Відео

This is only the tip of the Iceberg. There are a whole host of unsavory ways animals are exploited in games. Pokémon by far being the biggest and worst offender of what you called “humane washing” 💀 But the way I see it as art. Animal exploitation in video games are harmful when they’re not talked about or exposed, which makes me really appreciate this video. The conversations that come from this art and letting it be known where it comes from informs people of its origin and helps bridge the knowledge while bringing awareness of the real life of exploitation of animals.

A fair point well said lass.🌱🌅🍀

non vegan here. I understand your position, and as someone who cares alot for animals i too understand. But im ngl even though i tried my best to earnestly here out your arguments, i found it extremely hard not to role my eyes at certain points. I guess this might just be my natural view on veganism, but its even harder to listen to when we are talking about fictional creatures. I think you hit the nail on the head when you brought up the violence in video game parallel.

Okay i overall like the thought excercise this video provokes, but i just have to laugh at your alarm when the rito wants poultry. Birds are a class. Just like mammals. Being alarmed at a bird eating another bird is as ridiculous as being alarmed at a wolf eating an elk. And its definitely not uncommon for birds to eat other birds. Peregrine falcons specialize in killing other birds, and almost all birds of prey eat other birds regularly. Even non-raptors commonly attack and eat other birds, including crows, herons, magpies, and storks.

Is the old game whack-a-mole going to cause people to go out and start clubbing baby seals? No... games exist to do things you won't/can't do in real life, they do not inform you how to act in real life... games are an escape from real life.

I don't find it shocking for the Rito to crave poultry. After all, lots of human eat other mammals, and some birds of prey eat other birds.

This video was recommended to me, as I've played all these games with over 2 thousand of hours combined. I've never really thought about the animals or food in these games at all. My partner was a little horrified when I showed them how to capture pals in palworld though. They've also been shocked with my stories of rimworld and the sims. These two games can get pretty wild and inhumane, but that's part of the fun for me. Rimworld allows any animal to be farmed, including typically viewed pet animals (like yorkies), and lets you develop a colony of cannibals that conduct rituals for their prisoners. It gets wild!

It's harmless and thinking anything else about it mean you are an idiot. Being vegan or a part of peta doesn't make you superior at all it just makes you annoying.

The conversation is exactly the same as when parents in the 80's thought their kids would worship demons and turn evil becuase they played DnD. The simple fact is that doing a thing in a video game has virutally no influence on one's real world behaviors *unless* it is being engaged upon with the explicit purpose of being a 1:1 simulation. Even then, the connection is tenuous at best. Playing golf games doesn't inherently make someone want to go and golf for real. Hitting X to club a baby seal doesn't make someone want to club a baby seal in real life. Firing a gun in Call of Duty doesn't make someone want to go fire one in real life. Obviously there is cross interests where people like to do both but enjoying one does not ensure enjoyment of the other.

