PETA Goes After Assassin's Creed For Its Depiction Of Whaling; Ubisoft Responds With A Heaping Dose Of Sarcasm
from the it-doesn't-get-much-lower-than-being-mocked-by-Ubisoft dept
I’m not sure why it is that PETA feels it needs to pick fights with video games, but it continues to do so even after its last couple of efforts (vs. Pokemon [catch ALL the fake animals!] and Cooking Mama [dead animals for dinner!]) have backfired spectacularly. Its latest target is none other than the latest Assassin’s Creed game, which, at this point, exists only as a trailer.
There’s plenty of assassinating and plundering on the way, it would appear, but none of that bothers PETA. Nope, it’s the fake killing of fake whales that has the group back in full statement-issuing pique. Here’s what it had to say about the deadly digital whaling:
Whaling—that is, shooting whales with harpoons and leaving them to struggle for an hour or more before they die or are hacked apart while they are still alive—may seem like something out of the history books, but this bloody industry still goes on today in the face of international condemnation, and it’s disgraceful for any game to glorify it. PETA encourages video game companies to create games that celebrate animals—not games that promote hurting and killing them.
I don’t know which intern gets handed instructions to “write something angry” about video game animal abuse, but I can only imagine they’re fairly resentful of the interns that get handed plum assignments to write about actual, real-world, horrific animal abuse. Statements like these, directed at fiction, make me believe there’s some sort of “DAYS SINCE LAST OUTRAGE” board posted at the PETA office, and heads (HUMAN ONLY) start rolling if it passes single digits.
Ubisoft obviously felt this statement deserved a response, and handled it with all the dignity it could muster while still leaving room for plenty of withering, bone-dry sarcasm.
“History is our playground in Assassin’s Creed,” Ubisoft said in a statement to the publication. “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a work of fiction that depicts the real events during the Golden Era of Pirates. We do not condone illegal whaling, just as we don’t condone a pirate lifestyle of poor hygiene, plundering, hijacking ships, and over-the-legal-limit drunken debauchery.”
“And even if the game does glorify whaling — as it certainly glorifies the life of a pirate — I don’t think it will lead to a generation of gamers who head to the Caribbean to hunt down humpbacks. Just as I don’t think anyone who played the previous Assassin’s Creed games have found employment as a murderer for hire.”
Point: Ubisoft. Although honestly, scoring a point against manufactured outrage from one of the most prolific outrage manufacturers on the planet is a bit like putting one into your own net, in terms of effort. Still, the statement deserved a response, because (he said, mixing sports metaphors like a mad scientist with a handful of smoking flasks and beakers) if PETA’s going to hang one directly over the plate, it seems a shame to pass up an opportunity to send it rocketing into the upper deck.
PETA could be a useful contributor to society if it would just focus on actual, heinous animal abuse rather than attaching bits of crazy to whatever happens to fall within miles of its actual purview. But it looks like it would much rather continue to cement its reputation as an “out there” special interest group only slightly more credible than “birthers” or conspiracy theorists utilizing numerology to detail the connection between gold prices, the Illuminati and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Filed Under: assassin's creed, peta, promotional stunts
Companies: ubisoft
Comments on “PETA Goes After Assassin's Creed For Its Depiction Of Whaling; Ubisoft Responds With A Heaping Dose Of Sarcasm”
Ubisoft could have come out in a high moral ground by adding a virtual Sea Shepperd into the game to glorify activism. With a slashed pokeball (in blood-red ink) painted in its hull just to remind people of their last successful activism attempt at Pokemons. /s
Paradoxical!
“Just as I don’t think anyone who played the previous Assassin’s Creed games have found employment as a murderer for hire.”
If you knew anyone that found employment as a murderer for hire, you would have to say that. Otherwise you wouldn’t be saying anything at all.
Re: Paradoxical!
walks by with a bunch of monks soon….binky….soon
If you can make Ubisoft look good, you know you’re doing something wrong.
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Google begs to differ: Did you mean EA?
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Meh. Six of one, half a dozen of the other…
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His point stands. Comparing EA to Ubisoft…
I think PETA is on to something here..
Why don’t we have a game where instead of the Animals being hunted and killed the members of PETA are instead hunted and killed by the Animals..
I’d buy that!
PS: Meat is murder… tasty tasty murder – brought to you by People Eating Tasty Animals!
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Grab your favourite zombie shooting game and re-skin the zombies to look like PETA members.
They’ll look, talk AND act exactly like the real thing.
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Just get out your old copy of Postal.. Its just about the same thing!
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Save a tree, burn a book!
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Thats an interesting concept. To play a predator surviving the wild and human beings. I would certainly try such game.
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PETA thinks the natural world is like a Disney movie. I think a bolt to the head is more humane than getting eaten alive or starving to death, which is how most animals die.
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Bolt didn’t have superpowers =/
Wait, is that Disney?
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Meat is murder… tasty tasty murder – brought to you by People Eating Tasty Animals!
People Eating Tasty Animals: The laughingstock of animal rights since 1980
PETA actually IS the connection between gold prices, the Illuminati and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service…
So, since ol’ Jack Thompson has quit gunnin’ for the games industry and hung up his six shooters of crazy, it looks like PETA is putting on the black clown hat and floppy over-sized cowboy boots to take his place.
