I'm glad to look in the comments and see that I'm not the only one who never really considered what message video games were giving about alcohol. I would have thought it's because I'm a teetotaler that I always thought as video game alcohol as wacky screen effects, but I really do think you have a point with games that slow things down and provide an intimate, human connection and education about the manufacturing process rather than a device you put in yourself for fun times to come out.
As someone who don't drink, doesn't like alcohol and doesn't like the idea of getting drunk I find it worrying how many games I've seen that pushed me to drink in some way. Like, when you have to do active effort not to drink as someone who isn't even interested in alcohol it feels weird. But then again the way society treats alcohol baffles me tbh, especially the contrast with drugs even when some of those drugs are comparatively harmless. Maybe it's cause I'm french and casual drinking problem are very common here, and it's common to give alcohol to young kids (not on a daily basis but like sneaking a glass of wine to a 10years old on christmas). I really wish alcohol consumption wasn't glorified and people who don't drink presented as weirdos who don't know how to have fun.
I'm reminded of Roger Ebert's famous maxim, "A film is not what it is about, but how it is about it." A game is not about alcohol, but how it is about alcohol.
Interesting ideas I hadn't given much thought to! I remember being 16 and reading the official Naruto manga and there's a part where Rock Lee accidentally drinks alcohol and becomes the drunken master trope. But it's translated as a "potion" that makes him "dizzy." At 16 this felt like a super lame translation, but idk these days I think it was probably a good call. A ton of children read Naruto and maybe it's best to not tell them drinking gives you superpowers. Especially cause Lee was a teenager too. It's hard to depict drinking responsibly, maybe because it's quite hard to drink responsibly, and this piece is a valuable contribution to that much-needed discussion!
I'd like to mention that while some of the beers in Deep Rock Galactic do serve a purpose, most are for the novelty and unique silly effects they impart on you. But yes, there is a drunkenness mechanic and it's both silly as heck and remarkably accurate in how it makes you completely useless if you try to go on a mission while three sheets to the wind and it's all really to reinforce the silly drunk dwarf stereotype
You should have included Kingdom Come: Deliverance! It has a dedicated skill tree for drinking! It features skills like always waking up in your own bed when passing out. A skill I use from time to to time in IRL! 🤣
I think this points to a bigger problem how alcohol is viewed in society. Our mainstream media (music, films, games) depicts it often as a fun or cool activity, seldom admitting the problems with it for a fraction of our society. Especially during college one realizes how omnipresent alcohol is. If you're unlucky and have a trauma to work through or get easily addicted to substances, being part of that community could lead you to indulge into drinks too much and lead to further psychological and physiological problems. Thank you for your videos and the nuanced and well researched discussion you offer.
Hell, I can imagine a sequel to this video involving in-game gambling, exploring justifications for it (I can make it all back, I’ll quit once I make 10,000 yen) and real-life consequences (like with lootboxes and gacha games)
Psychonauts 2 is so good for so, so many reasons. I remember loving that chapter, but this puts into context just how rare and *important* it is in the wider games landscape. Great stuff as always, GC!
13:57 which is kind of the opposite of Japanese drinking culture. In Japan they definitely drink slower but that's due to the fact that they generally consume food and drink in smaller amounts and slower. But you've never seen somebody drunk and so you've seen a Japanese man drunk
I feel like you came off kind of hypocritical at about 11 minutes and you start talking about the morals of normalizing drinking and just before that you were criticizing Fable for being self-righteous for the results you get from drinking.
I remember a very fun dremora Lord quest in Skyrim that I lost because of refusing to drink. Certainly points to drinking = fun times. I felt kind of excluded, but never had tought about it before this video.
Huh, I never once considered drinking just because of a video game. I've never had alcohol in my life though, so maybe that's part of it. I guess I just assumed nobody else would be pushed towards it because of this. That said, if you were ever to make cocktail tutorials I'd watch. I don't drink, but the wife does, and I like to make things for her and other friends. Amazing work as always sir!
