IRC McQuaid Logs (EQ as originally intended)

[greatdane]

Originally Posted by Trexller [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

tobacco is all but banned from games. but nudity, trannies, bestiality, homos of all types, child brides, general pedo shit, its all become the norm.

BUT GOD FORBID YOUR CHILD SEES A CIGARETTE THAT COULD BE BAD FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENTAL HEALTH

Of all these examples (some of which are batshit insane to even bring up as comparable items) none are going to convert the player/viewer. Nobody becomes a fucking homosexual because they play a game or watch a movie that has homosexuals in it.

Now, I don't think there was ever any need to ban cigarettes from video games, because they feature in movies and TV shows and all manner of other media, so eliminating them from gaming probably doesn't accomplish much.

But if a game features homosexuals, it's not going to turn a person homosexual. Same with transexualism. A game featuring child brides (are there any, except maybe fringe shit like Crusdader Kings, played exclusively by 30+ year old white dudes from the western world?) would not influence a player to become a fucking child bride, or to marry a child. I don't know what the fuck kind of games you've played that have featured "pedo shit," but nobody becomes a pedo from playing any video game if they weren't already one.

But what does have some measurable impact on people's behaviour is when media normalize things that are readily accessible to the consumer of that medium. While the effects are probably minimal on an individual basis (let's say 0.1% of players of a game take up smoking because it's an aspect of that game), it is a thing. It's been the same things with movies, with the music industry, with celebrities and societal influencers of all kinds. A non-zero number of people smoke because the pop culture thing that they followed in their youth featured smoking and painted it in a positive light.

The hysteria surrounding it is overblown, and that's the telltale influence of the modern "woke movement" and its tendency to push the envelope to the point where it defeats its own goals; but that doesn't change the fact that there are differences and nuances between one game feature and another. If a game features necromancy, it's not actually going to compel anyone to attempt to practice necromancy in real life, because it's not a belief or opportunity that they're ever presented with. If a game or movie features homosexuals, it's not going to somehow change the player's/viewer's sexuality because that's simply not how humans work.

But if a game mechanic encourages in-game smoking - say, by providing a buff if you do it - or a movie features a sympathetic character for whom smoking is a distinctive character trait, that does have a very real influence on the receiving party to whom cigarettes are available every time they step into any supermarket or corner store. That does make some amount of people smoke. Probably not nearly enough to justify the level of hand-wringing that has gone on in the last decade, but certainly more smokers have been created by media that featured smoking protagonists or game mechanics than homosexuals have been created by homosexal protagonists or NPCs.

At the end of the day, this overreaction in the modern zeitgeist is a result of a phenomenon on the other side of the aisle. The recent resurgence in racism, homophobia, transphobia and other related hateful ideologies from the right wing has compelled the left to combat it by injecting tolerance into media and pop culture. Sometimes, the left has gone too far and made it obnoxiously "woke" to the point where it counteracts their own goals; but at the end of the day, all of this is simply the result of the fact that the right has ramped up its hatefulness in the last decade. If there hadn't been a rise in homophobia, antisemitism, misoginy, xenophobia and whatnot, there would not have been a corresponding reaction from the woke crowd.

And who really does the most damage? The ones who hate or the ones who try to make things a bit too soft in order to fight back against the hate? While smoking is not part of the culture war, it has become embroiled in it as a second-hand element, if you will.