Fable II wins animal rights award

By Ellie Gibson Published 7 January, 2009

PETA praises Peter's pet project.

Fable II has been named the most animal-friendly videogame of 2008 by campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

According to the organisation's website, Fable II is "a vegetarian's dream come true".

No, not because it's a bacon sandwich, but because, "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."

PETA goes on to observe that eating plant-based foods helps you earn "purity" points, while scoffing delicious 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," don't you know. They don't mention the dog.

This isn't the first time PETA has taken an interest in videogames. In November, which was a similarly slow month for news, the organisation parodied Cooking Mama, criticising the original game for featuring too much delicious meat.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (43) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bad09 #1 3 years ago

    I wonder if PETA has played Fallout 3? Shooting the heads off dogs and eating their dead flesh is much more fun.....

  • Canyarion #2 3 years ago

    Didn't Fable 1 let you kick chickens?
    Ah, like Brombeer says, so does 2.

  • Buztafen #3 3 years ago

    If meat wasnt meant to be eaten, whys it so tasty? Fuck off PETA and bring me a steak.....rare please.

  • OnlyMe #4 3 years ago

    To be true, there's a reason we have flat teeths, and not sharp like predators. Not that I care though, nothings like a juicy steak in my gums.

  • menage #5 3 years ago

    @ Bombeer

    I think your missing the point. It's about the choice to not eat meat, kick chickens, etc.

  • bad09 #6 3 years ago

    @ OnlyMe

    / *coughs* puts on Dave Attenborough voice

    Actually we have canines for tearing. The flat ones are for chewing the flesh. Hmmm, flesh......

  • CaptainBinky #7 3 years ago

    Difference is though, in Fable2 it's all nice and easy to shove celery and tofu down your character's gob to get the -5.0 fatness stat over and over again, whereas in real life it would taste flipping awful.

  • legendmir #8 3 years ago

    humous my good man HUMOUS!

  • Lutz #9 3 years ago

    We also have incisors for shearing through meat.

  • the_dudefather #10 3 years ago

    PETA endorses games in which you can eat live baby chicks

  • Dop #11 3 years ago

    Won't somebody think of the poor Balverines!!!

  • glottis0 #12 3 years ago

    @all the 'teeth theory' people; unless you believe in intelligent design, our teeth weren't 'meant' for anything. Sure, we're adapted to be able to eat meat, but also vegetables and less-tasty meat substitutes. Just saying, people should think about their arguments instead of reusing the same flawed BS they hear other people spout...

  • alpha-0ne #13 3 years ago

    "PETA endorses games in which you can eat live baby chicks"

    That was YOUR choice you evil peta hating person ;-)

    I decided to shag whores and eat celery

  • JammyPez #14 3 years ago

    ""No, not because it's a bacon sandwich, but because, "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."

    PETA goes on to observe that eating plant-based foods helps you earn "purity" points, while scoffing delicious 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," don't you know. They don't mention the dog.""

    So, vegetarians are fitter and better looking than meat eaters! Great, I didn't know that.........

  • Petulant_Radish #15 3 years ago

    Of course our teeth were meant for something you crazy fool! They are meant to help us mash up our food, do you just think we evolved with them in from simian to homo-sapiens? You think it’s just a lucky accident that we can chew with them?

    AAAAA AAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAA. You make my brain bleed.

  • Eraysor #16 3 years ago

    These people are laughable, I honestly doubt that any of them actually played the game. Also Fable 2 doesn't take into account the fact that meat is delicious; it's not like we can taste all this tofu we're supposed to be scoffing.

  • kinky_mong #17 3 years ago

    Don't forget there's also an achievement for shooting rabbits. PETA really are clueless fuckwits.
    Edited by 1 at 07/01/09 @ 10:02

  • glottis0 #18 3 years ago

    @Petulant_Radish; I think you misunderstood me (or maybe evolution) - in evolution stuff happens randomly, and if it's good, it usually stays. There is no 'meant' - our teeth are good for eating meat, they're not meant for it.

