AC4... Am I being overly sensitive?

[thiosk]

Some people found shooting the doberman zombies back in resident evil, or even rat clubbing, distateful.

Its a period piece, so I understand the harpooning, but I am not interested in shooting whales. I'm the sort that would call for harpooning poachers of megafauna (whales, elephants, rhinos, etc). Its not morally consistent but I hold that opinion.

 

[kasperbbs]

I'm having a hard time making sense of people having no problem with killing virtual people, but as soon as they see a virtual animal getting killed all hell breakes loose. Personally i wouldn't even kill a mouse in the real world, but who cares when it's fake? People have a right to be disturbed by different things, but saying that it's somehow wrong in a game focused on assasinating people is a stretch.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I was also uncomfortable with the hunting feature in Red Dead Redemption. I didn't mind shooting people - most of them shoot at you first before you try shoot them, anyway, and I'm morally OK with this in real life (shoot back if you're getting shot at). The animal hunting I was uneasy with. With the exception of coyotes, wolves, cougars and such, nothing really attacks you. I couldn't stomach skinning armadillos and shooting birds off the sky for a measly feather... until I decided to go with the role-play anyway.

 

[thibaut95]

Well, i do enjoy the minigame actually, and i do play it from time to time without feeling guilty. I don't feel guilty in any game for hunting really, but have to admit the whaling is on one side pretty disturbing. For me it's that final cutscene after the mini-game. seeing that huge beast being dragged onto your ship with like 20 spears poking out and covered in blood ,that makes me sad. But still I still nobody should think less of the game because of the whaling. As long as Ubisoft doesn't kill real whales, i'm on board

 

[IamLEAM1983]

So i'm playing Assassins creed and really enjoying it, what can i say, it's pirates with broadsides and the works, really well made too. Yay.

But I just can't bring myself to do the animal hunting stuff. Shooting helpless deer or harpooning giant beautiful whales.. I just can't do it. It just feels so wrong!

Now I know there's a lot of killing people in the game, but somehow that's an entirely different matter to me. The people you kill have guns and attack you and everything. Shooting animals just feels like shooting fish in a barrel. Pointless, cruel and just.. unnecessary. I don't even know why anyone would even put it in a game?

Is it just me? Am I being overly sensitive here?

Just wondering 'cause i don't know really.

It's your prerogative, really, but I think you could also consider the fact that you're not killing *actual* animals.

See, I hate hunting, myself. My grandfather used to take to nature preserves and government-sanctioned hunting grounds once a year, and he'd come back with enough venison for the winter. Sunday evenings at House LEAM were all venisonvenisonvenison until he died. He tried to introduce me to rifle hunting, but the fact is I'm not physically or intellectually inclined to like that kind of stuff. It's murder on the knees and I hate the idea of killing animals.

I took to FarCry 3 last winter, though, and discovered hunting was actually fun in a controlled environment. Seeing as the Rook Islands are fake, all the animals on them are also fake. I could slaughter every pig, every tiger, buffalo, shark or cassowary in Vaaas' nook of the Pacific that it wouldn't reflect badly on me.

Long story short? It's just a game. These aren't poor, defenseless animals. These aren't cutesy-poo bundles of scales, feather or fur; they're a bunch of vertexes, animation triggers, textures and sound bytes. All the dogs and wolves I've killed in Skyrim or FC3 didn't bother me in the least, but trust me when I say I have a hard time doing something as benign as yelling "No!" to my disobeying puppy. The thought of hitting him seems utterly ludicrous to me.

So, yeah. Hunt away, my friend.

 

[Baddamobs]

This does serve to highlight an interesting trend, though. In a controlled setting where in a player is given an optional (at least, I've been told the hunting sections are optional) option to hunt animals, many raise of objections to it. This wouldn't be a surprise in it self if it wasn't an established fact that you WILL be killing humans. This part is not an option: to continue the game you have to kill individuals.

