Second Life, 2008, mmo, politics, election, mark warner, politcal, presidential, press

Ramifications of Presidential Hopeful's Second Life Appearance

Dennis McCauley of GamePolitics addresses the recent appearance of 2008 presidential hopeful Mark Warner in MMO Second Life, a move which some have called smart and others suicide.

Warner held a small press conference in Second Life, appearing as a reasonable simulacrum of himself and giving tongue to his views on Iraq and reproductive rights, and studiously ignoring various hijinx perpetrated by attendees, one of whom was wearing an avatar that made him into a series of tubes.

Still, there were some obvious problems. Warner's avatar was just this side of creepy, resembling nothing so much as the G-Man from Half-Life 2. Plus, there's a certain amount of freaky avatar sex going on in certain areas of Second Life. Uh, so I'm told ... . When rival campaigns "go negative," as they invariably will, could Warner's Second Life visit be spun as an excursion to some type of animated porn site?

Whatever the outcome, I applaud Warner's sheer sack to have done this at all. Although I'm inclined to agree with one of the commentors on the original post, who requests that Warner lead a PvP raid. Eliza Gauger

More Here [GamePolitics]

3:40 PM on Mon Sep 11 2006
By Eliza Gauger
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9 comments

Comments

hokiexterra at 03:08 PM on 09/11/06
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If nothing else, it will drive traffic to Kotaku from all the politi-blogheads searching the following: "Mark Warner" + presidential + campaign + sex. On the other hand, someone could just add it to his Wiki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Warner
jknevitt at 03:33 PM on 09/11/06
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I'd love to see Mark Warner take out some Top 10s in EVE Online. Hell, if you could do that, bin Laden has no chance. ;)
Mythology at 05:08 PM on 09/11/06
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Well, it might not have been the best place to go in order to bolster support, it does though put him in the average gamer's eye. This is what? The first time that a presidential hopeful has actually shown interest in online communities/video games?

It'll probably go over like a lead balloon, but hey, you never know.

At least he didn't say that the internet was made of tubes.
red at 05:24 PM on 09/11/06
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I don't see it.
Rallion at 05:24 PM on 09/11/06
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My expectation is that I will never hear of this guy again. Not so much because he did this (though it is a nice hint) but more because he's talking about reproductive rights. I really don't think that's a good place to take a presidential campaign in the U.S. of A.

But props to the series of tubes. That's pretty good.
Ivan M. at 05:26 PM on 09/11/06
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Ann Coulter should make an appearance in Second Life as well.

With a reasonable hack or third party application, there is no excuse for the pie to fail at hitting its target this time.
red at 05:31 PM on 09/11/06
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"Whirling Eddy and the tube guy began to fly."

Awesome. If we ever get signatures on here, I want to use that line from that article. I request it be the headline on any future posts regarding this matter.
kid icarus at 05:44 PM on 09/11/06
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For some reason, the crossover implications of Second Life seem more profound than most other virtual spaces. I recently attended the exhibition "Pixel Dolls, Meat-Space and Everything All at Once", which recreated artwork and objects from Second Life. It was absolutely enthralling. There are some fascinating mental gymnastics one has to go through when contemplating the leap between worlds.
spate at 08:03 PM on 09/11/06
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Due to his appearance in Second Life, reporters who would normally focus exclusively on politics experienced the joy and wonder of having their billing and account information plundered by a third party. So if anything, I think this presidential hopeful has done more than his part to increase internet security and identity theft awareness with the media.