AC4... Am I being overly sensitive?

[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

 

[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'.