I'll chime in as someone who isn't a gamer per se, but has been playing various Sims games since they first came out. I've never used the fishing feature on the sims at all, nor will I ever use it. Also, I naturally can't bring myself to make my characters prepare and eat non-vegan meals - although there aren't many overtly vegan meals, I can easily imagine that the cheese used in recipes is vegan and so I don't mind them cooking grilled cheese or spaghetti. The Sims 3 is easily the most vegan-friendly version of the game, with a vegetarian trait that can be added to any character, as well as _every_ meat-based meal having a "tofu" or vegetarian counterpart. Now that seems to be on the silly side as the appearance of the tofu meals make them seem like mere white tofu in the shape of hot dogs or turkey for example (yes, they have tofurky), but that goes along with the originality and quirkiness that sims games expressed until the wretched sims 4. In any case, all characters can eat vegan meals without having the vegetarian trait and their favourite meals can also be the vegan ones if the player so chooses. In the Pets expansion pack, they added horses for the first time to the franchise as well as some birds that could be "kept as pets" but have few interactions in reality. All of these, including cats and dogs, can run away if they are neglected and the birds can also be set free by the sims themselves. The horses are as well-made as the cats and dogs, which means they _are indeed_ represented as sentient beings who form relationships and can reproduce naturally - however they can also be ridden and used in jumping and vaulting competitions. I of course will never do any of those interactions, but I've seen playthroughs were someone did do the horse competition and it's _very nteresting_ to note that the horses get moodlets that tell the player that he/she is fed up with the human on their back and needs a break, even from the saddle alone. If they don't get breaks, I believe they might even throw the sims off and they could certainly run away. All of these mechanics come from a game made in 2009 mind, though the Pets expansion came out a few years later. Lastly, The Sims Medieval and its Pirates and Nobles expansion are also games I've played as entirely vegan characters. This spin-off is based on The Sims 3 so it's easy to see why it's also so vegan-friendly. Even in quests where the characters may have to kill non-human animals, there is always a choice to simply relocate them elsewhere or do something else that wouldn't harm them. One quest even has a bit of in-game activism where it seems many characters are firmly against hunters, which are there to kill chinchillas. Most of the meals here have body parts of wild animals, but it's extremely easy to simply buy produce and flours and make the vegan versions instead. Some parts of quests may require the player to give someone else meat, and in those cases only, I simply buy it from the market and that's that. Overall, I find it extremely easy to play sims games with vegan characters and I wish other games had such options as well, but since most seem to be overtly violent I highly doubt that will happen any time soon.

stardew valley is vegetarian propaganda.

I won't claim to be representative of all gamers, vegans, or vegan gamers, but I rarely have any issues with animals in the games I play. No one in these games is sentient and just like videogames don't cause people to be violent, I don't think they cause animal exploitation. This said, for non-vegans, I agree this can be part of the background noise supporting/normalizing animal ag/products (possibly even intentionally like product placement in some cases), and seeing non-humans as 'things' and not sentient, feeling beings IRL. I've been a gamer since childhood and vegan for 5 yrs. Some of my favourite games, which I mod heavily are: Skyrim, the Fallout franchise (not 76 lol), Minecraft and Rimworld. Going vegan never changed my gaming habits. I do lots of things in games that I would never do (or want to do) IRL even before going vegan: murdering people, robbery, hunting, and I won't even get into Rimworld. At the end of the day, game NPCs (human, non-human and alien) are not sentient. This said, I really dislike PVP (playing against players) and realistic games depicting real-life war. When I play games, I want to be transported to a new, fictional world to explore and advance into. Just sharing my opinion and experience, and I respect everyone's choice to boycott games or play them 'vegan' if they wish. Games should be fun and we should all get to play the ones we enjoy however we want to, which is also why I love modding my games so much.

I didn't care for most of this video. I realise I am not the target audience as a nonvegan, but it's not like youtube prefaces reccomendations unless the little thumbnail reveals it. I play video games so that's why I watched it. It felt like you were specifically trying to find things that could be potentially wrong, especially in the breath of the wild section about Rito felt like a really uncharitable reading of the text. I understand that you are reading it through your vegan lens, but it felt like you jumped from poultry to cannibalism like there aren't actual animals, including ones that resemble chickens in the game. Other than that, it felt like you were continually getting on your soapbox, which don't get me wrong, I understand where you are coming from. I, too, wish there were more ethical animal care practices. I don't like Palworld. I don't think it serves as a juxtaposition of cruelty as compared to Pokemon. I don't like your response to the troll, but personal taste, other vegans may feel you stuck it to them so leave that to them. I understand that it is difficult to be a vegan in games, I'm glad some games are giving more options to allow for that. However I hope you don't forget that most people still eat meat, people including hunting and other mecahnics like that isn't necessarily complacency, it's accurate to life.

