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The WAR at home

by: Randy -
More On: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Texas and Rhode Island will field epic numbers of warriors to do battle.  South Dakota and Vermont, for the opposite reason, may resort to skullduggery with their fewer recruited fighters. Nowhere in the United States does Order reign over Destruction ... and the light grows dimmer by the minute.

This is America according to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

WAR's ingenious little scheme to translate in-game realm vs. realm warfare into a real-world affair of state-ist pride is working.  With a Google-powered Tele Atlas, WAR's developer, Mythic (sans "EA" in name, but not in payroll), devised a Road to War metagame that punctures the worldwide landscape with little orange and black dots of allegiance.  Head to the site, register your email address, select your alignment with Order or Destruction, and choose your champion race.  Soon enough, your orange or black dot of allegiance will become apparent to the world.

Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are world powers in the Road to War, too.  But living here in the United States, the quote-unquote Home of the Brave, and watching the numbers depicting good against evil -- with evil clearly dominating -- started messing with my head.  I started taking the statistics personally. 

Would no state (none?) find a majority fighting for the side of Order?  If you've been following WAR's development, it's plain to see that "Order" is still synonymous with "We must break you."  So it becomes apparent that there's a deeper American psychology at work here, at least among MMO players.  We're living in a very unpopular country in this day and age -- yet even in fantasy realms are we siding with evil, perhaps presuming that that's the path of least resistance to victory?  Or are these results more benign in nature, and living good, orderly lives during our regular workday compels us to swing our state to the dark side in a video game?

I'll tell you one thing:  Were this fun little study in sociology to suddenly turn very real, and the world's armies were to be suddenly populated only with PC-loving, MMO-playing soldiers … I would completely avoid living in Delaware, Georgia, and Kentucky, the three most  Destruction-populated states per capita in the U.S.  And were I too look for the greatest number of warriors fighting for the side of Order, I would fall into formation with North Dakota, West Virginia or, in fact, stay right here in my home state of Oregon.  Those are the only states where the good vs. evil ratio even tries to strike for a 50/50 balance.  Though, as I alluded to in the first paragraph, no state currently has a majority of people registering with Order. 

Granted, this is only a snapshot at 10:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 14th.  Things will change, all up until WAR's September 18th release.  And, granted, there are some erroneous statistics that emerge right off the bat, like the fact that Rhode Island has 919,610 people registered on the Road to War map -- but Rhode Island's real-world population is only 1,067,610.  Is 86% of that state planning on playing WAR?  Pffft.  Rhode Island ain’t South Korea, no matter how much you skew the numbers.  The likely explanation?  Either Rhode Island has a hax0r cooking the books, or their entire MMO-playing populace decided to register a vote with every single email address they’ve kept open since 1998.  Doubtless there’s plenty of that.  But taken with a grain of salt, this is an entertaining little study.

For shins and giggles, I'll let the following table of statistics I cranked out speak for itself.  And to make it more dramatic when discussing percentages, I just point out the evil percentage of players in each state.  Click through to find yours.  Find out how evil and destructive your state’s populace truly is.

   [EDIT:  Upon further contempation of this Road toWar -- though the site doesn't clearly state this fact either -- the numbers collected below for Destruction and Order are probably not members that have registered on the map, but the amount of gold raised for Destruction and Order's sides of the conflict.  Think of the numbers below as campaign funds.  And realize that, while Rhode Island may not have an immense population, its evil MMO players are willing to work to work harder for their money.  I'm not sure that would make me feel any safer there.]

STATE

DESTRUCTION

ORDER

TOTAL

EVIL %

Alabama

105,135

57,545

162,680

65%

Alaska

37,753

31,743

69,496

54%

Arizona

146,544

91,086

237,630

62%

Arkansas

58,720

33,289

92,009

64%

California

1,015,413

422,851

1,438,264

71%

Colorado

104,628

55,703

160,331

65%

Connecticut

74,749

36,500

111,249

67%

Delaware

14,037

3,523

17,660

79%

Florida

377,245

216,903

594,148

63%

Georgia

203,350

50,665

254,015

80%

Hawaii

31,308

10,679

41,987

75%

Idaho

49,522

20,600

70,122

71%

Illinois

207,180

94,976

302,156

69%

Indiana

97,991

61,461

159,452

61%

Iowa

51,299

35,311

86,610

59%

Kansas

132,308

42,015

174,323

76%

Kentucky

82,548

19,050

101,598

81%

Louisiana

97,418

55,860

153,278

64%

Maine

33,907

10,360

44,267

77%

Maryland

110,027

39,601

149,628

74%

Massachusetts

91,130

56,257

147,387

62%

Michigan

161,861

87,815

249,676

65%

Minnesota

110,681

58,607

169,288

65%

Mississippi

37,029

26,848

63,877

58%

Missouri

112,153

50,702

162,855

69%

Montana

35,096

14,330

49,426

71%

Nebraska

54,472

31,613

86,085

63%

Nevada

80,312

30,876

111,188

72%

New Hampshire

32,854

16,852

49,706

66%

New Jersey

129,282

98,741

228,023

57%

New Mexico

46,231

21,107

67,438

69%

New York

271,634

111,563

383,197

71%

North Carolina

151,725

64,950

216,675

70%

North Dakota

74,467

70,176

144,643

51%

Ohio

174,008

126,641

300,649

58%

Oklahoma

72,612

45,101

117,713

62%

Oregon

169,248

152,218

321,466

53%

Pennsylvania

190,089

109,755

299,844

63%

Rhode Island

598,910

320,700

919,610

65%

South Carolina

65,872

44,010

109,882

60%

South Dakota

17,015

9,513

26,528

64%

Tennessee

128,210

58,291

186,501

69%

Texas

1,273,974

577,678

1,851,652

69%

Utah

88,027

35,910

117,937

70%

Vermont

16,927

9,100

26,027

65%

Virginia

207,313

85,189

292,502

71%

Washington

218,598

144,350

362,948

60%

West Virginia

29,335

23,352

52,687

56%

Wisconsin

112,254

56,080

168,334

67%

Wyoming

20,534

14,864

35,398

58%