Video Game To Battle Rising Tobacco Use Amongst US Soldiers
Sometimes, fresh ideas pop up that make the gaming crowd go, "...huh?"
It seems the rate of tobacco use amongst soldiers in the US Army is rising, and therefore, it has been suggested that a researcher from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center create a video game to battle this unfortunate increase. They have a budget of $3.7 million to create the game and Alexander Prokhorov, MD, PhD, and professor in M.D. Anderson's behavioral science department, is already working on it. He said:
"The tobacco use rates in the Army are alarming – 38 percent of service members smoke cigarettes and 15 percent use smokeless tobacco. Wars boosted the use of tobacco. Research shows tobacco use in the military increased during World War II...Tobacco is typically regarded by young people as a dull subject. The video game-based education program is anything but boring. It provides a highly interactive, engaging and exciting experience."
It's an intriguing idea and of course, the good doctor reminds us all that tobacco "may increase fatigue, dull the senses and cause shortness of breath." The game will be called Project Combat and 2,000 troops in Fort Hood, Texas will be the first to test it out. And believe it or not, this will be the second title based on this very concept; Prokhorov already made Escape with Your Life. As for Project Combat, it will "feature animation, audio, video and interactive activities that provide facts about smoking and tobacco use, as well as a customized Avatar." Players will go through several scenarios that include resisting peer pressure and dealing with withdrawal symptoms.
Well, it seems games are being used in a variety of ways; ways we could never have imagined.
7/11/2009 Ben Dutka
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Comments (45 posts)
b3mike
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 1:54:43 PM
Gregory Freeman
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 2:34:26 AM
i think if i'm risking my life every second for what? a 4 year term or something??? i would definitely NEED A SMOKE now and then, and by that i mean a carton a day...
if im gonna die, i should be able to smoke cigarettes... better than weed or booz... Cigs won't impair my ability to fill Ahmed the Suicide Terrorist with lead, right??
b3mike
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 1:38:35 PM
bridgera
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 11:19:13 AM
Reply
It was a pain in the a$$ to do anything fun on the weekends because you had to deal with people wanting to take off for 15 minutes to go smoke every hour or so.
Also, I don't think a video game is going to stop soldiers from smoking.
CONTRABAND
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 1:01:34 PM
Reply
bridgera
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 2:49:03 PM
At the time, I didn't even drink, I was pissed at the commander for treating me like a little kid.
The end result was that it killed moral and lowered people's performance. Rather than concentrating on their jobs, people just wanted to be pissed at the commander.
Personal beliefs have no place being orders. That type of mentality was ultimately why I quit the army.
NiteKrawler
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 4:25:04 PM
bridgera
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 4:55:20 PM
If it's their short term physical fitness your worried about, most of the people smoking can pass the PT exam. There is a world of difference between a smoker that does PT everyday and one that doesn't, so you don't have to worry about them hacking up a lung.
If you are worried about what your getting for your tax dollars, if you treat them as actual people, and not as slaves who have no rights, they'll do a far better job for you.
Sure you'll get a few bad eggs, and those need to be handled, but the methods that the OP advocated for are not going to get you the end results you want.
CONTRABAND
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 1:30:43 AM
NiteKrawler
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 11:06:40 PM
PS3addict
Monday, July 13, 2009 @ 11:29:44 AM
Have you ever had bullets fly at your skull while carrying a 120lb rucksack? Anyone piping in and stating that soldiers should not be allowed a stress releiver (Very little of them to be had on a mission) should get a taste of what war is like or just f@ck off!! I watched my buddy twitch to death after a sniper removed his helmet for him. I have guided copperheads into populated homes on orders, I have called fire from the airforce onto "Suspected Targets" so don't you tell me I can't have a smoke afterwords bud!
bridgera
Monday, July 13, 2009 @ 2:47:49 PM
It's not a "americans can do whatever they want" mentality, it's a "if a citizen can do it, a soldier should be able to do it" mentality. If a citizen can do it, but a soldier can't, there had better be a very good reason for it.
