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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Too much politics in your WoW?
by Robin Torres 
Nov 4th 2008 at 8:00AM
I am on record in preferring no outside world topics in my MMO chat and that particularly applies to politics, but what with a major real world political event happening today, politics have been a hot topic in Azeroth. Cinnabunz writes in that he's tired of politics taking over Trade Chat and I can totally empathize with him, even though the Trade Chat in my server has mostly been filled up with "I put my [insert link here] in your mom's [insert link here]" for the past couple of weeks.
Last week, I got an invite from a complete stranger to a guild of Ron Paul supporters. Regardless of my opinions as to who should be running the country, I don't want to deal with it in my favorite form of escape. But I know that many of you consider WoW part of your social circle and look forward to chatting about real world topics with your guildies and server-mates.
So does political chat belong in Trade Chat? Does it ruin the immersion too much for you or do you feel that something this important should invade even the virtual world? How long do you think it will last after today?
Last week, I got an invite from a complete stranger to a guild of Ron Paul supporters. Regardless of my opinions as to who should be running the country, I don't want to deal with it in my favorite form of escape. But I know that many of you consider WoW part of your social circle and look forward to chatting about real world topics with your guildies and server-mates.
So does political chat belong in Trade Chat? Does it ruin the immersion too much for you or do you feel that something this important should invade even the virtual world? How long do you think it will last after today?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
Jeff Nov 4th 2008 9:25AM
I wish they would just create a new channel called discussion or something that would be linked to all major cities and/or linked to all zones. This way people might use it for the Real World stuff and the stupid Chuck Norris talk/Murloc kind of things. I know people will still try to use trade chat because many people would simply turn off this new channel because they don't want to hear the teenagers spew their crap, but if there is a viable alternative to using trade chat, maybe GM's could ban the annoying spammers from the trade channel.
I listen to the trade channel for trade and I hate to turn it off and miss a good deal or pattern i'm looking for. Trade channel really should be used for Trade (shocking I know) I really would like the general discussion and/or harrasement to be forcefully moved to a new channel. Some people enjoy that and they can talk all they want in that channel.
DurWrathi Nov 4th 2008 11:49AM
I love a good debate. Politics is my hobby as much as WoW is and I have no problem with mixing the two. That said, I can sympathize with people who don't like politics and don't want in their wow. Perhaps there is some way to compromise?
Add a City-linked General Chat (like trade chat), for people to discuss whatever they want.
Leave trade-chat for trade and business, keep off-topic content out.
Ignore or leave any channel discussion you don't like, but don't try to stifle a discussion just because it makes you uncomfortable.
Politics is disruptive in a a free and open society, as it should be. Some people enjoy that conflict, others do not, but regardless of one's personal preferences it is an essential part of American political culture, just like compromise is. Surely there is a middle-of-the-road solution we can agree on.
Madiera Nov 4th 2008 9:56AM
They do have a general chat... no one uses it. Folks use trade chat because everyone is one it and they want attention.
What I find amusing is folks from countries other than US telling who they want us to vote for. If they want a vote, either come here legally or vote in your own country. (Yes, I am also talking to the posters on this thread.)
No, I would prefer not to see politics discussed either in trade or here in blogs. Put your opinion to work and vote. If you can't or don't vote - you have no right to complain.
Phil Nov 4th 2008 10:00AM
If the political talk were ACTUAL political talk, it might be understandable.
But it's always the same '(insert candidate here) + generic trade chat joke' bullshit I see all the time.
Bonechewer's Alliance trade chat typically has a full our or two of idiocy a day... although it's not heavy as other servers. I'd say the political crap has been dwindling somewhat.
However, the other day there was some idiot who made a death threat on Palin and attatched, "loljk" at the end like that was all cool.
Myself and about 2 or 3 other people in the trade chat pretty much just flat out said, "you know, it's fine that you hate them enough you want them to die, but when you actually make death threats, you're no longer funny".
After all, if the secret service will bust someone for merely hacking government email accounts and spreading the stuff online, I believe if they thought it was threatening enough, no matter how many times you say 'loljk', it won't delay the forthcoming knock at the door from the FBI or whatever police force they send on your ass. :P
ninjaflakes Nov 4th 2008 11:17AM
no one in my realm clutters up trade with political spam. everyone is trying to escape reality. every now and then (still very rare) there's someone getting upseat about another person who's dissing them or got booted from a guild about being homosexual.
Shandris relm is a hippie realm.
Evi Nov 4th 2008 10:13AM
There's too much politics in my WoW, on my television, my radio, my intarwebz... OMG I'm going to be so glad when this is over. Longest political campaign EVER! At least that's how it feels.