I am a vegan gamer and my favourite genre is survival. This genre is filled with mechanics that encourage or force animal murder/exploitation. For example, the first time I played The Long Dark, I wasn't even vegan but I was shocked and appalled that you can catch a rabbit by stunning them with rocks and then have the options to let them go or crack their neck in a very graphic animation. I couldn't bring myself to do it at first, then I started doing it but looking away, and then eased into this mecanic and started to become insensitive to the violent scene, because ultimately it is a bunch of pixels, not a real conscious animal. It is indeed conflicting to be a vegan and also love games that incorporate so much animal violence. But I came to terms with it by being very conscious and mindful of the fact that it's fantasy, not real life. There is also an argument to be made that a survival setting makes it more justifiable to harm animals, because in real life this is also more of a grey matter. What I will say is thay playing these games does in no way, shape or form make me feel less strongly about the injustice animals are experiencing in our world. The real danger is in regards to non-vegan players because these games do perpetuate the notion that animals are there for us to use and abuse without a second thought. I also wish there were more games that simply lack this element of animal exploitation and harm completely and normalize living in harmony with animals. Thank you for the interesting video!

Maybe someone should make a game where you're an alien species and you have to hunt, farm, and consume humans.

I am vegan and I kill the animals in breath of the wild for healing items - I think wondering if that has a reflection on the person is like wondering if people who play FPS want to be violent to people irl. However I do think there could be something to be said about stardew valley and farming sims humane washing farming. i'd like to see these games include disclaimers about how this is not anywhere near our reality.

i play these games. i was nervous to watch this video, because every time i hear the discourse on animal welfare in video games, i feel guilty. i have a hard time explaining this, but i think games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley strengthen our bond with (non-human) animals because they create a sentimental attachment to animals you are domesticating with no violence and educate you (in a subtle way!) about other species. admittedly, as a kid, i appreciated the fishing mini game in Animal Crossing because the fish lived. i didn't think about the fear the fish would feel at the time. but this black/white thinking and humane washing clashed with the reality i came to know, which contributed to my views as an adult.

The satirical nature of palworld is pretty obvious when you realize you can capture the human npcs, and you can make them work for you just like you can make the animal pals. Obviously no one thinks that beating up humans and making them do free labor for you is ok, but the game subvert your expectations, instead of forbidding you from doing it because it would be just moraly wrong, it tells you "you could do anything. The qustion is, whether you sould". I can understand if some people are disturbed by that game, but thats kinda the point, i think

I think the way to address this is to hold people accountable with facts about these realities. Vegans are arguably 2% of the population and personally I think when you’re cognizant of the reality and choose to play the games even engaging in fantasy where human suffering isn’t out of the realm of enjoyment. It happens constantly in the role playing world. Slavery and any form of injustice are constantly being role played. Consent and understanding of what’s morally responsible is what’s important. Using a sentient being for any purpose without their consent is wrong. PERIOD. If you understand that go wild playing any game. You shouldn’t come out of the experience thinking I can’t wait to try this in the real world. Now where this gets dicey is the advent and the eventual rise of better virtual reality technology. Once you get to that point then there will be mental health problems related to that. Think of military personnel and slaughter house workers who display these symptoms. So regulation and education and research and development. People don’t do bad things because they’re bad. They do them because they’re ignorant and broken and foster communities of hate and perpetuate these ideologies because of a lack of mental health care and good role models. Thanks for reading if you did. I’d like to hear what others think about what I said.

Could not play any Monster Hunter game because of this

This is so funny

Just to add, video games don’t usually feature killing kids or rape, regardless of whether such content has real world consequences. Games don’t want to cater to that kind of escapism, likely in part because of our distaste for even wishing to do such things.

“Wouldn’t they be better off in their actual natural environment?” Would they though? Nature is brutal

Thank you for bringing up this topic in the very understandable and thoughtful way, I was afraid that you were gonna get trolled by non-vegan who gets irritated easily with these things😅😂 keep up good work!!:)

When I was a pretty new vegan I tried playing Horizon Zero Dawn that involves killing and gutting animals for upgrades. It bummed me out and I uninstalled. Now I play a lot of survival games that involve killing animals, but I also play a lot of shooters that involve killing humans. In the end it's all abstractions to reach a goal or make numbers go up. I think we have enough research to say we're past the idea of video games making people more violent. Same with violent movies. It's just harmless fun as long as you're a healthy well adjusted person able to separate fiction from real life. I still avoid videogames where harm to or exploitation of animals is the central theme of the game though. Games like Dave the diver, fishing games, hunting games etc. I feel like that crosses a line.

awesome vid! i think its good to think about these things

Your videos are always so well done 😊

I played green hell in VR wich is a survival game with a cool story and it's horrible to run after a wild boar and spear them to death while they are screaming and trying to escape...

