Ubisoft to PETA: ‘We do not condone whaling, just as we don’t condone a pirate lifestyle’

PETA said it was "disgraceful" that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag "glorifies" whaling. Ubisoft responds.

[Psychotica]

Try worrying about real animals, not virtual ones. They must have a royal fit over hunting games..

[dasbeer88]

PETA worrying about real animals? ROFL!! They kill more animals than they save! XD

[aliengmr]

Nice job repeating what a couple of "illusionists" told you.

PETA is over-zealous at times but they aren't any worse than those who who treat the natural world like their own dumpster, to do with as they please.

[TruthbeTold]

Great response by Ubisoft. It's about time people find ways to answer organizations that jump on anything in a way that snaps people back to reality.

[InTheLab]

@Aliengmr

If you're referring to Penn and Teller, that's not the only source for the butchering that PITA does.

[TekoIie]

@TruthbeTold

Their response is truly epic XD

Yeh I mean how many things do we not condone in history that we like to watch movies, read books or play games about? TONS!

[himdeel]

LOL!! So they care nothing about all the virtual people I'll be killing! CLASSIC! /Sharpening my virtual sword now and loading my virtual gun

[Mounce]

PETA and Femminazi's....The world's biggest groups of illogical whiners.

'nuff said.

That and, it's obvious Ubi is Anti-pirates, look at how much DRM they've tried to make to STOP pirates :P Hehe.

[Dark_Overlord]

@dasbeer88

"Nice job repeating what a couple of "illusionists" told you. "

Oh really?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...

or here

http://www.petakillsanimals...

PETA are huge hippocrates, just like Greenpeace

[Derekvinyard13]

Lolol pirate lifestyle

[joab777]

After seeing this and the vikings on history channel, i am building a ship and heading south. Doesn anyone want to join me? Dont worry, i have a solar powered generator, a 50 inch flat screen, and a ps3 and xbox. There will be wenches and rum but it wont be all fun and games. Theres alot of deck work to do. We will be stopping often to plunder.

[TruthbeTold]

See? Now we are going to HAVE to ban video games. I can link to 5 future articles and studies that show that playing such games births pirates. Call your congressman today!

[Minato-Namikaze]

I swear people get dumber by the hour

[UnHoly_One]

I'm not sure that they are "dumb", necessarily.

I would vote something more along the lines of "insane".

Batshit Crazy would probably describe them most accurately.

[joab777]

Exactly. We dont mind if u portray raping, pillaging and murdering, just dont touch those digital whales from 300 yrs ago.

This is the same group that put up a billboard of the guy whose leg was bitten off by a great white with a captiin saying somethink like, how do you like it when the tables are turned.

[Derekvinyard13]

Lmao that was hilarious

[PhantomT1412]

For once, I found an official Ubisoft statement quite funny^^

[Conzul]

I die a little inside when I hear about my fav celebrities joining PETA.

[TitanUp]

you die a little inside when someone you don't know joins an organization?

[Conzul]

When you think well of someone it's normal to root for them when they do stuff U LIEK and boo them when they do otherwise. Harmless, really - learn to see past exaggerations dude.

[Fishermenofwar]

ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!

Sorry couldn't help myself....

Epic reply by UBI tough...LOL

[Bathyj]

good answer.

seriously peta, are you worried us dumb gamers who have no free will of our own and only do what games tell us to do are going to hit the high seas and start whaling?

sounds like youre the only ones wailing.
see what i did there?

[joab777]

Lol. NO...i literally laughed out loud at ur comment...very funny.

Seriously though, when every HUMAN in this world isnt starving, then we will consider protecting animals. Yes, i understand endangered species, but itis getting absurd.

I know a guy in Cali whose family owned a ranch for generations. The environmentalists came on his property, found a tiny insect that was endangered and confiscated his property. True story. My uncle lives down the road and at least inve a year, he finds them trying to get on hia property.

[WorldGamer]

The problem I have with this is that there is a greater discussion to be had when looking at this game. Knee jerk reactions hurt everyone and in this case PETA ends up coming off as some an organization with no level of perspective.

Whaling is a practice that while terrible, is historically part of what was practiced in some regions around the world. If a game chooses to depict it, we have to have some context of how they are doing it before we judge the game. CoD had/has attack dogs, but I don't think it condones violence against dogs in the least.

Sometimes, these organizations need to check their reactions and really think about things before they fly off the handle.

[STICKzophrenic]

Does PETA have a problem with all of the hunting that takes in Assassin's Creed 3, Far Cry 3 and Red Dead Redemption as well?

[JCENAdaBest]

Stupid. always a group of people moaning.

[-Gespenst-]

In fairness though it IS glorifying whaling by it's representation. They're making it fun and thrilling to harpoon whales for chrissakes. You ultimately can't fully divorce the representation of such a thing from it's reality, and to think you can is wilfully ignorant and naive.

