Alright, so I am going to tell you about the history of smoking, and in each stage, I am going to talk about a videogame to accentuate that fits the phase of my story. Hopefully recommending you some cool games you might have not heard of before, while trying to teach you something you didn’t know.
Smoking as we know it, originated from America. Old America, long before it was known as “The New World”, and have been hit by massive colonization effort.
Side note. Surely other cultures have smoked things on other continents, and in other cultures. Setting something on fire, and inhaling the smoke, isn’t a revolutionary idea that could only ever spark in the mind of Native Americans. However, that’s where we derive the origins of modern-day smoking.
So the Iroquois hold the legend, that tobacco grew after Tekawerahkwa died giving birth to her children. The either her body becomes many plants because she wishes to sustain her people, or on her grave her beloved buries these seeds. Tobacco grew from her head, from her breasts different crops like beans, and corns, strawberries from her heart, and so on. At this point smoking culture was mostly ritual, or for more important social gatherings. Like people who drink some Champaign at New Year’s Eve.
First game is King of Dragon Pass. It is a very ancient game, that got pretty expensive once upon the time, because of the limited physical copies. However due to digital distribution and modern hardware, it is dirt-cheap, being able to be ran by a dial-up phone.
You lead a tribe of bronze-age people, who try to survive and prosper in the hostile environment of Dragon Pass. You try to befriend your good neighbors and crush the bad ones, eventually turning the clans into tribes, becoming the king of your tribe through the democratic process. Or bribing everyone. You need to take care of your cattle, and the land to feed people. Mind the happiness of your warriors, nobles, and farmers. Reconnect with your ancestor spirits and rediscover your gods for their hefty magic rituals. Oh and be careful of the ancient enemies! The beastmen, trolls, horse-people, elves, dragons, and the Pharaoh. Praise Orlanth.
Colonial blues
A certain Italian gentleman got lost on his way to India, and accidentally arrived to America. Saw many good things, and brought home many good things. Most of the vegetables that are famously part of European cuisine. Oh right, also tobacco.
It slowly grew to be a very popular luxury item. It was also told how it held health benefits. Quoting how the natives are generally free of illness, while Medieval Europe – especially the cities – suffered from all manner of plagues and malady. Generally not suspecting that the filth and lack of sanitation are at the root of these issues. Plus it made you feel good without getting inebriated like with alcohol. So what is the harm?
Okay, second game. A really nice one from 2001. You are a dirty convict that is thrown into an anarchist prison colony. Not because you are anarchist, but because the prison is ran by the inmates, no real rules except for the gangs, and only on the territories they hold. Welcome to Gothic.
One of the gangs are the “Sect Loonies” who smoke vapes tobacco swamp weed they grow in the swamps. You may join their cult, and enjoy part of the spoils. They are the most relaxed out of the three.
Gothic is not afraid of throwing you a curve ball with the controls, or its world’s difficulty. It is not afraid to tell you, that you are on the bottom rung in this world, and if you wanna be cool, you have to climb. While simultaneously it gives you.
Industry, ho!
By the 17th century, plantations became widespread and this was one of the hottest colonial export. Then the machines came, and it all changed. No more rolling it into hand-made cigars, no more stuffing a pipe. Now it came off a conveyor belt, minimizing the costs, and maximizing production. Which meant cigarettes became incredibly widespread.
The culture of smoking was no longer the upper class’s occasional past time, which they could only do after dinner, or in the evenings, as part of social gatherings. It became the opium of the masses, being able to smoke on the go, or pretty much anywhere as long as they had a lighter. The power of Marketing Propelled it all.
You know, there are simply not enough good games between 17th-19th century. If we are lucky, we might get some wild west stuff once in a while. Like GUN: Brutality of the West. Which is frankly a nice little journey, as long as you don’t mind the lot of dead people you leave behind in your wake.
A pity since the Victorian period is a really nice setting, and the Wild West does not touch upon it one bit. Closest you can get are the Sherlock Holmes games by Frogware. The earlier ones are incredibly clunky, I would not recommend them. Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper had a part that completely threw me off, because it doesn’t just ask you to puzzle out the clue for the murder, you need pixel-perfect match between to circles on a large map. The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is a huge leap forward, and anything after that is pretty sound.