    If a caveman randomly discovers a sharp rock and uses it to kill deer (which it is just perfect for), and then some hippies come along and say "killing deer is evil", then the caveman says "I was meant to kill deer - else why did I find this awesome killing rock?" then he'd be making a similar logical mistake as the teeth argument people.

    "You think it’s just a lucky accident that we can chew with them?" Yes, and so did Darwin. All evolutionary developments are happy accidents.
    Edited by 2 at 07/01/09 @ 10:05

  • menage #19 3 years ago

    @ Bombeer

    Sorry, I tend to leave out achievements out of the equation in my view on a game. To many people use them to judge the game on it's worth, while it's more of a meta scoring system which is obligatory. It's a nice add on mind you, but in no way will I ever judge the game on them.

    Also, you don't need to earn the achievement, it's totally up to you.
    Edited by 1 at 07/01/09 @ 10:30

  • peterfll #20 3 years ago

    It's only cos we can eat both plants and meat that we have survived as long as we have kiddies.

  • paulf #21 3 years ago

    the PETA parody in Wrath of the Lich King is excellent - I wonder if they played that?

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #22 3 years ago

    They've obviously never read Megafowl.

  • hiddenranbir #23 3 years ago

    Go away PETA and keep your terrorism in America. Our animal right groups are far superior!

  • Eraysor #24 3 years ago

    Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals!

  • PlugMonkey #25 3 years ago

    Goatboy - Nose. Face. Spite. Etc..

    Human beings are evolved to eat a primarily vegetarian diet, with the occasional opportunistic consumption of meat - just like our nearest cousins, the chimpanzees.

    Too much meat in your diet is strongly linked to bowel cancer, as we haven't evolved to cope with a meat heavy diet as we've only been on it for the last few thousand years.

    That's my theory anyway. You make your choice and take your chances.

    Continuing on a meat heavy diet is enviromentally unsustainable anyway, so what we're 'designed' to do is a bit of a moot point. We need to cut down on our meat consumption or we're all screwed anyway.

  • Petulant_Radish #26 3 years ago

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

  • roz123 #27 3 years ago

    so it teaches you eating tofu makes you fit, sexy and good whilst eating meat makes you fat, ugly and evil.

    My thoughts on vegetarians is summed up by frankie boyle: i had a dinner party and someone asked me if there is a vegetarian option. i told them "yes, you can fuck off"

  • clean515 #28 3 years ago

    I shot rabbits and kicked chickens in fable. 8/

  • glottis0 #29 3 years ago

    roz123: "My thoughts on vegetarians is summed up by frankie boyle: i had a dinner party and someone asked me if there is a vegetarian option. i told them "yes, you can fuck off""

    This I don't get. I understand how you might hate PETA, and other preachy "you eat meat so you're evil" type vegetarians. But intolerance/hate for vegetarianism seems a bit...silly. It's almost like they're one of the few minority groups it's still seen as ok to pick on, because political correctness hasn't quite got around to lifestyle choices yet.

    I wouldn't want to be forced to eat a vegetarian diet, but why the fuck should anyone care what someone else chooses to eat?

  • LiamK #30 3 years ago

    "Too much meat in your diet is strongly linked to bowel cancer, as we haven't evolved to cope with a meat heavy diet as we've only been on it for the last few thousand years. "

    Red meat, not all meat. And the important part is "too much". The evidence isn't that eating meat increases your risk of bowel cancer, but too much red meat and not enough fibre. Too much of anything is bad. Balanced diets are good. People who do no exercise are more likely to die young than people who do. Rain makes you wet. Etc.

  • glottis0 #31 3 years ago

    @jstar; The genetic mutations occur by chance. Natural selection ensures that successful mutations are retained whilst unsuccessful ones are discarded. I wasn't saying natural selection is chance - but you need random variation to have something to select.

