Smoking (Concept)

Smoking

CONCEPT

The inhalation of burning chemicals for recreational purposes. "Smoking" typically refers to the smoking of tobacco but can include other drugs.

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Overview

The practice of achieving a heightened or relaxed emotional state through smoking dates back well into the ancient era. Substances may be smoked through cigarettes, cigars, in pipes, or by other means. Throughout the 20th century, the smoking of tobacco was often depicted in pop culture as projecting suaveness, sophistication, rebelliousness, or general "coolness". Despite pushback from the tobacco lobby, attitudes towards smoking became more complicated around the mid-century. A scientific consensus formed that tobacco smoking could have severe adverse health effects, including damaging the lungs and significantly increasing the user's chance of developing cancer. The chemically addictive property of tobacco and other frequently-smoked drugs only increased public and political concerns. Worries over public health led to regulation of the advertisement of tobacco and the depiction of smoking in media, with particular scrutiny given to how media may promote recreational drugs to children. Yet, smoking remained a frequent activity of leading men in media, particularly action media, through to the end of the 20th century. It was still featured fairly frequently in the 21st. Video games alternately depict benefits to and negative health consequences of smoking. Ratings boards generally take references to or depiction of smoking into account when considering the age rating of a game, with substances stronger than tobacco tending to lead to higher ratings. PEGI, the European ratings board, applies a "Drugs" label to the packaging of video games that refer to or have characters using "illegal drugs, alcohol or tobacco". Under PEGI, such titles always receive the 16+ or 18+ ratings.

Notables uses of smoking in video games

Metal Gear Solid

In the first three MGS', smoking provided the benefit of allowing the player to see nearby infrared laser traps via the cigarettes/cigars smoke, which is especially useful should players not have located the thermal goggles. However smoking does still in fact harm the player character, as it'll very slowly cause it to deplete their health bar the longer they have cigarettes equipped. Though it will only deal damage to a certain point and cannot actually kill the player character. In Metal Gear Solid 4, Snake can smoke cigarettes to regain his Psyche meter, which determines how well Snake can perform in-battle, such as handling recoil and being able to aim steady. In Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain, Venom Snake has available a Phantom Cigar (Object) that is filled with a drug that heightens the character's perception of time, introducing the opportunity to fast-forward the clock.

Deadly Premonition

Much like Phantom Pain, Francis York Morgan (Character) can smoke a cigarette to speed up time. However there's no actual in-game explanation as to how this occurs.

Yakuza 4

Should it have been unlocked, and so long as the player has a cigarette available in their inventory, one of Kazuma Kiryu (Character)'s HEAT moves is initiated by him flicking a cigarette towards an enemy's eyes stunning them as a counter attack.

Grand Theft Auto V & Saints Row/Saints Row 2

In most open-world crime games of the Grand Theft Auto & Saints Row nature, players can often partake in smoking marijuana. This will typically then make the screen slightly sway, imbue a number of faded colors on the screen, and/or slow-down the action slightly. In GTAV Franklin has available a lit joint at his safehouse to smoke; in Saints Row 1 + 2, players can buy marijuana joints to store in their inventory for use.

The Saboteur

While it provides no mechanical benefit, one of protagonist Sean Devlin (Character)'sidle animations is of him smoking a cigarette, to which he'll flick away as soon as the player retakes control. Sean's smoking occurs in real time at that, and he can eventually smoke through an entire cigarette. In the game's statistics menu, there is a stat that tracks how many cigarettes Sean has smoked.

Bioshock/Bioshock 2/Bioshock Infinite

In the Bioshock series, the player character smoking cigarettes increases their Health (Concept) but reduces their Eve (Concept) (in Bioshock 1 and 2) or Salts (in Bioshock Infinite).

Trivia

Chris Redfieldof Resident Evil (Franchise) fame was initially depicted as a smoker during the original Resident Evil (Game)'s opening FMV cutscene. However it wasn't until Resident Evil 6 (Game) that his habit was reintroduced; up until that point there was otherwise no indication as to whether he continued to smoke. While Chris isn't shown to smoke this time, his unique inventory item in the Resident Evil remake is of a lighter. As it is for Leon S. Kennedyduring Resident Evil 2 (Game), however he has never been shown to smoke. During when Leon first encounters Luis Serain Resident Evil 4 (Game), Luis asks if Leon has a smoke, to which Leon responds got gum. Though whether Leon has gum because he has been trying to give up smoking--if he was even a smoker to begin with--is unknown.

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