If it's completely optional I'll just ignore it because after the game does look really good. I hope they don't force you to do it like when animals attack you in AC3, that was bullshit. I don't want to kill these animals.

[00]

"They're making it fun and thrilling to harpoon whales for chrissakes"

that because it's a game, I don't want to be doing boring tedious this over and over again. And people are not suddenly going to buy a boat and a harpoon and wrestle whales with there bar hands just because it's in a game.

[BlackTar187]

LOl you don't want to kill FAKE ANIMALS THAT COME FROM COMPUTER PROGRAMS AND HARDWARE.

Stop being so damn sad

[mamotte]

Even if it's fun and engaging, it's not like if everyone were going to, you know. Become pirates and going whaling. The real point is... Peta should worry about REAl problems.

[SilentNegotiator]

So you're one of those people that think FPS games "encourage" violence, I take it? Because that would have the same logic.

[-Gespenst-]

They should worry about real problems, absolutely, but it's stuff like this that contributes to an overall cultural understanding of whaling. Of course people aren't going to go out and spear whales, but stuff like this makes people take the issue of whaling less seriously- makes people avoid the reality and pop ACIV in where they go and kill very convincing REPRESENTATIONS of whales.

It's what it REPRESENTS that's important, not whether it's materially real. It has a SYMBOLIC reality that contributes to an overall cultural understanding of something.

[lyvon]

You're quite simply a madman.

Can't believe what I'm reading

[-Gespenst-]

You only think that because you've construed me as meaning that people are going to go out and harpoon whales, i.e. that games directly and immediately influence behaviour, which is only the case if you're extremely mentally "different" in the first place.

Think about culture and society for a second- think about how gradually and subtly those things change. Media and entertainment have big parts to play in that shift, particularly in this day and age. By and large we're like 90% passive when we're consuming stuff designed to entertain us- there are aspects of the things we consume that enter our minds on a more subliminal level. I'm not referring to flashing images that say "KILL PEOPLE" or something stupid like that, but more to the realities that these things portray- the norms of behaviour and realities of history these things instantiate.

Now think of games. Games empower the player; we're given a controller which allows us, vicariously, to control what is essentially an avatar of ourselves on-screen. Now, while we're not passive as most of us are when we're watching a TV show or a film, we're active only insofar as we're paying attention to what we need to do to complete and succeed in the game- to earn our reward in the game. We're still largely passive with regards to the norms of behaviour and understanding that the game is transmitting. I'm not saying game devs are trying to brainwash us, they merely reproduce norms that they understand, and in this case, they're also working within what's expected from a videogame- in other words- thrills and entertainment.

So, they're trying to represent a reality, whilst also trying to deliver entertainment, both of which could be constituted by pretty dodgy norms.

Of course the game isn't real, but it contributes to an overall cultural understanding of something. I wouldn't be saying this if it weren't something as big as the Assassin's Creed franchise. The AC franchise has clout in culture at this point, people know about it, it has AUTHORITY as a videogame, and with authority comes SUBMISSION. People - us - , like to be passive- like to just lap stuff up uncritically - we want to be spoonfed. Which is why, (at last) ubiquitous cultural artifacts in society are influential. The bigger these things are, the more of an effect they have on our understandings of reality. All I pray is that people don't come away from this game thinking that whaling is a thrilling, fun, and "awesome" thing to do. You see, the representation in this case fails to consider and show the morality of such an act- it renders it totally as a source of entertainment.

Maybe you yourself (Iyvon) are aloof and not susceptible to such things, but the fact is that a lot of people are easily influenced- not necessarily to action (in fact rarely), but to opinion and understanding, and nothing's worse than ignorance. Opinions and understandings that acquire a consensus among a majority basically become fact, but that doesn't mean they're right.

And even still, NO ONE is free from the influence of the media. The way people dress and talk and understand a lot of big things in life is primarily if not largely informed by television, film etc. and on a more fundamental level than you realise. It used to be other people- people in power - but the media has become a great authority in our lives.

Obviously, whaling itself is a problem they should pay attention to, but these things happen in the first place because of a culture. There's physical reality and then there's immaterial reality- both need to be carefully considered. Throwing a bunch of whalers in prison isn't going to stop whaling.

[MrBeatdown]

Well played, Ubi. Well played.

[RuleofOne343]

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.
That is a great response by far .

[Fishermenofwar]

Hey that sounds like a great weekend...Speak for yourself..LOL

[HexxedAvenger]

.......DAMN!So Ubi says I can't be a pirate, time to shave muh beard. ...wait Why haven't they said anything about being an assassin?

[Convas]

Because the heads of development are obviously assassins ... O.O

[aliengmr]

While I don't agree with what PETA said, they were asked by a gaming publication their view on the matter. PETA probably wouldn't have cared in the least about AC4 had a gaming site not sought their opinion in order to create controversy.

