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

Tue, Mar 12th 2013 5:42am — Tim Cushing

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.

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Filed Under: assassin's creed, peta, promotional stunts
Companies: ubisoft

75 Comments

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Ninja (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 4:27am

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
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Lord Binky, 12 Mar 2013 @ 5:47am

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 5:49am

If you can make Ubisoft look good, you know you're doing something wrong.
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G Thompson (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 5:52am

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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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 5:55am

PETA actually IS the connection between gold prices, the Illuminati and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...
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Stropp, 12 Mar 2013 @ 5:56am

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 5:58am

Re:
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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gorehound (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:04am

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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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:05am

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.
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IronM@sk, 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:20am

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.asp x
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Dark Helmet (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:34am

Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
Holy balls, they are just LOADS of crazy, aren't they?
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John Doe, 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:36am

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.
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Ninja (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:48am

Re:
Google begs to differ: Did you mean EA?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:50am

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.
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Ninja (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:51am

Re:
Thats an interesting concept. To play a predator surviving the wild and human beings. I would certainly try such game.
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zbmott, 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:52am

debauchery
Well, as long as Ubisoft does support equal-to-or-under-the-legal-limit drunken debauchery...
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ChrisB (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:56am

Re: Re:
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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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:57am

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.
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Mr. Applegate, 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:58am

PETA - Grain Fed feed stock, for animals.
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Rob, 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:01am

Has anyone ever met a peta person? There is no doubt most of them are complete nuts.
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Ninja (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:02am

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.
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Lurker Keith, 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:04am

Where's my mixed metaphor!?
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.
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.
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Ninja (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:06am

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.
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Berenerd (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:07am

What is PETA's thoughts...
...Big Game hunter and Duck Hunt?
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Berenerd (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:08am

Re: What is PETA's thoughts...
WHAT ABOUT FROGGER???!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!11111111oneoneoneoneoneoneone
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Ninja (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:08am

Re: Re: Re:
Bolt didn't have superpowers =/

Wait, is that Disney?
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Ninja (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:11am

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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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:18am

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.
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weneedhelp (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:21am

"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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Jeremy, 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:22am

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).
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Kate, 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:25am

PETA
I'm a strict vegan, tree-hugging hippie, and I hang my head in shame everytime PETA opens its mouth.
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Roman, 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:33am

Of course
I should move and become a whaling pirate just to spite PETA.
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art guerrilla (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 7:47am

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
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Mason Wheeler, 12 Mar 2013 @ 8:23am

Re: Re:
Meh. Six of one, half a dozen of the other...
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 8:36am

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 8:36am

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.
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John Fenderson (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 9:07am

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.
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One Nemesis (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 9:13am

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
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CK20XX, 12 Mar 2013 @ 9:21am

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
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 9:43am

Re: Re: What is PETA's thoughts...
I wonder what they said about Oregon Trail...
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 9:44am

Re: Where's my mixed metaphor!?
The previous sentence says "putting one into your own net."
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 9:57am

Re: this about sums it up :
If you have pets, then PETA considers you the enemy.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 10:02am

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 10:23am

Re: Re: What is PETA's thoughts...
What about frog fractions.
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Ninja (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 10:34am

Re:
It is! Except that we now sail the binary sea ;)
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vastrightwing, 12 Mar 2013 @ 10:35am

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.
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Togashi (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 10:42am

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"?
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John Fenderson (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 10:44am

Re:
I know a number of people who are members of PETA, and almost none of them have any idea how extreme PETA really is.
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Glaze (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 10:50am

Re: this about sums it up :
and I would relate pet-a to a pet-a-phile...
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Glaze (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 10:52am

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.
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Brent (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 11:11am

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?!?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 1:28pm

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.....
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ShellMG, 12 Mar 2013 @ 1:34pm

Someday the human sharks will convince the REAL sharks PETA has been jumping to file a lawsuit. Harassment, mental stress, damages, the works.
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Anonymous Douche, 12 Mar 2013 @ 2:07pm

Which intern wrote this garbage article?
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Dat, 12 Mar 2013 @ 3:18pm

Q: How many PETA members does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None. PETA can't change anything.
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SlightlierDoor, 12 Mar 2013 @ 3:35pm

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2013 @ 3:49pm

Ubisoft should produce a whaling game now out of sheer spite. It hasn't been done to my knowledge, so why not?
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dudhit (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 5:15pm

Re:
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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Rabbit80, 12 Mar 2013 @ 6:36pm

Re: Re:
Just get out your old copy of Postal.. Its just about the same thing!
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Pseudonym, 12 Mar 2013 @ 9:28pm

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.
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btrussell (profile), 12 Mar 2013 @ 9:29pm

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?
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special-interesting (profile), 13 Mar 2013 @ 12:54am

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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Ninja (profile), 13 Mar 2013 @ 3:49am

Re:
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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The Groove Tiger (profile), 13 Mar 2013 @ 6:52am

Re: Re: Re:
Save a tree, burn a book!
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Niall (profile), 13 Mar 2013 @ 7:08am

Re: Re:
His point stands. Comparing EA to Ubisoft...
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Niall (profile), 13 Mar 2013 @ 7:09am

Re: Re:
Sounds like time for a bit of Primal Carnage - send in the Velociraptors!
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Niall (profile), 13 Mar 2013 @ 7:13am

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... ;)
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mike, 13 Mar 2013 @ 7:47am

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...
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toodd, 13 Mar 2013 @ 8:18am

Screw PETA! More real whale hunting!
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Pseudonym, 13 Mar 2013 @ 8:31pm

Re: Re:
What do you mean becoming common? This phenomenon is older than dirt.
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assassin art, 13 Mar 2013 @ 11:59pm

Re: Paradoxical!
*walks by with a bunch of monks* soon....binky....soon
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Dont worry about it, 14 Mar 2013 @ 9:08am

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/2501797/PETA/
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peta sucks, 26 Mar 2013 @ 2:28pm

Re:
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
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AbbaDabba, 19 Apr 2013 @ 11:35am

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?
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Numerology Love, 27 Dec 2014 @ 2:03pm

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-lif e.html
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