I want to see a Game where I can be a Tiger or Lion and I can hunt down PETA Members.I could sink my big Animal Teeth into warm juicy PETA Flesh.The Gourmet of Meat-Stock !!!
Must also throw some naked hot PETA Women in Cages.Be the Animal who solves the Puzzle of Opening up the Cage Doors for the sweet Treats within.
PETA Hunting Fun !
Coming Soon to your PC,Playstation, and XBOX May 2013
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what a co-incidence, last night i was feeling kinda bad as I slaughtered turtles in “thousand needles”. I had no choice, i needed the meat. I’ve also been thinking about starting a save the savannah prowlers campaign. i’m killing harmless animals in world of warcraft all the time, shame blizzard shame.
Thankfully I can switch roles and kill bi-peds too in animal form. so I’ll take that back in the interests of balance.
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Sounds like time for a bit of Primal Carnage – send in the Velociraptors!
As I sit here eating my hamburger wrapped in bacon and veal topped in a nice baby seal sauce I cannot… Shit forgot what I was going to say.
PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2013/03/11/peta-starcraft-zerglings-have-feelings-too.aspx
Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
Holy balls, they are just LOADS of crazy, aren’t they?
Re: Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
After a certain point you have to realize even crazy people have intelligence, they just analyze the world differently than everyone else.
PETA on the other hand is just outright moronic.
Re: Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
That’s amusing, there’s an achievement in World of Warcraft called “D.E.T.A. little P.I.T.A.” or something. It’s obtained after doing a series of quests that involve killing animal poachers and collecting their ears and lovely things like that (and if you kill an animal you get soaked on their blood and can’t go near the DETA camp without being attacked by angry animal lovers unless you either wait enough for the blood to go away or go into the water to wash the blood). I find this to be rather ironic and amusing… And if Blizz intended that as an irony then it’s one epic win.
Re: Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
It tempers the crazy a bit to see that it’s labeled as a “PETA Parody” and the blog entry makes it clear that it’s a publicity stunt to get people to think about their issues.
That said, yes, they are loads crazy and prove it daily.
Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
That sediments the idea in my head that they are actually a group of comedians trolling us all.
Re: Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
reverse engineering the Streisand effect? you might be on to something there. I, for one, never hear of PETA anymore unless the crazy gets out.
Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
Wait wait wait…
They call their blog “The PETA Files”?! Are they not aware of a) how most people pronounce their organization’s acronym and b) the British pronunciation of “pedophile”?
Re: Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
Well, it’s not our fault the Americans can’t speak or spell correctly… 😉
Fun with PETA
Their headquarters is on the water in Norfolk Virginia and every year there is a fishing tournament held out in front of them. Gotta love it.
At least when getting mad at Pokemon they could point to animal abuse (2 animals fighting each other), but PETA couldn’t even go after the correct argument there.
debauchery
Well, as long as Ubisoft does support equal-to-or-under-the-legal-limit drunken debauchery…
PETA – Grain Fed feed stock, for animals.
Has anyone ever met a peta person? There is no doubt most of them are complete nuts.
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I know a number of people who are members of PETA, and almost none of them have any idea how extreme PETA really is.
Where's my mixed metaphor!?
Where is the mixed Metaphor? First, you talk correctly about a [mad] scientist in the set up, then you use 2 Baseball references. I’ve seen plenty of balls left hanging over the plate rocketed into an upperdeck. That’s more or less all Mark McGwire did.
Re: Where's my mixed metaphor!?
The previous sentence says “putting one into your own net.”
What is PETA's thoughts...
…Big Game hunter and Duck Hunt?
Re: What is PETA's thoughts...
WHAT ABOUT FROGGER???!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!11111111oneoneoneoneoneoneone
Re: Re: What is PETA's thoughts...
Atrocious game! It’s obvious the number of animal poachers skyrocketed after Frogger was released!
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I wonder what they said about Oregon Trail…
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What about frog fractions.
“Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a work of fiction that depicts the real events during the Golden Era of Pirates.”
I thought today was the Golden Era of Pirates?
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It is! Except that we now sail the binary sea 😉
PETA is worse than an outrage machine.
They’re basically a front for animal-rights terrorists, and no I’m not using tired hyperbole by saying that. Members of their organization have been linked to physical intimidation and acts against animal researchers worthy of 1930s mafia. Their manufactured outrage at a video game is all the more hilarious when you consider that fake-killing whales is far more humane than becoming a loyal member of PETA (where actual crime has been condoned).
PETA
I’m a strict vegan, tree-hugging hippie, and I hang my head in shame everytime PETA opens its mouth.
Of course
I should move and become a whaling pirate just to spite PETA.
this about sums it up :
“PETA could be a useful contributor to society if it would just focus on actual, heinous animal abuse rather than attaching bits of crazy to whatever happens to fall within miles of its actual purview. “
nailhead, meet hammer…
i seriously think that PETA (i pronounce it pet-a, not pete-a, ’cause i don’t have petes, i have pets…) DOES MORE HARM to their (our) cause more than good…
i’m a treehugger, i love critters, i can’t stand peta-rds, THEY make me ashamed to be an animal-lover…
could they actually be a false flag op by the beef council or sumpin’ ? ? ?
