If you thought that World of Warcraft was apolitical, think again.

WoW Insider recalls the popular MMO's top political moments of 2008:

• The New Year's Day Ron Paul campaign rally (covered in person by GP)
• Gay & lesbian WoW guilds
• In-game issues of sexism and racism
• Obama gains presidential achievement
• WoW-themed parody of Iraqi tossing shoe at President Bush (covered on GP)

DasGamer has an entertaining feature on what they bill as the The Top 20 Video Game Moments In The 2008 Presidential Election.

Highlights include:

• the Ron Paul WoW march
• Barack Obama's XBL ads
• John McCain's Pork Invaders Facebook game
• the Sarah Palin All Your Base video
• a list of Game Biz contributions to candidates

Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two Interactive and John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, might not be able to get together on a merger, but they seem to agree on at least one thing: Barack Obama.

Both game biz execs have contributed to Obama's presidential campaign.

In fact, in research conducted by GamePolitics of publicly available records, A-list video game industry types seem to be leaning in the Democratic direction. Of 16 donors we found, only three had given to Republican candidates. Meanwhile, 13 had donated to Democrats (although only 9 of these gave to Obama).

While our survey can't in any way be considered scientific, we looked at several dozen other prominent industry figures, but did not find any presidential campaign contributions that met our guidelines. The ground rules in use dictated that we would only consider 2007-2008 presidential contributions. In some cases, however, donors gave substantial amounts to congressional races or non-candidate-specific political action committees. Those aren't listed here.

Among the biggest names we found were Rockstar's Sam Houser (Obama), Spore designer Will Wright (McCain) and Ultima designer (and space traveler) Richard Garriott (Hillary Clinton). Here's the list:

Republican contributors:

• Will Wright: (Spore, The Sims) $3,000 to McCain; previously donated $2,350 to Giuliani
• Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO) $2,300 to McCain; previously donated $2,100 to Romney
• Curt Schilling (38 Studios) $2,300 to McCain.

Democratic contributors:

• Strauss Zelnick (Chairman, Take-Two) $2,000 to Obama; had previously donated to $2,500 to Edwards, $1,000 each to Biden & Richardson
• Ben Feder (CEO, Take-Two) contributed $1,000 to Biden in 2007
• Sam Houser (Rockstar) $4,600 to Obama
• Patricia Vance (president, ESRB) $2,000 to Obama
• John Riccitiello (CEO, EA) $4,600 to Obama
• John Smedley (Sony Online Entertainment) $2,300 to Obama
• Richard Garriott aka "Lord British" (Ultima series, NC Soft) $2,300 to Hillary Clinton
• Alex Rigopulos (CEO, Harmonix) $32,900 to Obama
• Kathy Vrabeck (president, EA Casual) $2,300 to Obama
• George Lucas (LucasFilm) $33,100 to Obama
• Doug Lowenstein (former ESA head) $2,300 to Hillary Clinton
• Kenneth Doroshow (new ESA general counsel) $2,500 to Obama
• Gabe Newell (pres., Valve) $2,300 to Dodd

GP: We will update the list as additional donors are located.

UPDATE: Adding links for each donor. Just click on the name for details. Also, removed a couple of mistaken entries on the Democratic side. Specifically, we had initially listed a John Carmack, but further review indicated that it was not the game desgner.

As the crucial Pennsylvania primary draws near, competition between Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is heating up in real life as well as Second Life's virtual world.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, SL's Obama and Clinton supporters have been griefing one another of late:

The trouble began in March 2007, when Obama supporters held a rally... [other avatars] raided the virtual Obama headquarters. They littered it with T-shirts, posters and signs sporting anti-Obama messages or expressing support for Sen. Clinton and Republican contender Rep. Ron Paul...

During a November rally at the unofficial virtual Clinton beachfront headquarters, supposed Obama supporters hid under a dock and then emerged with signs, shouting via connected headsets and shooting at people... it's unclear if the disruptors were actually from the Obama camp...

Last month, virtual gunmen disrupted a planned Obama march, shooting and pushing people around. That knocked some marchers offline... The Obama group responded by teleporting... to the CNN hub... to hold their rally. But soon images of a Clinton campaign poster and a clip of Sen. Obama next to a photo of Osama bin Laden were flying all over the screen...

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.

Although Ron Paul's presidential hopes are rapidly fading, ConnieTalk reports that a group of "grassroots artists" have released an impressive, minute-long, video game-like commercial for the upstart Republican:
 

The spot--which looks like any scene from a high-quality, modern video game--utilizes portions of Ron Paul's past speeches, combined with high end computer animation and moving graphics to create scenes where a 3-D Ron Paul emerges from water, is surrounded by doves, is standing amongst money flying up into the air, and even appearing next to the founding fathers of the Constitution...

 

The project... took 3 months to create the 60-second feature, which Chris Rye's American Liberty Coalition PAC hopes to air in Pennsylvania leading up to PA's April 22nd primary.

 

As GamePolitics has noted, Yahoo! Games issued a summary this week detailing its view of where the top three candidates from both parties stand on video game issues.

