Ron Paul wins WoW's presidential naming race

by Kyle Orland { Jan 2nd 2008 at 5:30PM }

With Iowa's first in the nation presidential nominating caucuses coming tomorrow, and New Hampshire's primaries following early next week, pundits and observers across the nation are closely watching the polls and prediction markets for early word on who might win. But these pundits might be ignoring a potentially important leading indicator of political opinion. We're talking, of course, about World of Warcraft character names.

As pointed out by blogger Andrew Sullivan, a full 48 realms in the popular online game have a player-characters named after Republican candidate Ron Paul (player names must be unique to a realm). The WoW naming support for Paul isn't that surprising given the recent in-game rally held in his honor in Whisperwind's IronForge. Paul runs well ahead of his closest competitor, Democrat Barack Obama, who shares a name with 36 WoW characters. No other candidate breaks the ten-character mark in a search of World of Warcraft info. resource The Armory.

While naming a WoW character after your favorite politician seems a great way to show your support, it's not always possible. For one, names longer than twelve characters are not allowed, meaning supporters of Hillary Clinton or Bill Richardson couldn't use their full names for a WoW character. Even shortened names don't always work -- in our tests, characters named HillClinton, HClinton and just plain old Clinton were deemed "unavailable." This likely means the Clinton name has run afoul of Blizzard's terms of use clause against using character names that belong "to a popular culture figure, celebrity, or media personality." (This is also probably why there are no characters named BillClinton or GeorgeWBush. There are 29 GeorgeW's though).

While tracking WoW's presidential naming race is fun and all, it probably has very little actual value in predicting nationwide voting preferences. After all, there are 71 characters named Trogdor, and no one really expects him to burninate across the 2008 elections.

Read on for a complete list of WoW's presidential candidate name counts, as of press time.

(Thanks to WowInsider's Elizabeth Harper for help with this story)

World of Warcraft character name count
(Last name statistics are included just for fun -- some are obviously more common than others)

Republicans

RonPaul: 47 (57 for Paul alone)
MittRomney: 9 (25 for Romney alone)
JohnMcCain: 4 (27 for McCain alone)
FredThompson: 4 (81 for Thompson alone)
RudyGiuliani: 3 (9 for Giuliani alone)
MikeHuckabee: 2 (30 for Huckabee alone)

Democrats

BarackObama: 36 (69 for Obama alone)
JohnEdwards: 4 (40 for Edwards alone)
JoeBiden: 1 (4 for Biden alone)
ChrisDodd: 0 (40 for Dodd alone)
BillRichardson: 0* (33 for Richardson alone)
DennisKucinich: 0* (4 for Kucinich alone)
HillaryClinton: 0* (0 for Clinton alone**)

* - These names are over WoW's 12 -character limit.
** - The name "Clinton" seems to be blocked for characters on WoW servers.

Tags: 2008, Activision, barack-obama, Blizzard, election, hillary-clinton, politics, president, ron-paul, world-of-warcraft, WoW

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

da governator @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:35PM

Hillary could be "Hildog"

StrangeBum @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:20PM

She's got a snuke up her snizz!

Also, Ron Paul FTW! Seriously, the guy might be a tad bit to isolationist, but his ideas and values are the best out there and he hardly gets any attention. Plenty of it online, where he takes the lead in many things, but almost nothing in your standard newspaper or local news station.

What a shame. I say Ron Paul for the win! Who's with me?

LaughingTarget @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:23PM

Why are people so clueless as to what isolationism is? He doesn't want to lock America way in a ball, he wants to get our military out of soverign nations where they don't belong and REMOVE protectionist tarrifs and open up a real free trade system, not managed trade like NAFTA.

StrangeBum @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:59PM

@ Laughing

I realize that he isn't trying to steer America towards the way of ancient Japan or something, shut ourselves out from the rest of the world. But removing ourselves from the UN would sever our ties to some of the more major 'powers' (if they can be called that) of the rest of the world.

I still strongly support all of his views from gun control to abandoning the IRS. I even agree with dropping from the UN, our country needs these things taken care of.

Leobebes @ Jan 3rd 2008 2:23PM

Ron Paul disavows the basic tenets of biological formations. He cannot comprehend that biological forms can change due to adaptive changes. So basically he thinks the colds that we suffer today are the same as the ones Jesus and his disciples suffered from while fishing from the Sea of Galilee. How can anyone support a simpleton like this with the affairs of the world seems somewhat scary.

digitalain @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:40PM

Living here in Iowa, I got to see all the Democrats running for office. Tomorrow I will be voting for Hillary. I should be voting for Barack, but he doesn't know enough people in Washington, Hillary basically knows everything, and everyone.

Kid Dynamite @ Jan 2nd 2008 6:36PM

What the fuck are you talking about? Hilary "knows Washington"? Ok, so she was married to Bill Clinton, and so now she's the perfect president? Her "knowledge" of Washington, if you can call it that, serves only to further the bipartisan loyalties and idiotic bureaucracies inherent in that part of the country. Obama is winning both Republican and Democratic supporters, and refuses to allow the lobbyists in Washington to take control of the direction of the country. If you're going to vote, at least be educated about the issues. For Christ's sake, I'm only 16.

I won't blame anyone who votes me down, this isn't really the place for a political debate.

LaughingTarget @ Jan 2nd 2008 6:59PM

I've watched a lot of football on TV, I should be a good choice to replace Tom Brady then.

