Please no Cannibalism

[Rocky Springs]

That's correct. I turned it off. The files are still in the game, but long pig will not get dropped when a player dies.

 

Here's where my thinking is right now: players dropping human meat, while perhaps consistent with creatures, is a little bit too macabre, even for Don't Starve. A lot of our audience skews pretty young and I'd rather make a game that is appropriate for everyone, if a little dark at times. Since we expect players to die, human meat/cannibalism would actually be a pretty prominent feature (as compared to something similarly dark like, say, Wendy's inspect dialog for rope, which basically amounts to an easter egg). So I don't anticipate it being a part of the default game. However, we already made the art and implementation so my plan is basically to leave that stuff in the game files and let the mod community add it as a mod if they so choose (which would be a pretty simple mod: just add the prefab to the players inventory right before they drop everything on death). In addition to making the game generally more palatable for people who want to steer clear of cannibalism, it makes it clearer when you'd be joining a server that has it, since it'd be explicitly listed as a mod that is enabled on the server: easy to find if you want it, easy to avoid if you don't.

 

(standing applause)

[tetrified]

Wow, nice. Well, I'll just wait for the mod now, but I really waited for this feature. "Thank you", Maximum.

It was such a nice survival aspect, but now it's gone just because few people was overreacting.

 

Interesting, yes, nice, not so much.

Though, I was hoping for it too.

[Maximum124]

That's correct. I turned it off. The files are still in the game, but long pig will not get dropped when a player dies.

 

Here's where my thinking is right now: players dropping human meat, while perhaps consistent with creatures, is a little bit too macabre, even for Don't Starve. A lot of our audience skews pretty young and I'd rather make a game that is appropriate for everyone, if a little dark at times. Since we expect players to die, human meat/cannibalism would actually be a pretty prominent feature (as compared to something similarly dark like, say, Wendy's inspect dialog for rope, which basically amounts to an easter egg). So I don't anticipate it being a part of the default game. However, we already made the art and implementation so my plan is basically to leave that stuff in the game files and let the mod community add it as a mod if they so choose (which would be a pretty simple mod: just add the prefab to the players inventory right before they drop everything on death). In addition to making the game generally more palatable for people who want to steer clear of cannibalism, it makes it clearer when you'd be joining a server that has it, since it'd be explicitly listed as a mod that is enabled on the server: easy to find if you want it, easy to avoid if you don't.

 

I can't say I was expecting this, to be honest this thread was the last thing I planned on posting in. If someone hadn't made a post on different site about this I was fully prepared to just never log into the forums or touch Don't Starve again.

 

I guess people will be mad at me since I'm the only one whose made a thread on this.

 

I suppose thank you Seth, this was a somewhat nice surprise to wake up to. I'm glad now that I don't have to avoid DST like it's the plague.

[SethR]

Wow, nice. Well, I'll just wait for the mod now, but I really waited for this feature. "Thank you", Maximum.

It was such a nice survival aspect, but now it's gone just because few people was overreacting.

 

Let me be clear about the fact that while I did listen to feedback and concerns on both sides of the argument, I arrived my decision just by sitting down and thinking about what the audience for the game is: I know many kids play Don't Starve. Even though we take the community's valuable feedback seriously, in this instance, it was just the responsible thing to do, rather than me wanting to appease any particular group. I don't mean to single you out, but I just don't want there to be any notion that my decision is anyone's fault but mine.

[DwerBomb]

Let me be clear about the fact that while I did listen to feedback and concerns on both sides of the argument, I arrived my decision just by sitting down and thinking about what the audience for the game is: I know many kids play Don't Starve. Even though we take the community's valuable feedback seriously, in this instance, it was just the responsible thing to do, rather than me wanting to appease any particular group. I don't mean to single you out, but I just don't want there to be any notion that my decision is anyone's fault but mine.

Are there really lots of kids playing DS? I thought that, because of the sanity mechanic, this was a game for teens/adults.

Also, what about an official mod that adds the human meat as a drop?

[SethR]

Are there really lots of kids playing DS? I thought that, because of the sanity mechanic, this was a game for teens/adults.

Also, what about an official mod that adds the human meat as a drop?

 

Yeah, there absolutely are. They're just not on the forums

 

An official mod seems pretty likely, but I don't want to promise anything quite yet.

