Curse

lyra_song · Mar 21, 2007, 01:20 AM // 01:20

Cigarettes....No...modern cigarettes do not fit.

But things like pipe would fit the universe of guild wars.

However, i really dont see how that would be "fun".

Getting drunk in game creates a visual distortion can be silly and fun.

Cigarettes do not.

as a former smoker, and someone whos grandfather died of lung cancer

/notsigned.

Absolute Eminence · Mar 21, 2007, 01:27 AM // 01:27

Some people just can't get enough of deadly pollutants on earth.

Vinraith · Mar 21, 2007, 01:28 AM // 01:28

Pointless. Then again so are the drunkard and sugar rush titles, so there you are. Might as well add one more form of self destruction to the game and give out a stupid title for it, right?

Arkantos · Mar 21, 2007, 01:30 AM // 01:30

Promoting an addiction that kills to people from the ages of as little as 8 to whatever age. What a great suggestion.

Antheus · Mar 21, 2007, 01:38 AM // 01:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arkantos

Promoting an addiction that kills to people from the ages of as little as 8 to whatever age. What a great suggestion.

- Alcohol abuse doesn't only kill, but causes incredible grief to people around alcoholics, or in a quaint form, drunkards.

- Sugar is a major contributing factor to obesity and related ilnesses like diabetes, all together cause highest number of deaths in developed world

and finally

- Game is about killing people. And stuff. PvP is about killing for joy of killing.

Isn't it funny, how some things are acceptable, but others are taboo?

Arkantos · Mar 21, 2007, 01:44 AM // 01:44

Quote:

- Alcohol abuse doesn't only kill, but causes incredible grief to people around alcoholics, or in a quaint form, drunkards.

Very true, but in many games around this age drinking wasn't as serious as it is today.

Quote:

- Sugar is a major contributing factor to obesity and related ilnesses like diabetes, all together cause highest number of deaths in developed world

Sugar isn't as addictive as cigarettes, and if you are overweight or have other related illnesses you can get help. Not much you can do when you give cancer to yourself, and risk everyone you smoke around.

Glitched · Mar 21, 2007, 01:48 AM // 01:48

Fifteen years old here, and I would love to attain a "chain-smoker" title. In fact, if mighty and buff warriors can blow smoke rings, then I think I'm going to try it!

After all, its what all the cool eles do.

I think that having options is always great, but smoking is going too far. You can say what you want about the drinking, but honestly having ale in a dwarven city is not really out of the ordinary. I'm not encouraged to get a real-life drunkard title.

Tarun · Mar 21, 2007, 02:13 AM // 02:13

It's safe to say this idea went up in smoke. Guess it was a bad drag after all. :P

max gladius · Mar 21, 2007, 03:23 AM // 03:23

nice topic... hahaha, lots of laughs, especially all the ppl saying that it promotes smoking to younger players... brb, gotta drink a few more Rice Wine and Juniberry Gin... ok what was i saying.... oh ya, they dont refer to any of the drinks toward drunkard title as alcohol, except for where u read up on the title... and the title itself....

I actually have no opinion for once in my life... wierd... but i do see your point in why not.....

Ok, good luck to u guys... eating all those candy canes and bean cakes are making me hunger... not that one out of five children under 15 arent obese or anything...

lots of laughs....

Esprit · Mar 21, 2007, 03:43 AM // 03:43

Smoking... in game... why? Drunkard title is somewhat amusing, but having a title for smoking is not.

For alcohol, you have social drinking and getting drunk. For smoking... there is simply the addiction. Don't go on about sugar and alcohol and calling people hypocrites, those things are not quite as serious as a nicotine addiction.

max gladius · Mar 21, 2007, 04:20 AM // 04:20

someone has never heard of an alcoholic...

Arkantos · Mar 21, 2007, 10:34 AM // 10:34

Taking alcoholics out of the picture, why do people drink? They do it to celebrate, as a social thing. After you win something, you go out and drink with friends to celebrate, which is positive. Who celebrates by smoking? There are very high chances that you'll get addicted to cigarettes. Not everyone gets addicted to alcohol.

