PETA launched a PR stunt concurrent to the release of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. The organization handed out leaflets at midnight launch events, telling gamers to rethink their actions against the digital creatures.

“We always root for the underdogs (and undermice and underpigeons, etc.) at PETA,” said the company in a blog post. “And when playing StarCraft, I had noticed how the Zerg were treated more like animals than like other people. I couldn’t help but wonder if there would be an analog to PETA in the world of StarCraft. Tonight, my dream will come true.”

“So remember, while Zerglings are not real, there are many equally ‘strange’ and exotic animals we share this planet with who deserve our empathy. Just because crocodiles and snakes look alien to us, that doesn’t make it OK to skin them alive for a handbag, shoes, or a belt,” it added. “And if we had to share our world with the Zerg in reality, I’d like to think that we’d make an effort to understand and respect them rather than sending out the battlecruisers — because the alternative to having empathy for other beings is about as grim as it gets, whether you’re a Terran, a Zerg, or a Protoss. OK, whoa, that got kind of serious there. What I am saying is look at the cute Zergling! How could anyone ever want to hurt a Zergling.”

Not to be outdone, a game website Hot Hardware did an “interview” with a Terran marine, dismissing the complaint. “The problem with explaining Zerglings to these tsetse flies is that they’ve got no frame of reference,” said Staff Sergeant Frank Sims. “They think a Zergling is like a Terran animal — that if you raise ’em up right, you can train out the aggressive instincts, or keep their mandibles trimmed, or something like that. But Zergs don’t work that way.”

“A Zergling is capable of killing its prey 32 distinct ways,” he added. “It’s teeth are strong enough to carve through titanium and its bite can dent starship armor. Zergling drool can bore through a country ham in 3.2 seconds, and it can survive on a tenth the oxygen a human needs. Worst of all, millennia of evolution have eliminated anything like an emotionally stable Zergling — these critters spawn pissed off, and things don’t improve from there.”

Source: HuffingtonPost.co.uk