McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

August 19, 2008 -

The campaign of Republican presidential contender John McCain has taken an oddly-worded, RPG-themed shot at supporters of Barack Obama who questioned a story the former P.O.W. told during a weekend forum at high-profile pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church.

From the CNN account:

During a presidential forum at Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church on Saturday, McCain told a story of a guard who wordlessly drew a cross in the dirt one Christmas, describing it as a moment that gave him strength.

 

Critics in the blogosphere said that McCain, who was released in 1973, had not mentioned the incident until shortly before his 2000 presidential bid... They also pointed to similarities between McCain’s account and a similar story in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, his account of life in the Soviet labor camp system.

 

McCain aide Michael Goldfarb, in a message posted on the campaign’s Web site Monday [wrote] “It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others...”


Comments

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

I am livid right now.  How DARE you McCain.  Right now as we speak those who are both soldiers and gamers are dying in a utterly senseless and pointless war because they are bound by duty to do so.

http://www.militarydnd.com/

 

He likely isn't even aware.  But McCain has utterly insulted thousands of soldiers both living and dead.  I feel the need to write his campaign now.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Being a Libertairian Republican, I won't Vote for Mcain out of Principle. I think that the Term "you are who you assoicate with" best decribes Mcain. I Believe in Free enterprise and Capitalism, not the stupidity that this man represents.

RP for Prez.

BANE XXIII

Minneapolis, Mn

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

There are libertarian gamers who admit their political affiliation?  I figured you nuts kept a low profile.  Tell me, if you nut-jobs get into power, which will be the first to lose public funds - police, fire departments, public libraries or the post office?  Or will you just cut funding to all of them at the same time?

Libertarianism is frigging stupid.  Choose a real political philosophy for goodness sake.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Dude! Ignorance!

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

I agree 100%.

"I'm not responcabel fer my comuter's spleling errnors." -- Xlorep DarkHelm

"I'm stel not responcabel fer my comuter's spleling errnors." -- Xlorep DarkHelm

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

I'm in total agreement.  Every self-respecting republican should write-in Ron Paul this year.  Maybe he won't win, but it will be enough of a sign that we're sick and tired of having our party burglarized by greedy autocrats.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

It is a reflection of what kind of people he surrounds himself with, and those who will influence his decisions.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

McCain didn't even say that you stupid ****s, so why are you saying it means you won't vote for him or what have you?

 

 

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Possibly because a representative of his did?

That either means it's endorsed by him, or that he can't keep his own house in line. If that's the case before the election even takes place, what's going to happen if he gets in and the pressure is off?

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

And before anyone says it, Obama has the self-same problem.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Ur-Quan '08

"I'm not responcabel fer my comuter's spleling errnors." -- Xlorep DarkHelm

"I'm stel not responcabel fer my comuter's spleling errnors." -- Xlorep DarkHelm

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

http://overcompensating.com/posts/20080613.html

Personally, I think it'd be irresponsible (at least, for myself) to vote for someone as technologically ignorant as McCain is.  Like it or not, technology is a major part of everyday life, and we are at a point in time during which a lot of important legislation is going to be brought up regarding topics such as net neutrality, and having someone as out of date and out of touch as John McCain at the helm certainly isn't going to help matters.  He's ignorant of the issues, and stubborn enough to continue to try to apply his out-dated ideology to current events. 

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Suffering the rigors of war does not give a person the license to lie to an entire country in order to seize power. If John McCain wants my pity, he's earned it. But I don't want a president who got elected through pity.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Because drawing images in the Dirt is a good qualification for being President?

McCain is a brave man, who was willing to sacrifice for his country, but that doesn't qualify him to lead it. Indeed, I'd rather see a peacemaker than a warmaker in the Whitehouse at the moment, for the sake of the US and the rest of the world, we don't need more death, there are already too many other countries starting to take advantage of the fact the US has over-extended itself, and that needs to be stopped. It's not going to be done with bombs and bullets, it's going to be done with words.

That may not appeal to some people, some people like the world to be 'good guys', 'bad guys' and 'explosions', once upon a time we could afford to think like that, but now we have weapons that can depopulate an entire country, we cannot afford to think in those terms any more, it's just too dangerous to think that way.

That's my take on things, anyway.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

I feel somehow trapped between two evils.

McCain is definitely the lesser one though.  He just makes stupid comments and doesn't threaten to actually do stupid things.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

 Yes, spending 100 years occupying Iraq sounds like an excellent idea.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUE-QmH-n4Q 

 

(not a roll)

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Phew, I finally know where one of the candidates stands on D&D.  Now if only they'd divulge their positions on Palladium, D20, and the guys who made Paranoia.  (Do they trust The Computer?  Is The Computer their friend?  Inquiring minds want to know.)

---
The Mammon Industry

---
Fangamer

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Does that make RISUS the indy candidate's choice?  :P

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

No, the indy choice is Cobra Commander

 

COBRA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!!!

Sortableturnip's Law: As an online discussion of video game violence grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Jack Thompson approaches 1

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Ooops, their age is showing.

Yes, I am a dork.

OH NOES.  I SHOULD FEAR MCCAIN BECAUSE I'M A NERD.  What an idiot.

