Alphaville Elections Break into the InfoSphere
by Alphaville Herald on 15/03/04 at 8:43 pm
The Elections for President of the Alphaville Government, which have been covered here in the Alphaville Herald and picked up by Wired News has now been slashdotted and put under the scope of the eggheads at Terra Nova. Can another Daily Show episode be far behind? To top it all off, British newspaper The Independent ran a story on the election as well (transcript follows, shhhhh!). Question is, how much are these commentators getting right and how much are they?um?not.
From The Independent, March 15.
“And now, the real election
It’s election time in the virtual world too. Alphaville, the imaginary town in the interactive game, The Sims Online (pictured), has been turned into a hellhole of crime, scam-artistry and prostitution by teenage players. In the hope of introducing a more constructive civic sense, the controllers have decided to let the players run for office against the current president, known simply as Mr President. Over the weekend, the last round of the primary voting pitted an anti-scam candidate, Ashley Richardson, against a classic small-government Republican called Seth Galloway. Galloway says there are too many police operations roaming the cyber-city. The scam artists agree, and have campaigned hard against Ashley, a sort of virtual Bobby Kennedy, but as election day – 10 April – approaches, she appears to have the momentum.”
RB
Mar 16th, 2004
The whole AVG thing isn’t that big of a deal. lol.
Don’t see what all the fuss is about. not like it’s major news. =P
From independant:
“the controllers have decided to let the players run for office against the current president, known simply as Mr President.”
Say what? EA (the worlds contorllers) had nothing to with this. They do and give jack shit to encourage any form of creativity.
Your right Uri, how many things are the media getting wrong as usual??
- RB
Sal
Mar 16th, 2004
I have played Sims since the beginning, I’m a founder.
I have NEVER heard about an election.. or where to vote. Do you register? The debates… ha! NEVER heard of any. What the heck is this?? Why doesn’t the general population of Alpha know about it? I have asked.. ALOT of people. No one, and mean NO ONE even knows what I’m talking about.
urizenus
Mar 16th, 2004
Too funny. I would have you send your friends to the alphaville herald to find out what is going on, but that might get you terminated!
The election is just for The Alphaville Government, which you could think of as a neighborhood/guild that elects its leader and which has an open election for said leader.
Mr-President
Mar 17th, 2004
“..the controllers have decided to let the players run for office..”
Where’d they come up with that? lol.
Mr-President
Mar 17th, 2004
Article taken from tulareadvanceregister.com
[begin]
(Another) presidential election heating up
The main issues are the role of government, the responsibility of law enforcement, and putting a stop to financial fraud affecting the citizens. The incumbent is popular, but a challenger is gaining ground with a hard line platform promising to be even tougher on crime.
Sounds like it could be anywhere, but in this case, it’s a race to be president of nowhere. Nowhere on earth, at least. The campaign is for the presidency of Alphaville, the largest community in a massive multiplayer computer game, The Sims Online.
Now, if you think this is no big deal, you’re just not a Sims player. The Sims Online is the most widely played game in the online world. Characters are created to lead virtual lives online, with most of the complications of real life programmed in.
One of those, the problem of crime, led to a new development in the game more than a year ago. Experienced players were scamming “newbies” (people playing for the first time) out of their starting funds so often that many new players never returned.
In a bid to educate new players, a government was formed, led by the appropriately-named Mr. President. The “government” set up helpful services, answering questions and spreading the word about the tricksters.
In a primary last Saturday, a 16-year-old girl named Laura won the right to challenge Mr. President in the general election next month.
That caught my attention, with the recent proposal to lower the voting age in California. I’m just a bit nervous about our legislators finding out there is a 16-year-old running for president, even if it is online.
I hope that the thousands of regular TSO players who are old enough to vote come out of this simulated fun-fest long enough to help decide issues in the real world. Then again, looking at some election results, I guess virtual reality already has too much influence.
[end]
Some articles get a few things confused, but any publicity is good for TSO.
urizenus
Mar 17th, 2004
Thanks for posting that Mr-P. The story is all over blogspace now too. I saw it was picked up by a blog in the Czech Repub.
Mr-President
Mar 17th, 2004
Czech Republic? lol..
Can I get a link?
urizenus
Mar 18th, 2004
Here’s your link, Mr-P…
urizenus
Mar 18th, 2004
oops, try that again…
http://www.bloguje.cz/blogy/semestr2003/10_tema.php
Fans II
Mar 21st, 2004
I never recalled AVG ‘ruling’. Ha! Press…Pffttt. Never trusted them. WOW The AVG elections have gone international! Stand Tall, Mr-President, Stand Tall.