Smog On The Nog

The creator of the game, Steve Jackson, referenced his inspiration for the game from a trilogy book series in the 70s called Illuminatus. He created his card game in the early 90s, and still maintains it's strictly satire.

The game is most reknowned for its "predictions" on it's cards for a card depicting what looks like the Twin Towers exploding in the middle. The card is named "Terrorist Nuke". There's also a separate card with the Pentagon on fire in the middle of it.

It's impressive that Steve Jackson was able to compile such a plethora of government conspiracies, basically all of them, before the days of the internet.

David Icke was a big proponent of its legitimacy, stating it was "a look into the real Illuminati"

For all intents and purposes, Steve Jackson comes off as a harmless nerd. He has videos from 2018 on Youtube promoting the newest expansion. (He was stormed by Secret Service right before the original game was to be released and sued them. See link.)

Almost weirder, Osama Bin Laden has references to the card game in documents released by the Freedom of Information Act (see link from CIA).

Osama seemed to be obsessed with any news about himself, especially ones that involve conspiracies around him.

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Links:

• New World Order- George Bush Sr. — Intro Video
• Bin Laden's Reading Material — This is from the CIA website, an article written specifically about the Illuminati card game and it's ties to the NWO. It was part of the large database of information confiscated from Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad.
• SJ Games vs. the Secret Service — Detailed account of Secret Service Raid on SJ Games, who created the Illuminati Card Game.

China has begun "early-access" of their social credit system. If you've seen Black Mirror, the episode titled "Nosedive" is very similar to what they're implementing for their citizens. It's rumored to be mandatory by 2020.

They are planning on having a 360-degree surveillance and rating system in place. Time spent on video games, making frivolous purchases, communications in text or social media. What kind of news or content you're sharing.

You'll also be connected to your friends who can affect your score negatively.

There's special incentives for being an early adopter. It's using the video game achievement model for controlling its citizens.

People have already been banned from domestic flights within China or getting business tickets on the train based on their scores.

There are incentives being suggested for having a better score to have things like free shipping or a faster internet.

All good dictatorships depend on citizens snitching on each other.

It's reminiscient of the US struggles with McCarthyism to spy on your neighbors to report if they were Communists.

It's not that farfetched that we're in a similar situation in the US with our credit system and how much it affects your ability to do things. US citizens just happen to be more subservient to corporations, as opposed to China who is more government-based.

(See Wikipedia article on Sesame Credit)

Send us an email with feedback or nog smoggers to [email protected]

Available on iTunes, Google, Spotify, TuneIn, Pocketcasts, & Youtube

Leave us a review and we'll give a shoutout!

Follow us on Instagram or Twitter: smogonthenog

Support Smog On The Nog

Links:

• Law and Social Controls : Coronet Instructional Films — Video Used For Intro
• Sesame Credit - Wikipedia

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• Attitudes and Health : Coronet Instructional Films — Intro Clip

The ESRB is not a federal entity, it's a governing body of major video game companies like EA. Is it necessary still and are we okay with them "regulating" themselves. It seems like just another gatekeeper.

The catalyst in the 90s was Mortal Combat for the politicians to lobby for existence of ESRB. Arcade games like Time Crisis and House of the Dead also had a factor. The advent of 3d games made it seem more graphic because of how groundbreaking it was.

There were others. Sega created The Video Game Rating Council.

The gaming companies in the industry didn't trust each other to be impartial.

Congress didn't think it was enough. They wanted them to come together with a unifying solution. They came up with the Entertainment Rating Software Board. Companies generally aren't good at governing themselves. How is this any different?

The results: EC- Early Childhood, K-A for Kids to Adults which became E for Everyone. In 2005 they added E10+. T 13+ and M is 17+. AO Adults Only is 18+.

They've been making the argument about video games corrupting the mind since the 90s, even though countless evidence shows it doesn't affect you any more than other entertainment.

