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Chilly reception for Devolver’s marijuana tycoon game shows games industry’s backwards stance on drugs
- Thread starter lupianwolf
- Start date
The TI-83 port of that is a classic, up there with Phoenix and PuzzPack imo
There are several prison simulators with 4 Prison Tycoon games. Prison Architect has a favorable rating on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/233450/Prison_Architect/
So if those games can be popular, why couldn't a game about marijuana or alcohol?
Is this some dumb equivalency about how drugs are immature or something? Considering the stigma around videogames still? Drugs probably have better reception anyways.
No, it's the reality of everyone I knew playing that game was about 11. I have a very progressive attitude towards drugs but I find the idea of playing a weed management sim utterly boring.
Uh, contract killers, gang violence and robberies are real. There are games in which you do these things. GTA V has some of the highest sales of all time and was heavily marketed without consequence...
Drugs themselves arent immature, but basing your whole identity and personality around the drug is. Like, sex games at the very least are erotic and material you can use, yet they're shunned top to bottom. You cant get high off a game, nor drunk. There's no reason beyond jokes, but a game based around one brand of joke is a one trick pony.
More boring than Football Manager though? that franchise has sold millions.
Like games are largely one trick ponies themselves. Be a soldier! Be an anime character! Be the one true hero! ad naseaum. Playing a botanist would be refreshing, no?
Playing an actual botanist with a game based around the thousands of different kinds of plants, flowers, herbs, etc, yes!
I mean I could write some long paragraphs but I'm just instead going to say instead:
"Not every thing is the same thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
Drug industry =/= Hitman Industry =/= Grand Theft Auto
They're all different, different things.
Lord Quas would know, good morning sunshine!
Being in a recreational legal state it blows my mind seeing stuff like this, just last night saw an episode of Cops where they did the fake dealer trap thing for weed...weed. It was a fairly recent season too. Feels like living in a different dimension altogether and seeing some Reefer Madness tier insanity going on in other states. Shit needs federal legality like yesterday.
Omerta has been out for basically forever. It's a game about running an organized crime group in a city where your primary source of income is racketeering.
Even within those regionalized markets, it's complicated.
Weed is still illegal as a recreational drug in most of the U.S.
This is literally a minigame in one of the AC games (Brotherhood iirc).
They're all different things yet you compared this game to a Crack or Heroin trafficking game...get some nuance dude. Come on.
Yes.
But also, that game tanked, though that didn't necessarily have anything to do with the drug use as much as it was just an ill-conceived reimagining of an arcade game that was known for its anti-drug messaging.
I really hate this comparison.
You can't say video games don't make people murder machines in one breath and then say lines like this in the next.
If you want to defend the concept of drug based video games, fine. But use a better line than throwing the rest of gaming under the bus.
Maybe but Lord Quas probably wouldn't trip about a game where you spark the la.
Where have I said anything of the sort about video games making people murder machines?
Also, I'm not throwing anything under the bus, I'm pointing out blatant hypocrisy in their statement about the legality of it. I have no problem with violence in media.
What is there to defend. Growing cannabis is quite harmless and legitimate business. So yeah I can see why one would think that comparing it to killing isn't valid.
I'm not surprised that major companies are reticent to market, advertise, and profit off a game specifically about starting a drug tycoon business, and I'm a strong advocate for legalization of marijuana (where it's legal in the state that I live in, and I have a medical card). I also think it's a false equivalency to say "Grand Theft Auto and Hitman are sold, those are about stealing cars and assassinating people -- two illegal things!" but they miss all of the context of those games, and that both of them are about much broader subjects than the titles of the game. There have been games that have gone too far in the past and game publishers/service providers have been reticent to sell them, and not because of the illegality of the thing. Personally, I think that GTAV went way too far in many of those missions, but because they're several small missions in a much larger game, and the game has such a large cultural cache, it's still sold -- although GTAV was widely criticized for those scenes as well (I'm talking particularly the torture scene, it's my most hated gameplay segment of just about any game I've ever played, completely pointless, and because Rockstar presents it as 'satire of the American government,' or what have you, they think they're putting one over on The Man.)