I think that we humans just have more trouble being sympathetic to other humans then to animals: as humans, we know that other humans likely have the same thought pattern we do, including all the negative, hate filled and angry thoughts that we have likely had (as well as various other negative thoughts like greed). In that mind set, we have very little problems killing other humans: in a way, they deserve it much more then a whale. Especially since to us, animals are just...well, animals: majestic and cute, but also very often dumb, and a little helpless VS our freakin' guns. It just seems unfair to animals that, in our minds, likely can't even HAVE an angry thought (though there have been cases...).
Seems odd in my mind, since we should also be able to sympathise better to an animal who is both like us and can communicate with us.

Sooo, to answer your question, I don't think you're being overly sensitive: but I do think that you should look into why you're sorry for the whales and not the guard you stabbed in the neck, and then walked coldly away from, now just a piece of flesh that once had a name you never even knew.

 

[Hosker]

Won't somebody please think of the whales?!

Further information lest it counts as a low content post. I don't consider it sensitive, just odd that you'd be willing to be a pirate and all that comes with that, but whales are where you draw the line.

 

[Hosker]

As long as Ubisoft doesn't kill real whales, i'm on board

I see what you did there.

 

[white_wolf]

There are very few portions of the game that actually make it mandatory for you to hunt. Its simple if you tried it once and don't like it don't do it again your hunting man more so then fish.

 

[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.)

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.

 

[Racecarlock]

So i'm playing Assassins creed and really enjoying it, what can i say, it's pirates with broadsides and the works, really well made too. Yay.

But I just can't bring myself to do the animal hunting stuff. Shooting helpless deer or harpooning giant beautiful whales.. I just can't do it. It just feels so wrong!

Now I know there's a lot of killing people in the game, but somehow that's an entirely different matter to me. The people you kill have guns and attack you and everything. Shooting animals just feels like shooting fish in a barrel. Pointless, cruel and just.. unnecessary. I don't even know why anyone would even put it in a game?

Is it just me? Am I being overly sensitive here?

Just wondering 'cause i don't know really.

To be honest, you can be sickened by whatever you want. I have no problem with people like you.

It's just people like those in PETA or people who basically just go "YOU KILLED SOME PIXELS YOU BASTARD" and basically try as hard as they can to make other people feel bad about what they do in video games rather than just try to keep their preferences to themselves.

But you don't seem like one of those people, so I've got no beef (oh god I just realized the dumb joke).

 

[Xukog]

I don't know about being overly sensitive,but it is kind of odd that whaling is where you draw the line in a game where you play as a pirate who will gladly murder people who have done nothing to him to sate his greed. *shrug*

 

[Racecarlock]

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.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

So i'm playing Assassins creed and really enjoying it, what can i say, it's pirates with broadsides and the works, really well made too. Yay.

But I just can't bring myself to do the animal hunting stuff. Shooting helpless deer or harpooning giant beautiful whales.. I just can't do it. It just feels so wrong!

Now I know there's a lot of killing people in the game, but somehow that's an entirely different matter to me. The people you kill have guns and attack you and everything. Shooting animals just feels like shooting fish in a barrel. Pointless, cruel and just.. unnecessary. I don't even know why anyone would even put it in a game?

Is it just me? Am I being overly sensitive here?

Just wondering 'cause i don't know really.

Meh, not my place to say, if you don't want to kill the virtual animals don't kill the virtual animals, not my place to judge. As long as you don't take the next step and it becomes "I don't like killing the virtual animals, and if you do you're bad!" then it's your game man, play it as you wish.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Nah, you're not being overly sensitive, IMO.
As wonderful as it might be to have the ability to explore more, and more activities, we can still have ethics, and codes to live by, even in virutal worlds. There's going to be things that are distateful to a person sooner or later. I've been there more than once, too, though not for the same thing as I haven't played AC4.

Games want to get more, and more real, and give more, and more options. As it does, those lines people don't want to cross get more and more real.

There's nothing wrong with having a line you don't want to cross, even in a game. The thing is, do you have to do these things to advance?

 

[GAunderrated]

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.

If you include whale hunting then you get to capture the asian market that is really into whale hunting (there is one culturally). It's about appealing to the masses