I play games since 1988, I started drinking in 2011 (31 years old). I don't drink frequently and rarely get drunk. I like drinking in games, I like ColdBeer jokes about vodka and other deinks in games, and how a game without alcohol mechanics is basically unplayable. I get your point. But I don't think drinking is games is any different than violence in games. Either games are teaching gamers to solver their oroblems by killing people and deinking or they are not. And I think they are not, except political games like Call of Duty or the Fallujah cancelled game that deny to be political, games that teach you to be a racist and kill people from the Middle-Easter countries. Bot those games are crap anyway.
"Child friendly bars" are called pubs in Ireland. It's not uncommon have children as young as 5y in at 5:00pm. Still technically not allowed to drink alcohol though.
This is a good topic but you are so apologetic. Would love to see an actually critical take on this. I think alcohol consumption in games is over-normalized just like in the rest of western culture. Cyberpunk was one of the first games I've ever played that had drinking but you were always allowed to pass. Many games force the protagonist to drink in the course of gameplay as if its a foregone conclusion.
If anyone old enough to somehow be able to get alcohol is somehow swayed to drink by a game then I’m really only worried about their level of intelligence tbh. Also drunk ppl are annoying af, it’s funny in games because you don’t actually have to deal with it…. I actually worry about the human race as a whole if you really believe that a video game can convince someone that binge drinking is ok
Drinking in gaming for me is probably gonna be a good way for me to drink while not actually drinking, I’m 18 but I plan on not drinking when I turn 21 because I might be more likely to be addicted to it
Really good take on a murky topic I hadn't really thought about until now. I'm currently going through my old favourite games trying to think of the alcohol "representation" contained therein, but I'm sure it's gonna be something I notice going forward from now on.
I think it's less about how video games influence people's real-life perception of alcohol and more about how cultural norms are reinforced by the products in it. No one is going to be influenced to drink alcohol through video games, but it's a puzzle-piece in our broader conversation of alcohol consumption.
I've been struggling with alcohol abuse for about 7 years now. I am what what is called "Alcohol Dependent". Most people don't know what this is and will get it confused with Alcoholism. Here is the main difference. Alcoholism is an addiction, meaning that an alcoholic can not function in day to day life without alcohol. I am not an addict. At my worst, I was drinking every other night. I get called a Dependent because I use alcohol to cope in life. I can't remember the last week I went without alcohol. I should also mention that every time I drink I binge drink. My tolerance has gotten so high that it is difficult for me to puke. I used to drink 10 shots a night, but I recently got it down to 8. That has helped, but I still have the occasional bad night. Anyway, I appreciated this video and wanted to share a little bit about myself. Have a good day.
Great look at such mundane every day thing like this in video games. Psychonauts 2 handled that really well. And milk bar in Majora's Mask, man. I'm now thinking of the milk bars in A Clockwork Orange.
I disagree. I think it really doesn't matter it's just funny and I don't think it has a big impact on kids. Especially because we're talking about 12-18 year olds not 10-
FYI if you get really political in your videos you lose half your potential audience. If you care more about your virtues than your views then that’s fine but I would recommend dropping the virtue signaling if you want to grow your channel to its fullest potential.
With all due respect, how is saying "we should think more on how we implement this stuff in games" political? How is a conversation about alcohol *that* frightening?
Disregarding the fact that this video is hardly political, I think treating the expression of your ideological and/or political viewpoints to be a ploy to look better by default is a self report.
I don't know if you're joking to get a rise out of someone, or genuinely believe this, so I'll just insist that you seek some help if you struggle with drinking. I've seen a lot of my friends hurt or worse because of bad drinking habits, and it breaks my heart to see them struggle to pull themselves up.