    I'm a fan of Dawkins myself, and agree that of course, his knowledge far outstrips my own. But we'd both agree that random mutation is necessary for natural selection to have something to select.

    Also, edit because I just read something even more stupid you said - "the only valid veggies are for religious reasons...". Oh wow! How exactly is a religious belief any more valid than a personal moral choice? Is it the number of people in the religion that count (because there's a fuckload of vegetarians about you know)? Or do religious beliefs have a magical extra importance?

    The difference between a cow and a fly is intuitive and obvious. A person is more like a cow than a fly! That's how empathy works - that's why people of the same sex, age, race etc often find it easier to relate to one another - similarity to something makes it easier to empathize with it. Vegetarians just draw the line further than non-vegetarians. Would you eat people? If not, that's where you draw your line; for a vegetarian I guess it'd be different because they empathize with animals more than you do.
    Edited by 5 at 07/01/09 @ 12:10

  • dryden555 #32 3 years ago

    PETA is very extremist if you spend some time figuring out what they're about. nutty really.

  • glottis0 #33 3 years ago

    @farticus. Agreed. Just for the record I also hate PETA, and think their campaigns and ethics are bloody awful.

  • glottis0 #34 3 years ago

    @jstar - Yeah I think you have a strong point about the standing up and preaching. I think it's invalid to preach vegetarianism as absolute 'right' and eating meat as 'wrong' or 'evil'. I think PETA spout nonsense and give other vegetarians a bad name.

    It is a bit more complex than you make out though - for example, it's fairly easy to prove that an oyster or a mushroom doesn't have the same level of consciousness as a cat.
    Therefore, it's not really hypocritical to find killing cats more distasteful than killing mushrooms. Just the same as it's not hypocritical to be be against murder but be ok with abortion.

    I guess just like the abortion issue, for many vegetarians it's all about reducing suffering, rather than believing all life has some sacred value.

  • Tomo #35 3 years ago

    This story is completely nuts.

  • DandyKong #36 3 years ago

    Yawn. I wish those PETA people would shut up. Attention whores.

  • Daikon #37 3 years ago

    I'm a strict vegetarian, and even I think these PETA people are just a bunch of wanker losers.

    Now if you'll excuse me, there's a Fable 2 chicken kicking achievement I still need to get...

  • menage #38 3 years ago

    @Tomo

    This story? Look at this fucking thread.

    @jstar

    I think your opinion is nonsense as well,

    see how stupid and easy that is.

    Edited by 1 at 07/01/09 @ 13:52

  • smelly #39 3 years ago

    Fable 2 lets you kill chickens.

    Peta are in the habbit of killing dogs..

    Good match.

    I like PETA.. They care more about animal rights than humans.. they'd rather have lions walking freely down the street than save a human child...

    Any group with logic like that deserves to be supported imho!

  • menage #40 3 years ago

    The army of the 12 Monkeys!

  • Freek #41 3 years ago

    Humans are omnivores and the meat in our diet meant we had lots of energy for our brains to develop into the intelligent species we are today. Sure, eating too much of it is bad for you but to automatically label meat as bad is short sighted and silly.

  • Farzlepot #42 3 years ago

    PETA rock. Not only do they provide comic relief in this era of depression and misery, but they also use scantily-clad women as a method of protest. What's not to like?

    "I think your missing the point. It's about the choice to not eat meat, kick chickens, etc. "

    I don't think PETA really want people to have a 'choice' about it, they just want people to stop eating meat whether you want to or not.

    Besides, in some scenarios there isn't really a choice. We have to kill a multitude of beetles throughout the game, for example, and despite protests from the 'Only Cute Fuzzy Animals are Animals' crowd, they are still animals. And your dog gets shot dead no matter what choices you make throughout the game. I assume that slaughtering hundreds of human beings is fine with PETA though, so that's not really an issue.

  • mherzog #43 3 years ago

    If anyone is interested here is a link to a video on factory farming: http://meat.org