Any Vegans (or Non Vegans) Cringe Hunting Rabbits?


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So (surprise) ya boi Celeblith is vegan . . . but a survivor's gotta do what a survivor's gotta do. Still, I can't help feeling a little bit of guilt (not strictly as a vegan but as a human being in general) when I ploink one of those little thumpers with a rock right between his peepers, lumber on up to him, look into his eyes, and snap his lil' neck as he lets out a muffled screech. The game's gotta be commended for having this kind of realism (making me feel remorse for killing incorporeal lines of code projected as pixels in the shape of a rabbit is pretty cool), but I'm curious, anybody else cringe a little when snapping rabbit necks?

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I'm skipping meat because of my health and not for ethical reasons, so when my character is dying out of hunger I have no troubles snapping a bunnies neck ;)

But more humane and actually easier is to hunt rabbits with a bow, same technique as with stones but position yourself so they are running towards or from you. And it gives you points to level the skill up.

Generaly speaking, someone on a strict plant-based diet, in this environment, will pretty fast become another frozen corps on the side of the road (in which I can store my freshly hunted bunny meat :D )

Edited by ChillPlayer
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6 hours ago, ChillPlayer said:

Generaly speaking, someone on a strict plant-based diet, in this environment, will pretty fast become another frozen corps on the side of the road (in which I can store my freshly hunted bunny meat :D )

One could probably subsist on nothing but cattail stalks (good idea for a vegan roleplay playthrough???) but besides that, it'd be silly to try and be vegan the way we can be in the first world, in a survival situation like this. People often say, "If you tried to be vegan a hundred/a thousand/ten thousand years ago, you'd starve!" And they're right! We avoid cruelty and try to protect the environment to the best of our ability, but surviving harsh conditions often means your continued existence necessitates the death of something else, and that's, as non-vegans love saying, the circle of life :) I like what you said about bow-hunting being more ethical (and of course ethics in this case is practically meaningless, since they're not real bunnies--still, it's fun to talk about). I'm in a real hurry to find/craft a bow--partly for that reason--but to be honest I'm having trouble finding arrowheads (and I'm not ready to leave the safety of my starting region to find a forge!).

Anyway, good luck with that, and as I say to everyone on here, happy hunting  :rabbit:

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You can't live on nothing but cattails for ever, after a few months you'd have severe defficiencies in about every department of your body ;)

The arrow heads are something you have to craft, not find, as they are very rare - and for the bow you need guts but you can get them from deer carcasses, you don't need to hunt an animal for that.

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8 hours ago, ChillPlayer said:

You can't live on nothing but cattails for ever

Right, I just mean that in-game, it might be possible. But then, I wonder if you wouldn't eat the cattails faster than they can grow back . . .

Also, as for the bow and arrows, I crafted a survival bow a short while ago. Also, I know finding arrowheads is a lot to hope for, but right now I have no interest in abandoning my base to put my life on the line trying to find a hammer and brave the muskeg just to forge some stupid arrowheads . . . then again, I'm gonna need something to get rid of these wolves. My current strategy is as follows: get naked, take only knife, find wolf, run kamikaze-style at it, get mauled, kill wolf, wait until I heal, repeat.

Not very effective.

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On 3/2/2018 at 11:28 AM, Celeblith said:

I have no interest in abandoning my base to put my life on the line trying to find a hammer and brave the muskeg just to forge some stupid arrowheads

Brave the Muskeg!  I've been spending a lot of time there lately, and it's a wonderful place.  Sure, you'll die lots of times, but eventually you start to get to know your way around.

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6 hours ago, Prestermatt said:

Brave the Muskeg!  I've been spending a lot of time there lately, and it's a wonderful place.  Sure, you'll die lots of times, but eventually you start to get to know your way around.

I'm creeping up on day 40 . . . might make a new survival save for the sole purpose of exploring the muskeg, or I might do it in story mode, but there's no way I'm putting my current save's life on the line like that. 

I like the idea, though.

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1 hour ago, Celeblith said:

I'm creeping up on day 40 . . . might make a new survival save for the sole purpose of exploring the muskeg, or I might do it in story mode, but there's no way I'm putting my current save's life on the line like that. 

I like the idea, though.

I did that, my first excursion in.  I started a new Pilgrim game in ML, looted enough to have decent supplies, and headed off to FM.  I ended up dying from a "fall from great height" when I fell through the ice near the edge of the map and the game helpfully relocated me to the top of a cliff on the border without room to actually stand there...

