For those who like to play videogames and enjoy marijuana, there are good news coming soon: Weedcraft Inc, a videogame for growing and selling weed. It will be completely available in 2019.
Previously, we explained how there are colleges and schools in Canada offering cannabis classes from growing to cultivating, but now, you’ll have it available in your game console too. In the trailer released this month by its creators, Devolver Digital, they show politicians and celebrities (including Elon Musk), discussing and, in Elon’s case, huffing marijuana.
What to expect?
According to the creators; “Weedcraft Inc explores the business of producing, breeding and selling weed in America, delving deep into the financial, political and cultural aspects of the country’s complex relationship with this troublesome and promising plant,” Devolver states. “Would-be Mary Jane moguls will need to prioritize resources carefully as they manage the production and distribution of their weed. Cultivate killer plants, cross-breed them to create unique strains of the devil’s lettuce, hire and manage a growing staff, and be prepared to take on the competition”.
Your videogame character will behave according to your location.
On the other hand according to some video game reviewers, Weedcraft Inc has the familiar feeling of other tycoon and sim games like Game Dev Story, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Cities: Skylines, except the focus is entirely on weed.
A new business
With part of the world changing their minds about marijuana use and companies as Coca-Cola looking into cannabis-infused drinks, why not video games?
“Right now, it’s like the end of Prohibition meets the Gold Rush,” said Scott Alexander, the game’s main writer, who is working with Polish studio Vile Monarch on the game. “The federal illegality combined with the state-by-state legalization has created a financial morass and just a weird, interesting place. And we thought, ‘Well, that’s a tycoon game waiting to happen.’”
Around the world, the situation of weed is contradicting, from people in jail for growing it and selling it to people using it to deal with difficult ailments like cancer, autism and AIDS, Alexander said it was a topic ripe for exploration.
“We looked at this and said, ‘Well, that’s a sim game right there,'” he said. “‘There’s a good complex environment with weird cultural significance that we can play with”.
Always growing
Because the business of marijuana is so big, and always growing, Alexander said Devolver chose the vignette formula as a way to represent its scope, and how spreading legalization is an issue being considered by criminal justice and veterans’ affairs activists, Wall Street investors, the scientific community and more.
The vignettes may not always be about starting your business from zero, he said, but could instead focus on larger issues like influencing state or city legislation, or choosing to set up a new business in a state that only allows for medical marijuana (more taxes and regulation, but less competition) versus one that allows for recreational use (more customers, less regulation, but more competition).
So far, some scenarios: California, South Dakota, New York and Colorado.
Weedcraft’s development is not fixed; Devolver Digital co-founder Mike Wilson said new scenarios could be added as post-release downloadable content (DLC), such as when as new issues pop up in real life. Wilson said the team has yet to decide the full scope of what will be included at launch, but the game is likely due out in the first months of 2019 for PC, with DLC to follow.
Interesting data from Canada
About 4.2 million or 14% of Canadians aged 15 years and older reported some use of cannabis products for medical or non-medical use in the past three months. More than half (56%) of the users indicated that they used some form of cannabis “daily” or “weekly.”
In a recent poll, Canadians were asked if they thought they would change their behaviour once cannabis is legalized for non-medical use. Regardless of use, over three-quarters (79%) said that they would not be more likely to try or to increase their cannabis consumption.
On 2017, Canadians spent an estimated C$5.7 billion (US$4.63 billion). The average cannabis user spent about C$1,200 on weed, mostly on non-medical marijuana.
In Canada, recreational use of marijuana will be completely legal soon,of course, there are some restrictions, but playing video games is not included!
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