That _is_ a perfect response to a troll! I am not a gamer, but I appreciate your examination of this topic in such detail. To me, all of these games want to ground their fantasy in something familiar, and the use of animals or seeing them as adversaries, is as human as anything else. These games are reinforcing human--or human-like creature--use of animals because that's so normal in the non-gaming world that no one questions it. Except vegans, or some people hypothesizing about Palworld's possible hidden meaning. Thanks for posting 🙂

20:14 Queensh/t 👑 o7

video games are problems

I brought this up before, but I tried playing a vegan/pacifist druid in World of Warcraft. It wasn't easy because she didn't wear leather armor. And not even most cloth since they were mostly wool, silk, or unknown materials. She struggled to fight a (mechanical) enemy the same level as her, and had to heal before the next one. Normally you are able to fight multiple enemies at once. Maybe I'll try a gnome warrior who can wear metal armor and can ride a mechanical vehicle. (There are motorcycles in the game that any race can use, but you need fur to make them. 🤢)

3:01 Ooh. Streets of Rage 2. The nostalgia is strong with this one. 😎And 21:28 yes it would be fun to play Breath of the Wild as a vegan. Will you try it?

I've been an avid gamer since the early 90's when at 6 years old I first played a pixelated plant based Mario on a NES hand me down.🍄 Great video an topic lass fair play to you. Apart from mostly reaffirming already long standing real world cultural animal use/abuse I don't see any harmful actions of these games that would worsen things for animals in real life, although of course being a Vegan 7+ years I cringe at any an all promotion of cultural animal abuse or ethically incoherent mistreatment of animals by say a supposedly just benevolent protagonist etc can sometime really hinder the narrative. Also some of the most popular videogame characters of all time are based on animals an often the simple formula has them saving their vulnerable furry friends from say a selfish apathetic power hungry human like Sonic/Crash vs Robotnik/Cortex etc. I will also say that I have noticed a fair bit of improvements gaming wise, like you correctly pointed out early in the video some games particularly "beat em ups" traditionally use cooked Chicken corpses as a large health restore item an a fruit for a lesser heal. Like the footage shown in Streets of Rage 2 I played Streets of Rage 4 on PS4 last year and was happy to see a feature that allowed you to pick what your large an small food/health items would be, so lots of animal friendly options in the mix. A small win perhaps but hopefully steps in a better pixelated direction.🌱🎮🤞🍀

True, I was gonna comment red dead redemption 😅

Wow, what a thorough analyses of the topic!

I feel like some of you are going to be mad I didn’t include Red Dead Redemption 2 🙈…the truth is I haven’t played it since it’s admittedly not my style of game. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it though and any other games that stand out!

Oooh, as an avid gamer this will be an interesting video

Sounds to me like Miyoko was putting quality over profits and this irritated investors so they tried to relegate her to an irrelevant role in the company which she refused so they fired her and the company has not done anything remarkable or new since.

A recent study published in the Lancet with over a quarter million participants found that while animal-based ultra processed foods significantly increased mortality risk, plant-based ultra-processed foods did not

It’s the seed oils used to prolong shelf life that is the issue

There’s a pernicious streak of neo liberal ideology in the vegan brain that needs to be reflected on more. There’s this weird concern about telling people what they should eat and scolding ex-vegans or vegans that are vegan for not ‘the right reasons’. Telling people what they should and shouldn’t eat just comes across as unhinged and contributes to bad optics towards people who are not yet convinced.

I just recently found this channel, and am so very impressed. Top notch content, kudos for all of your hard work! "Because god forbid anyone should have to compromise..." made me LOL. :)