Japanese arcade game driving beetle extinction

by Kyle Orland { Sep 11th 2007 at 10:55PM }

"Gotta catch 'em all" has taken on a new meaning with a recent Japanese video game craze helping to drive the real-life extinction to the a subspecies of Turkish beetle. The Times Online reports that the popularity of bug-collecting arcade game Mushiking (King of the Beetles) is leading Japanese fans to import a million of the insects as pets each year, decimating the indigenous population.

"All we want to do is end the trade in our stag beetles," said Nazim Sonmez, chairman of the Amanos Environmental Protection Association. "They are being collected for economic reasons rather than research purposes. The stag beetle is under threat of extinction. It must be stopped."

Bug collecting is a long-standing tradition in Japan that has appeared in games from The Legend of Zelda to Animal Crossing, but Mushiking has raised the activity to a national craze to rival Pokemon. The Sega arcade unit engages players in a rock-paper-scissors style battle of digital insects printed on collectible cards, more than 160 million of which have been printed to date.

Tags: beetle, environment, extinction, musiking

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

shadow024 @ Sep 11th 2007 11:06PM

Sooooo
now what?

Raynre @ Sep 11th 2007 11:06PM

leik omg nintendo is killin teh worldz!!1!

hvnlysoldr (NDF - Wind Ring) @ Sep 11th 2007 11:10PM

But it's Sega's game.

Raynre @ Sep 11th 2007 11:16PM

Indeed, but the mentioning of three important Nintendo franchises seems like the sort of irrelevant bullcrap that some people would be immediatly drawn to, thereby focusing on Nintendo as the culprits. Thus, my post beating them to the chase, complete with grammatical errors and senseless accusations.

My humor works in wierd, roundabout ways. =P

hvnlysoldr (NDF - Wind Ring) @ Sep 11th 2007 11:20PM

Yeah your spelling is WEIRD.

horngreen @ Sep 11th 2007 11:11PM

Jesus you could make a video about collecting the dung of Americans and I'll bet we could then sell our dung to the Japanese. Cool beetle though, it's unfortunate Japanese culture is so F-ed up when it comes to endangered animals. Rhino horn to perk up their sex lives? Tiger genitals? Maybe we should start collecting the testicles of japanese men to cure hair loss.

hvnlysoldr (NDF - Wind Ring) @ Sep 11th 2007 11:16PM

I heard human horn is an aphrodisiac.

blooh @ Sep 11th 2007 11:47PM

only the lower horn

comtar @ Sep 11th 2007 11:13PM

This game is not as cool as Mushihimesama or Mushihimesama Futari.

BPM @ Sep 11th 2007 11:20PM

Funny, though...
Satoshi Tajiri's idea for Pokémon stemmed from how he liked to collect bugs as a kid. But instead of making a game about just bugs, it was a game about a bunch of fantasty creatures, ranging from cute to cool to ZOMGWTFISTHATTHING.

mike @ Sep 11th 2007 11:54PM

why are we concerned about a speciecs of beetles becoming extinct? Its an insect, not some large cool looking animal. Insects = annoying. The less the better. If only japanese people would start collecting cockroaches and mosquitos :P

Hodgepodge @ Sep 13th 2007 1:00AM

Are you kidding? Look at that thing, it's awesome.

(It also probably plays some lame-ass crucial role in its own environment or something).

aka Prof Chaos @ Sep 12th 2007 12:21AM

I don't know, they have some weird fetishes, so who knows...

The Boo @ Sep 12th 2007 11:12AM

There is a little thing called the ecosystem. Sometimes one species relies on another and it could set off a chain of events leading to another species extiction or overpopulation... or not. Other than that, this thing deserves to stick around if only for how awesome it is!

Adv2k1 @ Sep 12th 2007 12:37AM

I'm pretty sure its not Japanese who eat Rhino penis powder I think its China . Anyway what the hell is the deal with this collection everything nature. You would think they would love Metroid with all the items to find and scans . I collected bugs for high school and hated it, it was annoying and disgusting and not any fun.

Negativecool @ Sep 12th 2007 12:49AM

Oh jebuz no! ANYTHING but the Turkish Beetle!!!
BTW
Collecting BUGS is a "national craze" in Japan? My god that is nerdiness the likes of which we will never see in America...
In fact I think 1/5 of Americans wouldn't know a Turkish beetle if it bit them in the face...
...Because I personally believe that US Americans (as apposed to non-US Americans)are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't know what beetles are and I believe that our education like such as South Africa, and ugh the Iraq, and everywhere such as, and I believe that they should...Our education over here in the US should help the US, should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq, and the Asian countries (including the far superior Japan)so we will be able to build up our future for our children....

Thank you.

colin @ Sep 12th 2007 1:56AM

i'm usually not one for internet slang, but you just rofled my woffles and i think i might have lawled a bit in my pants, haven't checked though.

t_m @ Sep 12th 2007 2:26AM

These things are in every shop over here... they are frickin huge, and really scary.
Though there are lots of native huge-scary-bugs over here too.

The mushiking card arcade games are also everywhere.. based on casual observance alone i'd say they are bigger than pokemon or anything here right now.

That new PS3 game, Summer Vacation 3 (or whatever its called) looks sweet, and seems to feature virtual bug collecting too.