[DwerBomb]

Yeah, there absolutely are. They're just not on the forums

An official mod seems pretty likely, but I don't want to promise anything quite yet.

Seems fine to me.

[MizYin]

Yeah, there absolutely are. They're just not on the forums

 

An official mod seems pretty likely, but I don't want to promise anything quite yet.

I would be quite grateful for that, as someone who is quite unfamiliar with the modding scene for this game, but still wants the feature, it would certainly make things easier for me, haha! That way we wouldn't have to worry about the safety of the mod, etc.

[ChesterSpy]

"Sir may I have meat" *gives me said meat eats it barfs*

[Mercurix]

Tis a sad day for all of us who wanted a more mature experience. At least there is hope that the mod will come out well and working!

[The Letter W]

I can see it being more of a PVP thing anyway. If you're going to screw your friend over you might as well eat them. I don't think I was going to have much to do with it anyway but it's good to see a solution reached.

Though rest in pieces "Feety Stew" I guess. 

[ashaam]

It's fun to see how people that clearly have never met or been close to someone with a paranoia or phobia keep rudely commenting and explaining OP how he is "wrong", "overreacting" et cetera.

How about instead of telling others to do things they can't and shouldn't do, you guys educate yourselves first on the matter? of course you won't.

As for the specific topic from the OP, such a thing is a hard issue to "solve" or manage, even with the introduction of mods (which anyway are a long way to come). Consider how much you can relate to the thing being just fictional, otherwise you'll sadly have to surrender to the fact that you won't be able to play the multiplayer version of the game for some time. Bummer :\

 

EDIT: oh, i kept reading and saw that changes have been made. I guess we can all be happy now

[Spazmatic]

A not very surprising decision from Klei, wether or not @Maximum124 would have expressed their thoughts about the mechanic. During the development of Don't Starve, Klei almost always found a way to appeal both sides of a "camp", for example the pro and contra-cave people. A slider for sinkholes appeared! Same for permadeath later on in DST, and pvp. And so on and so forth. It's great that Klei actually listens to the  community feedback though (not just for the customers but also for their own marketing, let's be honest here ) and I hope they continue to do that...

 

As someone without paranoia about canibalism I don't feel the same way as them (Maximum), in fact I will most likely get the mod running for PvP reasons (and yeah, the sadistic side of me was actually looking forward to kill and pillage some poor unfortunate fellow survivor. They could join me for the meal aswell!). I do however respect their thoughts.

 

 

 

[kraken121]

I have to say I disagree with the reasoning behind this, considering the majority of people on these forums play TBOI ( heck its one of the largest threads in the Off Topic area, a game which focuses on the extreme parental abuse of a baby/kid and has said kid running around killing other babie/kids that are mutated with flies exploding out of the heads, etc etc (also the other reasons I stated earlier in this thread)

 

That being said, I'm happy the artwork for the long pig was at least kept in the anim files, We will be including cannibalism in our mod for DST when we rewrite it for DST,(while it will have many more functions, ex, making zombies etc) and if no one else has made a separate mod just for cannibalism in DST, and people want it, I might just make a separate mod just for that.  

[LadyD]

A REMINDER

The Forums are designed to be a welcoming and friendly place.

Every Opinion is valid no matter how different from yours it may be.

Please keep this thread happy- be respectful and kind to each other. ^_^

 

[Hugo M.]

Wouldn't it be funny if many people liked this and 95% of the servers ended up having this mod on anyway?

[Jonat]

As amusing as it would've been, I don't really see the point of going out of ones way to force cannibalism? Like. I don't care either way. Infact I was on the pro-cannibalism wagon. But if it's being removed, why spend time on readding it with a mod? It doesn't encourage greater PVP, infact it encourages one sided ganks like you're hunting a rabbit.

 

Isn't the benefit of PVP survival of the encounter and the spoils (including dropped food) of your perished, now ghostly opponent?

[LadyD]

As amusing as it would've been, I don't really see the point of going out of ones way to force cannibalism? Like. I don't care either way. Infact I was on the pro-cannibalism wagon. But if it's being removed, why spend time on readding it with a mod? It doesn't encourage greater PVP, infact it encourages one sided ganks like you're hunting a rabbit.

