Posted on 10/05/2012 7:10:58 PM PDT by presidio9
Colleen Lachowicz is a Democratic candidate running for State Senate in Maine. She's also a level 85 orc in the massively popular online game "World of Warcraft." And for that, the Republican party says she is unfit for office.
Maine's GOP has accused Lachowicz of living a "bizarre double life" and set up a website meant to out her participation in the popular online game -- a game that currently boasts some 10 million players around the world.
Not only does the website show off a picture of the orc character she plays -- named Santiaga -- it also displays comments that have been dug up from online forums in which Lachowicz talks about her love of the (sometimes violent) game as well as her thoughts on various political topics.
Among the comments the website attributes to her:
"So I'm a level 68 orc rogue girl. I stab things . . . a lot. Who would have thought that a peace-lovin', social worker and democrat would enjoy that?!"
"I can kill stuff without going to jail. There are some days when this is more necessary than others."
"I'm so jealous! I wish I wasn't at work. I'd much rather be gaming with my guildies!"
Lachowicz also appears to refer to members of the Tea Party as, well, teabaggers.
"In Colleen’s online fantasy world, she gets away with crude, vicious and violent comments like the ones below," reads the website. "Maine needs a State Senator that lives in the real world, not in Colleen’s fantasy world."
Meanwhile, Maine's Republican Party has also sent out a press release titled: "Democratic Senate Candidate Colleen Lachowicz's Disturbing Alter-Ego Revealed" which accuses her of living a "time-consuming double life." The party has also sent out post cards that,
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Yeah, I just got my main to level 90 last night. They did a good job with the latest expansion.
Interestingly, if what I’ve read elsewhere is true, she’s part of a guild originally formed for diarists and readers at Daily Kos; the guild only accepts people willing to agree to a progressive statement of principles.
The playerbase generally skews pretty liberal but that’s more due to the age of the average player (mid-late 20s) than anything else.
(And to the guy who mentioned Horde a few posts down...my main is Horde, a Tauren. The few conservatives I know in my circle of WoW-playing friends almost all play Horde. Not sure why that is. But we don’t play on a PvP server, and those tend to be Horde-heavy.)
}:-)4
Correct. Hobbies are hobbies. Restoring a 64 Impala means you like 64 Impalas. Reaching a high level in a game may be equally satisfying.
Full disclosure: my youngest daughter works for Blizzard Entertainment, but does not play any of the games they produce. Yet she is told that her deparment would not function as well without her.
The orc character is much better looking, and is probably smarter, too. No wonder she likes to escape into her WoW fantasy world.
As long as she wasn’t caught getting freaky with a couple of gnomes in Goldshire, it’s alllll good.
}:-)4
Looks more like a dwarf or a Hobbit than an Orc.
What’s irritating about this is that the actions of a couple morons in some irrelevant backwater can go viral nationally and make the party as a whole look bad.
Will it decide the election? No. But this story will spread like wildfire on every MMOLG bulletin board in the country and probably sway several hundred undecideds, at least.
I am starting to regret having started this thread. Reading some of the responses here is a bit like seeing sausage being made.
For the exact same reasons.
I seem to recall two fellows who spent a lot of time not just playing a game in a fantasy setting - but writing stories with these same sorts of creatures. Imagining them out of whole cloth.
Fellows by the names of John Ronald Roul Tolkein, and Clive Staples Lewis.
Fairly conservative and Christian fellows, though not evidently up to the moral, ethical, and religious standards of posters on this thread.
It’s never a plus when elite country club GOP snobs want to try and prove the stereotype that Republicans are uncool, square, old, boring, judgmental and culturally out-of-touch. Someone tell these idiots to represent conservatism and not to represent their own groundless biases against certain forms of harmless entertainment.
I know you like to think Tolkein & Lewis would be playing RPG if they were alive today, but I very much doubt it. Neither would have had the time or the inclination.
I think the more important question is...
...why isn’t she level 90 yet? MoP’s been out for weeks.
That was a completely incomprehensible, but I love you anyway. Would you like to run for elective office?
This is terrible. If I were in Maine, I’d be tempted to vote for her out of principle. Really reprehensible.
Of course, it FIGURES that a Dem is Horde, not Alliance. . .
Last night in an AV that we won in a landslide I /bg that was like Obama in the debates...CRUSHED
A bunch of people started whining about it lol
Oh gosh no. I’m sure the Rats would dig up some skeleton in my closet about puking in my roommate’s typewriter in college (it was 1986, people still had typewriters back then) or that I’m a racist because I didn’t let a black woman cut in front of me at an intersection or something. Or the fact that I play computer games like World of Warcraft the way that others watch TV, as a diversion.
Suffice to say that there are many other reasons that this woman would be bad for the great state of Maine...the fact that in her spare time she plays a game where she pretends to be a green-skinned orc woman who likes to stab people in the back isn’t one of them.
}:-)4
There are more people over 50 who play WoW then there are people under 18.
Not sure the breakdown to age 24.
No, but they were instrumental in creating the type of imaginative worlds that these games are based in.
I wouldn't rule out that that "old religious wackos" may be more descriptive than "elite country club snobs" in this case.
This seems closer to the "Dungeons & Dragons is SATANISM!!!!! OMG!" stuff from the 1980s.
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