Politics in the United States have sunk to an all time low. I thought I'd seen it all, but then I learned that a group of Republicans have started smear campaign against Colleen Lachowicz, the Democratic candidate for Maine State Senate, because she plays World of Warcraft.
So what's the big deal if Colleen plays? I mean, 10 million other people across the globe also enjoy Blizzard's MMORPG. The site, Colleensworld.com, insinuates, "In Colleen’s online fantasy world, she gets away with crude, vicious and violent comments like the ones below. Maine needs a State Senator that lives in the real world, not in Colleen’s fantasy world."
The site continues: "Today, Colleen/Santiaga is an orc assassination rogue playing at level 85–the highest level one can attain. She and the members of her “Wreck List Guild”—Colleen/Santiaga’s WoW online alliance—post comments to each other on liberal online forums including the Daily Kos, where they discuss politics, military policies, and WoW battle tactics."
The rest of the site is filled with snippets of quotes from Colleen on Daily KoS. Quotes like "I can kill stuff without going to jail." and "Yes, I am seriously slacking off at work today. And I called my congresswoman's office today. And told them I would probably be calling everyday." are specifically highlighted.
"These are some very bizarre and offensive comments, and they certainly raise questions about Lachowicz's maturity and her ability to make serious decisions for the people of Senate District 25," Maine Republican Party spokesman David Sorensen said in a press release.
The press release also mentions "studies have found that the average World of Warcraft gamer is 28 and spends 22.7 hours per week playing."
Lachowicz has issued a response to the attacks calling it "weird that I’m being targeted for playing online games."
"Apparently I’m in good company since there are 183 million other Americans who also enjoy online games. What’s next? Will I be ostracized for playing Angry Birds or Words with Friends? If so, guilty as charged!”
Lachowicz added, “What’s really weird is that the Republicans are going after my hobbies instead of talking about their record while they’ve been running Augusta for the last two years. Instead of talking about what they’re doing for Maine people, they’re making fun of me for playing video games. Did you know that more people over the age of 50 play video games than under the age of 18? As a gamer, I’m in good company with folks like Jodie Foster, Vin Diesel, Mike Myers, and Robin Williams. Maybe it’s the Republican Party that is out of touch.”
She then cited some statistic from the Entertainment Software Rating Board detailing how many Americans play games in the US:
- 65 percent of U.S. households
- 49 percent of 18 – 49 year olds
- 26 percent over the age of 50
- 25 percent under the age of 18
- 2 out of 5 people are female
- Average age of a gamer is 34
- $24.8 billion industry
As a gamer, you obviously know which side of the argument I stand. While some of the things Lachowicz has said can be viewed as inappropriate, anyone who plays games knows they were probably said in jest. Or at least I hope so. Either way, I think we all learned a valuable lesson today: if you ever plan on running for office, be careful what you say while playing MMOs. I think U.S. politics should adopt the Honor System that was recently implemented in League of Legends; then things would be so much more clean.
