February 17, 2007
While not the first political hopeful to make an appearance in the MMO Second Life, presidential candidate John Edwards is the first to get a virtual campaign office.Jerimee Richir, who goes by the SL handle Jose Rote, volunteered to purchase virtual land in Second Life, set up, and run the office as a grassroots effort. Rote has stayed in touch with Edwards' campaign team, and claims their full support:
It is unofficial in that the campaign is not spending money, and I am not paid, however the campaign is aware that we are organizing in Second Life, and cooperating as much as they can.
ZDnet's Steve O'Hear asked whether a campaign in SL would have as much impact as a campaign on a social site with a much larger population-base, such as MySpace or FaceBook.
Rote notes that while SL numbers are smaller, many SL'ers have their own blogs as well, so the campaign gets spread in many different directions. SL'ers facination with user generated content also contributes to the buzz, with Edwards' slogans popping up on all sorts of in-game objects such as clothing, posters, and mail boxes.
Redaktisto Noble, an editor at Second Life News Network, says that getting the word out is as imporant as actually wooing voters:
I think that with the campaign season starting so early, it's more important to win volunteers and supporters than votes at this point. An SL presence encourages that as well as any other initiative I can think of.
CM: While a virtual office is great for getting the word out, it's also a lot harder to provide security. Real campaign offices can be picketed, but there's no danger of being swarmed by hundreds of flying phalli...
-Reporting from Canada, GP Correspondent Colin "Jabrwock" McInnes
Comments
Not to mention her run-ins with the temporary Banhammer of SL when she abused a flaw in the tier system, when she kicked a whole ton of people out of their paid rentage-fields, and of course The Forest Guides thing...
Embarrasing, which is why I can understand the edit-wars at Wiki. Can't have the truth stick out in front of our egoes, now can we?! ;)
(That, and I can't say I like the other front-runners. Hillary seems like just another bland politician who doesn't care about anything except improving her own job, and Obama seems like an okay guy but I have yet to be convinced that he has the chops for the oval office.)
There should be enough to make a difference. I haven't checked the numbers as of late, but alot more play it than you are likely assuming.
@-Jes-
The person who says that loses my vote. They'll say it like they would about gamers, assuming the amount is small enough to not make a difference while not really knowing how small that culture is.
True, if the more homophobic politicians hear anything about there being furries in SL, they'd go ballistic on Edwards about it.
"Do you want me, Mr. Perfecty, or Edwards who cares about those vile, grotesque furries who live in virtual worlds?"
I happen to be a member of that community, and you're right. for SL, more damage can be done with research than a lack of it.
Curses! You beat me to it! Don't forget about that assualt on Front National's SL headquarters. Once anti-Edwards activists hear of this, I could see the same thing happening.
sad part is I can totally imagien it happening, but, I hope it doesn't.
Oops! Added the link to the story as well as a trackback. Thx for the gentle reminder!
:-)
GP