Does World of Warcraft Have Election Year Fever?

Does World of Warcraft Have Election Year Fever?

April 2, 2008
Although the only notice we've taken of World of Warcraft in relation to the U.S. presidential election was an unoffical rally for Republican Ron Paul (left) in January, USA Today reports that WoW is a hotbed of presidential politics - especially on the Democratic side:
The primary race between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is so competitive, it has even barged into the online universe of the World of Warcraft game. Millions of players are supposed to be fighting dragons, raiding enemies and performing magical quests — not discussing superdelegates.

USA Today quotes 36-year-old WoW devotee Sean Goldman:
Here we are, logging into a virtual world to escape the grip of the real world for a few hours, but this election has brought the real world closer to the virtual world...

Hillary and Obama have created quite the buzz with the race, and it's created a buzz everywhere. I'd say 99% of the people talking about this (in the game) are the types who would usually stay away from talking politics because it wasn't cool. But now it's definitely roused a lot of people in World of Warcraft.
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Comments

Submitted by Mulk - April 2, 2008 at 2:31 pm -0500
Guess guild politics isn't enough for some people.
Submitted by ZippyDSMlee - April 2, 2008 at 10:47 am -0500
it should say fight the alliance since..well.... the horde is the population the alliance is gov/politicians...
Submitted by Zerodash - April 2, 2008 at 10:47 am -0500
All I can say is Thrall wouldn't be where he is now if he was born a Troll instead of an Orc.

:)
Submitted by DCOW - April 2, 2008 at 10:57 am -0500
@zerodash

wouldn't that make him zul'jin?
Submitted by Altair - April 2, 2008 at 11:04 am -0500
Next thing you know theres gonna be NPC's in the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion bearing the likeness of all the candidates who ran this time arround! xD
Submitted by mogbert - April 2, 2008 at 11:06 am -0500
I didn't get deep enough into the WoW story line to be able to make a political joke about it.


Druids rock. That is all.
Submitted by ApokalypseNow - April 2, 2008 at 11:09 am -0500
From the picture with the article:
"Grab your sword and fight the Horde"
For porn, porn porn!
Submitted by jadedcritic - April 2, 2008 at 11:14 am -0500
Remind me how people who wouldn't ordinarily discuss politics, discussing politics, is a BAD THING. WoW especially, is notorious for a poor quality player base. Because of its sheer size it attracts just about every repulsive and immature human being far as the eye can see.

Yes, I know that people play games as an escape, but as I see it, the loss of that (at least temporarily) is a small price to pay for anything to raises the level of discourse on WoW.
Submitted by attackgypsy - April 2, 2008 at 11:14 am -0500
Hrm... on my server (The Venture Co - Horde) I nearly never see any of this.

It's all Murlock and Chuck Norris jokes.
Submitted by Loudspeaker - April 2, 2008 at 11:24 am -0500
LOL yeah it's the same on the Muradin server...

I'm wondering which servers the political geeks are populating?
Submitted by Azhrarn, Death-of-Faxmachines - April 2, 2008 at 11:32 am -0500
Glad europe doesn't have this "issue", many countries playing together means that you will rarely if ever find a suitable person to discuss politics concerning your home country with. (atleast, among those who don't band together in nation based guilds)
Submitted by Ebonheart - April 2, 2008 at 12:32 pm -0500
Yeah there may be a "great big ole' buzz" on WoW. But lets be honest lets for arguement sake 1000 people are going to do another march. But lets be honest in recent years more and more people aren't voting so maybe of those 1000 people 200 might vote.

BEsides didn't EQ2 prove just how lazy people are when they made the ability to ORDER PIZZA THROUGH THE GAME, instead of just picking up the phone and calling in the order.
Submitted by deejus - April 2, 2008 at 1:42 pm -0500
I haven't seen 1 person even mention the election in game. The most political people tend to get is the old, aussies are better than Ner Zealanders and vice versa. Only to have the argument end by both agreeing that at least they are not Americans.
Submitted by Ebonheart - April 2, 2008 at 1:49 pm -0500
@ Deejus

Hmm, for us American's just go "Eh, at least your not French"
Submitted by Overcast - April 2, 2008 at 2:14 pm -0500
Yeah, I agree with others - I rarely see much brought up about politics in WoW. Usually it's met with a 'STFU' - many times, I could possibly be the one typing it.

Politics are a sickening display of a person's ability to lie, really - it's the last thing I want pervading an otherwise decent world :O

lol
Submitted by Gurei - April 2, 2008 at 2:53 pm -0500
thats actualy one of the things i liked a lot about wow,the social aspect meeting others,killing some mobs and talking about real stuff,looting the blues and making our points.

I say liked,because as many others,i quited it...couldnt stand the constant changes and updates in BC.
Submitted by Ebonheart - April 2, 2008 at 3:16 pm -0500
@ Gurei

Those updates are because no one likes glitches.

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:01am
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:53am
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:46am
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:31am
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:07am
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:06am
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Posted 11/08/09 at 12:24am
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
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