Insider Gaming has received a statement from PETA’s VP of Programmes stating that the organization has heard outcry for a “vegan guide” to be implemented into Palworld.
After the unprecedented success of Palworld, which features copious amounts of ways the player can battle and abuse the often adorable Pals, Insider Gaming’s Grant Taylor took it upon themselves to see if the game had come onto PETA’s radar. The response from the VP of Programmes Elisa Allen reads:
“PETA has already heard from many Palworld fans who have no interest in eating ‘Pals’ and want a vegan guide created for the game. It’s ‘Veganuary’ after all, and gamers want to help animals by eating vegan in their game worlds and outside.”
Despite players having the option of shooting, enslaving, and working Pals to death, the eating of Pals seems to be the main sticking point for PETA at this time. PETA’s request for a “vegan guide” presumably means a vegan mode in which players are given vegan alternatives to eating animals, which is still a somewhat rare option in games.
Palworld is certainly not the first game PETA has targeted in regards to demanding changes. Pokemon in particular has been a longstanding recipient of the organization’s ire for popularizing the monster-catching and battling genre. Palworld remains an early access title, and while the first roadmap makes no mention of any vegan-related updates, it is always possible that Pocketpair will offer it in the future.
While we are always in favor of more accessibility options and ways to tailor games to an individual’s tastes (no pun intended), the vegan members of Game Sandwich find this whole situation somewhat silly. Like the millions of other players out there, we have been dumping too many hours into the game and personally see no contradiction between our digital avatars eating fictional Pals and our own morals in the real world.