Jaythen Tyradel · Mar 21, 2007, 12:54 PM // 12:54

People can drink socially and with reason and still be okay.

People who smoke occasionally still can suffer from side effects of smoking. Medical debate aside about second hand smoke, I just hate smelling like cigarette smoke when I am around someone who smokes. I used to work at a restaurant, and even with separated sections for smoking and non-smoking, people who didnt smoke do not want to be near the smoking section just because of the smell of smoke.

You can avoid, to a certain extent, someone who is drinking alcohol.

It is much harder to simply move away from a cloud of cigarette smoke.

/not signed

Tufty · Mar 21, 2007, 01:01 PM // 13:01

Did anyone actually take this seriously?
oh the shame

fabiola · Mar 21, 2007, 01:20 PM // 13:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaythen Tyradel

You can avoid, to a certain extent, someone who is drinking alcohol.

/not signed

Please tell that to the surving family of a drunk driving victim.

Ok on to my current response...I'm still not ready yet to make a request since not enough ideas have been submitted on how to implement.

Anyways...

From what I’ve read many people are stating that tobacco is not a good element to add to the game for such reasons as because it promotes minors to smoke, the game has people that are under 18 and to smoke in real life you have to be 18, that smoking is only done by stupid people, that smoking has no point. Some of these same people go on to condone alcohol that is currently in the game and how alcohol has a social purpose, or the alcohol is labeled as ale or what not, or drunkard is a great title but a smoking title isn’t but lets looks at some things, shall we? I certainly won’t say people that consume alcohol are stupid, however it is not something I will partake of and many people would call drinking a poor choice since you’re consuming a liquid poison. Or the fact that every singly drink kills brain cells.

First of all doing something in a game doesn’t have to mean that encourages someone to do it in real life. During winterfest I didn’t run out and buy candy canes, I certainly didn’t act out any dancing emotes, and it never crossed my mind to form teams and sword fight in the city park. Most people can separate fantasy from reality.

Smoking can be a social thing such as hanging out for a smoke or chilling btw.

Now let’s look at some of the cons of alcohol as well as general facts.

Alcohol Beverages contains ethanol a psychoactive drug which acts directly on the central nervous system, alters brain function which changes behaviors, removes inhibitions and affects consciousness. Additionally it is a carcinogen, a cancer causing drug.

Each Year hundreds of innocent people are killed from alcohol consuming drivers.
Additional each year people die from liver disease as a result of alcohol.
Since alcohol reduces inhibitions it can also be attributed to bar fights, unwanted STDs and unplanned pregnancies. Additionally, each year over a million people are arrested from duis resulting in the destruction of careers, financial burden and other serious consequences negative to a family, friends and/or oneself. Alcohol can create alcohol poisoning and kill some in one night of over consumption. It can tear apart families and destroy lives.

Alcohol vs. Tobacco

Alcohol is restricted to 21 year olds, a 3 year greater restriction over tobacco. Alochol is so bad that historically its been completely illegal in some past years. In the hands of minors alcohol can create much more serious problems in a very short period of time. Drink even a moderate amount and you can be impaired enough to die in a car accident, smoke tobacco in a moderate amount and cough or have a headache. Even if you are an adult and you drink in a car and drive go to jail and loose your license and job. Smoke in a car as an adult perhaps someone will say don’t smoke in my car. Drink at a bar and you may end up going home with someone that you normally wouldn’t and possible consequences of STDs or pregnancy. Smoke in a bar and go home with smoky clothes. Certainly becoming addicted to either one over a long period of time is bad in both cases, but in the short time of 13 years old to 18 years old alcohol use has the potential for so many more severe consequences.