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3 hours ago, Celeblith said:

but there's no way I'm putting my current save's life on the line like that.

you need to die enough so you can go out in confidence and venture to the Muskeg for crafting your arrows you so desperately need. TLD is really about learning by dying, no sense in holding on to a save if it hinders your development as a player ;)

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17 hours ago, ChillPlayer said:

you need to die enough so you can go out in confidence and venture to the Muskeg for crafting your arrows you so desperately need. TLD is really about learning by dying, no sense in holding on to a save if it hinders your development as a player ;)

So, update: I took your advice by accident. See, I'd lost my only hat in a wolf attack, so frostbite was a constant concern. Because of this, I had to embark on a hat quest. This in circuitous fashion took me to the muskeg, where I thought, "What's the worst that can happen if I set out across the marsh?" And that's exactly what I did. I espied what looked like a structure off in the distance and slogged toward it. Nearly fell through the ice a couple of times, but I got there and . . .

Burned down house. Shed. Inside, a forge. Wowie. I'd found it! And best of all, there was a hammer out back. 

I didn't find a hat, but I did craft ten arrowheads :) Now if only I could learn how to shoot . . .

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19 hours ago, Prestermatt said:

I did that, my first excursion in.  I started a new Pilgrim game in ML, looted enough to have decent supplies, and headed off to FM.  I ended up dying from a "fall from great height" when I fell through the ice near the edge of the map and the game helpfully relocated me to the top of a cliff on the border without room to actually stand there...

In a game like TLD wherein so much hangs in the balance, extra-natural dangers really are the worst. I mean, the game has been carefully sculpted so that all the advantages you have and all the disadvantages, threats, etc. work out to give players a harrowing but exhilarating experience. The veil parts a tad when a simple lurch over a two-foot snowbank yields me a sprained wrist and ankle, internal bleeding, hemorrhoids, dementia, the AIDS virus, and a shattered femur. That's not even to mention doors that take me not to the interiors/exteriors of buildings but rather to a strange alternate universe whose only inhabitants are the words "'THE LONG DARK' STOPPED WORKING. REPORT ERROR?"

*Sigh* 

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  • 7 months later...

I'm not vegan/vegetarian, but I do have an affinity for animals, I actually do feel a great amount of remorse anytime I catch a rabbit and snap its neck. I guess its the death squeak that gets me. As others have said though I'll do what I have to do to survive, if it means a cute animal has to do get neck snapped then so be it.

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  • 1 month later...

It's their little twitchy noses that get me. Whoever animated the "release/kill" sequence for the bunnies sure knew how to tug those heartstrings.

I'm vegetarian and feel much the same as you do, Celeblith. In a harsh survival situation like the one depicted in TLD, yeah, of course I would eat meat! I'll give the bunny a sympathetic look and mutter "sorry little buddy," but I'm still gonna eat him. It's true that in a pure state of nature, a human wouldn't survive comfortably or long without using the meat and skins of animals. Some omnivores seem to think that's a "gotcha" for vegans/vegetarians: "If you were trapped on a desert island, you'd HAVE to eat meat!" Well... yeah bud, but we're not on a desert island, we are at Chipotle, and a hypothetical starvation scenario has little bearing on whether I ask for beans or carnitas.

I'm fully aware that my vegetarian diet is a luxury of the modern world, but that doesn't make it any more impractical or "fake" than any other modern luxuries we incorporate into our lives, like dental work or running water or public libraries. I'm grateful that my circumstances allow me to choose a diet without meat and clothing without leather. Yeah, my ancestors didn't have that option, but I do-- and I choose to do less harm when I can.

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Hi all,

On 12/19/2018 at 10:20 PM, Swales said:

I'm fully aware that my vegetarian diet is a luxury of the modern world

Not really, some vegetarian traditions are thousands years old. It's more a matter of where than when, as it depends on what grows around you.
I guess the modern world is allowing you to have access to food you couldn't have without modern transport. But be sure, what it gives you, it takes away somewhere else...

As a vegetarian, I was surprised by myself the first time I've encountered a wild rabbit. Seeing it fleeing triggered an hunting impulse, an instinct of chase. I didn't run after it but I felt the need.
So, first time I finally understood how to catch a rabbit with a stone in-game, I let it go, too cute to die... Then I thought about that experience, and ok, starving, cold, on the verge of dying every time I put as step outside, I would never hesitate. I killed the second one. And now I'm proudly wearing my rabbit gloves, can't wait to add the hat ;)

 

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Guest kristaok
On 12/19/2018 at 10:20 AM, Swales said:

It's their little twitchy noses that get me. Whoever animated the "release/kill" sequence for the bunnies sure knew how to tug those heartstrings.

I'm vegetarian and feel much the same as you do, Celeblith. In a harsh survival situation like the one depicted in TLD, yeah, of course I would eat meat! I'll give the bunny a sympathetic look and mutter "sorry little buddy," but I'm still gonna eat him. It's true that in a pure state of nature, a human wouldn't survive comfortably or long without using the meat and skins of animals. Some omnivores seem to think that's a "gotcha" for vegans/vegetarians: "If you were trapped on a desert island, you'd HAVE to eat meat!" Well... yeah bud, but we're not on a desert island, we are at Chipotle, and a hypothetical starvation scenario has little bearing on whether I ask for beans or carnitas.

