(06-17-2014, 02:08 PM)JFrombaugh Wrote: Actually, I am well aware that many alcoholics are actually very intelligent people. In fact, one of the biggest reasons people become alcoholics is depression, which many intellectual people do in fact suffer from!

However, there have been many scientific studies that show that binge drinking does in fact damage the brain, namely the pre-frontal cortex, which is responsible for things like planning and deciding. I'm not kidding, I saw this in a serious program, it was more about how potentially harmful various drugs are than alcohol abuse specifically. (I remember they said alcohol actually is far more dangerous than many illegal drugs like Ecstasy)

And in a way, I'm kind of referring more to the "social" aspect of it in this case. I think that as a class, Mages would be more likely to make the decision to try to avoid alcohol after seeing what drinking does to their friends (bar fights, impaired judgement, etc.). If they did end up alcoholics, it would probably be more due to something like trying to escape depression, rather than getting drunk "just for the sake of it" the way pirates do.

That's just my 2 Gil anyway.

And also just to clarify, alcoholism isn't something people develop immediately. It takes time. Lots of people can have one or two drinks socially and be perfectly content.