PETA chooses The Sims 3 as its GOTY 2009

by David Hinkle on Dec 31st 2009 5:00AM

Usually when we post something about PETA here on our gamez blawg, it's about the company protesting this or complaining about that. Not so today, as PETA's awarded EA Maxis' The Sims 3 with a Proggy Award for being the 'Most Animal-Friendly Game' of 2009. You may remember PETA gave the same award to Fable 2 last year.

The award this year is in recognition of The Sims 3's ability to put your virtual pal on a vegetarian diet. PETA also adds that "vegetarian Sims, like their real-life counterparts, live longer, age more slowly, and feast on cruelty-free delights -- from tofu dogs to ratatouille." Sounds well and good, but we're not sure we'd totally attribute any supposed increased life span to a diet, because we all know from the great Xena: Warrior Princess that if anything happens, it's because a wizard did it.

[Via Gamasutra]

Source

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, maxis, peta, proggy, proggy-award, sims, sims-3, the-sims, the-sims-3

Reader Comments (49)

PETA has no taste...

...get it?

Ah Ha... Ah ha... Ah hahahaha... It's a pun... That was almost good enough to deserve a, "YEAAAAAHHHHH!!" from "Won't Get Fooled Again."

PETA, PETA, PETA... Everything you eat with exactly one exception was at some point a living thing or extracted from a living thing (including fruits & veggies). That exception is salt, which is a mineral. People Eat Tasty Animals, accept it! I don't support animal cruelty in my home, but chicken is still delicious.

Your avatar is... somewhat appropriate to the discussion...

Not everything can feel pain or has anything near a nervous system. That's pretty much where the line is drawn.

Yes, plants & veggies don't have a nervous system (as far as we know), but they are still living, breathing organisms that we are consuming, using and putting to our use. Exploitation is exploitation, period and no one should be splitting hairs about whether creatures can or can not feel. None of us are plants and so we have no concept of what a plant feels, we can only guess. And I hope PETA's position will keep them from hiring termite exterminators, stepping on cockroaches, laying rat traps, swatting mosquitoes and destroying beehives on their property.

PETA would love to see pounds, circuses, zoos and even pets become abolished. If you don't believe me on that, check out Ingrid Newkirk's page at wikiquote. Ingrid founded PETA and is it's current President. Now granted, certain pounds, circuses, zoos and pet owners are cruel to the animals in their care, but millions of PEOPLE around the world are treated as badly if not worse. Priorities out of wack...

Why shouldn't we be splitting hairs? We split hairs with humanity versus animals, it seems a much smaller step to separate plants and minerals from conscious life.

I really hate those people that use video games to further their political views. Whether it's peta, lawyers, judges, or congressmen. They're the ones who treat games like real life much more than gamers.

They make me sick!

I think the main reason they chose the sims is because it lets them torture humans in a way similar to animals. Think about it! What other game lets you watch a person lose their bowels over the floor because the person cannot find a toilet in their house? It's like a role-reversal, and the sick PETA guys love it.

What about farmville, on Facebook? Im always seeing updates about poor cows that need my help thanks to the useless pos game. I hate PETA, and I also hate farmville, so its a perfect match!

No, farms are PETA's #1 enemy, even if they're nice farms where animals are never slaughtered.

Yeah, you can have vegetarian sims if you attend to all of their meals. The problem is that sims, much like animals, are going to go get themselves some meat if you leave them unsupervised.

"Yeah, you can have vegetarian sims if you attend to all of their meals."
I think there's a trait to make your sim hate meat. Also, they changed "rock" music to "indie". EA knows their target.

They should give it to Uncharted 2, not because it is the real GOTY but I definitely remember patting a big Yak. The Yetti thing...not so much.

Yeah, I tried petting it from the back....

Man Naughty Dog thought of everything!

HAHA

OH WOW

I'm quite certain PETA exist for the sole purpose of discrediting the whole idea of animal welfare.

Anyone who actually gives half a shit about animal welfare stays far away from those wackos. Sort of like Greenpeace and actual, thinking environmentalists.

PETA is the real life version of forum trolls.

PETA gave last year's award to horrible Fable 2? Yeah, their opinion means less to me now.

Was it the lack of a Final Boss that has caused you to be so bitter or is it something else?

Yeah, well, you're a cow, so what do you know?

Joystiq also gave Fable II GOTY last year. So I take it you hate their opinion too? Guess that means you shouldn't come here anymore...

Appropriate - PETA don't mind that The Sims allows you to cruelly torture your human slaves to a painful, humiliating death. As long as no rabbits get poked, it's okay...

