Kotaku: smoking

Game to Soldiers: Don't Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em

Owen Good — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:00:00 MDT

If it sounds absurd - a video game, costing taxpayers $3.7 million, that nags people who do dangerous stuff all day long to quit smoking - know that "Escape With Your Life" is surprisingly effective.

Players of the game, a version of which the U.S. Department of Defense recently commissioned, will create a customizable avatar and then take a tour of all the things associated with sucking on a butt - including that people say you suck on a butt and they're technically correct. They move their characters through different themed rooms - "from radiology to accounting" - where they learn about the real costs and effects of smoking.

In a test of smokers aged 15 to 19, the games creator said more than half of 239 who played the game reported quitting afterward.

Of course, that's "reported" quitting. They may have taken it up later; they may have felt guilty and told researchers what they wanted to know.

Time was soldiers got two smokes in a box of C-rations. These days, it presents issues of health, cost, and even fitness for duty, so the Pentagon is spending lots to get troops to either kick the habit or never start. "Escape With Your Life," the military version, will be housed in an arcade-cabinet style kiosk and placed in rec areas to enhance the appeal of playing it.

Smokin' Soldiers: A $3.7 million Videogame Aims to Curb Tobacco Use in the Military [Scientific American (and photo) via VE3D]

Asian MMO Players Love To Smoke And Grind

Mike Fahey — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:20:00 MDT

As a connoisseur of the MMO genre, I've often noticed that your average Chinese and Korean massively multiplayer online games tend to rely heavily on the mouse, often foregoing keyboard movement altogether in favor of the dreaded click-to-move system that I completely despise. So why do Asian MMO games lean so hard on the mouse? Perfect World product manager Jon Belliss believes he's discovered the answer - smoking.

He explains that a large portion of the Asian MMO-playing public spend their days in crowded internet cafes, cigarette in one hand, mouse in the other, chain-smoking while they are chain-killing mobs...and I suppose technically their fellow patrons as well. And here I was, trying to use gaming as a reason not to smoke.

The Surprising Reason Asian MMOs Are Mouse-Based [MTV Multiplayer]

Halo-Inspired Anti-Smoking Ad

Mike Fahey — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:20:00 MDT

Honestly this anti-smoking message from the folks at Tobacco Free Florida could be channeling any future FPS, but I like to imagine it is Master Chief sneaking a smoke, and that it's opening his helmet in an alien atmosphere that kills him rather than the cigarette itself. Habit gets so ingrained that you often do it without thinking. I once lit up in my cubicle at work back when I did telephone tech support, and nearly got fired for it. Is absent-mindedly exposing yourself to the poisonous air on an alien world that much of a leap? I think not.

Video Game Florida Anti-Tobacco Ad [YouTube via GamePolitics]

Old Snake Says Don't Litter, Smoking is Bad For You

Brian Crecente — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:00:00 MDT

During the 9-minute or so loading screen of Metal Gear Solid IV, gamers are treated to a close up view of old Snake sucking through cigarette after cigarette as game tips, warnings and public service announcements pop-up on the screen. They're certainly not worth sticking around to watch, but if you do you'll get two bits of wonderful hypocrisy. The first couple of times Snake taps his cigarette ash onto the unseen ground an message shows up telling you not to litter and to use an ashtray for your ash and butts. Then after about five minutes of him smoking you get a message about the harms cigarettes.

[Smoking Warning]
Cugarette smoke has detrimental effects to you and those around you, particularly infants, children, and the elderly.

Have consideration for others when choosing to smoke.

Oh, and cancer, there's that too.

Smokers Become Gamers (Who Smoke)

Mark Wilson — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:40:19 MST

Casual gaming site POGO wants you to stop smoking. And while we're a little late on the bandwagon since yesterday was National Smoke-Free Day (which, as there are no smokers left standing today, worked out just great), POGO is still offering special "kick the habit" play rooms, game nights, mini items and even e-cards (back away from the e-cards, people). It's a nice thought, and maybe video games are addictive enough to replace nicotine...but you'd probably have to light them on fire and breathe in the toxic fumes of burning box art paint for the full effect. [POGO via vh1]

Bungie Trades Robots for Humans

Kim Phu — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:40:00 MDT

Today's Onion-esque story comes by way of humor tech site The BBSpot, which "reports" that Bungie has decided to do what most companies these days like to do when they want to do things better and cheaper - outsource the problem to another country. The company will be recruiting people all over the world to play Halo 3 instead of spending the money to get programmers to redesign the AI to their liking.

We'll have people from India, China, Bangladesh, just about everywhere there's poor people. We figure with eight million people working eighteen hour shifts, that we can satisfy our needs... One time the best enemy character you face may be controlled by Habibul Ashraful from Bangladesh, who only has three fingers, and the next time it may be Li Ming, who farms gold in World of Warcraft.

Yes, and soon Crecente will replace all of us with chain-smoking monkeys that have been handcuffed to a row of typewriters.
Bungie Dumps AI for Cheap Human Intelligence in Halo 3 [The BBSpot]