One societal norm that has almost entirely disappeared in the past few decades is smoking. Once considered the sign of a well adjusted, healthy (ish) adult, smoking today is quite heavily frowned upon. No longer can you smoke in restaurants or bars and even doing so in a public space is often considered a faux pas.
With this ongoing trend, it's no wonder that the likes of Disney have banned the depiction of smoking in its films unless it's the bad guy and he coughs up a lunch whenever he takes a drag. But Heroes of the Storm characters? Do they really need to give up their habit?
Apparently so, as Tychus Findlay, one of the 'heroes' from the game, who featured prominently in Starcraft II artwork with a cigar clamped in his mouth, has had it pulled from his lips by Blizzard for his re-imagining in the new MOBA and fans aren't happy.
"We know smoking is bad, everybody does," said Redditor Ficherz(via PCG). "BUT! it's not Blizzard's job to make sure we don't do it anyway. It’s an iconic part of the Tychus character. BRING BACK HIS CIGAR!"
However, as much as many other gamers agreed that the cigar was an iconic part of Tychus' character, others pointed out that the reason it was dropped was likely due to vastly different rules for smoking in media around the world. There are several countries where the game wouldn't be allowed to be played in public spaces if it was kept, so that's likely why it was pulled.
What do you guys think of smoking in games? Should it be ironed out, or would you rather it stayed?
