ME Republicans blast opponent for WoW play

[Sidewinder]

MSNBC

Maine Republicans blast opponent for World of Warcraft play
By Jason McLure

updated 10/6/2012 1:05:37 PM ET2012-10-06T17:05:37

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A Maine Senate race has turned into a fight over trolls, dwarves and goblin-like creatures known as orcs.

In a mailing this week, state Republicans accused Democrat Colleen Lachowicz of living in a fantasy world and making "crude, vicious and violent comments" in online forums dedicated to World of Warcraft, a popular online game.

Lachowicz, who is challenging incumbent Senator Tom Martin, has responded by accusing Republicans of focusing on her hobbies rather than public policy issues.

"I think it's weird that I'm being targeted for playing online games," she said in a statement. "What's next? Will I be ostracized for playing Angry Birds or Words With Friends?"

A website produced by Republicans includes a link to Lachowicz's online character, Santiaga, who sports a purple Mohawk and is armed with a meteor shard. It notes that the game takes place in a "make believe land Azeroth" and that Lachowicz is "playing at level 85 — the highest level one can attain."

The mailing said she spends hundreds of hours involved in World of Warcraft, which features an array of characters such as trolls and orcs.

"We need a senator who lives in our world, not Colleen's world," the mailing said.

It also highlights comments Lachowicz made in online forums to other World of Warcraft players in 2009 and 2010, including: "I love poisoning and stabbing," "I can kill stuff without going to jail" and "I like to stab things and I'm originally from New Jersey, what's your (expletive) point?"

Ericka Dodge, a spokeswoman for Maine Democrats, said in an interview on Friday that Lachowicz, a social worker, had only spent about 30 minutes playing World of Warcraft since January as she was now spending her free time campaigning.

"Clearly before she started the campaign she spent a lot more time gaming," said Dodge. "She's also a knitter, but my guess is no one is going to attack her for that."

An estimated 211.5 million people, or about two-thirds of the population, play video games in the U.S., according to NPD Group.

David Sorensen, a spokesman for the Maine Republican Party, said the mailing and website weren't meant to antagonize gamers.

"As far as we're concerned, it's not a ‘World of Warcraft story,' it's a ‘candidate saying outrageous things through World of Warcraft story,'" he said on Friday.

(Editing by Paul Thomasch and Prudence Crowther)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

I think the accusers are being hypocritical. Anyone know a Republican politician who plays World of Warcraft regularly? How about Final Fantasy XI and XIV?

[AniThyng]

So, find a politician who plays Soviet/German tanks in World of Tanks and call him a closet nazi/commie!

[Grumman]

Taken in a vacuum, I'd see it as a good sign. Someone who plays online video games is less likely to be another Stephen Conroy.

[Zaune]

I think they've given up trying to win, and decided that since failing is now inevitable, they're going to make it an Epic Fail.

[General Zod]

So how many Republican politicians have a fantasy football league?

[weemadando]

From what I understand, the full story is not that she plays games, but comments about wanting to murder political opponents made in game chat that people have talked about. Something about drowning people in the bath-tub. Shit like that.

[Alyrium Denryle]

From what I understand, the full story is not that she plays games, but comments about wanting to murder political opponents made in game chat that people have talked about. Something about drowning people in the bath-tub. Shit like that.

So, the only difference between her and every other politician is that she is honest about it?

[weemadando]

No, the difference is that unlike previous generations of politician's casual conversations which lasted only as long as they were talking with their friends wherever, the new generations are all recorded for posterity somewhere, be it on Facebook, news article comments, e-mails or game chat log.

Someone somewhere has evidence of every dumb they've said.

[Vendetta]

From what I understand, the full story is not that she plays games, but comments about wanting to murder political opponents made in game chat that people have talked about. Something about drowning people in the bath-tub. Shit like that.

She made a crack about drowning Grover Norquist in his bathtub. (He originated the quote and plan to make government small enough to drown it in a bathtub).

In that context it is clearly not any form of personal threat, it's a figure of speech.

The rest of the comments that anyone has talked about have been "I like stabbing dudes", with some flailing attempts to associate her actions in a videogame to her personality, and simultaneously to present her as a shiftless and idle dreamer who prefers her fantasy world to reality.

[Losonti Tokash]

It's actually pretty interesting that this is starting to happen, since in 10-15 years we're going to get people running for office who've been on Facebook since high school and all the shit they said back then will get dragged back up.

[Mr Bean]

It's actually pretty interesting that this is starting to happen, since in 10-15 years we're going to get people running for office who've been on Facebook since high school and all the shit they said back then will get dragged back up.

This has already been theorized on several places, the most recent I heard was on The Young Turks show when they were doing another "person films themselves doing something stupid" story and Cenk brought up that theory. That in twenty years either we become France where no on gives a shit about your personal life, or we only elect the Amish because every teenager today is documenting all the stupid shit they did as kids because they are kids and don't know any better.

[CaptainChewbacca]

It's actually pretty interesting that this is starting to happen, since in 10-15 years we're going to get people running for office who've been on Facebook since high school and all the shit they said back then will get dragged back up.

My facebook account dates back eleven years to my freshman year of college. Thats why it is currently set to private and none of my students can friend me.

[Losonti Tokash]

It's still there and it's not difficult to find. Hell, if I was digging stuff up on a political opponent I could just pay one of the people on their list $500 to look at their profile. Anyway I'm gonna go with the end result being "no one cares anymore" but the transition people will be funny as hell, if nothing else.

[Rogue 9]

Relevant:

[SirNitram]

From what I understand, the full story is not that she plays games, but comments about wanting to murder political opponents made in game chat that people have talked about. Something about drowning people in the bath-tub. Shit like that.

I cannot wait until this new standard is widespread, so that those who constantly blurt out about killing Obama or democrats are never allowed to hear the end of it.

Oh wait, that will never happen.