Congressional Hopeful Plays Elfgames, People Scared, Confused. Get Edition Wars Right

[Grac]

The articleThe bizarre double life of conservative congressional hopeful Jake Rush is a thing that exists.

Said politician plays elfgames, sometimes of the LARP variety, and has been photographed cosplaying *gasp*

The silliness of the article, and the politics associated with the publication, the article, or the politician in question are not what I'm interested in here, and would be against board rules anyway. What I am interested in is this:

Mind’s Eye, or MES, is a nationwide community of gothic-punk role-players who come together to take on personas of vampires and other supernatural beings (known as Kindred), dealing with night-to-night struggles “against their own bestial natures, hunters, and each other.”

MES has a number of different sects, with names such as Vampire: The Requiem; Vampire: The Masquerade; Changeling: The Lost; Geist the Sin Eaters; New World of Darkness and Werewolf the Forsaken, among others.

On the surface, the use of sect seems misleading. And sure, it is misleading in a sense. It's also published on April 1st, it could very well be an intentional mistake. Or maybe the whole blog is satire. I dunno, I don't care. Not important.

What I find interesting, however, is that given edition/system/company wars, 'sects' isn't a bad description.

[Eldan]

I don't know... it is a bit problematic. I mean, not the part about where he roleplays. But the very sexual and aggressive nature of it does make him look bad, really. Especially the parts where he writes emails threatening people with grahpic rape. In-character, sure, but it still looks bad.

[erikun]

I'd be inclined to at least give a serious look at his policies, if he was running in my area.

This just looks like standard political mud-flinging. Politician runs for office. Second politician takes a bunch of stuff about their past out of context to try to make things look bad. I mean, I don't even care about the e-mail or any of the other stuff, but trying to bring it up in a context of "D&D is Satanism!" would sure set me against the other person.

[Knaight]

I don't know... it is a bit problematic. I mean, not the part about where he roleplays. But the very sexual and aggressive nature of it does make him look bad, really. Especially the parts where he writes emails threatening people with grahpic rape. In-character, sure, but it still looks bad.

I'd agree with this, to some extent. That said, the article is a huge mess - I wouldn't be surprised if the writer was one of those people who also had troubles telling actors apart from their characters, particularly those who are famous for one role (e.g. Julia Childs, who played Pat on SNL, and routinely had people send letters to her that failed to understand that Pat was a fictional character she portrayed).