Paul hordes to descend on World of Warcraft
12/28/2007 @ 3:56 pm
Filed by Jason Rhyne
rawstory.com
Avatars for Paul
Presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), whose legion of online supporters have besieged internet polls, lofted a blimp and helped their man notch a record-setting $6 million in donations in a single day, has rallied another group of die-hard backers to his ranks:
Gnomes. And dwarves. And possibly even night elves -- because the world of political activism has hit the World of Warcraft.
On New Years Day, Paul-backing devotees of the online multiplayer game are planning a march through WoW's sprawling virtual universe to show support their candidate. Participants will be represented by one of an array of mythical avatars that populate the fantasy-themed game, in which players take on adventures and duel against rival characters.
WoW Insider, who first reported the story, says political activism should have a home in the game.
"Now, we here at WoW Insider are politically neutral when it comes to Warcraft, so we won't advocate joining these guys (and we also won't advocate forming a 'Horde for Hillary'guild to oppose them)," writes the blog's Mike Schramm. "But we are 100% in support of bringing widescale opinion expression of any kind into the game itself, so this should definitely be a fun event."
Veterans and newcomers alike are welcome, but the journey could be an arduous one for greener players, according to the video game blog Kotaku.
"Depending on the route they take," reads a post at the bog, "this could be an extremely short march (Ironforge to train tunnel to Stormwind) or an extremely long and humorous one as dozens of Ron Paul supporters sporting newbie Gnome and Dwarf characters die in droves trying to cross the Burning Steppes."
Burning Steppes or not, the march could be well attended. A search reveals that a total of 42 gamers have named their character "Ronpaul," and a score of others have presumably co-opted other references to the congressman.
Although fighting is a big part of WoW action, would-be political rivals -- and Paul-weary gamers in general -- shouldn't bother sharpening their broadswords to confront marchers. The event will take place on a server that forbids player vs. player combat.
More information about the march is available at RonPaulForums.com |