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
Re: this about sums it up :
If you have pets, then PETA considers you the enemy.
Re: this about sums it up :
and I would relate pet-a to a pet-a-phile…
Ubisoft could always donate a brazillion-million virtual dollars to aid all the digital whales being slaughtered. While they are at it, maybe they can clean up some digital oil spills, free digital Willy, and keep those digital glaciers from melting.
Ubisoft could always donate a brazillion-million virtual dollars to aid all the digital whales being slaughtered. While they are at it, maybe they can clean up some digital oil spills, free digital Willy, and keep those digital glaciers from melting.
People Eating Tasty Animals
PETA has, for as long as I remember, been so good at being a parody of themselves that it renders them almost immune to parody. Almost like that’s their plan.
PETA?
And I always thought that stood for
PEOPLE EATING TASTY ANIMALS
(The writer does not support killing whales or maliciously harming animals. However, I do support helping humans
What? Seriously? There was just an Onion-esque story about this too.
PETA Says Virtual Whaling in Assassin?s Creed 4 is a Gateway Drug That Will Lead to Actual Whaling
http://www.p4rgaming.com/?p=1453
Here's a tag line for you Ubisoft
“No animal testing was used in this game. No animals were harmed”. Put it prominently on the promotional materials. You’re welcome. Please use it with my permission.
Re: Here's a tag line for you Ubisoft
You either forgot your sarcmark or you were serious… and if you were serious it shouldn’t have to be said for a VIDEO GAME.
hmm, i didn’t think there was going to be another one based on the last one. I thought i read that in several articles about how AC3 was the ending of the series.. Granted i found it hard to believe at the time b/c any additional titles would make so much money.. maybe they’ll fix the terrible end of 3?!?
Of course you DO realize that Ubisoft paid PETA a bucketload of money to generate this publicity right?
PETA is a 100% fake shell organization and exists solely to provide cheap/free advertising to anyone with cold hard cash…..
Someday the human sharks will convince the REAL sharks PETA has been jumping to file a lawsuit. Harassment, mental stress, damages, the works.
Which intern wrote this garbage article?
Q: How many PETA members does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. PETA can’t change anything.
wut
So apparently they didn’t pay attention to Dishonored at all. because half the game was about whaling and using whale oil to fuel stuff. i find it extremely funny how randomly they choose this shit.
Ubisoft should produce a whaling game now out of sheer spite. It hasn’t been done to my knowledge, so why not?
They have a point. I’ve played the other games, and it’s given me strong urges to liberate the Holy Land from the Saracens and open a brothel in Italy.
Is this the
“We don’t like meat,
but we sure like the bone”
PETA?
That is all I have ever got out of the couple of ads of theirs that I have seen.
Save a whale, exploit a woman. Right Peta?
PETA… is actually hard to comment on in the sense that they don’t make the sense they did at their inception. Another great organization hijacked by radical idiots.
Have to admit; once a wildly radical group reaches some level of damage it blurs in my mind. Cannot even distinguish PETA from MADD as both seem hijacked by an internal desire to force some specific Utopian ideal on the public at large. As much as I love animals they don’t (to me) represent any ideal or standard that distinguishes their effort.
The PETA effort seems to only remind me that life is hard, horrible and it is pointless to hammer anyone who is undergoing such reality. PETA to me is like the DEA of the animal world. Despite the wonderful stories expounded upon in the promotion adverts what good do they do? In reality they bust up animal owners undergoing sever economic trauma or family crisis. Do they help these people? No. They use them ruthlessly for promotion of their intervention crusade.
If PETA could say that these same owners subjected to their militaristic actions had refused a grant from them to actually help the animals themselves… I would be more sympathetic to their efforts. Considering the economic expense of each intervention it would surly be a potential lowest cost solution.
To point; they want to attack digital whaling? Because these people have no voice with me… so what? A group with no credibility has no truck with me. I’d rather walk through a sludge basin than deal with such tripe.
-washes feet-
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Well, isn’t it becoming common in the world? Fundamentalists/intolerants swarm a determined group/organization/religion and fuck everything up?
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What do you mean becoming common? This phenomenon is older than dirt.
from a marketing perspective, this makes at least a bit of sense (maybe more so if PETA we’re being a bit tongue in cheek themselves). Piggy back off of high profile game releases and introduce PETA to a new generation…
Screw PETA! More real whale hunting!
http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/2501797/PETA/
Why?
You ask why do they pick fights with video games? The left must push their propaganda lies on everyone all the time so it to become true. Otherwise, they couldn’t raise money from yelling ‘the sky is falling’, would have to perform real work to earn a living and that would suck beyond belief. Why work when you can be Chicken Little and have all the dupes pay for your extravagent lifestyle?
lol
Bahahaha…PETA is always looking for things to fight about. For such a peace loving group, you’d think they would let a few things go every now and again.
http://numerologylove.weebly.com/a-name-and-birth-date-determine-compatibility-in-love-and-life.html