A soldier, especially one that is deployed, can't do the following:
- can't go see his family/friends when he wants for long periods of time
- can't willfully quit his job at any given time (stoploss)
- can't deny lawful orders
- can't deny lawful stupid orders
- gets put on standby for months on end
- has his life legitimately threatened
Most of those things have very good reasons, some of those are just a consequence of a good reason. I can't tell you how many times I had to move boxes back and forth all day because a superior thought it was "good training" or "keeping us busy". We got screwed with a lot.
Now when they get really pressured, taking away something small that may seem insignificant, such as smoking, becomes the straw on the camel's back that makes the camel flip the hell out, dump the stuff on his back, and run rampantly damaging nearby stuff.
It may not seem like a big deal to you, but it's important to many of the soldiers I've worked with. If it keeps them from flipping out, and the only consequence is that now they run a 14 minute 2 mile instead of a 13 minute 2 mile, screw it, let them have it.
If someone's really overdoing the smoking, it usually does get handled.
Last edited by bridgera on 7/13/2009 2:53:18 PM
NiteKrawler
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 @ 12:44:30 AM
P.S. PS3addict, sorry about your friend.
PS3addict
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 @ 11:56:35 AM
Ok, lets review stress relivers available to me when I was behind enemy lines, This is me personally, so other soldiers may have had other options:
1) Alchohol... Nope
2) Dope... Never
3) Sex...Nope
4) Exercise.. Fack, we do that every morning and are still stressed, so Nope.
5) video games...Nope (while on mission)
6) books...only in the daytime and that is when you are trying to catch some z's out of the heat, and prepping your weapons and gear for the night ahead...110 degrees on the top of a mountain sucks!
7) Smoking.... Yes! You get a mildly euphoric high. No smoking during night missions, Daylight is OK, and hot damb! it relaxes you!!!!
8) Dipping tobacco...Yes, same as above but you can do this at night.
9) Snuff... Yep same as 8
10) Chew.. Yep same as 8
I do not think I am missing anything here, so it looks like tobacco was the only real stress releiver available while out on a mission...
Appreciate the comment about my bud, but he died doing what we were paid to do.
We were DICK's (Dedicated Individuals Committed to Killing) and we accepted that the chances of dying went with the job.
Yes the pay sucked but at the end of my tour when I got home and hugged my kids and knew that they were safe and I contributed to that, it really was worth it in the end.
Last edited by PS3addict on 7/14/2009 11:57:50 AM
tes37
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 1:24:24 PM
Reply
Jiggy
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 1:32:50 PM
Also, they should make weed legal and tax the sh!t out of it. I don't smoke anything but I know A LOT of people that do.
bridgera
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 2:33:16 PM
tes37
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 3:03:18 PM
Jawknee
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 3:19:45 PM
bridgera
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 5:18:59 PM
As far as the video game idea about smoking, I agree with you, it's ridiculous.
Maybe I simply misunderstood your other comment.
"I am a smoker and the easiest way for me or anyone to quit is for the government to take tobacco off the market"
Please explain to me how saying someone else should doing something (such as passing a law) reflects your responsiblity to quit smoking.
tes37
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 5:48:01 PM
I didn't say I was trying to quit or that it's the government's responsibility to help me if I were trying. I used myself as an example.
I think you missed my point. I am a smoker and I drew off of my experience from smoking that the only way to rid most people of the habit is to do away with tobacco.
Last edited by tes37 on 7/11/2009 5:48:49 PM
Gregory Freeman
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 2:43:12 AM
NiteKrawler
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 11:31:04 AM
b3mike
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 1:53:32 PM
Reply
1. Do my job and do it well
2. Go above the call of duty
3. Do pt every morning and run an endless number of miles
4. Worry about time consuming airplane jumps which were cancelled a lot of times due to the bad weather or because the air force didn't want to fly.
5. Go to promotion boards
6. Encouraged to go to the gym and work on the areas I needed work on.
7. Deal with the possibly of failing my unit's bogus physical fitness test and get put on remedial pt.
8. Random uniform inspections
9. Sweep and mop the concrete floors in the hallways of our barracks every afternoon after work.
10. Have spit shine boots every workday even though the majority of us worked in shops.
11. Wear freshly starched uniforms every morning even though it was just going to get ruined and we were not allowed to wear Army overalls.
12. Be involved with the community
13. Go on random road marches
14. Participate in canned food drives and told to donate a certain amount of items, neglecting to donate said amount of items would single you out and get put on even more physical training.