P.S. Yes, I'll be voting today. I'll still do my duty. I'm just tired of hearing about it.
Naix Nov 4th 2008 10:37AM
Your Duty?!? hahaha You can not be serious? Sure if you lived in a swing state your vote would count. But if your rockin it out in a state like Texas. Guess what? You are a republican.
Your duty....That makes me laugh.
Tuhljin Nov 4th 2008 11:17AM
Your duty is not to vote. Your duty is to get very informed about the candidates and issues and IF you are successful enough in doing so, to vote. If more people would follow that instead of just voting, maybe we'd get better politicians on both sides of the aisle.
DonJuanito Nov 4th 2008 11:46AM
@Naix - that's right, one's duty. Refreshing to see someone gets it in the land of the free and the home of optional voting (then complaining about the people that are elected).
Omestes Nov 4th 2008 1:14PM
@Naix
Actually, with this election, your duty IS to vote. Even my beloved Red state Arizona isn't so red right now. Its the job of the Republicans to keep it red, and the job of Us not Republicans to stop it from being red.
Minority parties lose because they don't vote, because it doesn't matter. The ironic thing is, if they all voted, they might win. Apathy ftl.
Evi Nov 4th 2008 4:35PM
If you're eligible to vote, and you don't, you have no right to complain about whoever who gets elected. With the internet at our fingertips, there is no reason not to be informed about the candidates.
Republican? Nice try. I'm neither Republican nor Democrat. I do not have a declared party. And no, I don't live in Texas. :)
Nizari Nov 6th 2008 1:57AM
Hey naix, ever hear of a little thing called state and local elections? There's more to the ballot, and our gov't, then just the president.
Revolted Nov 4th 2008 10:14AM
political discussions are polished conversation in a channel filled with "anal [link]" comments imo...
Amaxe Nov 4th 2008 11:32AM
I'd say more accurately that the Political discourse is largely done by those who make the Anal and Chuck Norris comments ;-)
Amaxe Nov 4th 2008 10:14AM
One of the things I do when joining WoW is /leave 2.
(Not sure if I have an addon conflict, but WoW has not saved my preferences since 3.0.2 came out and I must do this each time).
I have some strong views about the election of course, but I don't think that Trade is the place to spam them. I'll blog my views of course, but WoW is not the place for it.
Enli Nov 4th 2008 10:25AM
@Amaxe: I had something similar when 3.0.2 came out. Are you running WoW on Vista? Then you probably have some file permissions issues that prevent your addons from writing their configuration on exit.
If so, you need to fix it by going to your WoW folder in the Windows Explorer, and open its properties. Go to Security, and make sure you take ownership of all files and you have write access at least to the WTF directory and everything below it.
For some reason the move of the WoW installation that happened with 3.0.2 messed up both the permissions and the ownership of a lot of files, and forcing the ownership and permissions to something same seems to have fixed it for me.
Amaxe Nov 4th 2008 11:26AM
Thanks I'll try that... I do have Vista. Not by choice, but my XP's motherboard fried shortly before a guild run in 2007 and had to grab one that was available
Hoggersbud Nov 4th 2008 10:19AM
The problem is not that the talk is political, so much as it is nothing more than the ranting of a bunch of assholes and jerks. And I think this was highly emphasized last night on my server when a bunch of people were making low level alts and mass spamming /yell and /say and even /general in Stormwind with names of political candidates.
At that point, you are not engaging in any kind of discourse, but are merely harassing the players around you who don't want to be involved, who for whatever reason, are doing something in the city itself.
Now don't get me wrong, I respect the Ron Paul march, but then, the difference there is that while it had consequences for the server, it wasn't completely aboveboard, and most of them didn't act like jerks. They marched from Ironforge to the Crossroads, maybe even Orgrimmar and then they were done.
The Sarahpaiilin or Johhnmccain on my server? They were just being jerks.
Naix Nov 4th 2008 10:40AM
If you live in a swing state go vote. If you don't live in a swing state relax your vote does not count.
Omestes Nov 4th 2008 1:19PM
You realize that even in the reddest of red, and the bluest of blue states the margin between the parties is still generally less than 10% of the total vote? All states, generally are varying shades of purple.
Even Arizona, which is VERY red, voted for Clinton, TWICE. New Mexico is historically pretty red, and their squarely for Obama right now.
If you tried to get all of our... er... off-color... freinds to vote, you might just make a difference. Nothing harmed in trying, and nothing gained in not.
I do stand by the saying, that if you don't vote, you have not right to complain, you had the chance, but were too lazy to do so.