Here’s a Yakuza-themed cocktail I previously thought up: 3 oz mugi (barley) shochu (for example iichiko) 1 oz kokutou umeshu (brown sugar plum wine) 1 oz yuzu juice (grapefruit juice is a reasonable substitute) 0.25 oz Luxardo maraschino liquor Heaping barspoon Korean yuzu-cha (kind of like a marmalade) Shake dry to dissolve yuzu-cha, then over ice. Strain and serve in chilled coupe or martini glass. Garnish with yuzu peel if available, otherwise grapefruit peel. It’s actually amazing. Try making one!
Yuzu-cha is easy to get from a Korean/Asian market, and is also a great non-alcoholic winter drink when mixed with hot water. Sadly, I’ve never been able to find fresh yuzu in Michigan.
I'm glad to look in the comments and see that I'm not the only one who never really considered what message video games were giving about alcohol. I would have thought it's because I'm a teetotaler that I always thought as video game alcohol as wacky screen effects, but I really do think you have a point with games that slow things down and provide an intimate, human connection and education about the manufacturing process rather than a device you put in yourself for fun times to come out.
I'm glad too! It means the video was worth making.
As someone who don't drink, doesn't like alcohol and doesn't like the idea of getting drunk I find it worrying how many games I've seen that pushed me to drink in some way. Like, when you have to do active effort not to drink as someone who isn't even interested in alcohol it feels weird.
But then again the way society treats alcohol baffles me tbh, especially the contrast with drugs even when some of those drugs are comparatively harmless.
Maybe it's cause I'm french and casual drinking problem are very common here, and it's common to give alcohol to young kids (not on a daily basis but like sneaking a glass of wine to a 10years old on christmas). I really wish alcohol consumption wasn't glorified and people who don't drink presented as weirdos who don't know how to have fun.
Yeah it feels odd how often it's in games marketed towards kids too
I'm reminded of Roger Ebert's famous maxim, "A film is not what it is about, but how it is about it." A game is not about alcohol, but how it is about alcohol.
Interesting ideas I hadn't given much thought to! I remember being 16 and reading the official Naruto manga and there's a part where Rock Lee accidentally drinks alcohol and becomes the drunken master trope. But it's translated as a "potion" that makes him "dizzy." At 16 this felt like a super lame translation, but idk these days I think it was probably a good call. A ton of children read Naruto and maybe it's best to not tell them drinking gives you superpowers. Especially cause Lee was a teenager too. It's hard to depict drinking responsibly, maybe because it's quite hard to drink responsibly, and this piece is a valuable contribution to that much-needed discussion!
I'd like to mention that while some of the beers in Deep Rock Galactic do serve a purpose, most are for the novelty and unique silly effects they impart on you. But yes, there is a drunkenness mechanic and it's both silly as heck and remarkably accurate in how it makes you completely useless if you try to go on a mission while three sheets to the wind and it's all really to reinforce the silly drunk dwarf stereotype
So many examples to choose from! It's nice to see one I hadn't known about.
You should have included Kingdom Come: Deliverance! It has a dedicated skill tree for drinking! It features skills like always waking up in your own bed when passing out. A skill I use from time to to time in IRL! 🤣
I think this points to a bigger problem how alcohol is viewed in society. Our mainstream media (music, films, games) depicts it often as a fun or cool activity, seldom admitting the problems with it for a fraction of our society. Especially during college one realizes how omnipresent alcohol is. If you're unlucky and have a trauma to work through or get easily addicted to substances, being part of that community could lead you to indulge into drinks too much and lead to further psychological and physiological problems. Thank you for your videos and the nuanced and well researched discussion you offer.
leo point
While Yakuza/Judgement’s the obvious example for this, I’m excited to see more examples of video game alcoholism
There's more than you think!
Hell, I can imagine a sequel to this video involving in-game gambling, exploring justifications for it (I can make it all back, I’ll quit once I make 10,000 yen) and real-life consequences (like with lootboxes and gacha games)
The final episode of this season of feature creep will be right up your alley then!