15. Be a soldier "24/7"
This is why I started smoking, and to a certain extent drinking alcohol. I don't see how a video game is going to do any good. The military itself has condoned smoking before, by distributing tobacco products with their rations, meals ready to eat.
King James
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 1:53:55 PM
Reply
sticklife
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 2:11:33 PM
tes37
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 2:18:55 PM
bridgera
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 2:51:42 PM
newchef
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 10:48:09 PM
NiteKrawler
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 11:33:29 AM
RadioHeader
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 5:18:37 PM
Reply
This sounds like the most dangerous tobacco yet!
Soldiers smoke cuz their life is hazardous anyway. Most smokers will say... "well I could get hit by a bus tomorrow". Soldiers need to look out for more than just buses.
newchef
Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 10:48:54 PM
Jed
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 8:24:25 PM
Reccaman18
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 1:15:53 PM
CH1N00K
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 5:53:39 PM
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The government has a big enough problem now dealing with contraband cigarettes. Everytime the government raises the prices on the 'legal' smokes, more and more people book it to the reserves and buy the illegal ones, and the government gets nothing from those sales. Which is worse?
I don't smoke, but I know enough people that do. It's a personal choice, like alcohol. I do believe that where people smoke should be policed better so that kids aren't growing up in smoke infested houses, but to tell people that they can't have it? That's going to result in people filling our jails for selling and using an illegal drug, and that's going to cost the government more money. Money they aren't making from taxes on cigarettes.
Look at marijuana..It's illegal now, yet it seems everyone and their dog smokes it now days. Even the cops are more lenient on people now with possesion of weed? Why? It's a losing battle, and there is worse stuff out there then weed. The other reason? Do you know how many of billions of dollars are pumped back into the economy every year from that money that is made of the illegal sale of marijuana? Drug dealers usually deal because it's easy money. Money that they can't let the government know they have. So how do they hide that money? Buy lots of crap with cash sales, Motorbikes, Cars, TV's, Video game systems, etc..stuff that they don't keep receipts for and try to tell the IRS where they got it from. Unless you're a big time dealer then you look at offshores bank accounts.
As for trying to get soldiers to quit smoking. Really? 3.7 million dollars for that? How about all the fumes they inhale from gunpowder to tank fumes that burn their throats? What about helping those that have gone over deal with post-traumatic stress disorder? How about the rising rate of suicide amongst soldiers after they've left the battlefield? How about the soldiers that are having a hard time getting back into "regular" society because their mind is still with their gun?
You know what? If someone comes home and gets freaked out everytime a door slams because it reminds them of a gunshot or a bomb going off, I say give that poor guy a smoke. Screw it, give him a carton! Hell while you're at it give him a bit fattie and a bottle of scotch. And while he's sitting there feeling lonely and depressed because he doesn't know where he stands in society anymore? Sit down with him, share a smoke and a drink with him, give him your support, so that we can all get on with our lives.
And if I see an active soldier running 20k with a heavy backpack through the desert with a smoke hanging out of their mouth? Man, that's just impressive because I can't run 20K without a pack. If they're still doing their job, and I'm still able to walk my streets without a bus blowing up beside me? They can have my lungs when I'm done with them.
Jed
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 8:18:46 PM
Reply
If you release a game about not smoking, no smoker will ever play it. It's that simple. This is a HUGE waste of money.
As far as the moral dilemma in this discussion, if a man is out there facing death every day for his country, let him have a goddam smoke. If it started affecting his performance, I'm sure his CO would take care of it.
Last edited by Jed on 7/12/2009 8:19:21 PM
ExhumeART
Monday, July 13, 2009 @ 1:31:08 AM
Reply
PS3addict
Monday, July 13, 2009 @ 11:18:09 AM
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You need to understand the stress of being behind enemy lines looking for targets to call fire on. These men and women risk thier lives for you to enjoy the freedoms so many take for granted. If they want to use tobacco as a crutch and stress releiver, I understand, since I did it as well.
Sure it is bad for you, but as we reminded our butterbar lt; It is not as bad for me as a bullet in the brain...

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Danny007
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Saturday, July 11, 2009 @ 10:57:48 AM