There is a popular game out right now, on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, called Grand Theft Auto IV, the company (Rockstar North) who made the game is quite famous for their violent games, controversial issues and provocative views. My husband has this game and he found something interesting (he thought it was VERY funny) to share with me. In the game, you can go to internet cafes, and surf the net. There is a website in the game called loveyourmeat.com and PATE - Parents Against Tofu Eating. They make offensive remarks about vegans and vegetarians. I mean, it's okay I am not getting offended, but I found it very distastful. Especially when millions of people bought this game, and they read these stupid untrue "facts" about vegans and vegetarians. The majority of the people are stupid enough to believe anything really, and I don't see how these "funny" comments going to help animals, or at least help to change some people's mind about becoming vegetarians/vegans. When people read these stupid articles in the game, they will think it's true, and won't give a second tought about it. I don't like it when people give false information about something I am so passionate about.



I am going to write down some of the articles, so you can decide it for yourself if you find it distateful, disgusting, or just a stupid joke. Either way, I am not happy about this.



FACT: Killing Animals is not cruel:

Animals kill each other, sometimes on TV. Some say survival of the fittest. Others say: Hamsters eat their babies too. However there's a reason why we don't keep polar bears as pets. don't kid yourself - your cat wouldn't think twice about tearing you from limb to limb if it weighed 400 pounds. We didn't spend millions of years fighting our way up the food chain to live our days on tofu turkey roasts and bean casseroles. Prehistoric man would not have made it very far if he had sat around handing out crudites and spinach dips while organizing marches in protest of the treatment of the saber-toothed tiger. We kill to survive. We are simply better at killing than animals. Hate the game, not the player. Only a very stupid species stops doing the thing they are best at, surely?



FACT: Vegetarianism is not good for the environment:

It's very simple, vegetarians eat plans. Growing plans for consumption is a very inneficent way of generating food and, pound for pound, far more energy and resources are expended on filling the bellies of soap-shy vegetarians than our carnivorous friends. Methane is about twenty times stronger than carbon-dioxide as a greenhouse gas and a major cause of global warming. And we all know that the biggest outputters of methane are cows and vegans. As a result we want to kill both, before we boil.



FACT: Meat-eating is no more exploitative than plant-killing:

Put the slaughterhouse photos away. They are all doctored in graphics editing software to make the animals frown. What about the illegal immigrants who toil the fields for your finger buffet and brunch canapes? Vegetarians saturate the media with images of battery hens and then deny that there is nothing sinister about a combine harvester slashing up fields of genetically-modified, identically-sized baby carrots. it's just not right.



Vegetables are a side dish at most, not a lifestyle. They can work occasionally, if deep-fried in lard, but they can never replace man's fundamental need to flame-grill his fellow mammals. Beef, pork, lamb, dog, cat, chicken, penguin.... LoveYourMeat.com is a glorious celebration of all the meats thet we know and love.



For every dinner party that's been ruined by an undernourished tree-hugger spouting anecdotes about poultry-processing, and veal-fattening while you are trying to suck the last of the marrow from a rack of ribs: for every man and woman who has known the joy of arising slick-faced from a steaming animal carcass, this is the website for you. Don't fall the hype. until we feel an instinctive urge to graze in our backyard, or chew cud at the weekends, we should embrace the base desire in all of us to rip flesh from the bone at every opportunity.



Stop this vegetarian madness before we are left with an ashen-faced nation of 120 pound weaklings who spend half of the day on the crapper. Wake up and smell the tofu! You can't! It has no smell!



TIPS FOR DEALING WITH VEGANS:



While vegetarians are merely attention-seeking, supercilious hyprocrites who drink milk and eat fish in leather army boots while licking the gelatin off cigarette papers and feeding animal by-products to flea-ridden German Shepherds, vegans are an altogether more dangerous breed who sould be approached with extreme care. A militians neo-hippie movement popularized in the 1960's, the cult of veganism has been preaching hate around the world ever since.

Normally pale, thin and female with tiny offspring, these pallid creatures are typically found outside fashion shows clutching tins of paint, twirling fire sticks in city parks or huddld in backstreet doorway pumping breast-milk into a hipflask. you can tell them apart from methheads by the canvas shoes and tie-die clothing. If you come across a vegan, remember:

1. Do not panic, - vegans are manipulative but generally slow and clumsy from the lack of fat and protein

2. Keep your distance - they are likely to be banged out of their heads on skunk but the methane emission could be lethal.

3. stay in direct sunlight and start to recite the preparation techniques for Foie Gras. Within 20 minutes, they will either collapse or need to defecate.

4. If in doubt, shoot to kill.

Wow, that's unbelievable and extreme. Thanks for typing it all out. It just amazes me most that they put so much time into creating that. Like, uhm why?

