Please remove Shark Fin Soup

[Alise]

This is so overly OUTRAGE!!

How could you create a game with a setting that someone seek to destroy this world!!

[Dillia]

Can... can this just stop?

OP got offended by a video game. It happens to people every day. It does not deserve a thread of this size.
Seriously. Stop.
There are people here who have opinions on real life issues, there are people here who have opinions on fantasy issues, and there are people here who are just trolling the other two. I have lost the ability to tell them apart.

Just stop. For the love of the Mother Crystal.

[Nominous]

Seriously? Dude, I am never surprised by the ridiculous attention to detail people have on the official forums.

Literally come to look at GD and I always see... "Make our character blink more often", "Give our characters fingernails", " Please render belts", "Can you please give us a nose hair slider?". I never thought a community could complain about pretty much any facet of a game.

[Tsuga]

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.

[myahele]

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.

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

[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?

[Silkerin]

Chinchilla pelts bother me, because chinchillas are real animals

inb4 "please remove chinchillas pelt from the game" thread?

also, is funny that.. after all this... i want to watch Jaws again...

[Silkerin]

<3

look at my picture *-* finally it updated *at least for me*... i am so cute *-*

[Kosmos992k]

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?

It's a game, if everything in the game that has a potentially negative analogue in the real world were removed, we would have a very different game.

Megalodon is not tied to a destructive real world industry, it died out around 2 million years ago(Edit: thanks to tired eyes, I failed to spot the decimal point, it's 2 (two) million, not 20 million as I originally commented), and as such is not tied to anything in the world except the study of fossils and long extinct creatures of pre-history.

Why do you assume anything regarding how I feel about Shark Fin Soup? I have no problem with an in-game items because I can separate pretend from real. As a society we do not filter our entertainment based on what the most vulnerable individuals perceive as real or pretend. If we were to do so, there's not a lot in the worlds of literature, TV, Movie or video game that would survive intact.

That is the heart of the issue here, and also why I believe that the OP is not sincere in his post. You have to deliberately read an agenda into the color text of the Shark Fin Soup that is in the game in order to take offense. Not to mention the fact that in some parts of the world Shark Fin Soup is a delicacy, and not seen in a negative light.

Personally I'll have no part of anything related to Shark Fin Soup in reality. But that has nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with a craft item in a video game.

I'd just like to add that I will not reply in this topic any more. I'm annoyed with myself for feeding this insanity, I should have withdrawn earlier.

[Tsuga]

Megalodon is not tied to a destructive real world industry, it died out around 20 million years ago, and as such is not tied to anything in the world except the study of fossils and long extinct creatures of pre-history.

That's true, so why not call it Megalodon soup? It cuts the tie to the real world dish, and instead serves as a parody of it.

Why do you assume anything regarding how I feel about Shark Fin Soup? I have no problem with an in-game items because I can separate pretend from real. As a society we do not filter our entertainment based on what the most vulnerable individuals perceive as real or pretend. If we were to do so, there's not a lot in the worlds of literature, TV, Movie or video game that would survive intact.

I did not mean to imply that you're okay with the real world dish, I was referring specifically to it as an item in the game, which based on your response it seemed like you at the very least did not have a problem with. Sorry for the confusion!

That is the heart of the issue here, and also why I believe that the OP is not sincere in his post. You have to deliberately read an agenda into the color text of the Shark Fin Soup that is in the game in order to take offense. Not to mention the fact that in some parts of the world Shark Fin Soup is a delicacy, and not seen in a negative light.

I am basing my response on the name of the item.

Tiger penis is also a delicacy in China, that does not make it okay to hunt tigers and kill them for their pelts and penis'.

Personally I'll have no part of anything related to Shark Fin Soup in reality. But that has nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with a craft item in a video game.

I can completely understand your point of view! I give fantasy and fiction a pass on things that I don't agree with as well. I play FFXIV regularly, I love this game, I just don't like that it frames shark fin soup as a good thing. It won't stop me from playing FFXIV, but I also don't think it's a lot to ask that it be changed.