cannabisnews.com: Users Become Dealers In Dope Wars Game  





Users Become Dealers In Dope Wars Game  
Posted by FoM on February 16, 2001 at 10:26:11 PT
By Donna Leinwand 
Source: USA Today 
The loan sharks want their cash. The cops want your stash. The market is flooded with cheap Ecstasy. What's a drug dealer to do? In Dope Wars, one of the world's hottest and most controversial computer games, the options -- from shooting a cop to jetting off to Paris -- are just a mouse click away. More than 2 million Internet users have downloaded the game, which is an exercise in free enterprise that allows players to live vicariously as drug dealers in 10 cities. 
Players strive to become rich by buying and selling cocaine, crack, Ecstasy, heroin, acid or other drugs. In the process, they are hounded by loan sharks, who threaten to toss delinquent borrowers from windows, and by armed police officers. Players also must respond to changes in market conditions, such as a drug bust that inflates the price of heroin tenfold or pharmacy robberies that dump cheap Ecstasy on the market. Players can try to protect their enterprise by buying guns or by stockpiling cash to pay a doctor to repair gunshot wounds. To the Drug Enforcement Administration's dismay, the game's popularity continues to increase nearly two years after it became available on CNET and other Internet sites that offer free software downloads. More than 1.7 million people have gotten a copy of the game from CNET, where it has been on the ''Top 50'' list for 97 weeks. This week, it was the third-most-popular download, up from fifth last week. The version for handheld computers such as PalmPilots is CNET's second-most-downloaded program for such devices, behind the dictionary. ''It really took us by surprise,'' says George LaTourette, a content production manager for CNET, which maintains the Web site: http://download.cnet.com/ ''It's a little bit of a shocker at first because of the content, but really, it's pretty much like a stock-trading game. You buy low, you sell high.'' The site offers a simple Dope Wars game for free. A $5 registered version is more complex; it gives players more possible weapons (an Uzi and bazooka) and other options. Seth Lasser, 25, a management consultant in New York who downloaded the game from CNET, says he's no drug dealer but likes to play one on his PalmPilot. He sees Dope Wars as an ''interesting theoretical business game.'' ''Drug dealing is comparable to trading any other type of commodity,'' Lasser says. ''It's the quirks of the market that make it interesting.'' Ian Wall, 32, a computer consultant from Queens, N.Y., who modernized a 1980s version of the game and shared it on download.com, says, ''We all like to get our thrills vicariously. . . . I thought it would be a bit of a giggle for the office.'' The DEA isn't amused. ''This game, at least subtly, if not overtly, glamorizes being a drug dealer,'' Special Agent John Lunt says. He is particularly concerned that one way for Dope Wars players to escape trouble is to shoot a cop. ''If the police don't win every time, it's sending the wrong message.'' Wall, who has a Web site: http://www.dopewars.net/ where players share scores, says his game is for ''mature audiences.'' He calls it mild compared with games that are more graphically violent. ''I don't think people are going to stop playing the game and start dealing drugs,'' Wall says. He says maintaining his Web site is expensive, but he's breaking even by selling registrations. ''Maybe I'll produce a clean version with stocks and shares, so I can be a bit more proud when I tell my granny that my game is popular.'' Source: USA Today (US) Author: Donna Leinwand Published: February 15, 2001Copyright: 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc Address: 1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington VA 22229 Fax: (703) 247-3108 Contact: editor usatoday.comWebsite: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm 
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Comment #4 posted by NiftySplifty on February 16, 2001 at 21:27:45 PT
What would a game be like...
...if the player is actually playing a narc? He could bust into homes, shoot children and father's, confiscate fancy cars and jewelry, and all the "goodies" that go along with being a narc. The more goods he confiscates, the greater the weapons he gets. The more cannabis users ("dirty hippie scum" in the game, maybe) he arrests, the more his "honest" salary grows. The player quickly learns that "honest" money is not as exciting or profitable as getting involved directly.The variables will change when the voters pass laws against his property seizures, or call for the Dirty Hippie Scum to be left alone. Now, he has to send out (once he's up at the top of the chain of command) his P.R. people to spin the tale on the DHS. Hmmm...maybe it'd be called "Real Life Dope Wars". Who knows? Maybe the narcs would like this game. Wait a minute...they already have it.Nifty...
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Comment #3 posted by meagain on February 16, 2001 at 12:42:23 PT
Oh well
The DEA isn't amused. Nobody cares what the DEA thinks the Dea is an agency that should be disbanded the FDA can do their job too thats what you get for lieing and ruining the hemp crop for American farmers ruining peoples lives,careers over marijuana something put on earth by GOD...disrespect
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Comment #2 posted by Dave in Florida on February 16, 2001 at 11:27:52 PT
it's sending the wrong message
"This game, at least subtly, if not overtly, glamorizes being a drug dealer," Special Agent John Lunt says. He is particularly concerned that one way for Dope Wars players to escape trouble is to shoot a cop. "If the police don't win every time, it's sending the wrong message." No, the game is like real life, the cops don't win every time. I bet it (the game) really pisses you guys off, eh!The powers that be are always sending the wrong message, not the reformers, we speak the TRUTH.
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Comment #1 posted by Lehder on February 16, 2001 at 10:30:16 PT
correction
>it gives players more possible weapons (an Uzi and bazooka) and other options. Most kingpins prefer the MAC-10.
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