Oooh... another anti-gaming thread. Sweet. The Compost Heap has really been heating up on thread close to my heart. Enough of these useless political threads (especially US politics - I mean, what's with that? I'm not even USAmerican! How in hell does US politics effect me? ). Finally, something we can really get out teeth into, video games!








I stand corrected. I should not have mocked. After all, this is not a joke. I personally have 7 polar bear as pets. Once one of the polar bears ate one of my cats but, you know,that is a small price to pay in the name of polar bear rescue.






Again, I stand corrected. Plans are a very good source of fibre. Particularly housing plans. Once I ate one of the neighbours plans for their extension and this was a very good thing. Not only did I obtain a valuable source of dietary fibre from the paper they were printed on the once I had eaten them the council could not approve of the extension on their house. Imagine the noise of the builders!



I guess, however, it depends on the plans you are eating. If you find that someone is, for example, planning to go on a killing rampage at their local shopping mall then eating those particular plans might be a very good idea.



Finally, are all the GTA4 threads some kind of weird viral marketing campaign? I mean, I sincerely didn't consider buying it until everyone here kept harping on about it. I might even get it. It has polar bears! How can lose?

Because people like mangogirl get sucked in and do their marketing for them. Seriously, good game or bad game you can't deny that Grand Theft Auto IV has some brilliant marketing strategies behind it. They've even convinced mangogirl to get the name out on their behalf.

Well, I couldn't care less about video games, my husband is a big fan of them, I wouldn't have looked at it twice, until he told me the article about vegans/vegetarians. Stupid missinformative people who get their kicks out of being rude offensive, and contraversial. I didn't like it, I didn't like their hatred even if it was meant as a joke, I don't go to meat indusrty related websites, and tell people I want to kill them, because they are killers themselves. It's just wrong.

You really don't get Rockstar/The GTA games in general do you?

No, please explain it to me! Educate me!

Lots of video games make fun of different types of people/beliefs. This just happens to be a video game that targets vegetarians and vegans. I mean, you can sleep with hookers in that game and then beat them to death. Why isn't anyone making a big deal out of that?

I'm not into games , but what was posted was not a statement of fact but just a game , not nice , but no big deal , compared to some of the stuff my nephews play .



Give them credit , they want to kill us before they boil us .

The whole game is satirical.

My son has this game, but he hasn't pointed this out to me yet (though he has told me almost every other nuance of the game! )



Anything that you read/see/do in GTA games has to be taken with a grain of salt...IMHO, it is the same as South Park, Family Guy, etc...satirical and not meant to be taken seriously.



Most people who play this game understand that. (Even my son )

you haven't been to the heap lately have you?

Kinda hard to argue with that.

I actually can't wait to play GTA4. But from the sound of things, you aren't familiar with the sense of humour which GTA embodies.



I hear that there's a lawyer character in the games who is supposed to resemble a lawyer who has sued rockstar games for making violent video games such as GTA.

Imagine the world before video games... a utopia of conversations, communication, and normal weights in children.



I can picture it now.

This was obviously ment to be a joke....Right?







Right?

satires great, but it has its limits. sometimes the "its satirical" excuse gets used when ever people want to get away with offending whole groups of people they dislike.

Yes, this is exactly how I feel about this!!! Or Maybe I've just lost my sense of humour along the way. I'll let you know when I find it again!

Fiction!!!! V-i-d-e-o G-a-m-e........

I'm not so sure that you understand satire...

IAWTC



This certainly hasn't put me off buying it. It's obviously not serious, it's in GTA style. Only people playing the game are going to read it, and most people playing the game will know not to take it seriously. I don't see the big deal.

I played this game.....now I hate myself!

I was just checking the board before I went out. Im buying it right now. lol is that a coincodence or what lol

Video games make fun of EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. The fact that veganism/vegetarianism is popular enough to make it a 'big enough deal' to be in a game like GTA shows how large the movement is actually getting. It would mean we weren't 'popular' enough if we kept getting left out. It's almost like a twisted sort of compliment.

I'm totally with you on this.



It's not satire, it's dumb unfunny crap that is so lame it would be at home in the Stupid Things Omni's Say thread.

Yes it is satire and also it is funny! (along with most of the stuff in the game......I should know as I have played it a lot over the last week)

The only thing that worries me is that lesser minded individuals (I'm looking in the direction of teenage male americans) who in the past have taken elements of the GTA series into real life, might actually believe something like this "PATE" and "loveyourmeat.com" and not appreciate the satire, but take it literally!

Actually www.loveyourmeat is an awesome site

Nah, after I read what Kiz had to say I kind of figured someone else would have brought up the hooker thing. I don't really have a problem with the game, I'm just pointing out there are much worse things going on in it than a little vegan bashing.

It's a bit overboard o_O

thats funny