But I never believed games influenced people that much in their private lives. Games that show murder doesn’t condone murder. Games that have stealing doesn’t condone stealing. Drug use in games doesn’t promote drugs.
What exactly are these statements based on? I recognize that "condone" and "promote" can mean very different things in this context and that there is a difference between the maker of a game e.g. suggesting that stealing is ok and the audience of that game being more likely to see stealing as acceptable as a result of playing the game.
There is a claim I've heard repeated enough from sources I feel are reliable that the widespread casual smoking in Tolkien's writing led to a significant increase in the number of smokers in the world. Obviously, this is a little fuzzy - so I'm not trying to present it as fact. But if it's true, it seems to speak against what you're suggesting. A very quick search didn't turn up satisfying supporting evidence - is anyone out there familiar with this and can point me to a reliable accounting of what happened (or something that debunks this story)?
