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Fable II wins animal rights award News

Xbox 360 News by Ellie Gibson

7 January, 2009

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.

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Comments: 1-50 of 52 in total | next 50 »

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bad09
07/01/09 @ 08:38
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I wonder if PETA has played Fallout 3? Shooting the heads off dogs and eating their dead flesh is much more fun.....
xXBrombeerXx
07/01/09 @ 08:40
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Err...I'm pretty sure I kicked a chicken down a ravine, thus unlocking an achievement, shooting a pigeon from a roof in a poof of feathers and opting for money over my dog so it couldn't be resurrected. You see, it is not an animal friendly game. I'm pretty sure the award givers haven't played Fable II then...
Canyarion
07/01/09 @ 08:43
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Didn't Fable 1 let you kick chickens?
Ah, like Brombeer says, so does 2.
Buztafen
07/01/09 @ 08:53
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If meat wasnt meant to be eaten, whys it so tasty? Fuck off PETA and bring me a steak.....rare please.
OnlyMe
07/01/09 @ 08:57
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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
07/01/09 @ 08:58
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@ Bombeer

I think your missing the point. It's about the choice to not eat meat, kick chickens, etc.
bad09
07/01/09 @ 09:01
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@ OnlyMe

/ *coughs* puts on Dave Attenborough voice

Actually we have canines for tearing. The flat ones are for chewing the flesh. Hmmm, flesh......
CaptainBinky
07/01/09 @ 09:03
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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
07/01/09 @ 09:14
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humous my good man HUMOUS!
Lutz [mod]
07/01/09 @ 09:17
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We also have incisors for shearing through meat.
the_dudefather
07/01/09 @ 09:18
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PETA endorses games in which you can eat live baby chicks
Dop
07/01/09 @ 09:27
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Won't somebody think of the poor Balverines!!!
glottis0
07/01/09 @ 09:29
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@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...
xXBrombeerXx
07/01/09 @ 09:32
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@Menage: Well, if you make it an achievement to kick chickens, then is that really a choice anymore?! The fact that it has been made an ACHIEVEMENT to kick chicken, isn't that animal friendly now, is it?
Edited 1 times, most recently on 07/01/09 @ 09:32
alpha-0ne
07/01/09 @ 09:33
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"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
07/01/09 @ 09:35
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""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
07/01/09 @ 09:41
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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.
farticusmaximus
07/01/09 @ 09:44
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What makes humans omnivores is our ability to digest meat, not our ability to rip it apart.

PETA thinks that using our bodies full range of faculties is evil. Now, I'm an animal lover and abhor any kind of animal cruelty but that's no longer PETA's agenda. They are now taking on the mantle of 'moral advisor' rather than animal protector.

I'd like them to burn in hell, and be replaced by an organisation that actually cares about the treatment of animals instead of deciding our biology is 'wrong' with respect to what we should eat.
Eraysor
07/01/09 @ 09:57
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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.
Goatboy
07/01/09 @ 09:58
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I was going to buy this at the weekend, I shall now buy something else, just to annoy PETA (Molyneux)

Seriously though, anything they put their name to, I don't. Hypocritical violent gobshites, the lot of them.
kinky_mong
07/01/09 @ 10:01
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Don't forget there's also an achievement for shooting rabbits. PETA really are clueless fuckwits.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 07/01/09 @ 10:02
glottis0
07/01/09 @ 10:04
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@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 2 times, most recently on 07/01/09 @ 10:05
menage
07/01/09 @ 10:07
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@ 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 1 times, most recently on 07/01/09 @ 10:30
peterfll
07/01/09 @ 10:28
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It's only cos we can eat both plants and meat that we have survived as long as we have kiddies.
paulf
07/01/09 @ 10:30
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the PETA parody in Wrath of the Lich King is excellent - I wonder if they played that?
Britesparc
07/01/09 @ 10:31
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They've obviously never read Megafowl.
hiddenranbir
07/01/09 @ 10:36
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Go away PETA and keep your terrorism in America. Our animal right groups are far superior!
Eraysor
07/01/09 @ 10:38
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Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals!
PlugMonkey
07/01/09 @ 10:45
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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
07/01/09 @ 10:52
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
roz123
07/01/09 @ 10:56
#31
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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
07/01/09 @ 11:35
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I shot rabbits and kicked chickens in fable. 8/
glottis0
07/01/09 @ 11:36
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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
07/01/09 @ 11:42
#34
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"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.
jstar
07/01/09 @ 11:50
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Hmm, I wonder where we would be now if PETA was around 10,000 years ago. Yeah FUCKING EXTINCT.

And Glottis0 - your plainly do not understand Darwin or natural selection. It is not even slightly random, quite the opposite. Chance has nothing to do with it. In fact natural selection is the antithesis of chance.

I would explain to you now why this is so but luckily someone far more intelligent than I has already written a book that explains it very clearly. Go and read the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

And do you know why people are anti vegetarian? It's because it's a stupid philosophy because when you actually get down to it the line between what constitues a living thing is very very blurred. Because quite frankly my friend a plant is also a living thing. And I am yet to meet a veggie who feels the same way about a fly or a maggot as they do about a cow or a sheep. Or what about a virus? Or a bacteria? Are they not living things? It is a selective a namby pamby load of bullshit.

The only valid veggies are veggies because of:

Religious reasons
It makes them ill
Or they just don'e like the taste.

All the others can fuck off and die.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 07/01/09 @ 11:58
glottis0
07/01/09 @ 12:00
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@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 5 times, most recently on 07/01/09 @ 12:10
dryden555
07/01/09 @ 12:05
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PETA is very extremist if you spend some time figuring out what they're about. nutty really.
jstar
07/01/09 @ 12:05
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Fair point. Genetic drift is indeed random.

Re: the religion thing - its not any more valid than a moral choice. In fact it's less valid in my opinion. I actually had in brackets after the religion thing : (but I think this is really a load of bollocks also)

I was trying to avoid the religion argument.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 07/01/09 @ 12:07
farticusmaximus
07/01/09 @ 12:21
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The reasons for someone becoming a vegetarian should not be brought into question at all. Religion, diet, moral choice, it's all irrelevant.

All that matters is that people have the choice to eat meat or not and both parties need to respect the other's decisions.
jstar
07/01/09 @ 12:28
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But that is exactly my point. You can't stand up and and campaign for the rights of a cow and then turn round and say, fuck the insects. It makes you a hippocrit and completely devalues the argument. If someone takes it upon themselves to stand up and shout about the rights of animals they can't then take it upon themselves to disqualify certain species because they don;t empathise with them. Well i say they can't but thats is exactly what they do. hence the reason why i will never respect such a moral choice.

so no, I don't respect the decision. I respect that they have the right to make a decision but not the choice they make because its nonsense.
glottis0
07/01/09 @ 12:28
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@farticus. Agreed. Just for the record I also hate PETA, and think their campaigns and ethics are bloody awful.
glottis0
07/01/09 @ 12:40
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@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
07/01/09 @ 12:52
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This story is completely nuts.
jstar
07/01/09 @ 12:56
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Yes, I am simplifying it enormously. But I'm only talking in extremes to prove the point. Though everything you say is true.
I agree.
DandyKong
07/01/09 @ 13:01
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Yawn. I wish those PETA people would shut up. Attention whores.
Daikon
07/01/09 @ 13:12
#46
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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
07/01/09 @ 13:52
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@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 1 times, most recently on 07/01/09 @ 13:52
smelly
07/01/09 @ 15:48
#48
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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
07/01/09 @ 16:44
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The army of the 12 Monkeys!
Freek
07/01/09 @ 16:45
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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.

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