

Prices are sky high." The object is to make as much money as possible, and the game ends if the player is killed or after 30 days, in game time. News flashes pop up in boxes to lend helpful hints like: "The cops just did a big ludes bust. There are adjacent listings how much the player owes to a loan shark (who must be repaid by the end of the game or the player's legs are broken) and how much room there is in the player's trenchcoat to transport the drugs. Columns list the amount and types of drugs a player has for sale and the current price. For the Palm, DopeWars is still just text, and it remains essentially an accounting game. Officials of Palm Computing, which developed the Palm and its operating system, declined to discuss the game.ĭopeWars is derived from a 1980's computer game called, variously, Drug Wars, Drug Dealer and Dope Wars.
#Games like dopewars software#
In January 2000, both and removed the game from their list of software available for downloading. Lee take the game off its server, in part because of a proscription against commercial software being run on the servers, but there was also some concern over the game's content. "There's absolutely nothing fun about it, nothing gamelike about it." "The drug trade, the drug culture, kills and maims thousands of people a year in this country, wrecking families, hurting people," Ms. Brown of Queens, who has prosecuted many drug dealers, agrees. Mary DeBourbon, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Richard A. "It is sad that an industry with as much talent and creativity as the video game business should choose to profit by stooping to such a level." "Glamorizing violence and lawlessness is a dangerous thing to do," Senator Brownback said in an interview. "You're being bad, although you're not really being bad."

"I get to lead a lifestyle I don't normally lead," she said. She admits that she gets strange looks from the other passengers on her bus when she discusses her virtual drug deals with friends. Marlinda McPhail, a former employee of Wheelhouse, a marketing company in San Francisco, estimated that about a third of the people in her former office played the game. Many people on Wall Street say they like to play the game, though few are willing to admit to it in print. But that has not kept it from developing a following that includes business and financial professionals, for whom it combines the adrenaline of the trading floor, a vicarious Bonnie-and-Clyde lawlessness and the latest in mobile gadgetry. The game has come under fire from politicians and law enforcement officials for glamorizing violence and the drug trade, and it has been removed from some software sites. Like the earlier versions, DopeWars lets the player adopt the role of an urban drug dealer, buying and selling a wide array of narcotics.
#Games like dopewars series#
They're playing a game called DopeWars.ĭopeWars for the Palm is the latest incarnation in a series of drug-related computer games that emerged in the 1980's. THE person sitting next to you on the subway or train - the one who seems to be busily rearranging a business calendar on a hand-held computer - could very well be selling crack, buying Ecstasy and getting tips on heroin prices.