Psychonauts 2 is so good for so, so many reasons. I remember loving that chapter, but this puts into context just how rare and *important* it is in the wider games landscape. Great stuff as always, GC!
Thank you! 😊
13:57 which is kind of the opposite of Japanese drinking culture. In Japan they definitely drink slower but that's due to the fact that they generally consume food and drink in smaller amounts and slower. But you've never seen somebody drunk and so you've seen a Japanese man drunk
Hey, you're one of my favourite video game essay youtubers, just wanted to say I appreciate these videos a lot, they're great!!
Thank you so much!
I feel like you came off kind of hypocritical at about 11 minutes and you start talking about the morals of normalizing drinking and just before that you were criticizing Fable for being self-righteous for the results you get from drinking.
I remember a very fun dremora Lord quest in Skyrim that I lost because of refusing to drink.
Certainly points to drinking = fun times. I felt kind of excluded, but never had tought about it before this video.
This is a point of view that hadn't entered my mind AT ALL before now.
Some really great points in here!
Thank you so much!
I was literally watching a How 2 Drink video right before this, small world
Huh, I never once considered drinking just because of a video game. I've never had alcohol in my life though, so maybe that's part of it. I guess I just assumed nobody else would be pushed towards it because of this. That said, if you were ever to make cocktail tutorials I'd watch. I don't drink, but the wife does, and I like to make things for her and other friends. Amazing work as always sir!
Thank you! I'd love to do some mixology-based videos. Having the right kind of space to do them is a little tough at the moment though!
Looking forward to GC Positive-ly Drunk
I play games since 1988, I started drinking in 2011 (31 years old). I don't drink frequently and rarely get drunk.
I like drinking in games, I like ColdBeer jokes about vodka and other deinks in games, and how a game without alcohol mechanics is basically unplayable.
I get your point. But I don't think drinking is games is any different than violence in games. Either games are teaching gamers to solver their oroblems by killing people and deinking or they are not. And I think they are not, except political games like Call of Duty or the Fallujah cancelled game that deny to be political, games that teach you to be a racist and kill people from the Middle-Easter countries. Bot those games are crap anyway.
"Child friendly bars" are called pubs in Ireland. It's not uncommon have children as young as 5y in at 5:00pm. Still technically not allowed to drink alcohol though.
Meanwhile, weed is basically not in games besides GTA
This is a good topic but you are so apologetic. Would love to see an actually critical take on this. I think alcohol consumption in games is over-normalized just like in the rest of western culture. Cyberpunk was one of the first games I've ever played that had drinking but you were always allowed to pass. Many games force the protagonist to drink in the course of gameplay as if its a foregone conclusion.
If anyone old enough to somehow be able to get alcohol is somehow swayed to drink by a game then I’m really only worried about their level of intelligence tbh. Also drunk ppl are annoying af, it’s funny in games because you don’t actually have to deal with it…. I actually worry about the human race as a whole if you really believe that a video game can convince someone that binge drinking is ok
Drinking in gaming for me is probably gonna be a good way for me to drink while not actually drinking, I’m 18 but I plan on not drinking when I turn 21 because I might be more likely to be addicted to it
I used to want you to make me a drink, but now I know you drink mold. Unsubbed, but then I resubbed out of guilt.
I mean I didn't do it ON PURPOSE
@@GCVazquez that's what the Baker's said in RE7 and look what happened there
at 5:31 does that background say LOLI or 2021? similar L is real 2401
Really good take on a murky topic I hadn't really thought about until now. I'm currently going through my old favourite games trying to think of the alcohol "representation" contained therein, but I'm sure it's gonna be something I notice going forward from now on.
One of those things that's always stood out to me, and didn't have the words until now to articulate it!
