Does playing wargames make you unfit for public office

[MIGMaster]

My questions is - who would be insane enough to want a public office position !!!!!!!!!  :o  As wargamers I think we should definitely not allow them into the grognard community.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I dunno.

I had a job interview a while back with a San Francisco-based company. One of the articles I sent them as my body of work: http://www.armchairgeneral.com/jagdtigers-in-the-west-a-steel-panthers-aar.htm

I was playing the Germans. Shrapnel, as a matter of historical record, uses the Nazi flag for victory conditions.

But I never heard back from those folks. Not even an email saying "no thanks." That was after what I considered to be a very strong phone interview.

I have a suspicion that I was not considered due to a misconception that, because I wrote an AAR from the German perspective, I was some kind of kook.

Now a kook I may be, but I'm clearly I'm not a Nazi-sympathizer.

Unfortunately, gamers in general, and wargamers in particular, can be misunderstood.

Frankly, if I were running for office, I'd rather be explaining a youthful indiscretion as a Playgirl centerfold. But for some reason that career never worked out, so a gamer I am. Go figure.

I guess it depends on the job.  I applied for a producer job at EA Canada back in '96.  I made it to the final two interviewees based on some Squad Leader scenarios I had made and had printed in The General magazine.  I didn't get the job and didn't hear why until about 5 years later.  A college friend of mine married a guy who started out as a play-tester and worked his way up to producer.  I went to a BBQ party at their house and met the guy who did my interview.  He didn't remember me at first but twigged when I told him what game he was talking about developing when he had the interview (some RTS clone of C&C.  They were flooding the market then.).

He basically told that I came across as too groggy and straight laced.  They were worried I'd be the type complaining about zones of control and command radii and get in the way of fun.   They were probably right.

[ArizonaTank]

All of this kind of reminds me of that tea party candidate in Ohio who lost in 2010 because he was a reenactor.  His choice of reenactment units got him in trouble...the SS Wiking Division.   

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/ohio-tea-partier-spent-weekends-playing-nazi-games.php

WOW seems much more "sane" than that. 

However, having played a bit of WOW myself...I do kind of wonder about folks who spend enough time with it to get to level 85.  How many mobs do you have to beat to a pulp to get there?  10,000?  I mean if you are going to dedicate so much of your life to a game....much better to do it with WITE, WITPAE, or the "Home Before the Leaves Fall" scenario of Tiller's France '14....;)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Maybe it'll come out that she bought farmed gold or XP from Chinese slave/prison inmates.  That'll make for some interesting ads.

[LongBlade]

Maybe it'll come out that she bought farmed gold or XP from Chinese slave/prison inmates.  That'll make for some interesting ads.

LOL

[Arctic Blast]

Maybe it'll come out that she bought farmed gold or XP from Chinese slave/prison inmates.  That'll make for some interesting ads.

"Given the chance to create gold farming jobs for American citizens, Colleen Lachowicz instead handed those jobs to Chinese workers earning pennies a day. And her ork character has been heard to scream for the blood of the rich as it seeks out a Communist utopia.

Colleen Lachowicz. Bad for America, bad for Azeroth."

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Awesome!  ;D