Here I was, hoping that with the election being over, we'd never write a news story about presidential politics ever again. I figured we could get back to the important debates of our time, like whether Haohmaru could beat Chris Jericho in a fight. But then President-elect Obama had to go and appoint a couple of MMO/virtual world enthusiasts to run his FCC transition team. Kevin Werbach and Susan Crawford will serve as co-chairs on the team.
According to GigaOM, this team will be charged with providing policy info as well as advising on budgetary and personnel matters.
Werbach, according to his blog, is in a pair of World of Warcraft guilds, one of which is full of "academics and other thinkers who study and write about virtual worlds." Well that sure sounds like a party.
Crawford, for her part, considers herself a "huge fan of Second Life," according to a 2004 blog post.
I'm seriously torn on this one, folks. On one hand, the more informed the government gets about what games actually are, the less we'll see them demonized and scapegoated by policymakers who have no idea what they're actually talking about. On the other, most of the people I've met who claim to be really into virtual worlds like Second Life come across as totally creepy technohippies who just want to, like, feel the community tech-vibe, man. Either that or they're looking for some kind of messed-up avatar sex, which is probably worse.