Shagittarius @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:17PM

As long as the election process continues to distract people from the real issues in this country its doing its job.

Anam @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:41PM

Ron Paul is also a common name that many players may actually have, rather than Barack Obama.

NATO_Duke @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:44PM

OMG I sooooo know who im voting for now!

sqwarlock @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:44PM

I'm really sick of internet communities stroking this man's ego. Though I guess it could be worse. It could be Huckabee's name on top.

Mr Khan @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:48PM

Even though i'm a fan of neither (yay Marx), Huckabee and Ron Paul should totally team up

Between the guy with a massive internet following, and the guy endorsed by CHUCK NORRIS, they'd be the nerdcore candidate, and possibly get out that ever-elusive youth vote

Rocketboy @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:11PM

Why not team up? They both do not believe in evolution. Science FTW!

LaughingTarget @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:17PM

Not believing in evolution is fine, the line is drawn when they start trying to foist it on us. Ron never has done that.

Rocketboy @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:13AM

No, not believing in evolution, and considering 'Intelligent Design' a valid theory (which it in no way is) is a very bad thing. It shows a basic misunderstanding of root scientific concepts.

hvnlysoldr @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:43PM

That is weird. Basically Intelligent Design is supposed to say a higher intelligence (God) uses evolution to inherit certain traits, usually for the benefit of the ecosystem, down through generations. Eventually accumulating all traits into human beings. Instead it's perceived as the creationist literal 6 days. Uggh.

LaughingTarget @ Jan 3rd 2008 4:14PM

Bzzt, Rocketboy loses for not bothering to research anything and talk like he knows the intimate details.

Zertoss @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:46PM

How many of those Thompsons are named Jack?

jovin6 @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:56PM

THATCHED ROOF COTTAGES!!!

Tom @ Jan 2nd 2008 6:07PM

"There are 29 GeorgeW's though"

He's running for a third term, CONFIRMED! Quick, somebody change the Constitution!

tmacairjordan87 @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:43PM

careful, he just might. He already tramples on it

Grimbar @ Jan 2nd 2008 6:52PM

"After all, there are 71 characters named Trogdor, and no one really expects him to burninate across the 2008 elections." That was funny! :P

LaughingTarget @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:00PM

Are you saying my vote for Trogdor was a throw-away?

Shagittarius @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:14PM

Too bad theirs not a candidate named 'HairyBawls' he'd be well represented in WOW.

LaughingTarget @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:16PM

GarethGobblecoque

Bye Buy Bi @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:21PM

If Ron Paul or Huckabee gets elected for president. Then I'm leaving the country. I would have left before, but I couldn't afford it. (during the Bush rule)

Well, now I can afford it. Canada,The UK, Japan or South Korea here I come.

BlackTye @ Jan 3rd 2008 1:09AM

I shall join you.

ThornedVenom @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:02AM

It's not that easy when your country has a global influence.

What happened to protesting nowadays? Why has everyone wimped out?

LaughingTarget @ Jan 3rd 2008 4:15PM

Let them go, it's another good way to get rid of Social Security payments.

BPM - The 3rd Strike @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:22PM

Trogdor '08

tmacairjordan87 @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:49PM

i'm personally not gonna vote for someone who doesn't believe the federal reserve should exist (ron paul), or someone who's so goddamn stupid he thinks the world is only 3000 years old (hint: huckabee). The rest of the world already laughs at us we dont need to encourage them by electing one of these clowns.

I'm probably gonna go with obama when the time comes, he has a lot of traits that remind me of what i've seen of JFK and after the current moron we've been plagued with for the last 8 years, we need someone smart and charismatic.

johnson @ Jan 2nd 2008 10:23PM

Hahaha, the Federal Reserver manages a stupid money system and makes Americans pay more with higher and higher interest rates. We don't need a national bank where money grubbers can profit off our decreasingly valued dollars. F*ck the Fed Reserve, it wasn't even instituted honestly.

hemmy @ Jan 3rd 2008 9:58AM

Sheisty bankers colluded with corrupt politicans to institute the Federal Reserve. Do you not realize the Federal Reserve charges us interest to print our own fucking money?

Protip: It's a scam.

It's people like you who who think they'll sound cool by pulling these retarded statements (parroting neocon Faux News talking points) out of your ass to fault Paul for wanting to do away with the Fed without realizing just how much the Fed is responsible for inflation and the devaluation of our currency.

Morons.

Donald @ Jan 2nd 2008 8:26PM

Ron Paul:US politics::Snakes on a Plane:Hollywood

OTAM @ Jan 2nd 2008 9:26PM

Full of awesome?

Deck @ Jan 3rd 2008 2:31AM

Samuel L. Jackson for President in '08! Snakes on a Plane confirmed that he will... WIN!

Batzarro @ Jan 2nd 2008 9:59PM

I'ma vote for the Paul guy. But wasn't he born in Jamaica, though? Can he run for the... Oh. I thought it was SEAN Paul! I liked his policies on duty rock.

Anyway, I can't vote. ELA FTL!

Kwipper @ Jan 2nd 2008 10:45PM

Fuck Ron Paul, and just fuck all politics. Politics is nothing but a retarded and pointless popularity contest and quite frankly, it does not belong in World of Warcraft or any video game world for that matter. Keep this bullshit out of my video games. K THX BI!