January 1, 2008 -
A pair of California political analysts have dismissed tonight's Ron Paul World of Warcraft march as inconsequential.
As reported by the Orange County Register, Republican political pollster Adam Probolsky remarked:
I commend [the WoW marchers] for their activism, but I think it has no net effect on voters.
When it comes to direct voter contact, the Internet really hasn't developed itself yet.
Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at the University of Southern California, added:
I think the main reason for the rally is to have the media focus on it, and then have some voters in the United States talking about Ron Paul.
GP: Both Probolsky and Jeffe admit that they've never heard of World of Warcraft (hard to believe), which - in our mind - taints their opinion of its possible effect just a bit.
In any case, GamePolitics will be covering the Ron Paul march tonight.
If you plan to attend:
Meet in Ironforge, form a single file line and march around the city. The group will then take the tram from IronForge to StormWind where supporters will congregate at the fountain in front of the bank.
Then, players will go to Westfall and swim to Booty Bay to take a boat to Rachet. Finally, once in the Barrens, the group will head to the Crossroads, surround the area and dance.
More details on the march organizers' website...
Comments
YET.
In theory these two reporters are chowderheads, but in practice, the flat truth is they are right.
It should be amusing (irony) to see how many players show to support a politician. I have a feeling most gamers are like myself in thinking that politicians want to either take away, control, or tax to death our pastime. I do not trust respect or trust them, but this is my failing I suppose.
No.. That's what proves you have some shred of sanity.
I wonder how the political analysts will react to the griefers that might show up.
@kurisu
whisperwind
^ My point exactly about griefing.
Good,Iwon't have to witness this then. I'm on Farstrider.
Fuck the alliance, FOR THE HORDE.
I bet it's an independent thing.
This "rally/march" means nothing. Except people being too lazy to do real campaigning.
Note, I'm not a Paul supporter (although he does make me curious). I'm just annoyed at all these Republicans trying to deny his obvious influence.
And yeah, if you don't know anything about the Internet, it's hard to authoritatively say that something happening on the Internet will or won't be influential. As it is, a march on a WoW server doesn't seem like a typical way to gain influence, although some average WoW'ers might do a google on Paul.
Perhaps because it doesn't work on me.
This whole WoW thing is going to be an exercise in futility, though, because, by and large, the WoW demographic isn't going to make a strong showing at the polls and the attention generated is going to fall into the "news of the weird" section of most reports. Ron Paul supporters tend not to realize that much of what they do falls into that category.
First of all, here here, in the name of the dark lady, and all that.
Second of all, i checked out the site linked in the article above, and theres mention of a Ron Paul Horde activity, although it doesnt have a link in it. This may be just a speculative mention there, or a prelude to future events, but dont vote for someone else just because he starts with the alliance.
P.S.
Usually the idea is to spread information or interest, targeting those who haven't yet made up their mind on an issue. Activist organizations frequently attract the people they want to influence even without much effort--kind of like political blogs (which totally have no influence on the nation's politics or political discourse at all--thanks for the info, Probby).
The WoW march, though? By and large a lolzfest. Ron Paul is meme and all.
I'm sad this isn't on a PvP server. A friend and I speculated putting bounties on the heads of marchers. We'd like to see this "Free Market" thing in play.
And franckly, Ron Paul is quite a nutjob too.
I messed up there, I should have said "living in a primary state that matters".
If it was a candidate in shouting distance this would have lot more coverage and might be a bigger story.
Netroots activism for presidential politics has not been able to make enough of an impact to effect the elections. Dean in 2004 had his momentum, but it wasn't enough. Ron Paul really has no momentum but has convinced people to donate a lot money. Thats it. He has absolutely no chance to win.
While he has more support and money than Kucinich, their campaigns are essentially the same. While the individual may not be popular enough to win, the message they stand for is bigger than their campaigns.
The last is why he's not viable. A 4% voter share means you probably don't have a chance :).
Every vote counts. I guess these tools think that campaigns are only won through a single event.
While it is relatively a minor event, it is an event nonetheless. Votes aren't won by flashy debates. They are won by those who are willing to press the flesh, that is go out and spread the word, one person at a time.
That said I don't think Ron will win it, but nevertheless, his supporters are certainly putting more effort into his campaign than his opponents, and I think that says something...
char name and level plz.
Kurisu and I'm a level 32 human paladin. We jsut got a time card today, however due to an unforseen error we can't log in yet.
Welcome to reality. The mainstream media isn't looking to use their influence to represent truth. They have their own agendas.
Polls are also bullshit, all polls by everybody.
Scientific polls represent the manipulated opinion of a randomly selected audience of individuals that have land line telephones and stay on the phone long enough to participate in a survey.
Math can not justify the fact that people will give you different opinions based on how you present information to them. Math can not justify the fact that not everyone has land line phones and Math can not justify emergent behaviors of survey participants(Someone could answer the phone and press the wrong button or just press a random button.) Polls are practically useless at best.
Guess they don't like him telling people to drink the Kool-Aid. ^^
yes. no one plays WoW anymore, that's why there was a 400 person queue for the server.
Though the WoW population must be the perfect target. They'd never actually READ what Ron Paul stands for or what the fuck any of it means.
it was HUGE and I BSOD'd 3 times haha