I know you all had your heart set on purchasing Take-Two's Ringling Bros. circus game for the Wii next week, and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is going to let you finish, but they suggest you first consider alleged abuses heaped by the staff of the world-famous circus on elephants and tigers every day. They've been investigating the circus for quite some time, and feel that the truth might keep you from purchasing the game.

"During our investigation Ringling performed at new venues week after week, but its abuse of animals did not change. Our investigator captured workers on video as they beat and whipped elephants dozens of times in venues across the country. We also documented workers use sharp tools called bullhooks to jab and yank elephants by their sensitive skin. The abuses we filmed were captured backstage-hidden from public view-right before elephants were forced to walk onstage and perform. "

They've even got a video up at their website, showing Ringling Bros. employees smacking around elephants, which is pretty ballsy considering how daunting an angry elephant would be. Luckily for the handlers, the elephants stay calm, barely registering the various slaps and taps they are given.

Slightly shocking, I suppose, but will it probably won't keep people from buying the game. The fact that it's a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus game for the Nintendo Wii, on the other hand, will definitely stop people from buying it.

On Aug. 28, hundreds of them, feeling that publisher Shanda used "false advertising" to "take advantage of their feelings," began massing at the virtual city walls and gates, preventing entry. The game administrators retaliated, hurling them to far places on the game's map, or tossing them into "the black room" of its chat suite.

In that screengrab above, here are some of the comments of irate players:

"Gimme back my Legend, gimme back my Legend, gimme back my Legend, gimme back my Legend"
"Protest Protest We've been cheated Protest Protest We've been cheated"
"Is this the 2002 Legend? Isn't is supposed to be 'original flavor'? They are deceiving the players. Gimme back my Legend, I will block to my death"
"Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die"
"Boycott Shanda. Fuck [Shanda owner] Chen Tianqiao to death. Gimme back my original Legend."

The rest of the story, as written in the Chengdu Commercial Daily, tells of player Chu Yu and the hours he poured into the game, and the visceral memories he has of his experiences in it. He eventually goes to university and begins a career, leaving the game behind. Returning to Legend, Chu Yu finds he cannot enter any cities to play, but this doesn't cause outrage or sadness.

"Were you involved in blocking today? You were not blocking the city gates. You were blocking your own loneliness out!" Chu Yu smiled and thought about the purple-dressed figure flowing in his heart. He made up his mind that he was going to leave for good. He will never turn back.

The Legend Returns [East South North West via BoingBoing]

But it's one the German people are beginning to hit back against, as evidenced by this protest in the German city of Karlsruhe, which attracted an estimated 400 gamers.

Sure, 400 people may not sound like much, but this is a protest, not a cosplay event. Do any of you know 399 other people who would be willing to stand outside and wave placards and get angry at anything?

German Gamers Stage Protest March Against Govt. Crackdown on Violent Games [GamePolitics]

Earlier today, we reported that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organization is calling for the cancellation of Take-Two's upcoming game based on the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus (the so-called Greatest Show on Earth).

Take-Two, a company that has weathered protests against Grand Theft Autos, Bully and Manhunt declined to address PETA's allegations that the Ringling Bros. circus violently mistreats its elephants, but backed the game: "As a matter of company policy, we don't comment on the business affairs of our licensors," the company's vice president of communications, Alan Lewis, told Kotaku. "We fully stand behind all of our products."

As for the circus, it has been attacked by PETA for these matters before.

"We vehemently disagree with PETA," Steve Payne, spokesperson for the circus' parent company, Feld Entertainment, told Kotaku. "We're proud of our animal care. The Asian elephant has been a symbol for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey for its 139 year history... the commitment to animal welfare and conservation for the endangered Asian elephant is something we do every day."

He pointed to the circus' Center for Conservation and its ability to pass government animal inspections "everywhere we go" as proof that PETA's criticism is wrong.

Payne said that his company is "excited" about Take-Two's upcoming game.

[PIC]

PETA today launched a campaign to try and put a stop to Take-Two's Wii game featuring Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, saying that the famed circus is "looking to take its cruelty to animals virtual."