 

Isn't the benefit of PVP survival of the encounter and the spoils (including dropped food) of your perished, now ghostly opponent?

There is a pro to killing off another player- less strain on resources. One less mouth to feed and if you arrived in game after them... their resources become yours in their death.

Just thinking.

I am not so keen on cannibalism. I tend to play multiplayer games that involve working together rather than fighting but thats just me.

 

[DwerBomb]

if it's being removed, why spend time on readding it with a mod?

Maybe because most of us wish for this to be a thing (Seth himself, I think, likes the cannibalism thing). Also, since the files and arts are already done, it wouldn't take much efford and time to make a mod out of it.

And for the reason why I would like to see the Long Pig ingame, is because I would like Don't Starve to be a more mature experience. Not that cannibalism is a crucial factor, but it certantly adds a creepy and weird feeling.

[Quiet Jokester]

Wouldn't it be funny if many people liked this and 95% of the servers ended up having this mod on anyway?

 

That would be ironic >A<.

Pft, whatever makes people happy is what I'm cool with :y

I'll be honest and say I sort of wanted the character drops specific items, like beard hair for wilson or charcoal for willow instead of the long pig.

But looking at how the game is set up right now, the drops wouldn't really be worth it in the first place.

Maybe if some tweaking is done, pvp will be worth it.

Perhaps setting some goal for the players to fight over will help it?

For now playing together is the most fun thing imo :y.

[the truthseeker]

This is  quite a firestorm of a topic. So polarizing, I've decided to reply on a theme I don't even like, but respect enough to be expressed.

There's a right way and a wrong way to reply to something controversial. We've seen both done here. 
 
As reminded by @LadyD, be civil no matter what your view; express it with that mutual expectation that your view is as important as anybody else's and so is theirs. 
 
Like Politics, Religion, Birth Control etc, we can hold extreme views on things, insistent that the other side is founding a grave moral wrong and must be converted or stopped. Those views are actually acceptable in free non-physical expression in rights to open discussion public areas, but this is a game software forum, not a public square.
 
We're in a company's forum, and as so, certain decorums and terms of conduct are mutually agreed upon when signing up.
 
 

Disruption: Behavior that is deemed inflammatory, abusive or racist language (in any language), or discussions intended to disrupt players either individually or as a group (i.e. trolling) will not be permitted. This also includes all actions intended to harass, annoy or disrupt the enjoyment of other players. 
 
Harassment: Harassment is defined as any repeated action by one player or a group of players intended to routinely disrupt the experience of the game or services for others. Harassment can be defined many ways, and is not necessarily limited to the type of language used, but the intent. Repeatedly targeting a specific player with harassment can lead to more severe action taken.


Be constructive and don't make it personal: You're certainly allowed to disagree with one another, in fact, we encourage debates. However disagreements get out of hand when personal attacks, profanity, or threats are thrown around. Keep the dialogue positive instead of letting it deteriorate into personal insults. Keep criticisms constructive and polite. Do not call out other users or other users behavior in your post or thread titles.
 
Take the high road: Trolls are people who will post negative or rude comments to get a rise out of the community. Ignoring these trolls simply stops their efforts to get attention for themselves.  
 
Take responsibility for what you post: If you wrote something that may have offended another, take responsibility, listen to their reasoning and work together to find common ground.

 
 
Reply civilly and within the forum rules you agreed to when you signed up here.
No inflammation, no inciting, no trolling. Disagree but with evidence and using "in my opinion" and civil replies entered calmly (even when you are not, or go away until you are.) 
 
"You ruined everything!" is not one of them, and that's outright a personal attack, even if not its intent. 
 
So for instance, feel free to use your words why you feel it seems like this was ruined, but attacking somebody because you are upset over something is just as bad as somebody attacking you because they are upset (and no matter how you are raised, that's not an acceptable golden rule even if it was how you experienced things before.)  
 
With that out of the way, let's break this down in my overview of this. Other views may vary. 
 
 
 

Let me be clear about the fact that while I did listen to feedback and concerns on both sides of the argument, I arrived my decision just by sitting down and thinking about what the audience for the game is: I know many kids play Don't Starve. Even though we take the community's valuable feedback seriously, in this instance, it was just the responsible thing to do, rather than me wanting to appease any particular group. I don't mean to single you out, but I just don't want there to be any notion that my decision is anyone's fault but mine.

