rethink impact of vehicles running on fossil fuels

[kolAflash]

I'm playing SuperTuxKart for over 10 years and I really love that game! :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:
I especially like playing Beastie. But I recently read about the sobering results at the COP27 climate conference.
So I got to think when I saw the big exhausts at a lot of the carts, especially Beasties.
(it's sad Beastie had to be moved into an addon in STK 1.4 becuase of legal reasons, but that's another topic)

I think these kind of exhausts, the dark smoke coming from it and the "engine sound" clearly mimic engines running on fossil fuels. So I thought maybe SuperTuxKart should replace them with something else. Putting the idea of "powerful engines running on fossil fuel, being loud and making smoke" into peoples (especially childrens) minds isn't helpful!

So I'd like to make a suggestion to the great people developing STK:


I know, it's not clear what are the best alternatives to fossil fuel. Electric cars also have some environmental problems. But I'd say it's a step into the right direction. So the carts currently featuring exhausts could instead look more like being driven by electric engines.

Hydrogen based propulsion may also be a thing. Yes, it also has a small exhaust. But I'd say there's an optical and acoustic difference to fossil fuel based engines. And it's just white steam coming from Hydrogen engines

Maybe also stuff like racing bikes could be added!?
The people at bike races Tour de France reach amazing speeds.
And those velomobiles (bikes with aerodynamic fairings) have been brought up to 145 km/h!!!
For "normal people" it's being said, that you can reach 50 km/h with those velomobiles.

And magic based propulsion like GNU's flying carpet is definetly no problem.
(where can I buy that carpet in the real world to replace my car!? )
So I'd say: Just remove the exhausts from Peppers broom. It doesn't need it!


And maybe also the NOS bottles could be repalced by something else. Maybe batteries or little suns!?
NOS is also something clearly related to burning fossil fuels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide_engine



Note
Moved from: https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/issues/4825

[QwertyChouskie]

The karts are running on Ethanol made from the corn being harvested in Cornfield Crossing, none of the gasoline nonsense

[drummyfish]

Electric cars aren't ideal either, I think it's being more widely accepted that ideal future has no cars, so... what now

EDIT: On a serious note, I think games should be here to allow us to do what in real world would be considered bad or unethical, exactly so that we can satisfy the need without actually causing harm in real life -- in racing games we may satisfy the need to drive fast cars dangerously, in shooting games we may shoot each other, we may even roleplay as a bad character -- for example a capitalist in a tycoon game Of course, this applies to mature people (not necessarily adults) who can distinguish between a game and reality. I understand that in games aimed at children we may want to take some educational approach, but we have to be careful to not end up with propaganda or indoctrination. I personally don't mind e.g. gore in video games, I enjoy it very much, still in my game I made enemies robots so that the player doesn't have to kill living things.

[altcoin]

Please don't!
Media / Entertainment is too full of propaganda and already. Lets just be an unbiased game that gives people moments of joy without trying to convince them of our dogmas.

I don't like fossil fuels / big oil, but the "solutions" are very fishy. They don't solve the problems, and they seem to distract people from focusing on what is actually important.

1. Electric cars don't actually reduce emissions. 88% of US electricity is derived from non-renewable resources anyway (eg coal and fossil fuel burning power plants).
2. Any significant changes in the climate are caused by lethal toxins, (glyphosate, ddt, aluminum oxide, etc), and not CO2.
3. More CO2 allow the earth's shrinking wildernesses to prosper and thrive, producing more much-needed food and oxygen for the earth's population.
4. Why do we think that those who control the oil would give up billions of dollars of income by allowing a true solution to appear? What about the individuals who mysteriously die before their solutions are implemented?

Follow the money.