Guess me and my Lv 14 Paladin will go vote for someone else.  Also, the apology?  Wow.  Just... ...my mind boggles at the stupidity of it.

(make joke about newest D&D edition here)

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

This is interesting: McCain told the same "cross in the sand" story back in 2000 – but he told it in the third person...

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0002/28/se.01.html

Make of it what you will.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

 I don't think the problem is so much that it's a slight against D&D players, it's that the answer to a concern about honesty and facts is answered with an Ad Hominem attack. Answer your critics with facts, not personal attacks.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Honestly, this guy either needs his head examined, or to find something better to do than troll gamepolitics with incoherant babble. I'd say both would be best in this case.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Wow, your maturity is downright breath taking.  Your mother and father must be real proud of you.  Oh well, what can you expect from the anonymity of the Internet? 

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Oh, and to the JT wanna be, if a person is turned into whatever they are exposed to, we need to start imprisoning victims of violent crime and police officers.

 

-Entertainment isn't the reason the world sucks. It's the reason we know the world sucks. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard researchers Larry Kutner&Cheryl Olson

Reality/////////////////////////////////////Fantasy. Seems like a pretty thick line to me...

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Let alone this is my first 3 hours here and that guy is being a pain in the ass.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Whoops, I didn't notice the follower tag. 

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

The only living cancer today is video games,And in due respect, i dont believe our fellow republican or democratic men and women would not want to put in a filthy issue such as Dungeons and Dragons, This flithy game was responsible for the mass suicides of innocent young men and women who were taken in by false lies from a now dead creator who is happily rotting in hell for making an evil game.

*snip removed JT contact info*


Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Again, please fuck off, JTF. Dungeons & Dragons didn't cause people to kill themselves; it was when those that played it became social outcasts and felt like they had no way out. That's when a few (not "all", not "most", not even "some") players took their lives.

To tell you the truth, I wish I had tried to get in with the D&D crowd when I was younger. That way, I would've had more friends on both sides on the popularity spectrum (I always felt I fit in with the "other" guys and girls than the jocks).

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

No conviction, only Troll.

Ban pls.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama John Bruce Thompson"

The only living cancer today is John Bruce Thompson, and in due respect, I don't believe our fellow Republican or Democratic men and women would not want to put forth such a filthy issue such as John Bruce Thompson.  This sorry excuse of a massacre chaser whom is permanently plagued with narcissitics personality disorder, was responsible for the mass ignorance of innocent young men and women who were taken in by false lies from a John Bruce Thompson whose brain is happily rotting inside his skull for attempting to make such prevarications.

Please stop calling yourself Jack Thompson. You are not JT.

You blame Dungeons and Dragons for the suicides of some of the game's players? You also recognize that these kids were social outcasts who probably got bullied to no end, right? You don't think that could have been a factor? The main motive? And where the hell in the game (Dungeons and Dragons) does the player kill themself? Where the hell could they have gotten that idea? Hell, I'd blame history books before a board game, what with the depictions of torture scenes from the spanish inquisition and all that. Even that would be rediculous though. Again, just because a person knows how to do something does not mean they will. Martial arts training is a perfect example.

 

-Entertainment isn't the reason the world sucks. It's the reason we know the world sucks. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard researchers Larry Kutner&Cheryl Olson

Reality/////////////////////////////////////Fantasy. Seems like a pretty thick line to me...

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Someone needs an IP banning. Or are you saying that Jack Thompson's only follower is Jack Thompson? O_o

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Dude. SHUT. UP. You're just getting annoying now, and it's not becuase of what you're saying, and never mind that it's off-topic.

We know you're faking. Stop making such a scene.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

How can a game be responsible for suicides?  Does it pick up the blade?  Does it pull the trigger?  Does it tie the rope into a noose?  Nop.  Its a game.  No more and no less.  In the ethical sense, a game cannot be good or evil.  A game is a work of fiction and as a work of fiction it has no more truth or lies than a novel.  It's just a game.  How people use that game, interpret the game, and how they determine how much influence that game has on them is the fault of the person playing that game.  Not the game itself nor its creators and/or publishers.  Personal responsibility and accountability, Mr. Thompson.  Human beings are sentient beings and thusly they have a measure of control on what does and does not influence and motivates them.

 

Blaming a game for a killing makes as much sense to me as blaming the gun that fired the bullet.  They both require a person to use it.  Lets place the blame there.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

If people are accusing of McCain of lying abou this experiences then his people should be targeting those specific people and not plainting such a wide brush.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Do you know how many soldiers have stories a lot like this one from today's wars and previous wars. It doesn't mean he's lying. He just had a similar expirence. Like I almost died from cancer when I was younger. I have a story to tell now because of it. Does that mean if someone else had the exact same kind of cancer I did when they were younger and almost died from it and has a similar story to tell that means that one of us is lying? Just think about it.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

McCain didn't make the quote; one of his aides did.  Just remember that.

Still, it's an odd comment to make.  It doesn't really make any sense at all.  They really paint Obama supporters in all kinds of strange colors....