I'm fully aware that my vegetarian diet is a luxury of the modern world, but that doesn't make it any more impractical or "fake" than any other modern luxuries we incorporate into our lives, like dental work or running water or public libraries. I'm grateful that my circumstances allow me to choose a diet without meat and clothing without leather. Yeah, my ancestors didn't have that option, but I do-- and I choose to do less harm when I can.

Yea out there in that situation it wouldn't be easy to find a can of beans everyday or fry up some tofu for protein. :/ Gotta do what ya gotta do... of course it does make me sad when I am given the choice to kill the Rabbit or release. 

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  • 4 months later...
On 12/28/2018 at 1:58 PM, kristaok said:

Yea out there in that situation it wouldn't be easy to find a can of beans everyday or fry up some tofu for protein. :/ Gotta do what ya gotta do... of course it does make me sad when I am given the choice to kill the Rabbit or release. 

Not vegan or even vegetarian IRL, however I do cringe at having to kill every animal in the game when it comes down to it. I also cringe at the sound of harvesting the meat, guts, and hide as well as harvesting the fish. 

I do wish we could find stuff like bags of dry rice and beans and be able to use them to make a more complete meal with a small bonus of some sort at the expense of more time spent to prepare them.

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You don't have to be vegan to appreciate it. One of the most clever things, I believe, is how this game maintains its Teen ( Am I right about that? ) rating while exploring themes of death and prey. I've played a lot of survival games, but I don't think I've ever had an experience that forces the player to experience nature as both predator and prey. When I was younger I did some hunting and while I truly loved the hunting part, and got used to the messy part, the killing part always bothered me a little bit. I've had bad dreams about it a time or two. I've also "processed" the food for reptiles ( breaking the necks of rats and gassing pinkie rats, my ex wife actually built a miniature gas chamber for infant rats). Before anyone thinks it is "just a rat", I had a rat as a pet and they are surprisingly intelligent and gentle animals that get a truly bad rap. I don't recommend them as pets, in fact, because rodents don't live very long and you're probably going to have to watch it die in just a handful of years. Mine had some kind of stroke or heart attack ( or something sudden, I'm not a vet) on the way to her daily exercise on the wheel. It was terrible. When I saw her she was still alive, but either completely weakened or paralyzed, and clearly struggling for life. Perhaps I'm projecting, but I swear she looked directly up at me when I found her. Another thing that I think is worth exploring is I found it far easier to kill with a rifle, especially if I dropped the deer immediately, than to kill something with your hands.

EDIT: punctuation

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  • 3 weeks later...

I close my eyes every time I click the "kill" button on the bunnies. I can't watch the actual moment.

I love the game's artwork and I already don't want it to change from this paint-like appearance. But for the sake of my emotional responses, I'm DEFINITELY glad it's not photo-realistic when it comes to killing bunnies. 😳

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I'm the nature loving type but I prefer the role of the predator, even if the lazy type since I don't hunt (it's way too expensive in Italy). By the way,  killing a rabbit by snapping its neck is a clean way to take it out. I spent much time in the countryside when I was a kid, and I remember seeing that most farmers used to either swing the rabbit by the hind legs and slam its head against a stony surface, or hold it by the ears and punch it. Oh, the eighties... So no, neck snapping doesn't impress me at all. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Im not vegi or vegan irl but Ya I guess what they say is true if you are a meat eater and had to survive like in TLD I promise you that you will turn vegi or vegan. For me in game i try not to kill unless its my only choice. If i manage to spawn in somewhere and i get lots of cat tails or can food or candy bars i would avoid it. The noises the animals make in game do make me feel sorry for having to kill them. It had brought me to the point that i am questioning if i should go semi vegan or semi vegi (still eat/use meat or other animal parts) but as little to none at all.

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There's nothing wrong at all about taking no joy in killing, even if it's completely justified and done quickly, and humanely.  To kill and feel nothing is a sign of sociopathy, even if it doesn't blossom into full on sociopathic behavior.  It gets easier to do, but having respect for the life you took is part of what it means to be human.  Like when river trout fishing with a backpack full of ice for the 3 unlucky fish that go towards my daily bag limit, they don't just die right away.  They lose whatever consciousness they have pretty quickly, but I can still feel them flopping around back there, sometimes for up to an hour after being taken out of the water.  And I chop the heads off before I clean them.  I don't want my food looking at me as I slice it open.

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Guest jeffpeng

I'm a vegetarian for about a decade, and I've been know to push rabbit populations on Great Bear to the brink of extinction. I simply cannot "forget" that TLD is just a simulation enough to care for digital animals. I, however, sometimes have a hightened craving for hot beverages when playing. 😉

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