Although people are going to rehab for it. Most franchises nowadays capitalize on the achievement factor for people to feel accomplished. Especially

Mortal combat deserves credit for starting the outrage, and still keeping with it and not backing down to this point.

Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony refuse to allow AO, so retailers don't stock it either. Twitch bans any streams of AO.

Big Chungus, an AO game, came out in 2018 for extremely detailed violence and sex. He's a big, fat Easter Bunny doppelganger. After brutally murdering Dante from Devil May Cry, he has "animalistic sex with the corpses". There's a sidequest to snort the largest line of cocaine.

Playboy video games were popular too as AO games.

Was this the millenial version of Faces of Death and your friend's Playboy under the bed?

Rockstar made their name off controversial content that pushed the envelope

Grand Theft Auto jumpstarted a lot of the regulation. They had a 'Hot Coffee' mod that was originally going to be part of GTA San Andreas (2004).

The rating board denied it being anything but AO rated. They couldn't remove it completely since they were so close to the launch date, so they hid it in the code by encrypting it and releasing it on console.

They created a port for the PC eventually and the same day it came out, gamers cracked the code to make it playable and releasing mods for it.

Senator Hillary Clinton pushed for new regulations be put on video games sales.

In New York, a class action lawsuit was filed by an 85 year old grandma who purchased the game for her 14 year old grandson.

GTA ended up losing upwards of a million dollars to the National PTA and the ESRB.

In December 2005, Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act, which called for a federal mandate enforcement of the ESRB ratings system in order to protect children from inappropriate content.

A patch for the original version of the game, Cold Coffee, was designed to counter edit the script and disable the mini-game and crash the game if one attempts to access it.

GTA IV was released in 2008. In Liberty City, they got revenge by making the Statue of Liberty as Hillary Clinton with a hot coffee in her hand.

Data Mining is still done today by code-savvy players to see unreleased content embedded within the game code for future release. It's reminiscient of the old days of having to buy Pokemon books and the rumors about getting Mew. A rumor that took almost a decade to figure out how to do the glitch to get Mew.

The biggest companies are the ones that have to carry the torch in terms of freedom of content and expression.

The crusade isn't as much on violence anymore.

There's more of an argument for regulation if it gets too realistic in terms of the future and VR.

Mobile gaming- pubg runs better on the console and new Diablo. Mobile is better for user criticism to their user base and making fixes for them.

Using the largest gaming franchises to push their own agenda

ESA was original ratings company before the ESRB and now they run E3.

How many missteps is the consumer going to allow EA to have before people vote with their dollar?

There's a big movement for small and indie gaming companies, but they can't compete with their infrastructure until a AAA company steps in. PUBG is a perfect example for a great concept that people are waiting for a major company to build off like with the newest Call of Duty.

No Russian level in Modern Warefare 2. Fight Against Grenade Spam.

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Links:

• Perversion for Profit (Part I) — Video used in intro
• Big Chungus

From Edgar Allan Poe to Patrice O'Neal, why are so many influential people recognized postmortem? There's definitely some commonalities.

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Links:

• Official Patrice O'Neal Website — Seek out his content. There's a way to donate for his family on the site if it provides you with as much laughing as it did for me.

Josh and Derek join to discuss the phenomenon of "Dubai Girls" on Instagram and other social media platforms. Made popular by sites like tagthesponsor.

We discuss the dark side of these "business dealings" and the ramifications on the public psyche.

Video Used in Intro: https://archive.org/details/gags_and_gals

Article Referenced: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-45392566

Send us feedback or any Nog Smoggers to [email protected]

Support Smog On The Nog

Links:

• Gags and Gals — Video Used For Intro

A weekly podcast with two brothers, Brandon and Jordon, that solely focus on Smoggin each other’s Nog. It’s an endless pursuit of that feeling when you ponder a novel concept, or think about an idea so complex or nuanced that you can’t take a side...or you can take both sides. Or just general confusion and bewilderment.

Video Clip From The Intro: https://archive.org/details/ShyGuy1947

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Links:

• Shy Guy — Video From Intro Clip