 
There's a reason I started with this quote after what I posted. This is the example what you should do.
 
I'm not even referring to the decision, but the act on how it was done. After reading about a LOT of strong opinions on a subject, @SethR took some time away and sat down and considered things, not reactionary posting. He weighed all sides and thought what the game reflected in theme and to its viewers of all ages and what the outcome would be for one of those more impressionable vulnerable groups.
 
 
 
 
Taking another quote out of post order, I want to thank @Spazmatic on the right way of addressing something, even if popular or not popular:
 
 

 

A not very surprising decision from Klei, wether or not @Maximum124 would have expressed their thoughts about the mechanic. During the development of Don't Starve, Klei almost always found a way to appeal both sides of a "camp", for example the pro and contra-cave people. A slider for sinkholes appeared! Same for permadeath later on in DST, and pvp. And so on and so forth. It's great that Klei actually listens to the  community feedback though (not just for the customers but also for their own marketing, let's be honest here   ) and I hope they continue to do that...
 
As someone without paranoia about canibalism I don't feel the same way as them (Maximum), in fact I will most likely get the mod running for PvP reasons (and yeah, the sadistic side of me was actually looking forward to kill and pillage some poor unfortunate fellow survivor. They could join me for the meal aswell!). I do however respect their thoughts.

 
This is how you do things properly. While everybody may not always agree with your solution, these are the methods you should use.
 

Now, about the decision:
 
 

Are there really lots of kids playing DS? I thought that, because of the sanity mechanic, this was a game for teens/adults.
Also, what about an official mod that adds the human meat as a drop?

 The Mod will be addressed a bit later. Regarding kids:

There are tons of them playing. This game has literally been played with both a lot of families playing together and kids permitted by parents after reviewed as acceptable in its state. This isn't a new game, so that genie is already out of the bottle should one disagree that children younger than teens are playing DS (this game has an ERSB rating of T, not M BTW.) Until now, the themes of death and suffering (while those can be strong themselves) was kept in a tone allowable to be played by children, compared to other gore/torture games with a...gothic type of theme.
 
 
 
 
 

As amusing as it would've been, I don't really see the point of going out of ones way to force cannibalism? Like. I don't care either way. Infact I was on the pro-cannibalism wagon. But if it's being removed, why spend time on readding it with a mod? It doesn't encourage greater PVP, infact it encourages one sided ganks like you're hunting a rabbit.
 
Isn't the benefit of PVP survival of the encounter and the spoils (including dropped food) of your perished, now ghostly opponent?

 

 
 The real problem comes with this is an add on. The way it will work is it should be launchable as its own type of "client" and is not a "toggable" thing. Nor if kids logged onto a PvP game, could they (unless the game host) control what is or isn't allowed on their end. And having a "toggle" feature could easily be circumvented by said kids (who often help the clueless parents with those adult passwords on their devices.)  
 
 
But outright banning it means those who want it are denied the "adult mature" experiences they can agree upon. 
 
if they don't have the (most likely, as SethR noted before) mod  (or activated mod) however, this all suddenly becomes moot for them and for any others in the adult age range who doesn't want this. 
 
While there are still problems with stopping viewing this if not outright removed if downloaded before when done playing this way if in mixed ages on one computer, having it be  mod-enabled  at least prevents kids seeing humans being treated as some conquest you eat by default or a simple click in the settings. I can empathize not ever wanting kids to be desensitized this way. And while those kids could find and download said mods, at least it's not being directly condoned to kids without their say so seeing this. Technically you don't even need to really "make" anything either, just trigger it with the right LUA code, then others download and toggle the mod if they want this feature. 
 
 (And this is where the parents need to step up and pay attention to what their kids are doing with their interests specifically the same way a chat room can be sending the wrong things to them anyway. That should answer 'they can download it themselves anyway" answer.) 
 
 
 

Tis a sad day for all of us who wanted a more mature experience. At least there is hope that the mod will come out well and working!

 
it's a sad day any time we have to censor ideas. but sometimes we have to have a compromise. 
 
