New York Times greatness

[87x]

I know most of yall with probebly not read this.. and that most of yall will probaby not care but whatever..

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/01/technology/circuits/01sims.html

The man arthur baynes in that article is one of my close personal friends in real life.. he started all of that by him self.. The government he started has been on www.wired.com and has been /.'d (slash dotted), and posted on other news websites.. finally the New York times picked it up, and that just makes it that much better..

I will post the article here because i know yall wont want to sign up for it..

ASHLEY RICHARDSON, a diva from the modeling world, is running for president. If this sounds strange (though, at this stage in American politics, it may not), it may be worth noting that this campaign is being fought not in the United States but in Alphaville, a virtual community that exists within the role-playing game The Sims Online.
Advertisement

Alphaville's second annual presidential election is April 10. The contest pits a Richardson avatar, a tall, tan character who shares a name with the former supermodel, against the incumbent, Mr-President, who works out of a room called the Oval Office in a large, white building.

Last month roughly 57,500 subscribers were playing the online version of the role-playing game, according to Electronic Arts, which publishes it. Players buy the software for $20 and pay a monthly subscription fee of $9.99 to join one of 10 cities, the largest of which is Alphaville, with about 7,600 residents.

In this election, the central issue of each candidate's campaign is how to cope with a belligerent group of players called grievers or scammers, who bully newcomers by locking them into boring story lines, stealing their money or even beating them up for the sake of humiliation. The scammers are elusive and their motives are unclear, but their behavior is thought to undercut new players' enthusiasm and diminish the popularity of the game.

"Most everything in this game is generated by the people who play it," said Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts. So a rise in the dropout rate would mean less innovation and a smaller playing field.

"It's just ruining the game," said Laura McKnight, 14, who plays and controls the Ashley Richardson avatar from Jupiter, Fla. "Some Sims can be vicious. It's just like real life, sort of."

Arthur Baynes, 21, who logs in as Mr-President, agreed that foul play has begun to sour the game. "You should be able to play without being harassed," he said from his home in Richmond, Va., just 90 miles from the real White House.

Mr. Baynes and seven friends who call themselves the founding fathers established the Alphaville government a year ago to in an effort to prevent scamming and create new jobs within the game. Mr. Baynes won the first election and created Mr-President.

This year's campaign drew more candidates, creating the need for a primary season. The Richardson avatar won the second of two primaries on March 13, setting up her general election race with the incumbent.

Since their campaigns began about a month ago, both candidates have developed plans to combat the scammers. Ashley Richardson favors a tough-on-crime approach in which scammers are harassed by an organization of vigilante players with the goal of driving them out of the game. Mr-President, whose government consists primarily of security agencies and police units that he and other players have organized, says educating new players about the dangers they face is more effective than aggressively pursuing the scammers. "I can't be against somebody just because of the way they're playing the game," Mr. Baynes said.

But as the election approaches, Mr-President has come under fire for being too hands-off and for being less accessible to constituents than the Richardson character, said Peter Ludlow, the editor of The Alphaville Herald, a newspaper-style blog (www.alphavilleherald.com) about The Sims Online. "People say that he doesn't respond to his instant messages," Mr. Ludlow said.

To be fair, Mr. Baynes is a ticket agent for Delta Airlines at Richmond International Airport and thus arguably has less time to spend in Alphaville than, say, Ms. McKnight, who is in the eighth grade.

Still, Mr. Baynes, whose e-mail messages all end with the phrase "From the Offices of Mr-President," said he tries to stay in touch with voters by taking his laptop with him when he leaves home. "Sometimes, I go, wow, it's a lot of work," he said. "And I'm supposed to be playing the game."

Ashley Richardson has also had detractors. "Everybody was like, 'Oh, Ashley Richardson, the owner of a modeling agency - she can't win,' " Ms. McKnight said. But since she won the last primary by a majority, she has gained momentum, Mr. Baynes said.

