Drug Campaign: Smoking Pot Makes You a Poor Gamer
March 8, 2009 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Gaming, Trends
I’ve always tuned out anti-drug messages because one, I’ve never tried ‘em and two, they are cheesy at best, and preachy at worst. But even if abovetheinfluence.com’s recent campaign is borderline preachy, it still caught my attention. Why?
That’s because it presents the drug problem in a way that really appeals to me. Smoking marijuana will make you a poor gamer. If that isn’t relevant to my child-at-heart 27-year-old self, I don’t know what is!
While the idea is perfect, the execution isn’t. For starters, abovetheinfluence.com could’ve relied less on Flash; HTML can still retain their visual aids, and makes it easier to provide more information in an easy-to-digest way. And what about those admittedly awful mini-games? The site does a great job of pulling people in (even drawing a link from those gaming vanguards of culture, Penny Arcade). If only it had much more to offer.
Still, this is a promising trend, as it shows that some people trying to get people off drugs are doing their best to make their messages more relevant and less uncool.
