World of Warcraft's top five political contributions of 2008, Part 5
Bush dodges and blocks

This one is pretty recent and has came across the WoW Insider desk. Another creative person on the internet came up with the animated gif above of the shoe throwing incident that recently occurred.
From the looks of the image, it appears to be a shaman that threw the shoe. And Bush appears to be a level 83 boss mob. I think the Shaman's UI could be cleaned up a bit, and I'm curious as to how he threw his shoe at Bush from Durator (which you can see pictured in the minimap).
While this list isn't exhaustive of the political considerations in WoW, it is a good overview of exactly how much our political and social lives permeate into our virtual lives.
As virtual worlds like WoW and Second Life become more and more prevalent in our society we should expect to see more of this. How long will it be before democrats and republicans can walk around with tabards advertising their candidate? How long until some sort of virtual election / balloting is held that has a real world impact?
While both these events might be far off, they're not out of the realm of possibilities. The dynamics of virtual reality and reality are changing, and as we've seen above, the change has already started.

This one is pretty recent and has came across the WoW Insider desk. Another creative person on the internet came up with the animated gif above of the shoe throwing incident that recently occurred.
From the looks of the image, it appears to be a shaman that threw the shoe. And Bush appears to be a level 83 boss mob. I think the Shaman's UI could be cleaned up a bit, and I'm curious as to how he threw his shoe at Bush from Durator (which you can see pictured in the minimap).
While this list isn't exhaustive of the political considerations in WoW, it is a good overview of exactly how much our political and social lives permeate into our virtual lives.
As virtual worlds like WoW and Second Life become more and more prevalent in our society we should expect to see more of this. How long will it be before democrats and republicans can walk around with tabards advertising their candidate? How long until some sort of virtual election / balloting is held that has a real world impact?
While both these events might be far off, they're not out of the realm of possibilities. The dynamics of virtual reality and reality are changing, and as we've seen above, the change has already started.






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andrew Dec 29th 2008 2:19PM
The minimap is Thousand Needles, I believe.
And I only wish the creator had added the GCD to the Shoe icon. Just short of perfection.
vexis58 Dec 29th 2008 4:04PM
He also misspelled Durotar. But yeah, that's definitely Thousand Needles.
Shawn Dec 29th 2008 2:35PM
Here's my attempt from a couple years ago of Bush meets WoW. My Photshop skill is only about 23 but it gets the point across:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekrev/355462431/
Gimmlette Dec 29th 2008 3:17PM
I think that as the current crop of politicians retires and the next group, with more knowledge of computer skills, takes over, we will see politicking in WOW itself. I'm sure there are staff members of congress people who play after work. I'll bet there are even computers in some representatives' offices on which the game can be found. It's not unusual for politics and games to mix, witness baseball and football games where the President shows up on down to a high school state championship where the mayor shows up to support his school. It will be interesting to see how the WOW community reacts to a, let's say, level 1 pally named Jhnsmthfrmyr standing by the fountain in SW making promises about fixing Main Street or cutting taxes.
Andrew Dec 29th 2008 5:03PM
There is a raiding priest in the senate.
deekin Dec 29th 2008 6:42PM
Verified - looks like he made it to 80 now from Armory reports.
http://www.digitalbattle.com/2007/07/25/senator-plays-wow-has-lvl-70-priest/
Shame he ain't Shadow...
syberghost Dec 30th 2008 4:09PM
He's not a US Senator, th0ugh; he's functionally a state senator, although Guam isn't a state. More of a territory.
Either way, he's not a member of the 100-member US Senate.
Crentist Dec 29th 2008 5:13PM
I like the guy next to him, of course....
and I think that's thousand needles on the minimap.
Crentist Dec 29th 2008 5:14PM
*A F K, of course... for some reason it got erased...
Mizzle Dec 29th 2008 3:09PM
I also thought the map was Thousand Needles.
In any case, either map is in a desert area, which I think is supposed to represent Iraq (where the shoe was thrown).
Kylenne Dec 29th 2008 3:09PM
"How long will it be before democrats and republicans can walk around with tabards advertising their candidate? How long until some sort of virtual election / balloting is held that has a real world impact?"
Oh, hell no. Gods help us all if that ever actually happens. And I say that as a die-hard political junkie.
DO NOT WANT.
DruidGuard Dec 29th 2008 3:27PM
The shaman can't be lvl 80. He seems to still have a leveling bar.
Patrick Dec 29th 2008 3:47PM
Someone get that shaman some more +hit gear.
Delerowen Dec 29th 2008 8:32PM
I think it would of have been interesting to see a campaign between Thrall and King Bronzebeard have some sort of campaign, who becomes the "leader" of WoW. But each one represent the presidential candidates.
Wulfkin Dec 29th 2008 9:57PM
Well there was an election on WoWinsider a few months back for the ultimate leader of Azeroth. Thrall won by a landside IIRC, just proving once and for all the superiority of the Horde! :D
Nathanyel Dec 30th 2008 7:23AM
Thrall and Magni are actually closer than Dems and Reps will ever be :P