More politicians are coming out of the WoW closet. Jeanne Stevens is a WoW player -- with a 70 Orc Hunter, a 58 Troll Shaman, and a 53 Blood Elf Rogue -- and a Republican running for the Connecticut state legislature. And she freely admits it in a new interview with Wandering Goblin, as covered by our sister site, Massively. Her hunter is balanced between marksman and survival, her shaman specs elemental (close to my heart!), and her rogue climbs the assassination talent tree. Will she be able to master the beasts in her political race? (Okay, you go ahead and insert your own shaman or rogue wordplay here.) Maybe she'll hold some in-game speeches or rallies. She could hold forth on top of Orgrimmar's bank, or maybe lead a raid to Stormwind as a metaphor.

Is it surprising that a Republican chooses Horde? I think you could make a case for either faction going with either political party. Personally, I love to see that she's middle-aged and a woman, which defies Blizzard's assumptions about the majority of WoW gamers. She also chooses pirates over ninjas. I'm not sure there's a political comment there, but I'm sure someone will show me the light.

[Thanks to Wandering Goblin via Massively.]

We've known for a while that there were stars playing World of Warcraft. After all, with 9 million people logging in, there's inevitably going to be the occasional star from somewhere in the world. But reports this week illustrated a player that perhaps many of us were a little surprised at. You see, the gentleman in the picture to the right is Senator Ray Tenorio of Guam. When he's not working towards a brighter future for Guam serving in the Mina Bente Ocho Na Liheslaturan Guahan (the 28th Guam Legislature) as Senator and Majority Leader, he can be seen slinging heals in Karazhan on his Level 70 Dwarf Priest, Paleray.

This just further helps to illustrate the point that many researchers are claiming now -- that MMO players know how to excel in team environments and make excellent leaders. Aside from that, I have to admit that having a gamer (and a Priest, at that) running for elected official would get some brownie points from me. Raiding requires people who are willing to work hard with a group, and that's definitely what I want to see in any elected official. Although I have to wonder why the Pacific Daily News didn't use actual screen shots from Paleray as opposed to just snagging random WoW screen shots. I don't know about you, but I'd be curious to see what a Senator uses for a UI.

[via Pacific Daily News]