Guild Wars is Rated Teen for violence and alcohol by the Entertainment Software Board

Let’s go into detail about the ESRB. http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

First of all it is a highly respected entity that rates games to aid parents in making decisions about what is appropriate for their children. It has several respectable business partnerships which such giants as Wal-mart, Best Buy and Target. These companies rely on the ESRB to make accurate ratings to keep the parent customers happy. Now the ESRB rates game into age categories but I’m only going to talk about 2 of these. Now the first category is E for Everyone and is content suitable for ages 6 and up. The second catorgy is T for Teen and is content suitable for ages 13 and up, which is what Guild Wars is rated. I’m also going to talk about content descriptors, 3 of them. They are Use of Alcohol which is the consumption of alcohol, Use of Tobacco which is the consumption of Tobacco and Violence which is scenes involving Aggressive content.

Alcohol and Tobacco fall under the Substance Group and Violence falls in the violence group. Since the company doesn’t clarify where substance falls into the rating system you have to use precedent rulings just like you would do in the real court systems. Now thanks to an excellent search system on their site you can search for these substances and their ratings. Now of all games that had both alcohol and tobacco but no other content that affected the rating of the game they were in 100% of the cases rated E or for ages 6 and up. However, violence was clearly spelled out as something that would constitute a teen rating. Therefore based on precedent it is safe to say that there is a very high likelihood that adding tobacco would keep the rating at teen and interestingly enough removing the violence would create an everyone rating. Yet no one complains about the violence affect on minors. The bottom line is it is perfectly acceptable for minors to play games that having tobacco use in them according to the official ESRB. Now if parents want to make a judgment call that’s their prerogative just like they could object for language of users, or violence or alcohol. However it is clearly the case that violence is more inappropriate in a video game then tobacco and the fact that the teen rating is 7 years stronger then the required age for tobacco use, further strengthens the acceptability of adding tobacco.

Now for the person that suggested a pipe fitting in with the theme more than cigarettes I agree. How about rolled tobacco in some natural more earthy form? And instead of a pack it could come in a tobacco pouch good for 10 rolls of tobacco use?

Any other ideas for how it should be implemented. Feel free to disagree with this just like I disagree with alcohol. I see where your coming from and since there is already alcohol in the game and violence and its already rated teen I’m going to say be parents, if you don’t like it then don’t let them play if you feel your teenager can make a distinction from fantasy and reality feel free to let them enjoy the entire game. If you can’t be a parent then the ESRB has taken that role and given permission.

Fender · Mar 21, 2007, 02:04 PM // 14:04

I think he's just pointing out the hypocrisy of the drunkard titles.

freekedoutfish · Mar 21, 2007, 02:04 PM // 14:04

If this is a genuine suggestion then...

1) Im disturbed you would even suggest it
2) Are you mental?

If its a joke, then "hahahaha", really funny.

Assuming you serioues... come on!!

We cant have smoking in a computer game such as this, especially in a way that can be seen as incouraging it. The UK has made huge strides recently to ban smoking in pubs and public areas and to ban smoking adds on tv.

Something like this would put those efforts back years.

Young are stupid and impressionable. If they see several dozen characters in a game smoking against a wall, their bound to thinkg "hmmmm why not".

And then you get seedy people ingame saying "you want a cigarette?" like its funny.

And for the record, I dont condone the selling of alcohol ingame. I've hardly ever bought it myself ingame and I actually dont think its clever. I think it shouldnt be done, because I dont think it helps not discourage drinking.

But alcohol is "ok" because, as in real life, its accepted. Drinking kills and does just as much damage as any other drug, such as smoking. Yet is accepted because its part of your culture as humans. Its hypercritical and moronic, but thats humanity for you.

So dont make the repsonce that Im defending the sale of booze ingame, and not smoking. Because Im not. I dont think either should be allowed.

How-ever you are right to say that games dont usually influence behaviour. I strongly disagree with the idea that violence and swearing is a result of gaming. The reason being that those are extreme actions which people wouldnt copy. You wouldnt copy an ingame character who goes out and butchers a family.

But buying tabs, or alcohol ingame. That is something which can very easily be mimiced in real life. Its something you can copy very easily, and cheaply and without anyone even knowing.

Thats why I say smoking ingame would incourage young people to smoke. Because its something you can try once, without anyone knowing, and then get addicted.

But I'll assume you were kidding, so Ill let you off.

DreamCatcher · Mar 21, 2007, 04:38 PM // 16:38

Quote: