Today, of course, is the day you can vote in the United States. I know that politics are a passionate and important part of a lot of people’s lives, so if you want to talk about it, civilly, here’s the place to do it. Any political talk in this post will be considered on topic, but remember we still ban for trolling and disrespectful, or insulting comments.

It's more than some machinima. John's colleague, R.J. wrote me to say that it's an interactive piece, in which the user can press mouse buttons to get the two candidates to speak their lines. (You see it demonstrated in the video) "That part will probably be available later," R.J. said, "for now it's just the video."

Brennan himself told GamePolitics about the political-cartoon purpose of the mod, and says he has a process for getting real people into Half-Life 2, provided he has enough photography as a source material. Newsmakers like those two definitely qualify. That combined with "access to MoCap data, and some good people helping out," resulted in the Half-Life 2 debate so far.

I'm also a little weirded out that I recognize the music at the beginning. That's "The Everlasting Blink" by Bent, album of the same name. Why'd he pick that?

Campaign 2008: Obama vs. McCain [John Brennan via Gamepolitics, with thanks to R.J. too.]

In fairness, this could be said of most 72-year-olds, not just that one. But yeah, it rather captures the image both candidates have in the media. Also, it's bad when you're getting busted on by a Canadian political cartoonist. Check out the one preceding it. I don't get it? Canadians actually have something named the Liberal Party? That would go over like a turd in a punchbowl down here, considering the level of our debates.

Who's Winning? [Filibuster Cartoons via GamePolitics]

On the other side, Take Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick, has gone hard for the Democrats — no surprise there, considering how his games are such pariahs in the culture war demagoguery of the right. Zelnick's given $2,000 to Barack Obama, and hedged his bets in the primary with $2,500 for John Edwards in the primary, and a grand each for Joe Biden and Bill Richardson. No Hillary? Dis! Yeah, wonder why. Anyway, there are more names and numbers on the jump.

Giving to Republicans, according to Develop:
• Will Wright: (Spore, The Sims) $3,000 to McCain; previously donated $2,350 to Giuliani
• Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO) $2,300 to McCain; previously donated $2,100 to Mitt Romney
• Curt Schilling (38 Studios) $2,300 to McCain.

Does Schilling really qualify here? Yeah, guess so.

Democratic contributors, according to Develop:

• Strauss Zelnick (Chairman, Take-Two) $2,000 to Obama; had previously donated to $2,500 to Edwards, $1,000 each to Biden & Richardson
• Ben Feder (CEO, Take-Two) contributed $1,000 to Biden in 2007
• Sam Houser (Rockstar) $4,600 to Obama
• Patricia Vance (president, ESRB) $2,000 to Obama
• John Riccitiello (CEO, EA) $4,600 to Obama
• John Smedley (Sony Online Entertainment) $2,300 to Obama
• Richard Garriott aka "Lord British" (Ultima series, NC Soft) $2,300 to Hillary Clinton
• Alex Rigopulos (CEO, Harmonix) $4,600 to Obama, the maximum allowable in two cycles, plus a $28,500 contribution to his victory PAC.
• Kathy Vrabeck (president, EA Casual) $2,300 to Obama
• Gabe Newell (pres., Valve) $2,300 to Christopher Dodd

By the way, if you want to look up neighbors, bosses, professors, celebrities, whomever and see who they've supported with the long green, Congressional Quarterly's Moneyline is much more user-friendly than the FEC.

Records Reveal Political Power of Dev Heavyweights [Develop Magazine via Play.tm]

If the computing media — not to mention Linden Labs themselves — were to be believed, we should be deeply immersed in our Second Lives by now. Companies are using it for press conferences, people are having sex inside it — Sweden even has an embassy in it, for goodness' sake. Although early in the primaries there was a flurry of SL activity, things seem to have quietened down.

The author believes that this is largely due to the difficulty in raising funds from within SL — it is difficult to check where donors are based, and many are from outside the US.

Perhaps Linden Labs' estimates of the number of SL users is a little on the padded side, too. If you are unsure just how many of the 14 million or so residents actually log in on a regular basis, how much time are you going to devote to talking to them?

Both McCain and Obama have criticized video games — most notably McCain, although Obama has made repeated pleas for parents to 'turn off' their kids' consoles and get them outside — and might be wary of seeming to endorse such a controversial medium by actually appearing inside it.

And then of course there are the griefers. Honestly, if I were running for president I would want to do so in a public forum that carried the lowest possible risk of being buzzed by a flock of winged penises.

Presidential candidates overlook Second Life universe [Houston Chronicle Game Hacks)