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

This is just offensive.  Since I was 18 I haven't lived in my parents home.  I either had my own apartment, my own dorm room when at college, or had a bunk while serving in the US Navy.  I have played Dungeons and Dragons since the days of the red box.  This is just another reason not to vote for McCain.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Mccain actually said something similar on NPR last week.

 

He said that anyone who can't see the humor in his paris hilton/obama ad needs to "get off the computer and get some fresh air"

 

This is just the latest in a pattern of statements, guys.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

Critical Miss. Critical Failure.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

 

/b/lackup is on the way...   

 

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

This is what is going to change your preferences? Seriously?! It's not the issues, it's not their connections, it's that one candidate said something mean about D&D players. That's absolutely retarded.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

 Comment doesn't matter, it's the fact that this just helps further establish the pattern that the Republican answer to any criticism is Ad Hominem attacks. "If you don't agree with us you're a terrorist. If you want to balance the budget you're a terrorist. If you support a women's right to choose you're pro-babymurder. If you support war for very little or no reason then you are anti-babymurder...."

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

It's not so much this ad itself, but the fact that after the solidification of the two front-runners, this is literally almost EVERYTHING that McCain is doing in his campaign: insulting Obama. That's it. He's NOT focussing on the issues, he's making false promises, and just plain acting dumb. How can we trust somebody to be our leader when they're being THIS immature?

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

If its one thing I hate the most its people who make brash generalizations without proof that they are accutally true.

What the guy said was idiotic, non sensical, and just plain confusing.  It seems like he was just trying to find a scapegoat to cover up the controversy with and whats better of scape goat than games? 

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

By that logic, black people would be "retarded" if they changed their vote because the McCain camp said something offensive about the group.

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

In case no one noticed it (didn't have the time to read all the previous posts), it's not the first time that Michael Godfarb mentions Dungeons & Dragons : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/02/politics/p09...

Re: McCain Campaign Slams "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd"

And this time, he apologized quite ironically :

"If my comments caused any harm or hurt to the hard working Americans who play Dungeons & Dragons, I apologize. This campaign is committed to increasing the strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores of every American.

--Michael Goldfarb"

(found here : http://ace.new.mu.nu/apology_from_mccains_campaign_blogger )

 

 

 
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TechnogeekIf the developer were male there wouldn't have been a "conversation" in the first place.10/19/2014 - 2:27am
Montetrolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm
MontePapa: Not the first time we've had a journalism scandals before, but the harassment never got close to this level; the difference with this scandal is that feminists are involved. Without the feminist angle, their would be A LOT less harrassment10/18/2014 - 9:15pm
Papa MidnightMonte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm
AvalongodI think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm
Avalongod@Monte, well the trolls made death threats that came to police (and media attention). I think this is tapping into a larger issue outside of games about how women are treated in society (like all the "real rape" stuff during the last election)10/18/2014 - 3:28pm
WonderkarpZippy : Havent tried the PS4 controller. might later.10/18/2014 - 2:37pm
MonteSeirously, If Quinn was not involved and GG was instead about something like the Mordor Marketing contracts, the trolling would have never grown so vile and disgusting. There have been plenty of movements in the past that never sufferred from behavior..10/18/2014 - 1:57pm
MonteWe have seen scandel's before but the trolling has never been as vile as what we see with GG. Trolls usually have such a tiny voice you can barely notice them, but its like moths to a flame whenever femistist are involved.10/18/2014 - 1:53pm
ZippyDSMleeWonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm
MaskedPixelantehttp://store.steampowered.com/app/327940/ Night Dive starts charging for freeware.10/18/2014 - 12:21pm
Matthew Wilsonthe sad thing is there are trolls on both sides of this. people need to stop acting like their side is so pure.10/18/2014 - 12:19pm
MechaTama31So, only speak out on a scandal that hasn't attracted trolls? I wouldn't hold my breath...10/18/2014 - 10:49am
MonteI feel like GG just needs to die. The movement is FAR to tainted by hatred and BS for it to be useful for any conversation. Let GG die, and then rally behind the NEXT gaming journalism scandal, and start the conversation fresh.10/18/2014 - 10:33am
quiknkoldand we dont have a Dovakin to call a cease fire10/17/2014 - 7:37pm
quiknkoldThe whole thing is Futile. Both sides are so buried deep in their trenchs that there isnt a conversation. Its just Finger Pointing, Name Calling, Doxxing, Threats. there needs to be a serious conversation, and GG isnt it.10/17/2014 - 7:37pm
quiknkoldI thought it was a good article. Jeff is right. I feel like GamerGate did destroy its message. I am for Ethics in game journalism, but man. so much hate. and its on both sides. I've seen some awful stuff spewed on twitter. Its a big reason why I exited..10/17/2014 - 7:34pm
Matthew Wilsonwhile he focused on gg, he did call out both sides crap.10/17/2014 - 7:18pm
Papa MidnightThat was a damn good read offered by Jeff Gertsmann.10/17/2014 - 7:17pm
Matthew Wilsonhttp://www.giantbomb.com/articles/letter-from-the-editor-10-17-2014/1100-5049/ deferentially a nice write up.10/17/2014 - 6:44pm
 

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