The organization says that they've already told publisher Take-Two about Ringling Bros. "real life, lengthy history of animal abuse and neglect" and even shown them undercover video footage, but to no avail.

So now PETA is asking people to send a message to Take-Two CEO Ben Feder asking him to sever ties with Ringling Bros. and telling them they would rather play a game featuring a circus that "does not beat animals for entertainment."

Strong words. Though, I can't imagine Take-Two will listen to them. And frankly, the allegations levied against Ringling Bros. are hotly debated.

Help Stop New Ringling Bros. Wii Game! [PETA]

Elaine Brower breaks down the group's disagreement and explains the march. Its intent was to deliver a "private criminal complaint," to the AEC's commanding officer, and to the mall owners. The complaint charges both with "endangering the welfare of the child," "criminal solicitation of a minor" and "corruption of a minor," because the AEC "entice[s] kids as young as 13 to not only play violent video games," but allows them access to real war materiel, including weapons.

"I decided that everyone who cared about our youth should be outraged and take action," Brower wrote, adding that the $12 million, 14,000 square foot pavilion "allow[s] kids to play the most violent video games available." More creepily, she describes "a back room where they can touch and feel weapons created for killing." Now I want to take a shower.

There's a huge play-by-play of what was chanted and said and done, much of it covered before. Brower insists that the seven arrested were wearing "death masks" and "standing peacefully," but not blocking access to the AEC. She alleges a hostile police officer threatened to charge them with an unspecified misdemeanor - probably for being masked in public, which is against the law in many communities unless you're trick-or-treating. It was probably intended to trigger an arrest anyway, which is civil disobedience 101.

In summary, this is why Brower and the other demonstrators are so fired up about video game recruiting, which has more to do with recruiting than games:

What is happening right under our noses is a transformation of the way in which the military plans on re-wiring the brains of kids at a very young and impressionable age to turn them into silent killers. By allowing anyone from the age of 13 to 18 to handle a machine gun, or use games that promote violence, it creates a generation that is wired to kill and think that killing is something that is easy and sanctioned.

This isn't a value judgment at all on the military, the wars it's fighting today, or video games. But it's naive to think only now, in the age of video games, that the military is creating a generation "wired to kill." Visit any boot camp, they've been training young men to kill for more than two centuries. That's sort of the point. And when it comes to indoctrinating an entire generation, the draft has been much more effective than any game.

Criminal Complaint Served and Seven Arrested at the Army Experience Center in Philadelphia Mall [OpEd News via GamePolitics]

GamePolitics tweeted the showdown, which began back in March with ideas of gathering in the mall as ordinary shoppers and then descending on the recruit station, which uses high end gaming PCs and consoles to appeal to potential recruits. Some among those opposed to current U.S. military actions finds that kind of appeal distasteful, misleading about actual military life and obligations, and trivializing of real war.

So, the demonstrators rethought their plan and, with the cooperation of the Philadelphia police, instead chose to march on the mall straight up, and were even let in. But here's the thing about demonstrations - the cops really don't like masks. Local ordinances usually outlaw them in these settings. So seven people wearing them refused police orders to disperse and were arrested, which was likely their intent.

The demonstration was bookended by anti-war speeches and songs, sprinkled with chanting and such throughout. Counterprotesters with a speaker system showed up to grief the antiwar marchers, apparently with some success. In the end, they got to make their point and act on their conscience, but the U.S. Army Experience is still up and running.

GamePolitics' tweet rundown gives an excellent narrative of all that happened. There's also video here.

Covering a Video Game Protest March via Twitter [GamePolitics. Pic also from GP.]

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals would really like it if Canada would stop killing adorable little baby seals, and this weekend they're making Azeroth their battleground. This Saturday on the Whisperwind server, activists are urged to travel to the Howling Fjord zone to take on four Canadian Horde seal killers. Why Horde?

Thrall refused to ban the slaughter of seals, despite multiple requests from the Alliance to do so, because Orgrimmar stands to make a large profit from the fur.

I'm guessing this special event doesn't fall within World of Warcraft story canon, and I'm not so sure that PETA picked the correct venue for their protest. I have personally skinned thousands if not tens of thousands of animals over the course of my first rogue's career as a leatherworker, from bunnies to turtles to kittens to small, fluffy, doe-eyed animals that don't even have real-world counterparts.

