AC4... Am I being overly sensitive?

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

I'd say yes, you are being overly sensitive. My opinion doesn't matter, though, because I like to be a dick in videogames, it's hilarious sometimes.

Occasionally, I even enjoyed stabbing random civilians and beggars in the first Assassin's Creed. Altair is kind of a dick, so...

 

[Belaam]

The game allows you to avoid such hunting by giving you the option to just buy the resources animals yield in local fishing shops.
Understandably you would feel a little discomfort. I was not prepared to do any whale hunting on it until last night where i pushed past my ethical beliefs. I went for a white whale as it was the first opportunity that appeared, however, soon did i realise that me and sharp stick vs large whale does not end well for me (with hardly any hunting upgrades bought for fairly obvious reasons). This only led me to become more determined which led to even more failure. Now me and that whale have a bit of a rivalry going on and i STILL haven't caught the bloody thing!!

So you have a rivalry with a white whale and you're willing to do anything to kill it?

Good luck Captain Ahab.

Damn. Someone beat me to it.

But as others have said, it's a game, do what you want. Personally, I'd be far more likely to kill a whale than I would to pick up a prostitute, sleep with her, and then kill her to get my money back, and I can't count the number of times I've done that... in games, I swear.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

If you ask the Japanese, they might tell you that the whales bombed Hiroshima. Ive seen the photographic evidence, those moist mammels arent so defenseless at all!!
What really annoys me is that you cant beserker dart a seagull and watch it madly peck its beady eyed buddies to death whilst you nibble on flamingo flesh. I hate those dirty bastards. Why do the birds get abstergo protection while the humorous scurrying beach beaver perishes beneath my wrath??

 

[Deshin]

Isn't the point of some games to experience something without actually being there and doing it? A proper whaling sim where it takes you hours to land the beast would be something of epic proportion and quite an experience and it removes the downside of actually hurting an animal; ya know, the actual bad part about it? Think Shadow of the Colossus only replace Colossus with a Whale. Are people getting offended because it's an actual animal that exists? If instead of "whales" they were magical sea krakens that don't exist people would be singing praises. So in my honest opinion yes you're being oversensitive to the point where you're taking an action's reprecussions out of context. The bad part about whaling = actually killing a whale in a brutal fashion. If you can take the thrill of the experience without actually hurting anything it should be completely fine?

I personally always fancied the idea of hunting, but I don't want to kill anything so I keep all my hunting to video games. The serenity of being in a giant forest and tracking something and aiming carefully and blam one new shiny pelt. It's not like I played FarCry 3 and now I'm going to go out and actually punch a shark open fire on random wildlife. If you ask me, groups like PETA etc are just taking pots shots at video games because it's an easy target. They know they can't do jack diddly about real whaling so hey let's kick up a fuss about a virtual whale in a virtual space because rawr it's a bad thing.

EDIT: When I say "thrill of the experience" I don't mean "the thrill of killing" but more "the thrill of being on a ship surrounded by endless ocean with your loyal crew as you chase down a gigantic creature; knowing your next harpoon shot could be the only clean shot you get, and revelling in the thrill and resolve of the hunt".

 

[Daystar Clarion]

If you can't kill, skin, gut and fillet an animal, you shouldn't be allowed to eat it.

I'm so sick of people throwing up their arms and crying about the horrors of killing animals, while happily eating a steak. The idiocy of it honestly pisses me off.

Better watch that soap box you're on, I hear it's a terribly high fall.



It would be particularly ironic, for example, if one made such a comment without realising that, unless you live in a cave, with no clothes, licking the moisture from the wall and eating unidentifiable cave fungus, that it's very near impossible for one to escape the use of animal products.

As someone who has just posted on an internet forum, I assume that is not the case, unless caves got a lot fancier since the last time I was in one.


OT: Strikes me as odd that you would get worked up over killing animals, but not humans.

 

[FabTails]

I don't really know why people are so sensitive towards animals but can be bitches towards other people.

OT: Strikes me as odd that you would get worked up over killing animals, but not humans.

It's about innocence. Animals are almost always innocent. They don't plot. They don't scheme. They don't go out of their way to hurt or persecute or destroy. Human beings do.

I'm not saying there are absolutely no cases of animals being "evil". I know there are cases - those bizarre male lions in South Africa that were essentially serial killers spring to mind. But it's really, really abnormal.

Now do I think the death of innocent civilians is less tragic than the death of animals? Of course not. But if we are comparing killing the "bad guys" in AC4 to hunting a whale minding it's own business - then I certainly would rather kill the people.

BTW a deer could fuck you up in real life even worse than an armed person would.

That's ridiculously untrue. Did you mean to say "unarmed"? Because I could go with that. But there is no way a deer possess more danger to you than someone armed with a knife or a gun.