"it's like a DnD campaign in a church"
Omg the sound I made
hey i have seen you pull out new drinks out of nowhere and them tasting good :p
I think it's less about how video games influence people's real-life perception of alcohol and more about how cultural norms are reinforced by the products in it. No one is going to be influenced to drink alcohol through video games, but it's a puzzle-piece in our broader conversation of alcohol consumption.
Exactly!
I've been struggling with alcohol abuse for about 7 years now. I am what what is called "Alcohol Dependent". Most people don't know what this is and will get it confused with Alcoholism. Here is the main difference. Alcoholism is an addiction, meaning that an alcoholic can not function in day to day life without alcohol.
I am not an addict. At my worst, I was drinking every other night. I get called a Dependent because I use alcohol to cope in life. I can't remember the last week I went without alcohol. I should also mention that every time I drink I binge drink. My tolerance has gotten so high that it is difficult for me to puke. I used to drink 10 shots a night, but I recently got it down to 8. That has helped, but I still have the occasional bad night.
Anyway, I appreciated this video and wanted to share a little bit about myself. Have a good day.
thank you for sharing!
Nice video, man! Very interesting
Thank you very much! :D
I'm not drukn. You're durnk!
Cocktails + Yakuza = Cockuza
Amaaaazing video idea
Great look at such mundane every day thing like this in video games. Psychonauts 2 handled that really well. And milk bar in Majora's Mask, man. I'm now thinking of the milk bars in A Clockwork Orange.
They put LSD in the milk
@@GCVazquez ah! Need to see that again
Banana
7:37 its free content, pls make it
Maybe I will!
I was kinda hoping a song about drinking was going to pop up. But yeah, good video
GC you trying to tell me something with that thumbnail? 🤨
MILK
Super interesting and well-written video, GC! Great choice of topic to analyze here!
Much appreciated!
@@GCVazquez You're very welcome!
0:55 I love how 5 months later nobody even cares about COVID despite it still being out there all the same
I disagree. I think it really doesn't matter it's just funny and I don't think it has a big impact on kids. Especially because we're talking about 12-18 year olds not 10-
First 15 seconds made me unsub.
Mind if I ask why?
@GC Vazquez I'm just being childish. Sorry
just stick with dragon quest games
Why are you being rude?
FYI if you get really political in your videos you lose half your potential audience. If you care more about your virtues than your views then that’s fine but I would recommend dropping the virtue signaling if you want to grow your channel to its fullest potential.
yikes
With all due respect, how is saying "we should think more on how we implement this stuff in games" political? How is a conversation about alcohol *that* frightening?
*gestures at Jacob Geller*
Disregarding the fact that this video is hardly political, I think treating the expression of your ideological and/or political viewpoints to be a ploy to look better by default is a self report.
alcoholism is based
I don't know if you're joking to get a rise out of someone, or genuinely believe this, so I'll just insist that you seek some help if you struggle with drinking. I've seen a lot of my friends hurt or worse because of bad drinking habits, and it breaks my heart to see them struggle to pull themselves up.
@@GCVazquez i thought it was clearly sarcasm, but i forget that text doesnt always translate to sarcasm very well for everyone
Here’s a Yakuza-themed cocktail I previously thought up:
3 oz mugi (barley) shochu (for example iichiko)
1 oz kokutou umeshu (brown sugar plum wine)
1 oz yuzu juice (grapefruit juice is a reasonable substitute)
0.25 oz Luxardo maraschino liquor
Heaping barspoon Korean yuzu-cha (kind of like a marmalade)
Shake dry to dissolve yuzu-cha, then over ice. Strain and serve in chilled coupe or martini glass. Garnish with yuzu peel if available, otherwise grapefruit peel.
It’s actually amazing. Try making one!
You know what? I will! Once I've got the money for the ingredients I'm all over this.
Yuzu-cha is easy to get from a Korean/Asian market, and is also a great non-alcoholic winter drink when mixed with hot water. Sadly, I’ve never been able to find fresh yuzu in Michigan.