I do like their overly specific instructions on how to participate, however.

* You must be in the WhisperWind realm in order to fight. Visit WorldofWarcraft.com if you need information about how to switch into this realm.

* Once in the WhisperWind realm, go to Northrend, where you will find a zone called Howling Fjord, where the baby seals live on glaciers and boats float in the fjords. This will be the battleground to stop the slaughter. (Note: You must be at least a Level 70 player in order to enter Howling Fjord.)

* The battle will take place on Saturday, April 11, at 1 p.m. EST.

Anyone who has reached level 70 is going to know how to transfer servers, and most likely isn't going to be too keen to pay for the service in order to participate. Also, you don't need to be level 70...you just need to know you stuff...or be a Shadow Priest.

They did, at least manage to not pick a PVP server for their event, which saddens me to no end. So much for audience participation.

Here's the promotional video they've put together to commemorate the event, in which Canadian Horde seal hunters sound very much like some of my neighbors here in Georgia, because everybody knows that Southern accents equal ignorance.

Help Battle Seal Slaughterers in World of Warcraft [The PETA Files]

To show their support to the student group that organized a petition to voice their disgust over the shooting of killer guard dogs in Activision's latest Call of Duty game, Peta sent Activision a care package...the is, a package that tries to teach them how to care.

To help the folks at Activision Blizzard learn about the ethical treatment of animals (something we're sorta experts on) we're offering to let them take PETA's "Developing Empathy for Animals" seminar free of charge, and we're sending a package of dog-friendly Nintendogs games to their office.

With a little Nintendogs influence, perhaps the next Call of Duty game will have you unlock achievements for petting the dogs you encounter and going on walks or playing Frisbee with them.

I think that's a great idea! Why don't we do this instead - go through all of the history books and documentation concerning the military application of dogs during World War II, and just erase it all. We don't want impressionable gamers getting the wrong impression of Nazi Germany, now do we? We could splice footage of people being lined up and marched into cement buildings with clips of people enjoying a puppet show! A few new lines of voice over dialogue and presto! The world is a much happier place.

Bah. Not going to argue realism with PETA. That's like going to a rave and trying to convince the kids there not to do drugs. They're already far too gone to understand what you're saying.

Also, I'd just like to give a pat on the back to the commentor that called PETA's response within the first few comments of the original post. You've officially earned an entire day of being an insufferable, gloating bastard. Enjoy!

Breanna Lucci, the 19-year-old president of the private high school's Animal Rights Club started a petition against seeing her brother shooting at dogs in the game. So far more than 100 of Lucci's classmates have signed the petition, which she hopes to forward to Activision, who will do absolutely nothing about it.

"Killing dogs as a form of entertainment ... over and over again. That's one o the objects of the game," says Lucci, 19, a senior at NDA. "Parents need to know what they are buying their kids. Killing animals should not be a form of entertainment."

One of the objects in the game? I suppose she could mean objectives, and she'd still be wrong. Killing the dogs is but one aspect of a much larger objective: staying alive.

See, running down the street shooting dogs willy-nilly is bad. You don't pump them full of bullets for rolling over and wagging their tails. You give them hugs, and call them Mr. Snugglewuffkins, despite what their actual names might be. I think we can all get behind this idea.

Dogs trained to tear out your throat, on the other hand, you shoot. You shoot them quickly, and should they roll over on their backs and wag their little stumpy tails, you shoot them more, because that's a trap. They don't want belly rubs; they want to taste your innards.

Call me a monster or an extremist, but I think it's perfectly fine to teach our children to defend themselves from wild animals that want to eat them.

I think the best part of the original story is the lede:

Breanna Lucci knows her two Pomeranians — Fluffy and Winnie the Pooh — would not last two seconds in "Call of Duty: World at War," the immensely popular video game in which the animated gore piles high.

No, her two dogs wouldn't survive two seconds. They'd be ripped apart by the virtual dogs she is trying to defend, possibly because they're named "Fluffy" and "Winnie the Pooh".

