The animal-rights organization has awarded Fable 2 with the title of “most animal-friendly game” for 2008.
Anyone who’s played Fable 2 will speak to the surprisingly deep connection between the player and his/her dog and would say that would be enough to call it the game of the year for any animal lover, but PETA has other reasons for declaring Fable 2 worthy of animal-rights accolades. “Created by Microsoft Game Studios, Fable 2 is a vegetarian’s dream come true,” PETA said. “Why? In this virtual fight between good and evil, characters powered by tofu are just as powerful as their meat-eating counterparts – and are more fit and attractive to boot.” So, no, it’s not because the game makes you feel something for your canine companion, but because it teaches you that eating celery makes you a good person.
As PETA sees it, Fable 2 has a “strong pro vegetarian theme” because “eating a plant-based diet helps you rack up ‘purity’ points, wheras eating meat makes your character fat and evil…[Fable 2] is an effective tool that teaches gamers the real-life benefits of a vegetarian diet.”
I guess PETA wouldn’t be too happy if they took a glance at my Fable 2 save file. My character was grossly overweight and a serial murderer. He ate meat pies by the handful, and killed the grocer who sold the celery. I guess that’s where PETA seems to be missing the point in their quest to read a pro-veg narrative into Fable 2‘s good-evil mechanic. Sure, it teaches people that eating vegetables is good for you. In the end, though, it didn’t really matter (outside of the realm of cosmetics) that my character ate meat because being evil wasn’t a bad thing to him, and Fable 2 doesn’t really punish you for being bad. Or liking steaks.
