Gotta love the Schill

I have a weird relationship with Curt Schilling. I respect the man for everything he accomplished in 2004 for the Red Sox, for beating the MFY in game six of the ALCS, for subjecting himself to possible permanent bodily harm with an experimental tendon surgery and for creating the symbol of the team, a bloody red sock. Schilling has cemented himself as a pitching legend in Boston that surpasses the likes of Cy Young and Roger Clemens. Winning the first world series after 86 years trumps everything that came before.

But Schilling, the man not the pitcher, is a complete douche. He is loud, cantankerous and strongly opinionated, which are not necessarily bad traits. I can respect a guy who speaks his mind. But the problem is that his opinions are often very contradictory to mine own.

It started with him stumping for Bush in the 2004 election. Again, there is nothing wrong with speaking your mind, but it left a bad taste in my mouth when Schilling invoked his recent star status so quickly after it happened to campaign for a complete fool of a President. He can have his politics, he can be as conservative as he wants, but being a hero in Boston and then campaigning against the hometown hero in Kerry was in poor taste. Plus, Bush is dumb.

But possibly more offensive than Schilling and I disagreeing on Bush v. Kerry is this recent development. Now, I've known that Schilling played EQ from various sources and at first I was impressed, even excited that a professional athlete also enjoys the same hobby that I do. It basically proves my point that all videogamers are not mindless freaks. But it's his choices that I just don't understand. Why would he play Everquest 2 instead of playing World of Warcraft?

Granted, I've never played EQ2. I can't say firsthand whether it's a well-designed game or not. But from nearly every account I've ever read in the interblogoweb, WOW beats EQ in most, if not all, categories. I never cotton to might makes right. but here the sheer numbers make sense. At it's height, EQ was the "giant" of the MMO world, garnering 500,000 subsrcribers at it's peak in 2003. Within a year, WOW had 3.5 million subscribers. Now, generous estimates of worldwide subscribers are at 6 million.

Now, illustrious pitcher and part-time dork, Curt Schilling signs on as official spokesperson for Sony Online Entertainment, effectively tying himself to a sinking ship. I don't get it. WOW works on so many levels. You can be the uber raiding geek with all the best armor. You can PVP in RTS style battlegrounds. You can grind for various rep with the factions. You can quest nearly incessantly from 1-60. You can explore the deliciously rendered fantasy setting with no reward but the scenery. It's a game that appeals to every aspect of a gamer mind, which is why it is so successful. Every gamer can find something within WOW that they like.

Except Curt Schilling. He'd rather stump for a broken game from a retarded publisher who ruins everything they touch (SWG). Way to go Schill.