anti-smoking
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Avatar uses smoking as a metaphor for (online) gaming obsession
For all of you who saw Avatar (and we're pretty sure that's a lot of you) we imagine the analogy between James Cameron's sci-fi techno masterpiece and our beloved genre of gaming didn't fully escape many of you. So, when anti-smoking outfits began to boil over about Sigourney Weaver's character lighting up after "logging off" from her big blue cat woman for the evening, Cameron took to the defense. According to the mastermind behind Avatar, the character of Grace was never meant to be a role model. "We were showing that Grace doesn't care about her human body, only her avatar body." Cameron continued by saying her destructive behavior "is a negative comment about people in our real world living too much in their avatars, meaning online and in video games." The message is clear, although not too overbearing. We love our online games, there's no doubt about that, but getting the occasional exercise routine or two in doesn't hurt, either. It's all very interesting given the ending to Avatar, which we won't spoil for those of you who somehow haven't yet seen it. Still, regardless of whatever "anti" sentiment you think Cameron was sending, there's no doubt plenty more MMO metaphor to be found within Avatar -- a movie ostensibly about a real life fantasy world and avatars to play within it. [via Wired]
Put out your butts: Army awards grant for anti-smoking game
The Texas Medical Center reports that the U.S. Army recently awarded a $3.7 million grant to Alexander Prokhorov, M.D., Ph.D.,to develop an anti-smoking video game for Army personnel. But, in its infinite wisdom, the U.S. Army failed to realize there's already a game that can help you quit smoking: Pokémon.Regardless, the Army has a really big problem with smoking, as Prokhorov says "tobacco use rates in the Army are alarming – 38 percent of service members smoke cigarettes and 15 percent use smokeless tobacco." Those are alarming rates indeed, but hey, if we had some Gunnery Sergeant screaming in our face, we'd probably turn to smoking too. [Via Game Politics] [image credit]
Floridian anti-smoking ad looks very familiar
Anti-smoking organization Tobacco Free Florida recently released a local TV spot featuring a fake FPS title, which for all intents and purposes, may as well be titled Haylo, created by little-known developer Spungie. The ad shows the unwisely unhelmeted hero laying waste to a squadron of robo-baddies, then lighting up a moke-moke, which quickly drains his health, leaving him very dead in the enemy stronghold.Gaming news site GameCouch recently interviewed the ad's creators, who explained that the fake game theme was chosen to grasp the attention of the coveted 11-17-year-old demographic. It's certainly not the least clever anti-smoking PSA we've ever seen, though we never knew that smoking a cigarette led to immediate death. They should really put that on a warning label or something.
Florida Anti-Tobacco Ad rooted in games
A fantastic anti-tobacco ad from Florida, discovered by GamerTag Radio, takes place within a Halo-esque videogame world where the battling hero survives a vicious robotic onslaught -- only to succumb to smoking. Part of the Tobacco Free Florida campaign, the videogame themed advertisement is the last of three new promotional spots that began running just before the Super Bowl. While we can't speak to the overal effectivness of the campaign one thing is certain, we wouldn't mind playing that game. You know, without the smoking part that is.
