The virtual world is an exciting place. We have apps that tailor themselves to our music tastes, get us through bouts of severe boredom, reinforce procrastination, and walk us through directions. Considering the popularity of “Flappy Bird” and “Flappy Smash,” many of your peers (maybe even you yourself) have a wonderful time driving themselves to unhealthy stress levels in order to successfully murder an unlucky group of cartoon chicks.
Not surprisingly, these are only a few examples of the millions of innovative applications that fill up our mobile devices only to be replaced by new or better versions that enter the market every single day. I’m sure you’ve stopped dead in your tracks at some point with a billion dollar app idea, only to find that there are already ten other versions of it in the Itunes store.
But had you ever considered becoming a virtual drug dealer?
If so, Manitoba Games beat you to it. On May fifth, “Weed Firm” was released to the public and quickly rose to the top of the popularity charts.
“Follow the story of an expelled botany sophomore Ted Growing as he inherits a growing operation and expands it. Learn to grow weed, plant new varieties to increase your yields, expand your customer base and interact with the characters to become the biggest weed dealer in town. Complete tasks to open new shelves in the store and become a more efficient and prosperous weed seller.”
Sounds a lot like the plot of “Breaking Bad,” but the production of methamphetamine might be a little too raunchy for the general public. With the growing cultural acceptance of marijuana, however, “Weed Firm” stepped a little ahead of the law progression and brought some greenery to our Iphones.
Via: image1.frequency.com
You, the dealer, can use your virtual retained earnings to purchase growing supplies, like a vinyl player that speeds up the production process. At the same time, you must be wary of the law and devilish gang members.
Of course, the game’s developers “do not encourage the cultivation or use of cannabis. The plot of this game is solely a work of fiction and should be viewed only as such.”
Although this statement encompasses the creator’s motives (just deal fake drugs online, don’t smoke them), the app was recently pulled from the Itunes store. Even though game scenarios involving stealing, murdering, reckless driving, and other illicit illegal activities have been around from what seems like the dawn of technology, as of May 21st Apple retracted “Weed Firm” from the Itunes and Google Play market with little to no explanation except that it was due to a “publishing issue.” With over one thousand positive reviews, many users of “Weed Firm” are disappointed that the app is no longer available.
One hilarious reviewer commented, “I hate when the gangsters break in and steal all of your money and weed and if you haven’t already got any seeds or weed, you can’t buy or sell anything else.”
Well that, my friend, is simple economics.
According to the application’s website, “Weed Firm” is currently undergoing a few tweaks in order fulfill Apple’s specifications. The homepage reads, “As for the other platforms we will endeavor to make it as censorship free as possible while assigning the highest maturity rating to the game. We do not want kids playing “Weed Firm,” but we firmly believe that adults should have a choice to do whatever the hell they want as long as they are not hurting anybody in the process. If we let hypocrites determine what content is suitable for us we will soon all be watching “Teletubbies” instead of “Breaking Bad” and playing… oh I don’t know… nothing good comes to mind, without some form of illegal activity or other really.”
There are some seeds of truth in this statement. If the public demands an app such as this (especially considering the cannabis is now somewhat accepted by the U.S. government), then we should be allowed to have it. Though I personally do not have any desire to order virtual strippers after a long hard day’s work of selling pot, I also don’t condone twelve year-olds spending weekday afternoons stealing vehicles and shooting other virtual humans.
More than simply being a trivial issue of an application being removed from the public, this is an issue of freedom and censorship. Though forms of censoring are oftentimes valid, Apple’s decision to remove “Weed Firm” seems a little extreme.
So for those of you who played the original game, cheers to a good run, and I wish you nothing but success in your future virtual marijuana endeavors.
Featured photo courtesy of: nydailynews.com