 

It's fun to see how people that clearly have never met or been close to someone with a paranoia or phobia keep rudely commenting and explaining OP how he is "wrong", "overreacting" et cetera.
How about instead of telling others to do things they can't and shouldn't do, you guys educate yourselves first on the matter? of course you won't.
As for the specific topic from the OP, such a thing is a hard issue to "solve" or manage, even with the introduction of mods (which anyway are a long way to come). Consider how much you can relate to the thing being just fictional, otherwise you'll sadly have to surrender to the fact that you won't be able to play the multiplayer version of the game for some time. Bummer :\
 
EDIT: oh, i kept reading and saw that changes have been made. I guess we can all be happy now

 
I have been trained in helping treat mental illness. I can say that when you expect everybody else to adapt around  your illness (also the same for addiction,) that is unhealthy and bluntly is considered dysfunctional when you co-dependently enable others into continue doing their developmentally limiting behavior and having them change for you.  In no way is this directed at the OP or anybody specifically. Including speaking on those who also say "just get over it,"  taking a stand without knowing what the whole picture is can be worse than doing nothing at all, basing an opinion on bias over the best options laid out. Speaking out on an outcome when you don't know what you are speaking about can make this happen as well. 

 
Aversions or even phobias should be addressed, or even treated when possible, but cannot sometimes. That has no impact here.

 

 

But one person's or even side's outcome (no matter why) can't hold everybody else's feedback "disallowed" either for some event or game. This is when recognizing both view's positive merits and coming up with a solution for both-even if not ideal for either side-can be done. That's called "compromise."

 

 

So no one side is simply "right" or "wrong" nor is it actually one person's fault or justification on what was decided for the game. Others may agree or disagree, strongly sometimes. And I am glad if the decision keep players in game and on the forum/other media sites of Klei. 

 

What's important here is a working decision that we can all live with for the future, and expressing our opinions on it constructively. 

 

 

So now you may feel free to go back to your "Long Pig Feety Stew" discussions while I shudder and unmonitor the thread again. 

 

(Normally, I'd conclude with something clever like "If you don't like this, eat me," but that would most definitely backfire here! Oh well....) 

 

 

 

 

[MrNaxeros]

Yeah, there absolutely are. They're just not on the forums

 

An official mod seems pretty likely, but I don't want to promise anything quite yet.

 

 

God help me. I hate kids in every possible game. They bring hatred, stupidity, insults and pornography and they think they are awesome because of that.

I will avoid public servers and play only with friends as kid might kill us all or ruin whole fun by arguing about every stupid thing. And on PVP server they will attack you if you refuse to give them something.

I have experienced such behaviour and I'm sure it won't change in Don't Starve.

[Mercurix]

 

it's a sad day any time we have to censor ideas. but sometimes we have to have a compromise. 

 

I understand that and to be honest? It was a very mature decision that they made since lots of people play this game that span from different ages ( And different upbringings and etc. ). It would be almost if not equal as bad as if they decided that suicide was going to be included. In a way I was let down by the decision of no cannibalism but moved along with it since I did not care much anyway. Sorry if it came off as a rude response.

[the truthseeker]

 

God help me. I hate kids in every possible game. They bring hatred, stupidity, insults and pornography and they think they are awesome because of that.

I will avoid public servers and play only with friends as kid might kill us all or ruin whole fun by arguing about every stupid thing. And on PVP server they will attack you if you refuse to give them something.

I have experienced such behaviour and I'm sure it won't change in Don't Starve.

 

 

Preaching intolerance about them preaching intolerance isn't that helpful; please do think about  that and try to see their positive contributions as well, at least here. (Gave up on CoD for example.) 

 

 

That written, i can fully understand why you might want to avoid the many people who lack maturity and do such things in public GAMING places. There's a time and place for the things you listed they do (legality aside) and game forums should be about games (and following the EULA or get kicked/banned, kids.) 

 

 

 

I understand that and to be honest? It was a very mature decision that they made since lots of people play this game that span from different ages ( And different upbringings and etc. ). It would be almost if not equal as bad as if they decided that suicide was going to be included. In a way I was let down by the decision of no cannibalism but moved along with it since I did not care much anyway. Sorry if it came off as a rude response.

 

Absolutely didn't come across rude. but it was a song sentiment shared and I wanted to address it.

 

Like the other sentiment before yours also felt by many. 

 

[DeadpanQuinkan]

An official mod would be fine for the kids in-mind, considering the Screacher exists and was heavily advertised in-game.