It Had To Happen Sooner Or Later

Posted by Stropp on April 8, 2009

I’ve wondered a few times over the years, both to myself and in guild chat, why we MMORPG players haven’t drawn the ire of the environmental and animal rights groups. At last we have!

Over the last couple of months, the animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) — I belong to the other PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals) — have been getting thier knickers in a twist about the treatment of animals in certain games. PETAs last hissy fit was over the requirement for players to kill viscious attack dogs in one of the World War Two games, Call of Duty I think.

Well, MMORPG players have been involved in the wholesale slaughter of pixelated fauna for some time now. If it’s not killing ten rats in WoW, it’s the bloodthirsty animal carnage of Lord of the Rings Online — Won’t somebody please think of the bears!

PETA have been going on about how these games have been desensitising us to our animal friends, causing us to become potential real world animal killers. I can see it now. Hordes of young game addicts violently running around zoos and animal rescue shelters with all sorts of horrid weapons causing unimaginable carnage and racking up experience and levels by the dozen. 

I digress.

Anyway, PETA has been targeting mostly single player games, but now it has set its sights on World of Warcraft according to Ten Ton Hammer and PETAs own blog.

Apparently there is a quest in Howling Fjord in Northrend where players have to kill baby seals. This has understandably outraged PETA, especially since (unlike the real world) there is an infinite supply of respawning baby pixels, errr… I mean seals. This cruelty will know no end.

So PETA has organised a protest this coming Easter weekend to confront players taking part in this gruesome activity. I’m not sure how they’ll manage it since most players able to get to Howling Fjord — you have to be level 70 — will be long time players who have slaughtered many baby animals to get there in the first place. They simply won’t care. Looks like PETA will have to get their protestors from 1 to 70 in the next four days.

Unfortunately, they haven’t chosen to protest on a PvP server so harrassed players will not be able to retaliate. They’ll just have to put them on ignore instead.

**Note: Stropp in no way endorses the cruel treatment of animals in the real world, and despises the annual whale and seal hunts. He thinks you are lower than scum if you mistreat animals. He also thinks that PETA ought to be focussing on animal cruelty in the real world rather than in a game. IT’S JUST A GAME PEOPLE!

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