons admits that it is fantasy; Ananda Marga never does, even in those times and places when it is blatantly obvious.”
Some varieties of Christian, and I’m sure some varieties of every religion, regard everything outside the church with fear and loathing. Competing fantasies are Enemies, their own fantasy’s Arch-Enemy in different disguises.
Well… It’s hardly a new tactic. Religious nutjobs tried the same thing with Dungeons & Dragons for a couple decades. When people don’t really know about something, any random nonsensical claim has a disturbingly high chance at gaining traction. Even something godawful stupid like “those books will teach your kids how to summon demons… for real!” or “playing a fantasy game is the same as plotting to murder everyone you know”.
If anything, I think this is an ugly sort of way for the Republican campaign to tell their own voters just how ridiculously stupid the campaign thinks they are. I would imagine it’s intended to grab votes from older people who have never even seen the game or anything remotely like it. I’m not sure that’s going to be as large a group as they think. I’ve known quite a number of people who play online games who were not children or young adults.
If I knew for sure the Republican yahoo was older I’d be tempted to suggest they stop trying to understand newer games and go back to playing PacMan: a game where they spend all of their time puzzling out the best way to consume as much as they personally can while running away from ghosts and occasionally powering up and stepping into a fantasy world where they can do anything and nothing can hurt them until their time is up and they get yanked back to reality. Or what passes for it on 8 bit graphics.
I thought some of her tweets were ill-advised for someone running for public office — totally innocent stuff if you’re not an idiot, but easily misinterpreted. Lucky for her, this managed to become a big story (it was even on BBC International’s home page!) and so now everybody is getting the background and the GOP hacks who came up with this campaign are looking really dumb.
Of course none of this would be an issue of she was a chess, scrabble, or even a Monopoly player or champion. Somehow computer based games are different and not as acceptable to the uninitiated.