I’ve never eaten meat in my life and still feel bad about accidentally sucking a little spider into the vacuum a few weeks ago but I much prefer it to Pokémon because it’s saying ‘oh this cute little sheep? You can kill it and it’s horrible and cruel but it’s ok because it’s a game’ where as Pokémon says ‘oh this adorable little guy? Yeah beat him up, capture him and force him to fight for you entertainment, it’s super cool and cute and fun just like in real life!’
(Note the only Pokémon game I played was on a Gameboy emulator in the 90s, I’ve also not played this but it does look more fun than Pokémon)
See I can disconnect from the animals in real life because we don’t have a lot of alternatives to meat just yet. I’m not vegan, I eat chicken and burgers nearly daily, but if plant meat tastes the same and costs the same I do think it starts to become our responsibility to transition into that. The meat industry is a necessary cruelty for the moment. What fucks me up is people looking at characters designed to be cute, lovable companions and going “What if I could shoot it though? Capture it and cut it up?” like that’s where I start getting a bit sick to my stomach. But people are eating it up so obviously I’m the weird one for not being into that.
The Pokemon ‘fighting’ never bothered me because there’s never any deaths so in my head they’re just friendly sparring. Childish veneer to an otherwise pretty messed up concept. Palworld shatters that veneer and I’m surprised more people aren’t repulsed by it.
Interesting, you say you can’t not eat meat but it disgusts you to think of a cartoon animal be being killed, I’ve literally never eaten meat and have a pet chicken which was rescued from being slaughtered after being in a better farm but I see it as silly fun when a game simulates it.
Do you think it’s the fact that it forces you to think of the reality that a really lovely and cute creature that does silly little jumps to get your attention and has a real personality is being killed just for you chicken nuggets?
I own a few chickens for the sake of eggs, named them as well, and while I’d happily eat chicken and rice or any other derivative of eating chicken I wouldn’t just go out back and carve up one of our hens. I definitely think it’s because of the ascribed personality to the animal/creature. Pokemon are well established to be able to think independently, have their own personalities, and many are quite weak in the wild to the point of having near useless attacks. Introducing the ability to have those creatures die isn’t bad on its own, there can be gameplay merit to that, but the line for me is when you make a visualization of it. When you take that feature and expand on it and advertise with it.
Sure, your pet will die someday, probably peacefully in its sleep but something like Palword says “What is we make it violent?” It’s as visceral to me as someone saying to you that your pet chicken would make some really good nuggets and proceeding to butcher them in front of you, acting disconnected afterwords and saying something to the effect of “What? It’s just a chicken.”
I guess my brain works differently, I couldn’t just ignore the fact that the animal I’m eating did have the personality of a real living cow or chicken, cows sing and play, they’re curious and friendly and make friends - chickens mostly just recognise me as someone who carries food to them but they have personalities and emotions when you get to know them. I know that about them so if I was going to eat one of them I’d think about that and think about the brutality of their life and death.
Code is just code. It is (so far) just a series of logic choices that determine which pixel to light up or how fast to vibrate the speaker - it might look like personality but when you kill it there is no fear in it or pain, it doesn’t feel anything when you kill it’s children or it’s friends. I guess I just see numbers when I look at a video game, when I look at a chicken nugget I see real suffering and real death
I’ve never eaten meat in my life and still feel bad about accidentally sucking a little spider into the vacuum a few weeks ago but I much prefer it to Pokémon because it’s saying ‘oh this cute little sheep? You can kill it and it’s horrible and cruel but it’s ok because it’s a game’ where as Pokémon says ‘oh this adorable little guy? Yeah beat him up, capture him and force him to fight for you entertainment, it’s super cool and cute and fun just like in real life!’
(Note the only Pokémon game I played was on a Gameboy emulator in the 90s, I’ve also not played this but it does look more fun than Pokémon)
See I can disconnect from the animals in real life because we don’t have a lot of alternatives to meat just yet. I’m not vegan, I eat chicken and burgers nearly daily, but if plant meat tastes the same and costs the same I do think it starts to become our responsibility to transition into that. The meat industry is a necessary cruelty for the moment. What fucks me up is people looking at characters designed to be cute, lovable companions and going “What if I could shoot it though? Capture it and cut it up?” like that’s where I start getting a bit sick to my stomach. But people are eating it up so obviously I’m the weird one for not being into that.
The Pokemon ‘fighting’ never bothered me because there’s never any deaths so in my head they’re just friendly sparring. Childish veneer to an otherwise pretty messed up concept. Palworld shatters that veneer and I’m surprised more people aren’t repulsed by it.
Interesting, you say you can’t not eat meat but it disgusts you to think of a cartoon animal be being killed, I’ve literally never eaten meat and have a pet chicken which was rescued from being slaughtered after being in a better farm but I see it as silly fun when a game simulates it.
Do you think it’s the fact that it forces you to think of the reality that a really lovely and cute creature that does silly little jumps to get your attention and has a real personality is being killed just for you chicken nuggets?
I own a few chickens for the sake of eggs, named them as well, and while I’d happily eat chicken and rice or any other derivative of eating chicken I wouldn’t just go out back and carve up one of our hens. I definitely think it’s because of the ascribed personality to the animal/creature. Pokemon are well established to be able to think independently, have their own personalities, and many are quite weak in the wild to the point of having near useless attacks. Introducing the ability to have those creatures die isn’t bad on its own, there can be gameplay merit to that, but the line for me is when you make a visualization of it. When you take that feature and expand on it and advertise with it.
Sure, your pet will die someday, probably peacefully in its sleep but something like Palword says “What is we make it violent?” It’s as visceral to me as someone saying to you that your pet chicken would make some really good nuggets and proceeding to butcher them in front of you, acting disconnected afterwords and saying something to the effect of “What? It’s just a chicken.”
I guess my brain works differently, I couldn’t just ignore the fact that the animal I’m eating did have the personality of a real living cow or chicken, cows sing and play, they’re curious and friendly and make friends - chickens mostly just recognise me as someone who carries food to them but they have personalities and emotions when you get to know them. I know that about them so if I was going to eat one of them I’d think about that and think about the brutality of their life and death.
Code is just code. It is (so far) just a series of logic choices that determine which pixel to light up or how fast to vibrate the speaker - it might look like personality but when you kill it there is no fear in it or pain, it doesn’t feel anything when you kill it’s children or it’s friends. I guess I just see numbers when I look at a video game, when I look at a chicken nugget I see real suffering and real death