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PETA misunderstands Fable II, picks it as game of the year
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals might hate Cooking Mama, but they love Fable II. They've selected it as the most animal-friendly videogame of 2008 for strictly culinary reasons.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 have to point out that PETA doesn't know what they're talking about. Eating meat in Fable II does not make you evil.
There are two values for your character's alignment in the game: purity and morality. Purity is the scale between pure and corrupt. Many types of food and drink affect this value. Morality is the scale between good and evil. Very few types of food affect this value. Here's the complete list.
As you can see, all four types of tofu and hydroponic carrots are a +5 to morality. But contrary to what PETA says, meats have no affect whatsoever on morality. The only food that affects your morality is live crunchy chicks, which you have to eat to be admitted to the Temple of Shadows. Not even Cooking Mama eats those!
So, PETA, dudes, play moar Fable II, n00bs!
This post brought to you by a meat-eating Fable II nerd who's meat-eating character might be fat and corrupt, but he certainly isn't evil.
By Lol at 11:34 AM ON 01/08/09
Is Peta still around? Didn't taking puppies that would have had a good home, killing them, and throwing them in the dumpster behind the animal care shelter kinda destroy their reputation? Oh well, I guess when you're preaching something as stupid as that then it's kinda hard to lose your credibility.
I'd like to take a bunch of PETA ppl and throw them in a pit with a few wild boar and a shotgun. Y'know, to see how long their values last.
Just a heads up, this is what you're siding with, libs. Peta and hundreds of other radical fringe groups like them make up the core of your party, and more far right radicals make up the leadership. If your party actually got its way - meaning the Republicans didn't block them - there'd be life imprisonment for killing Bambi and you'd be able to "abort" your children up to a year after birth if you got tired of them (using the patented "abortion brick" (very simple usage!)). Is it really worth all of that, the complete loss of conscience, just because they might legalize weed?
Lol
By PeterD at 2:21 PM ON 01/08/09
Well, most of PETA's points still stand, the meat might not make you evil, but it does make you fat, while the vegetables improve purity, morality, and don't make you fat. The evil point was wrong, but the overall point is still correct. No, I'm not a vegetarian btw :p
"LOL", this is a gaming blog, let's keep politics out of it please.
By DavidRS at 2:52 PM ON 01/08/09
I bet PETA members got a secret thrill from kicking all those chickens and abusing their doggies while eating their flavorless tofu. Sickos. . .
By Aeon221 at 3:11 PM ON 01/08/09
Yeah, I hear Jewish mothers reserve the right to abort their children up until they graduate from medical school!
More seriously, how the hell do you make a fat character lose weight in this game?
By budgethero at 5:55 PM ON 01/08/09
someone tell me how this became about who liberals really are and abortion when Tom's piece is about tofu in Fable II?
By Meladori at 6:39 PM ON 01/08/09
Ahem, I just want to say that I know my share of fat vegetarians. They may stay away from the meat but not the donuts and tasty sweets... Just saying.
By Warren at 11:00 PM ON 01/08/09
You see, Tom, you're using the word "evil" in ENGLISH, you poor, protein-besotted fool.
PETA, uses the entirely differently. Meat-Eater and Evil synonymously.
Me, I'm EEEEVIL, having just eaten left over lamb. In both usages.
By WeirdArchives at 11:11 PM ON 01/08/09
Personally, I don't take anything PETA says seriously. Those guys couldn't persuade me into the vegan lifestyle if there were guns, chainsaws and BARBIE FANTASY HORSEPLAY involved. As for FABLE 2, I'd take X-PLAY's review more to heart since they gave it Best Game of the Year.
By Balance of Power at 7:59 PM ON 01/09/09
Wow, what a surprise! the 18-50 year old male demographic that makes up a large core audience of video gamers disagrees with PETA.
Least surprising is LOL's post above, which ironically enough, betrays his own lunacy with his ridiculous (Reductio ad absurdum) example of boars in pits.
LOL illustrates perfectly the mindset that lacks the ability to understand PETA's goals.
Make no mistake, boys, I am not a card-carrying PETA member, nor am I vegan/vegetarian - but as a 30 year old male I applaud PETA for its efforts to bring awareness to its cause. Efforts that some of you no doubt find disturbing because it forces you to examine where your food comes from.
It's very easy to be dismissive of this sort of thing when it's much easier to sit in your livingrooms, comfortable - safe in the ignorance of where your food comes from - or indeed, how it got on your plate in the first place.
Indeed it's much easier to be utilitarian alpha males and pretend that you're taking part in some kind of Darwinian food chain, alá the Lion King's Circle of Life.
You're an idiot if you believe that.
Today's mass-producing animal processing plants are immense industrial juggernauts that house animals in cruel and despicable conditions that would shame even the most cruel misanthrope among you.
I don't foresee a future where we will forgo meat altogether, but I do think that we - Americans (perhaps, Westerners in general) - should reconsider our over-reliance and all-too comfortable relationship for cheap animal protein.
Need one mention the health and environmental impacts that such large animal industries create?
That is why I disagree with Tom Chick's nit-picking here. You are missing the greater point. Here is a game that acknowledges certain benefits for consciously choosing a character's diet.
How many games in the history of gaming can claim that? I am no fan of Fable (I hated the first one) - but I will give a nod to Lionhead developers for this interesting gameplay mechanic.
By repinsnug at 3:48 PM ON 01/10/09
Balance of Power
As someone who is one generation away from farm life and who has seen how they kill the animals in the factory setting I have no problem still eating meat. I really don't feel bad. You can't reasonably afford to give all the animals that are going to be killed a "cushy" lifestyle because in the end they just die anyway...
BTW
I have seen the PETA videos showing what they do....
By TheDoctor1138 at 12:24 AM ON 01/13/09
Wow.... sciffy doing a piece on PETA. Is there NO ESCAPE FROM PSEUDO-POLITICAL BANTER!?!?!?!?!???
BTW...
I am a proud member of the OTHER peta:
People for the Eating of Tasty Animals!
(vegetables: what food eats)
By Chainmail at 9:45 PM ON 01/15/09
The fact that people like balance power think that everyone is as dumb and ill-informed as they once were is exactly whats wrong with, well, people like balance of power. Not everyone requires the education of the great and powerful PETA to know were meat comes from, you know, after God creates it. At any rate i'm sure all my people are more than willing to allow any animal to step into the ring, with the aid of all its technology, and try to usurp the top of the food chain from us, if he wins so be it, untill then what animals remains slower, dumber, and tastier then me will be on the menu.
Chainmail:
The fact that people like balance power think that everyone is as dumb and ill-informed as they once were is exactl...More »