Incidentally, I think the Germans would have been a lot less sinister had they deployed squads of attack Pomeranians. "Kleine Hunde angreifen!"

NDA students protest video game's depiction of cruelty to animals [Lowell Sun via Game Politics]

It is intended that the two protests will only be superficially similar, however. Whereas Jericho nuts sent bags of, er, nuts the Shenmue protest will take the form of literally some plastic toy capsules being posted to SEGA offices. Oh, and hopefully the Shenmue protest will be successful.

Ryo Hazuki of the Shenmue MySpace Campaign has this advice for would-be protesters, "Please include a letter asking for the continuation of the Shenmue series with your toy capsules, and poster printed from the Shenmue Poster Project. If you are only sending a letter, please include a poster with yours as well. Please be polite in you letters as you will be representing the entire Shenmue fan base :)"

Protests begin on November 27th through to December 29th.

Mass Mailing SEGA!!! Shenmue!!! [MySpace - thanks to Doomstink for the tip]

This clip is BANANAS. B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Peaceholic's flock of bleating sheep do not make a good case for Take Two or Rockstar to worry about intelligent debate on the issue of Bully's level of violence and impact on younger players. Warning: This video contains words like "TURR'RISTS" and "MURICA" and arguments that might just make your eyes roll clean out of their sockets. Michael McWhertor

This photo was snapped by reader David "outside the office of an esteemed developer." Sega? Nope, not Sonic, dishes David. The poster is protesting the next-gen Sonic the Hedgehog. The poster reads:

RYAN DRUMMOND MUST VOICE SONIC AGAIN Don't buy the game with Jason Griffith voicing Sonic

There's an online petition and everything. I didn't think people really cared about Sonic anymore. Boy, I was wrong! David writes, "I figure it's the work of two kids (and I mean kids) that are really, really into games and maybe have too much time on their hands." Understatement of the week. Brian Ashcraft

A couple of booth babes were nearly thrown out of E3 for protesting against the ESA's depressing "No Bikini" regulation.

Jumping up and down and giggling while waving placards with "Booth Babe Protest: I'm Rated E For Everyone" and "Bikinis > Bullets" written on them, the girls were part of a marketing ploy by intellivisiongear.com to advertise an E3 after party.

And then their troubles began: an E3 security guard who looks suspiciously like Herve Villechaize's mom showed up to place her hands authoritatively on her hips and claim that the girls needed a permit to protest in the United States. Um, no, lady... not yet, at least!

Luckily, the entire altercation was settled peacefully, and the girls went back to what they do best: panty and tickle fights.

Booth Babe Protesters [Games First]

Or too much RAM in their PC.
Apparently they protest virtual meetings in virtual spaces, as reported by the always excellent Wagner James Au from Second Life. I don't have the time to make a Strawberry Pop-Tart, let alone stage a virtual protest in Second Life.

The masses are none too happy about how buggy the PSP version of Madden 06 is. The purpose of MaddenRecall is to do just that. They want EA to issue a full recall of the game and fix it. Sadly, the founders of the site think that the developer is beholden to John Madden and the NFL, while I m pretty sure it s the other way around. Power to the players and all that jazz, head on over and make your voice be heard.

Madden Recall [Official Site]

The first thing you need to do if you're going to lead a protest is come up with a list of demands that are: A) somehow related to what you are protesting B) not outrageously moronic.

Apparently, someone forgot to tell the idiotically named Peaceholics about those rules. The group plan to protest Rockstar's upcoming video game Bully next week, giving them a list of demands that seem more fitting as a lame joke then something meant to spur serious discussion.

Peaceoholics List of Demands for Rock Star Games

# Not to release Bully under any circumstances
# Volunteer to sell its violent and sexually explicit games in adult video stores only.
# Let parents return Grand Theft Auto for a full refund until they do a national awareness campaign to educate parents of content and possible effects.
# Create a fund for victims of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and car-jackings, etc.
# Make a national apology for misleading and lying to children, parents, and legislators about their intentions and causing insurance premiums to sky rocket.
# Give a written response within five business days of receipt of these demands.

Group to Protest Rockstar's Bully [Game Insider]