Why can't games just be games and left the hell alone!?

[~~whimsy~~]

Now it seems animal rights activists are trying to protect video game animals, mainly in the game, Red Dead Redemption. Take a read at this piece of the article, it bugs the hell out of me but at the same time it is hilarious!

Up to 16 players can roam the West. They can do this either as part of a co-ordinated posse proposed between players or they can brave the wild alone. This lends a unique sense of paranoia to player encounters. When you come across another lone feller on the range, you can never quite tell if he'll say howdy and dander on by, ask to team up with you or stick a bullet in yer gullet. So to anyone who saw me, tumbling around with a pair of coyotes trying to see if they'd ever stop running away (three or less Coyotes will run from you – four will gnaw on your face), it must have been either terribly unnerving or strangely reassuring.

I was shot often.

To pose as the most extreme animal rights activist I had to set myself some rules. Firstly, no killing any animals, even when they attack – run, don't shoot. Secondly, no riding horse-back – saddles are a cruel symbol of animal subordination to human oppressors! I would trek the whole way on foot (although my horse just followed me everywhere anyway). Finally, anyone seen inflicting harm on animals must be taught the error of their ways.

The first two rules are practically inconvenient, the third rule is just plain awkward. How do you teach someone to stop harming living things for no reason? Do you try and teach them by telling them over your headset? Or do you put a round in their belly to make sure they get the message? In doing this would I be breaking the first rule? Since humans are animals too, and I can't kill any animals even when attacked?
I decided to take the pacifist approach.

If only I'd known how fuzzyhead98 would react.

He clambered toward me amid the scarred canyons of Perdido. He wore an American Army uniform. You can't smell on the PS3, but if you could he would have smelled like disloyalty. He dismounted his horse and ran about a bit. I stopped trying to make friends with a skunk and said hello. He replied by shooting my horse.

"You know, you shouldn't do that. That's animal cruelty."

In RDR there is something majorly insulting in the killing of someone's horse. It's an inconsistency. Players kill each other casually with throwing knives and shotguns. They slaughter fleeing stags, boars, buffalo, rabbits, beaver. But to kill someone's mount just feels like terrible form old chap. Most people don't do it. However, if your horse dies you can whistle and a respawn will appear over the horizon pretty much instantly. I whistled.

I tried to relay to fuzzyhead98 the argument philosopher Peter Singer uses – all animals should be equal in suffering. Animals (human and non-human) should therefore not be treated according to their capacity for rationality or intelligence. Animals should be treated according to their capacity for suffering. Distinctions we draw between humans and "beasts" are merely arbitrary. In most Western (not this kind of Western) societies we do not harm or kill a severely brain-damaged person, even if they have the mental capacity of a chimpanzee. But we'll gladly slaughter any animal that we deem stupid and tasty enough.

It looked like I would have to use books after all. I quoted Singer.

Here is rest of the article:

http://kotaku.com/5582613/call-of-the-wild-west-land-of-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals

For fuck sake now animal rights activists are whining over video game animals getting killed? Yeah in the game, there is the plot and story, he tells his son to kill what you need and sure as a video game player who takes control in the game they can choose to do whatever. Thing is, if you have a bear chasing you in real life, you're not going to run away, well, you can try. You will mount your horse or get in your vehicle and try your best to get the fuck away with all appendages intact.

When it comes to a video game, especially a open world game of this, there is indeed a story line usually with black and white, and sometimes grey, moral tones. However we are given a freedom in these open world games and what WE do may go against what the storyline states. Simple as that.

Honestly I wonder how many times this animal activist ran around killing other people in the game. Somebody should give him lessons about human murders...

Not to mention the fact that these are polygonal computer programmed, animated animals. Like every other game. Maybe I should categorize all the enemies in Halo as animals and try and talk sense to them, see how that goes. Maybe even open up a Halo Zoo.

 

[L3ggy]

I love animals( not humans) with my entire heart, but c'mon! It's a friggin' game, it's not real life, and as Whims said, he taught his to kill what they needed, and nothing else.

 

[Vosslier]

The next thing you know they will be saying that pokeing your dog with a stylus on Nintendogs is animal cruelty.

 

[bigtitlover666]

im a total animal lover but that artical is insane

 

[Neutron66]

Did you guys read the whole thing? He talks later about blowing up bears with dynamite.

It's actually a pretty funny piece. Sounds like he's just fooling with the animal rights thing.

 

[LukeEl]

Too much free time this asshole has, and I have been a vegetarian for 21 years.

 

[Legzman]

Surprised they don't go after Overloard II, you club baby seals in that game.

 

[shayd]

I smell some satire there.

 

[STDiva]

Did you guys read the whole thing? He talks later about blowing up bears with dynamite.

It's actually a pretty funny piece. Sounds like he's just fooling with the animal rights thing.

Yup.

I smell some satire there.

I farted. My bad.

 

[Shadowfax 10]

I against animal cruelty but if I want to play the game I just shoot people and leave the animals alone and not forgeting riding a horse.

 

[shayd]

I farted. My bad.

Did you by Chance have nachos? Cause it sure smells like 'em.

 

[~~whimsy~~]

I read the whole thing. I found the part I quoted on here to be the funniest, however, at the same time it seems like this article is trying to instigate something. :dunno:

 

[cartman24]

The way I look at this, if people kill the animals in the game they will probably be LESS likely to want to try it in real life, since they can satisfy their "craving".

 

[~~whimsy~~]

The way I look at this, if people kill the animals in the game they will probably be LESS likely to want to try it in real life, since they can satisfy their "craving".

Yeah but when I go to put my game on the grill it isn't as satisfying.