Had PETA said this on their own it would be different.

[Eyesoftheraven]

Why the hell does it have to be, "JOE SHMOE WHO PLAYS THIS GAME IN HIS MOTHER'S BASEMENT."

What pricks.

[solidboss07]

And do Peta complain when somebody reads a literary classic called Moby Dick? They need to get their heads out of their own butts.
I to am concerned about whaling, and indeed the whole of the natural world but I get extremely irritated by people wanting everything censored. Let us ban Star Wars because it 'condones using a thing called the Force, and the building of Deathstars'.
Unfortunately, some nations still have whaling fleets, a fictional story in whatever form won't add to that number.
(I don't believe people will be playing Assasins Creed 4 in 100 years, but they will still be reading Moby Dick - or watching the films.)

[aliengmr]

What do you think PETA would say if you called and asked them their opinion on whaling in a video game?

They weren't calling for censorship, they were asked what they thought about it.

This was an entirely manufactured controversy, and who came out looking good?

[TheFirstClassic]

Have to agree. The site went and asked PETA's opinion on the matter, trying to stir up controversy for hits. Not a bad tactic really, everyone loves to loathe and laugh at PETA.

Edit: Hmm, the page with PETA's original statement says PETA decided to give the site that statement, I could have sworn that article said that they went and asked PETA. Maybe they changed it? Could be I'm just imagining things.

[aliengmr]

@cpayne93

It said plain as day "We asked PETA". A soon as I read that I knew this all manufactured BS.

But as you can see, AC4 came under attack by an over-zealous organization like PETA and gamers jump to its defense. Now gamers are talking about PETA and not franchise fatigue.

EDIT you aren't seeing things, it was changed.

This was in headline on N4G.

"That last part, the whaling, is something we haven’t seen in many video games before, and we asked PETA for its feelings on the matter."

This was is the article today.

"That last part, the whaling, is something we haven’t seen in many video games before, and PETA decided to give us its feelings on the matter."

Hmmm. Well it works, mention PETA and the comments gets gamer-rage 2 pages deep. Because what PETA thinks about AC4 is totally relevant./s

[lukeshero93]

I just bought a boat though, damn better not go whaling now ....................fuck off PETA

[Summons75]

Oh PETA, did you get sick of Nintendo kicking your crazy butts when you try to attack their game? Seriesly though, ubi may have had a great response but Nintendo making them the villains in Pokemon, twice!, is the ultimate slap to the face lol.

I hate PETA, they say their doing good but their actions are just dumb or borderline that of a terrorist.

[tigertron]

Ubisoft doesn't condone piracy? damn, and I was just about to book a flight out to Somalia too...

[younglj01]

"burn"....

[MysticStrummer]

Most of the gaming industry condones mass murder, apparently.

[Lifeequals42]

This is awesome. More companies need a sense of humor.

[NateCole]

It's just a freaking game dam it. Whaling also happend a lot in those days.

[jakethesnake]

They shouldn't give PITA the attention. That's all they wanted in the first place. Just ignore them

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

I don't condone P.I.R.A.T.E. LIFE either-
Being out on these Mean Seas...
Slangin' Swords, Grabbin' Booty... Riding on 4 Sails- Can't trust nobody but your sword and your musket.

WEST SEAS!

[PopRocks359]

Anyone up for visiting PETA's offices and prancing about in pirate outfits singing, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me"?

[WPX]

I'm in. I'll bring my harpoon too.

[t3gamenews]

its funny how there are actually hunting games on consoles yet the only hunting they care about are on games that aren't about hunting. >.>
wanna take on pokemon, assasins creed? whats next megaman?

[LAWSON72]

Ubi just ignore them, they are as stupid as those who think games cause violence.

[shackdaddy]

Come on Ubisoft, don't respond to these guys...

[cyclindk]

Love me a whale burger in the morni'n arrrrgggh!!!

[KillrateOmega]

People can be so stupid.

(or dumb, irrational, butthurt, insane, etc. Whatever word floats your boat.)

[FITgamer]

PETA seriously? I'm a vegan and even i think this is ridiculously retarded.

[Picnic]

If anyone's doing whaling it's essentially excused by some governments under the name of 'scientific research'.

Maybe PETA just wanted to remind such countries that people are still whaling and that people object to it- that it hasn't merely passed in to folklore as some exotic looking pastime.

Personally, I think that we should entirely frown upon countries eating horses. My rule is that if it's an animal that is ridden for people's fun, the species shouldn't be given the double whammy of also being eaten. It doesn't even look like an animal that it's right to eat does it? Too nobly elegant looking to be served on a plate. It seems like awful decadency or savagery to eat such a beautiful creature.

[Draugz]

It's in the game because people did it 300 years ago. It's not glorifying whaling, it's simply reflecting the world in that time. It's like saying AC1 was anti-Christian because you fought them.