Left out of the Republican mix was Ron Paul. Yahoo! instead rated John McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, who are, in fairness, the leading vote-getters at this point in the primary cycle.

The exclusion of Internet favorite Paul left a bad taste in the mouth of at least one Libertarian blogger. In a piece for Nolan Chart, "Big Louie" writes:

In a strange move to... Yahoo Feature article writer Ben Silverman doesn't mention the one candidate who believes in freedom, especially for the digital world (Internet, video games, TV, etc).

 

What could have they have been thinking? Congressman Paul is the ONLY candidate we can depend on to NOT regulate the Internet and guarantee our First Amendment Rights.

He may not win today's Iowa Caucuses, but Republican candidate Ron Paul is the clear favorite among World of Warcraft players.

Joystiq's Kyle Orland reports that 48 WoW realms (servers) have an avatar named Ronpaul. Running in second place are 36 characters named Barackobama. No other candidate's full name has more than 9 WoW imitators.

Orland notes, however, that the name "Clinton" is apparently restricted by WoW's character creation application. Those who would emulate Dems Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich are hampered by WoW's 12-letter character naming limit.

Is there any value in this information? Hard to say, but Orland points out:

While tracking WoW's presidential naming race is fun and all, it probably has very little actual value in predicting nationwide voting preferences. After all, there are 71 characters named Trogdor, and no one really expects him to burninate across the 2008 elections.

GamePolitics was on hand last night for a unique combination of MMORPG and grassroots presidential politics, the Ron Paul march within World of Warcraft.

I arrived at the Alliance city of Ironforge at about 8:10 PM Eastern time, 20 minutes ahead of scheduled jump-off. I was using an avatar named Gamepolitics (what else?), a gnome mage that I created just for this event. I play WoW, but not on the Whisperwind server where the march was being held.

Upon arrival I wandered around IF near the auction house and bank, but didn't see any sign of the Ron Paul crowd. A character named Xionn recognized the GP name and we exchanged greetings.

Still in search of the march, I wandered out the front gates of IF and found a couple of avatars sporting "RP Revolution" guild tags. This must be the place! The bulk of the marchers were assembling on the hilly road leading up to IF. I estimated 200+ characters in line. Many bore names that related to Ron Paul in some way. The organizers seemed to be at the head of the line and were trying to get everyone into single file.

I didn't join the march line for a couple of reasons. First, I've not yet made up my mind about who I'm voting for. Also, I was there to cover the event, not participate in it. So I stood off to the side and followed along as the march jumped off about five minutes behind schedule. That's not bad when dealing with so many event participants.

I took some screenshots as the march proceeded up the hill into IF and paraded around the interior of the city a bit. Next, everyone lined up to board the underground tram to Stormwind. While on the tram to SW I asked a character named Allfree why she (or he) is for Ron Paul. Answer: "I'm a longtime Libertarian and against the war in Iraq."

There was a lengthy queue to get through the tram portal into Stormwind (see pic at left). Once into the city, I followed the march for a bit longer, but then had to bail before they headed for Westfall, their next destination. At that point I felt like I'd gotten the flavor of the event and seen what I needed to see.

Based on what I observed, the march participants were well behaved. I noticed that some members of the RP Revolution guild wore a tabard with a scroll design on it which I believe was intended to represent the U.S. Constitution.

Many non-marchers were not so thrilled about the event, feeling that it detracted from their enjoyment of the game. Many seemed surprised that it was taking place, despite the advance publicity. Complaints were voiced that the march was causing lag. Indeed, the Whisperwind server did seem a bit laggy. There were some calls to ban further political activities on WoW. Some anti-Ron Paul griefers spammed rude messages. A character /spit on a paladin marcher named Ronpaulidan. Someone else threw a snowball at the marchers. None of this was too surprising and it didn't really detract from the march.

While some may have found the Ron Paul event silly, inconsequential or simply annoying, my take is that it was a most unique way to harness the social and political potential of the game space. Such activities have primarily been confined to Second Life up until this point, so it's good to see gamers pushing the envelope in other gaming venues.

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.

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul's rampant Internet popularity is about to take an amusing new shape.

WoW Insider reports that a World of Warcraft guild will march from the Alliance cities of Ironforge to Stormwind (GP: that's a helluva long walk!) on New Year's Day in support of Paul's candidacy. From the WoW Insider story:
 

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's internet regiment has come to World of Warcraft - a group of his supporters are planning to form a guild on Whisperwind and do a march from IF to Stormwind (which means they'll probably be Gnomes or Dwarves, which is too bad, because I liked the idea of "Trolls for Ron Paul") on New Year's Day at 8:30pm EST.

The Ironforge to Stormwind route was probably selected because those cities are close to starter locations. That gives Ron Paul supporters who may not have a character on the Whisperwind server the opportunity to quickly create one and jump right into the march without the need to spend time leveling up.

The question now becomes: will Horde players mount a raid in an attempt to disrupt the march?

GP: Actually, no. I just took a quick look and found that Whisperwind is not a PvP server.