There’s a point and time in video games when getting too technical might be a mistake since otherwise practicality and reality step in and kick the fantasy’s butt from here to Sunday. In a lot of games it’s been seen that characters can bash their way through stuff and find power pellets, energy boosters, and yes, even food. But banging trash cans until you find a rotting piece of food in it in real life comes with a lot of consequences, not the least of which is a sour stomach and possibly an immediate response that will have even the strongest stomach retching and sending up whatever was just dumped into with with a bit of bile and stomach acid to go with it. Obviously that sounds like we’re going a little too far when it comes to a video game since unless a game is programmed to allow a hero to find the nearest deli or eatery it’s likely that their energy is going to start to go down, realistically of course, and that they won’t be ready for the next big fight. But eating out of trash cans and eating spoiled food is something that we don’t normally think about in video games since the food that comes when a character pulverizes a part of the landscape is meant as a symbol and not exactly as what it would be in real life.
Just imagine an action game that was programmed to allow the character to eat before a battle and all that was to be found was a rotten chicken leg in a dumpster. It might take a truly vindictive programmer to create a scenario in which a video game character can feel the positive or ill effects of the food that they consume. Obviously as the games have changed over the years it’s become interesting to see just how in-depth some of them have become and how detailed some of the situations can be. At this point though food is still something that isn’t heavily featured in some games unless it’s being used as a part of the backdrop or scenery, though several games have included food as a part of the energy that a lot of characters need to continue. The whole idea of bringing up the fact that it comes from a trash can in some instances though is kind of funny since a lot of people obviously haven’t thought about this. After all when video games really started getting a big a lot of people didn’t worry too much about the characters needing time to stop and eat. Smashing a trash can and picking up whatever fell out that looked like food was just kind of a standard action after all, it was what a character needed to keep going, so it was what they got.
Now though, looking back at the idea it’s easy to think how impressionable kids might get the wrong idea of beating up trash cans to get to a bite to eat, but hopefully their parents would tell them otherwise and make it clear that bashing a trash can is not a good way to get a meal, even if you’re homeless since like it or not, the kind of food that’s found in the trash at times is bound to be absolutely rancid unless a person gets to it in time before it can spoil. It’s not an attempt to knock the homeless, but some of them must have stomachs made out of pure steel since the idea of eating anything that’s been sitting in the trash for long enough that bacteria has been allowed to build up has the potential to make anyone sick, and possibly lead a serious case of food poisoning that could lead up to death if it gets too severe. But the reality of this, and the danger of it, is something that parents would hopefully tell their kids before they go around trying to eat out of dumpsters after kicking them around a bit. Of course, seeing how one could actually get hurt kicking around a dumpster or a trash can might dissuade a lot of people from trying it too often since trash cans tend to be made of pretty sturdy materials in some cases.
It’s kind of funny that this subject was even brought up since anything that happens in a video game, most things anyway, has almost no chance of happening in the real world. Going around kicking butt and destroying public property is bound to get a person in trouble, walking around with your shirt off and looking like you want to cause trouble is bound to get someone in trouble, and in general just being violent is bound to get a lot of people in trouble. Eating rotten meat is kind of a lesser evil with a bigger consequence.
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