For action-based, we have The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. It’s a Diablo-like. Never played it. I just kinda feel bad for leaving you, the reader without a good recommendation.
Maybe this is not so hot
No longer the ritual implement of native tribal, once smokes became available on every shelf, in every store, on a daily basis, for relatively cheap, for many years. So obviously, people started to notice correlation between certain diseases popping up, and an over-consumption of tobacco. Turns out the tar does you no good in your lungs. USA Surgeon General, Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry, have started a case study with the doctors under him. In 1964 it was publicized. the report concluded that smoking was a cause of lung cancer and laryngeal cancer in men, a probable cause of lung cancer in women, and the most important cause of chronic bronchitis. The culture of smoking started to shift from a slightly stinky but harmless habit to a dangerous and increasingly reviled activity. Not without justification mind you.
In 1998, the US have instated the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which forced the four greatest tobacco companies to pay yearly reparation to healthcare. You know, that sounds kinda late, doesn’t it? If I wouldn’t believe in coincidences, I would say it is almost like an elite group was being disposed of, because it wouldn’t be on board with another, more politically imposing elite’s vision of the future. Haha, I kid.
This era is tricky for video-games. There are ton of world-war themed games out there. Far fewer cold war games, and the most famed is the Metal Gear series, everyone heard of that. Often the separation between these eras are hard to pick out from a simply “modern setting”.
Instead of getting it wrong, I’ll play a jolly joker and get a game utterly not connected to anything. I am talking about a first person beat them up in a crazy world where nothing makes sense, but the plot still brings you along, and it feels like the nightmare smoke of someone. My head was blown off when I found this baby in a bargain bin all those years ago. Give ZenoClash a try today!
Rise of the Vape
A chinese man called Hon Lik had his father die. It was lung cancer, a really length and painful way to die. Probably the third worst if you ask me, after bone cancer and AIDS. Hon Like himself was also a very very avid user of cigarettes.
He was also an engineer, and such started to think around the problem. He envisioned an alternative way of smoking where you consume less tar, and burned smoke. So he got a liquid nicotine, added electrical bits to heat it up onto smoke, and voilá, the vape was born. Of course it wasn’t such a simple story. Like the car when it came out, this too was a lame prototype that people found slightly endearing, but wouldn’t have switched their trusty cigarettes over it. Hon Like didn’t give up and got the formula to be better. Others have caught up on the idea, and worked their own ideas into the formula. Kinda like with computers, where they started being able to do more with less, and therefore smaller parts, and thus devices.
The key to the vape culture is the chasing of individualism. I am not trying to sell you stuff how the vape is the way of the individual, you can pretty much see the same stuff in clothes branding, trending haircuts, customizing cars, and so on. The key is the option for customization.
Deus Ex the Original, plays in a dark future, where vapes never became a thing. Instead people carried on with smoking. With more and more intense chemical quantity, to keep up interest and placate addicts. You may smoke in the game, losing your health, and exhale it on other characters, making THEM lose health. You know nothing, Adam Jensen!
Vanquish is the coolest cover-based shooter that you likely never heard of. Wait, it is not what it looks like! You play as a DARPHA agent testing a new armor. The armor has rocket boosters, and the power of rockstar sliding at the speed of a motorcycle. Boosting through an army of robots on a space station.
It has a feature where you can stop, and hold a smoke break behind cover. You may also aim and flick your cigarette butt over the cover, distracting your enemies.
Vape of Tomorrow: Exploring the future of vaping in 2024
In this intricate tapestry of smoking’s evolution, Ezigi Market and Waka emerge as pivotal players in modern vape culture, offering alternatives that not only prioritize individuality and customization but also redefine the smoking experience. As the landscape of smoking undergoes a transformation, these brands stand at the forefront, reshaping perceptions and providing innovative solutions tailored to the diverse needs of consumers.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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