 

[jklinders]

Whale hunting being portrayed in a 18th century game does not really bother me. Having said that, the whale hunting as portrayed in the game Dishonored is beyond creepy and cruel. I am not bothered much by the things that happen in the meat industry but the idea of hoisting such a large beast into the air and skinning and shaving the blubber off while it's alive and screaming is appalling. Bethsoft has some sick fucks working for them to come up with that.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I thought there'd never be a topic on this! Armored Core 4 holds a special place in my heart, because when I saw it on the shel-

Oh.

...nevermind.

OT: I'm one of those "It's in the time period, stop being dramatic" types.

 

[putowtin]

its got whale hunting? wow thats disturbing. think they just lost a sale with that

Ya I dunno why Ubi included it. You're playing as a pirate, shouldn't he be I dunno pirating? Attacking other whaling ships and stealing their valuable whale cargo? rather than going through the effort of actually doing the work himself? It just doesn't make a lot of sense for me.

it's included because that's how the worked back then. Ubisoft could have glossed over it and pretended it never happened but it did, however it is optional, you hunt so you can create upgrades, however the pelts/skins are for sale in the general stores

 

[shrekfan246]

Besides, I never said I was against consuming or using non-human animal products. That's simply a failed assumption on your part. I said if you can't stomach it, you shouldn't be allowed to use it. The maddening hypocrisy of it drives me up the wall. These people will happily consume any number of meats, but gasp in horror at the thought of killing an animal themselves - unless it's via paying someone else do it. *eyeroll*

You seem to be making quite a few failed assumptions yourself, especially considering this thread is supposed to be about a video game.

I think the reasoning behind why they "gasp in horror at the thought of killing and animal themselves" is more important than the simple fact of it happening. If people are going to say "Oh no, I couldn't kill that cute little calf" while munching down on a hamburger, then sure, fire away at their "hypocrisy". But there are quite a few reasons I wouldn't be able to stomach killing, say, a cow or chicken or pig. One, I'm an inherent mysophobe. I absolutely despise and actively try to avoid anything that will cause parts of my body to be potentially splattered with disgusting bits of fluids, grime, dirt, etc. Two, I have no training or skill in the area in question. Why the hell would I want to put an animal through the torture of me clumsily trying to hack away at its neck or whatever when somebody else could give it a quick, mostly painless death? This also extends to the fact that I wouldn't be able to properly skin, gut, or portion the animal afterward. Sure, I don't care to learn, but it's not out of some sanctimonious feeling of superiority because I'm doing animals across the world good by not slaughtering them. It's because I don't like physical labor when it doesn't involve walking through animal feces and running your hands through animal guts all day long.

Granted, I'm not somebody who has an issue with killing the animals in games, though I don't often seek it out myself unless it's part of a required game mechanic. But there can be a wide canyon of difference between "I don't want to kill an animal" and 'hypocrite'.

 

[pha kin su pah]

Nope, i can't bring myself to murder animals.

on a good note, people that would want to hunt but can't sort of have an outlet to be able to satisfy there own urges.

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

Ive been playing for a while now and frankly i have no sympathy for the large cats in the game, those guys are dicks

Oh god i feel your pain. Large cats in general are my worst enemy in almost all games with hunting, AC4, FC3, Red dead redemption. Sharks are quickly climbing that list.

OT: That is why they added the shops, so people are not forced to go whaling or hunting. Me personally, my favorite thing to do is shoot a animal with a sleeping dart then skin it alive.

 

[Thebazilly]

I have a question, is the control scheme like Assassins Creed III or like the older ones? I remember hating what ACIII did to the controls.

The control system is more like AC3, but they made combat more difficult, and added a lot to naval combat. (You can board ships now, there's more ammunition types and upgrades, etc.)

My problem was that I couldn't get used to it after like 4 games of the other controls, I am more than willing to give this a go, but I also wanted to know is it better than ACIII? That didn't impress me and I hope this one will. I welcome more challenging combat though. I plan to get it for PS4.

Anyway, on topic, I think the main reason people are squeamish about the whaling minigame is that it's prolonged and very violent. In order to successfully hunt a whale or shark, you need to throw 10-20 spears at them, each accompanied by a fountain of blood. The harpoons are persistent, so you can clearly see how many times you've wounded the animal before it finally thrashes to a stop. It definitely makes me feel a somewhat uncomfortable.

Thanks for clarifying, that does sound like it would make me a bit uncomfortable, but I may do it to see what it really looks like. Are the rewards high?

It took me a while to get used to the controls in AC3, too. I liked the third game a lot (except for the story, that was probably the worst out of all the games except maybe Brotherhood), and AC4 is interesting, but it just feels sort of like it's missing something to me. I kind of wish they had a larger central city or something. The open ocean can get a bit repetitive since taking one ship is much like taking any other.

The only thing you get from whaling are whale hides and bones, which you can use to craft into equipment upgrades or sell for a reasonable amount of money. All the materials can be bought from in-game vendors (although they're expensive), and as far as I know, you're never forced to play the minigame.

 

[cikame]

People had to kill animals to make the materials for most of the clothes Kenway is wearing, muhaha.

You can't escape it, without hunting we'd have died out a long time ago.