Politics, Elections, and Perception

Most of the time, we deal with media in a passive role. You don't know it yet, but you're being entertained by my words (albeit in a more informative role I'm sure). This shapes your beliefs in not so obvious ways, and more importantly, your perceptions. In reading the daily news something caught my eye, Presidential hopeful and political newbie Senator Barack Obama made front page news on CNN by just announcing a daring plan thats almost been a democratic standard. Universal Healthcare within six years. Something more interesting was said though not two paragraphs later: its being the 2008 Democratic Primary theme. What I mean is that every canidate believes and wants to implement this Universal Healthcare. Hilary has been a strong supporter and is also making it a central theme, and every single canidate suppports it while not making it front and center of their issues. But what gets me is that the only one with the picture on the website is Obama himself.

The entire article not only focuses on Obama and spends more print talking about his views, but speaks his plan like its something new. With good reason. while he stated its a Democratic main issue along with Universal Education and that Democrats "need to cling to the core values that make us Democrats, the belief in universal health care, the belief in universal education, and then we should be agnostic in terms of how to achieve those values."
By making it his central issue, other canidates have to follow suit and support it because they know what the media knows. And that is Obama is popular, and its growing quickly. Once Hilary's announcement loses its sensationalism, Obama will be continuing to get free publicity by just making these sort of little announcements, sort of how an incumbent President can get their name out weeks in and out before an election. The caption under this image says it all: "Sen. Barak Obama has staked a position in a field that has been dominated by a chief rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination -- health care."

No matter what happens, its a good cause to champion and more importantly even if Obama loses the primaries, those things will be implemented in office soley because its now become "an issue". While its not so interesting that the media is once again making sensational something unsensational, I'm interested in their choice and its impact on the other canidates. §

On the Eve of Burning Crusade...

Actually, technically, when you read this it will have "hit the streets" as they say. So as I sit here, I'm wondering what's causing this visceral reaction inside me about the game. Yes, the game itself is expensive, but I gotten value from playing my friends in it, no matter where I am, and get to have fun. True, its only one game....but the CDs in the box I have are NOTHING like the game it is today. In true value fashion, about 60% of the game content was added post-purchase of the initial game. For better or for worse, and a lot of testing, the game is relatively balanced where I can't use the same old excuse of "well damnit, I died cause of my character sucks to THAT guy who killed me" and is turning into more like "Uhh....F$%#in lag! Thats Bull$h!t~~"

Something you WoW players might have to realize, is that eventually all things go to the wayside. And this is the warning that starts the armagheddon for World of Warcraft.

I could explain that unless Blizzard Entertainment, and in effect Vivendi Universal, pay the creative people in yachts...the designers will leave. As a wannabe artist myself, I hate doing the same thing exactly the same way for extended periods. The talent, by nature, will change and thus the game won't be the same. But thats not what I'm most worried about. When this change happens, and people decide to move on, I will have realized for some instant how much time I've sunk into the game. Granted I've met people through WoW that I wouldn't've otherwise, and very grateful for that, but the actual characters are NOT forever. And thats kinda sad. I can remember when I came up the name for my first character, going to the show where Azariah's Prayer and In the Face of War were supposed to play. I wrote a lot of things down like Night Elf backwards or Warrior interchanged when I decided something more biblical. But nothing too obvious. Then I remembered the show that I went to way so long ago and the name came up. Azariah. Sure enough, it worked, and the rest as the say became history.

Unless something drastic happens, like the name Azariah frees up, I won't be able to recreate that. I've been thinking about names, and saved a few, but nothing will have as much meaning. It was a cool name too....versitile enough to be shortened to Az and have crazy characters. No, the only thing I can think of is Balhepsi, which is the name of my friends bellydancing troope. And already its been deemed 'ghey', so we'll have to see.

In closing, I'm going to be able to experiance the new content almost for the first time and play with friends in groups just like we've been planning.

And I can't wait. §