It's not just the quasae-legality of the, largely harmless, substance, for instance I think most game companies would be similarly reticent about a game called "Opioid Tycoon," even though opoiods, a regulated substance that millions of people use responsibly, can be legally prescribed and obtained in every state. It's not just the federal illegality of marijuana, but that a game called "Marijuana Tycoon" leads critical people to think that Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and others, are profiting off of a game where players become a tycoon of marijuana which is still a sensitive subject even in places where marijuana is legal (like where I live in the United States). There are other legal "Tycoon" concepts that would be controversial as a videogame and I think major game publishers and content providers would also be cautious to have on their networks, I'll let your mind wander. For a softer topic, I think something like "Tobacco Tycoon" or "Cigarette Tycoon" also wouldn't go over well, both are legal, and the games could explore the depth of cigarette regulations or something, but I don't think it's something most companies would want to attach their name to on their sales platforms.
It's consistent for Valve to allow the sale of this on their platform as they generally take a content agnostic approach (which is also why Valve often has really distasteful content on there pretty often), but Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, etc., I'm not surprised. I think if marijuana became federally legal in the US they'd be less apprehensive about it. Major platforms also do not allow advertising for marijuana products (which even as a legalization advocate, I'm thankful for because I can only imagine the sheer enormity of how stupid those ads would be).
It's not just the quasae-legality of the, largely harmless, substance, for instance I think most game companies would be similarly reticent about a game called "Opioid Tycoon," even though opoiods, a regulated substance that millions of people use responsibly, can be legally prescribed and obtained in every state. It's not just the federal illegality of marijuana, but that a game called "Marijuana Tycoon" leads critical people to think that Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and others, are profiting off of a game where players become a tycoon of marijuana which is still a sensitive subject even in places where marijuana is legal (like where I live in the United States). There are other legal "Tycoon" concepts that would be controversial as a videogame and I think major game publishers and content providers would also be cautious to have on their networks, I'll let your mind wander. For a softer topic, I think something like "Tobacco Tycoon" or "Cigarette Tycoon" also wouldn't go over well, both are legal, and the games could explore the depth of cigarette regulations or something, but I don't think it's something most companies would want to attach their name to on their sales platforms.
It's consistent for Valve to allow the sale of this on their platform as they generally take a content agnostic approach (which is also why Valve often has really distasteful content on there pretty often), but Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, etc., I'm not surprised. I think if marijuana became federally legal in the US they'd be less apprehensive about it. Major platforms also do not allow advertising for marijuana products (which even as a legalization advocate, I'm thankful for because I can only imagine the sheer enormity of how stupid those ads would be).
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Sorry folks I'm still reeling at this post that, as far as I can tell, is implying that murder isn't real
Yeah it's pretty fucking ridiculous advertising murder simulators (gta) is a okay but a 2D pot growing game is a Nono. Good god.
Thirty-five years ago they stripped out the Budweiser branding and turned Tapper into Root Beer Tapper because they wanted to put the game into arcade that kids would go to. It's not like there isn't a precedent for this kind of thing.
Secondly, this is just lame. Just like games in the "Simulator" genre, the "Tycoon" genre started with legitimate innovative design, then moved on to funny parody, then derivative schlock like this game.
Secondly, this is just lame. Just like games in the "Simulator" genre, the "Tycoon" genre started with legitimate innovative design, then moved on to funny parody, then derivative schlock like this game.
Lol we bout to have a game release in a few weeks where a guy in a skull takes his hammer, smashes a guys head with the hammer, then swings it and bashes the persons head in so it pops out their asshole.
And its going to be featured front page on every gaming storefront...
But god help us if we market weeeeeeeddddd. ITS ILLEGAL lol
And its going to be featured front page on every gaming storefront...
But god help us if we market weeeeeeeddddd. ITS ILLEGAL lol
You know what else is illegal in *checks notes* every country? Murder, stealing, etc etc etc.
It's a dissonant stigma.
Mortal Kombat, a game with violence for violence sake, comes out next week.
I think this has less to do with the industry than it does with the ESRB.
There's no way the ESRB would ever approve anything like this, and, except for Steam, stores don't want to carry things the ESRB won't approve of.
And based on the ESRB criteria, you'd have just as hard of a time making a 1920's-themed prohibition Distillery Tycoon, or a Cuban-themed Cigar Tycoon.
It's ridiculous, but that's just how things are with the ESRB right now.
There's no way the ESRB would ever approve anything like this, and, except for Steam, stores don't want to carry things the ESRB won't approve of.
And based on the ESRB criteria, you'd have just as hard of a time making a 1920's-themed prohibition Distillery Tycoon, or a Cuban-themed Cigar Tycoon.
It's ridiculous, but that's just how things are with the ESRB right now.