My favorite method was removing the pool ladders. You know what they did with Sims 3? They let them get out of the pool without ladders! Seriously! What the heck is wrong with them? We need to start our own group. People for the Torture of Dumbass Sims. PTDS for short. We will not stand for this!

God damned PETA.

God damned The Sims 3, too, by the way. I wonder if the developer staff also where's thick black glasses and listens to "indie music" and calls things that are ironic "Totally sweet", whilst using their macs, mac books, and then turning on their iPhones to listen to the Decemberists.

I bet they hate whole milk.

Nice generalization. I bet you listen to "mainstream" music, wear contacts, call things that are blatantly obvious "cool," while using your Dells, Dell Inspiron Notebooks, and then turn on your DROID to listen to Avenged Sevenfold (RIP Rev).

I bet you love whole milk too.

My generalization is better.

I dislike you.

Show me a cat on a vegetarian diet and I'll show you an owner that was killed and eaten in their sleep.

'nuff said.
http://bit.ly/8U8qn3

I didn't know video games were made from animals.

Surely putting a carnivore on a herbivore diet is animal cruelty... last I looked cats and dogs were carnivores.

PETA and their hilarious double standards.

Actually, probably ignore this. I misread virtual pal as meaning virtual pet of your virtual person. Either way, PETA be damned.

Dogs are "carnivores' but domestic dogs can be considered true omnivores. A dog can happily and healthily live as an herbivore, though it's obviously not to be suggested, it isn't hard to change your dogs diet unless it's completely dependent on routine. Cat's are definitely harder to break into it though, a lot harder. I'm a vegan, and a lot of my friends are too... Some of them are cooky enough to have tried to put their cats on such a diet and it just fails miserably. They either don't eat or just become sickly if you don't do it "right."

Definitely don't force your pets to live your lifestyle, you're right, it's borderline cruelty. My cat eats plenty of other animal flesh, even though I don't, and I'm perfectly okay with that. Because I wuv her so vewy vewy much! ...sorry.

Didn't make this clear: Never ever ever ever ever ever try it with a cat unless you hate your cat (in which case, you should give it to a good home). It is the antithesis of healthy for it unless you have a scientist working around the clock to build a meal of the exact proteins your cat needs without using animal product.

I really hate seeing people in my "community" think they are capable of doing something as crazy as raising a vegan or vegetarian cat, and especially promoting it. "Vegan cat food" is a sham that's just going to make your cat really, really sick in the long run and lose any playful energy it once had. It's really sad.

Also, not saying you should do it for your dogs either... Really, don't do it for them either. No one will benefit.

I completely agree. If you can't stand the idea of your pet eating meat (even though it is completely natural for them,) then you need to get something that is supposed to be vegan. If a meat eating human can enjoy a guinea pig as a pet, then a vegan/vegetarian should have no trouble. :)

TL;DR version: Cats like meat

TL;DR Addendum: Cats will eat you if you die in their presence, they aren't objectionable to human meat either.

OM NOM NOM NOM. I can haz humanburger?

It's kind of ironic really.

My girlfriend hasn't been able to play her Sims 3 since they released a new patch for it.
Checking online and it seems a common occurrence when EA releases a patch for it, that it breaks the game for people.

Shouldn't PETA be paying attention to more important things, like freeing Rage-infected monkeys?

If the monkey bit them, do you think they would still be vegans as zombies?

WHO
FUCKING
CARES
WHAT
PETA
THINKS?

I agree with That Guy, PETA exists to promote animal welfare over human welfare. PETA protests against animal research in medical labs and here's a quote from their founder and CEO, Ingrid Newkirk, "Even if animal experiments did result in a cure for AIDS, of which there is no chance, I’d be against it on moral grounds." WHOA. She was also asked in an interview if she'd trade the lives of 50 rats and 1 chimp for a cure for AIDS. SHE SAID NO. Screw you and your organization lady, you have clearly gone off the deep end here. PEOPLE, specifically dying people, are WAY more important than rats.

Also here's another nugget from this crazy chick, "In the end, I think it would be lovely if we stopped this whole notion of pets altogether." ...Whoa... I wonder how many unknowing pet lovers donate to PETA every year...

The MORE funny thing would be if EA put that award on the box.

"PETA Approved!"

I'm not sure if that would increase or decrease their sales.

Yeah, considering this site is given money and perks by the PR companies for these developers, I don't really believe in their opinion too much. I usually look at customer reviews and mostly at the negative scores to see what the game really has.

It's pretty sad that Fable II was game of the year when this wasn't 2004 or whenever Fable came out because, you know, it was the same game.

Wow, my reply thing doesn't want to work right now.

Heh, PETA.

They're like the Scientologists of charities. Or the furries. Hell, they're like furry Scientologists.

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PETA chooses The Sims 3 as its GOTY 2009

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