Please remove Shark Fin Soup

[Gallus]

http://data1.whicdn.com/images/30188073/original.gif

[Amenian]

Dude. Just stop.

This. As trolling attempts go, the humor has gone out of this long ago.

[Zohnax]

A) The wording is there as a representation that they do not support what others do to the sharks. Just because a Megalodon only has one use in food that we can see, doesn't mean there won't be future implementations or the chefs around Eorzea don't use the rest of the shark. You're not a developer of this fantasy world.

B) Fantasy world.

C) In terms of comparisons to reality, Megalodons have been extinct for at least 11,000 years.

[Red_Wolf]

In terms of comparisons to reality, Megalodons have been extinct for at least 11,000 years.

Oh the irony... including an extinct species' fin for Shark Fin Soup when most of the sharks tortured and killed for their fins are on the endangered species list.

[Magis]

Oh the irony... including an extinct species' fin for Shark Fin Soup when most of the sharks tortured and killed for their fins are on the endangered species list.

Wat. He included the Megalodon because that is what the Shark Fin Soup in FFXIV comes form.

What are you even posting about at this point? As Tiggy said: Dude. Just stop.

[Kosmos992k]

hey i have an idea, go hug a tree.

...shouldn't that be "go hug a shark'?

Gotta voice my support for the OP.

Including a dish that is tied to an extremely destructive real world industry, and promoting it as a positive thing is problematic. I would hope that this game would never promote actions such as poaching, or whaling, so why is shark fin soup here? If it were something that Baelsar ate to show what a dick he is then I'd be fine with it, but it's not.

All it would take is a name/ingredient change, really. Pugil Fin Soup works just fine.

Why have you 'gotta' support the OP's efforts at trolling?
1. As for "promoting it as a positive thing", I see no evidence that SE promotes it(shark fin soup or harvesting shark fins) as a positive thing, you might as well say that any encyclopedia or other informational reference for Shark fin soup (or harvesting shark fins) in the real world promotes it as a positive thing. IMHO you're making a ridiculous statement that buys into the fantasy land of the OP's original troll.
2. Poaching is already in the game, the archer class quests involve chasing down and attempting to kill poachers, heck the South Shroud is full of poachers...
3. I'll not get drug into a discussion of whaling. However you're deliberately conflating something that Japan has historically (for 100's and 100's of years) been culturally involved in with the subject of shark fin soup - a Chinese delicacy.
4.Why does Pugil Fin Soup work better? Megalodon is a long extinct creature that never existed during written human history (good lord the bloody thing pre-dates human history by something like 2 million years - [Edit: thanks to tired eyes, I failed to spot the decimal point, it's 2 (two) million, not 20 million as I originally commented]), it might as well be fictional. Pugil is just as real - to the point of being a made up name for a creature no one has ever seen live... Except in the world of eorzea, Pugil are not fictional and are very much alive (as are Megalodon apparently). so how does switching it work within the context of Eorzea? How does that switch do anything in the real world context of Megalodon being little more than a name we give to a long extinct creature?
5. the Color text for items is completely re-written by the localization team, so without a direct translation of the original japanese text for comparison, we don't know whether this is something inserted during localization or part of the original text anyway...

Good grief....

[Tsuga]

There is poaching involved: the titan quests involves us poaching tortois eggs in gridania so some rich guy can eat it. There's chinchillas we kill for fur too. The list goes on. Then there the whole leather working job to consider to. The list goes on.

I would be more concerned with how blatant casual sexual harassment is in this game

Well then I also disagree with those problematic instances!

You see, these things aren't mutually exclusive. I think that if there is casual sexism present that it should also be changed, or at the very least framed as wrong. But we aren't talking about that, this thread is about the shark fin soup item.

These things are easy to fix. Change some flavor text and link to a separate item ID in a spreadsheet, and it's fixed!

Edit: also just wanted to say that I'm not against the idea of killing monsters, etc. for pelts in the game. This is a fantasy setting, people in fantasy settings use leather. I am against shark fin soup because it is a real world dish that contributes to the extinction of endangered animals. Couerl pelts are fine, couerls don't exist, and they are not endangered in the real world. Chinchilla pelts bother me, because chinchillas are real animals (I should know, I own two of the little boogers myself!) who are bred for their fur. I just don't think that the game should be glorifying killing animals that are literally going extinct in the real world because we are killing them for such luxuries as a meal or a coat. It's a real issue, and I don't think it should be made light of in popular culture.

As much as I value fiction and creative freedom, I do acknowledge that popular media helps to shape narrative. You and I may not come away from FFXIV thinking that shark fin soup is an okay and perfectly normal thing, but some people with less information might, and that's the problem.

shnip

Hi! I think my above post illustrates my issues with the item pretty clearly.

As to your point about the poachers in Eorzea, well they're the bad guys, right? That's good!

Shark Fin Soup as a positive: it is a meal that players can make and consume in the game, that's why it's framed as positive. It's framed as normal. Something the good guys consume regularly.

Pugil Fin Soup: Pugils are FF monsters, they aren't real and are not tied to a destructive real world industry.


My question to you is this: Why do you feel like Shark Fin Soup is fine for us to produce and consume in the game?

[Amiantos]

...shouldn't that be "go hug a shark'?

Stolen from imgur.

[MageBlack]

This. As trolling attempts go, the humor has gone out of this long ago.

Don't like the trolls, don't feed the trolls.

i thought the OP was rather cute and was curious how that turned into a 17 page thread. The internet amazes me sometimes....

[Raist]

The OP did not miss it, and directly mentions it in the first post. He believes that this text is an attempt to convince players of the game that this is the typical practice of real-life finners. He thinks that the text is attempting to justify real-life shark finning by tricking players into thinking that it's humane, in order to promote and justify real-life shark finning.

Unfortunately though, he/she is completely ignoring the statement and how it ties into the crafting/merchant/reward system of this game:

This is an outright lie. A virtual lie because the only other recipe that includes Megalodon is a trophy recipe from GSM. The truth is that shark meat is not used as the broth in Shark Fin Soup or any other popular soup. It is not savory. Shark Fin Soup actually uses a pork or chicken broth. Ironically, the chicken broth is the only part of the soup that has any nutritional value or taste.

Completely glossing over the point that the remaining flesh is indeed used for other purposes...and goes on to tie it all into the real world practice. When your entire premise is based on incongruent facts/details, your cause falls apart.

Regardless, the OP and so much of this thread is in violation of forum guidelines... hopefully the moderators will step in and deal with it soon enough.