The
holidays are almost over, and after days of small talk with friends and
family, there's nothing I want more than to go bleary-eyed from playing
video games. With the announcement that The Sims 3 has just won PETA's
Proggy Award for Most Animal-Friendly Game of 2009, it's obvious which
digital world I'll be inhabiting well into the new year.
In the latest version of the biggest-selling gaming franchise ever,
Electronic Arts allows players to choose a vegetarian lifestyle.
According to game testers, vegetarian Sims, like their real-life
counterparts, live longer, age more slowly, and feast on cruelty-free delights—from tofu dogs to ratatouille. And, like all great art, The Sims 3 imitates life—if your Sim eats meat, it will get sick.
EA's compassionate update to its perennial favorite shows commitment
not only to animals but also to the game's players. In Sims 2, players
who wanted vegetarian Sims had to manually create mods to meet their cruelty-free standards. Now, digital life—featuring an official vegetarian lifestyle—is a lot easier.
Last year, the Proggy went to Fable 2—the
epic journey in which fruits and vegetables give you purity points and
meat gives you corruption points. My holiday gift to myself? Purity
points and digital tofu dogs galore. I'm about to hole up in room with
these totally guilt-free pleasures for a very long time—no more actual
socializing until 2010!
Posted by Logan Scherer