PETA Scores Fable 2 'Most Animal-Friendly Game Of 2008'
Although I'd love to mock PETA for taking itself too seriously and bothering to muck about with video games - arguably the least animal-relevant industry in the history of industry - the simple truth is that Fable 2 is a particularly animal-positive game. So PETA's 6th annual Proggy Awards recognized Fable 2 for its animal rights themes, not just for its loving animal companion, but for the mechanic of diet and consequences:
Fable 2 is a vegetarian's dream come true. Why? In this virtual fight between good and evil, characters powered by tofu are just as powerful as their meat-eating counterparts -- and are more fit and attractive to boot. Featuring a strong pro-vegetarian theme, eating a plant-based diet helps you rack up "purity" points, whereas eating meat makes your character fat and evil. A fun and innovative game, it's also an effective tool that teaches gamers the real-life benefits of a vegetarian diet.
I'm not so sure that Fable 2 is really "an effective tool" for teaching the "benefits of a vegetarian diet," but I give PETA props for gaming awareness and what looks like the rudimentary development of a sense of humor. I still wouldn't sass them about my days inside the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, but it's a start.
"BUT WAIT!" You scream like the good gamer you are. "Fable 2 has chicken kicking, isn't that, like, the definition of cruelty to animals?" Why yes, yes it is. I may have spoken too soon about that whole "sense of humor" thing. PETA responds:
I'll be honest, it's not our favorite part of the game. But what we like about Fable II and why we gave it the award is because the game presents you with choices, and then you see the repercussions of what those choices are. This is what the awards are based on, and that's what PETA's philosophy is--for people to understand how their choices affect the real world.It's not like people eat meat to score evil points, but you are supporting an industry that is cruel to animals. People need to be aware that their choices affect the world. We like that message in Fable II.
[The Chicken-Kicking] is done in a light-hearted manner. I don't think anyone's going to go out and start kicking chickens in their yard because of this game. Just like real life, you can go kick chickens if you want to, but we don't think most people get off on that.
/palmface.
PETA Names Fable 2 Most Animal-Friendly Game of 2008 [GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany, Video Games on 8 January 2009
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: fable 2, most animal friendly game, peta, proggy awards
Surely we must be stuck in a time loop here.
Or is it that everybody at the castle has the urge to kick PETA in the shins?
Looks like we got a double post: http://gaygamer.net/2009/01/peta_names_fable_2_most_animal.html
It happens from time to time... especially when Tiny becomes protein deprived.
Dang. I was going to play this game, but if PETA likes it there is no way I'm going to enjoy it...
So nice I get to have a go twice.
Only the shins, I condone them being beaten up, and have actually colluded with others to withhold information from the police purposely because they were a card carrying PETA terrorist who got what was coming to them.
Must go outside and kick chickens....because Fable 2 told me to
No love for Fallout 3, with its "Animal Friend" perk?
I mean, sure, the "animals" are twisted mutant monsters, but PETA wouldn't discriminate based on cuteness alone, right?
...
...right?
"It's not like people eat meat to score evil points"
Yep, he's right. People deliberately eat meat in the game to get 'impurity' points rather than 'evil' ones :)
I mainly munched celery rather than meat in the game just because I didn't want my hero to become a fat bloater....though he does appear to have changed gender. Maybe it was all the eastrogen-like chemicals in the tofu.