The Coke Heads

Not just the cocaine heads (I'm being general here, remember), but when I refer the "the coke heads" we're talking about more serious, "smutty", drugs like it. The users of these drugs usually have a much harder edge to them than your Joe Gamer, who is innocent in his Ritalin trifling by comparison.

If the likes of marijuana are to be considered a gateway drug then it is places like cocaine to which people go, and among the social classing of drug users cocaine is considered on the rung above injecting yourself with heroin. It's not nearly so bad, nor the addicts quite so twitchy as those addicted to that the most despondent drug of the despaired, but when you're snorting cocaine then you've gone, in the eyes of your marijuana smoking peers, over a distinct line.

You're no longer smoking a bit of harmless pot or snorting a bit of helpful Ritalin. You're a drug user, and be damn careful you don't start sticking needles into yourself.

Such is the mindset, and the social classing. Generally speaking you will find people playing games on this stuff, but they are drug users first, gamers second, if you get my meaning. Video games do not generally turn people into cocaine users...

As a rather amusing anecdote about the "gateway" nature of marijuana, sometimes the gate isn't always open. I remember watching a chap snort his first line of cocaine, and when I inquired as to its effects several minutes later he told me that all he had gotten was a blocked nose.

Mixing It Up

So that is, roughly, where we stand with regards to drug use among gamers. Really, it's drug use among young people rather than among gamers. The two overlap, but once again it will take much investigation to discover how the two interact; whether there are people who won't touch a game unless they're high, or vice versa?

The LAN party I chronicled in "Sex, Drugs And Counter-Strike" was wild, but it was not uncommon nor was it simply a drug party with a few token computers at it. It was an organised large house LAN party, expert technical requirements and all. The question for me is, how widespread is this culture? Is it a case that 10% of gamers do this sort of thing, while 90% of them sit at home playing games whilst high? Or is it 10% sit at home playing high and 0.01% go to the sort of party described in "Sex, Drugs And Counter-Strike"?

While many of my colleagues are interested in the topic of cheating in professional e-sports, I am more preoccupied with the social aspect of this drug culture as a facet of modern culture. Video gaming, the internet, social networks, all of these things form the fabric of our modern, wired lives. How do drugs fit into all of this?

Are people taking drugs to enhance the experience of gaming, like people have done in the past (and still do) in order to better enjoy music and other forms of media? Are game developers, like musicians before them, using drugs to aid in the development of more creative and groundbreaking games?

Some people have said that we shouldn't have written that article, that it will be used as yet more ammunition against video gaming. I do not accept the argument that we should self-censor something because it might be used against us. Bring 'em on, my urge to understand video gaming culture is more compelling than my urge to placate a couple of knee-jerk reactionaries.

I want to know how many people are mixing drugs and video gaming. I want to know how they're doing it, why they're doing it and how it is impacting upon our culture. I want to take the good with the bad, and I have a feeling that I'm not alone. This stuff is out there. This stuff is happening. Nobody understands it. For better or for worse, I intend to.

We will continue to look into this topic, taking the good with the bad as I say, and I hope we won't be alone. It'll be an interesting ride, no doubt.

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