The Richardson character's earliest supporters were colleagues from her previous career. "A lot of her former models are voting for her," said Julia Dawson, a speechwriter-avatar who was hired by Mr-President last month. Ms. Dawson, who is played by Cassandra Conners, 12, discussed the campaign as she played a game of chess in the lobby of the Alphaville capitol building. Julia Dawson described Mr-President as a leader popular among government employees. "He's proven himself," she said. "And he gave them a job."
Advertisement

Inside the white-brick capitol building, government employees rush from room to room greeting constituents or collecting campaign donations. They work to a soundtrack of typewriters, telephones and fax machines. The Richardson campaign headquarters, which until February also housed the candidate's modeling agency, are more subdued. Piano music fills the office when the candidate has the time to play.

During the primary, Ms. McKnight was rumored to be starting her own party, to be called either the Simpublicans or the Republisims. Mr. Baynes, a Simocrat, criticized those names. "You can't just throw 'Sim' anywhere," he said. Ms. McKnight is now running as a Democrat.

The candidates maintain Web sites where constituents can read about their platforms and schedules. At the Richardson site (www.freewebs.com/voteforash), Ms. McKnight lists among her ideas an official Alphaville bank, "Survivor'' game shows, and a congress. Mr-President's site (www .avgov.com/reelection) lists his accomplishments, including creation of a federal "Do-Not-Trust" list but advances no new policy proposals (the "Agenda" page is blank).

When the polls open a week from Saturday, players who want to vote will have to click on a link from www.avgov.com /reelection to visit an outside Web site to vote. The turnout is expected to be in the low hundreds.

Mr. Baynes said the Alphaville government had begun to take security measures to ensure a fair election. "We have a Federal Election Commission," he said. "It's two people."

During last year's election, in which Mr-President prevailed over candidates named Trey Seal and Scott Almighty, voters' Internet provider addresses were logged to guard against multiple voting. "One Sim, one vote," Mr. Baynes said.

But such a check is far from foolproof, said Stephen Ansolabehere, the co-director of the Caltech/M.I.T. Voting Project. "If I can come up with a bunch of IP addresses, then I can prevent a bunch of people from voting," he said.

Chris McKnight, Ms. McKnight's father, said his daughter had never been constrained by her age. "She's not like other kids," he said. "She's very mature for her age."

Mr. McKnight, a former New York firefighter who retired shortly after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, moved his family to south Florida in 2002. He said that when Ms. McKnight is not writing political speeches or lecturing to Sims, she uses the Internet to stay in touch with old friends.

Ms. McKnight said she was excited about the election but that a victory in Alphaville would probably be the high point of her political career. "When I'm older, I want to be a psychiatrist," she said. "But you never know. I might run for president."

Mr. Baynes said he was concerned about the outcome. The seven-year age gap between him and Ms. McKnight means nothing in the virtual world of Alphaville, but a loss to a 14-year-old girl might elicit some teasing from his real-world friends.

"I'd also have to change my name," he said.

The area highlighted in bold is the most important part..

87x = Trey Seal...
Scott Almighty = Scott Seal...

My name actually being mentioned in the new york times is the main reason for this post.. i think its cool.. and that its something to just share with others

These are the candidates..
Arthur Baynes (Mr-President)

The incumbent Arthur Baynes of Richmond, Va. is running for re-election as Mr-President in The Sims Online community of Alphaville.

Laura McKnight (Ashley Richardson)

The challenger Laura McKnight, 14, of Jupiter, Fla., is running for office as Ashley Richardson, an avatar who shares a name with a former supermodel.

Who would you vote for??

[lightdarkness]

I VOTE FOR MR. SEAL!

[Specforces]

AYE, I vote for him also!

Specforces

[dontcareaboutmyid]

it'd be funny to see a grown man lose to an th grader.

Laura has my vote.

[vashthestampede0987]

im so confused

[Omeganitros]

it'd be funny to see a grown man lose to an th grader.

Laura has my vote.

Mine as well.

[SotN]

Well, this brings back old IRC memories for me. But now I want to join the Sims just so I can break the law.

And I vote for ashley. She's got potential. And I want to see a woman president.

[makaveli121212]

im voting for synth