Videogame for pigs and people

This is Pig Chase, a concept for an interspecies video game for pigs to play with humans. Researchers at Wageningen University and the Utrecht School of the Arts designed the game to make farm life more stimulating for swine. "Playing With Pigs project page"

"Pigs Playing Video Games = Ethical Farming?" (Mother Jones)

• [the lurch]

  While I think this is likely possible in concept, this video shows only a simulation of a app.  At least, it doesn’t look real to me…for one thing, the radiosity from the screen onto the pigs is all wrong.

• [Nathan Hornby]

  This is really awesome.  The idea alone warms my heart a little; genuinely, more of this please human race.

  • [millie fink]

    Indeed. How about as the next step we stop murdering them?

    • [sam1148]

      Murder? Murder you say….I didn’t know there were any witnesses, that was sloppy of me, I don’t like to be Sloppy. 

• [Eric]

  “Next, we are planning to actually realize this system.” So it’s not built yet…
  I wonder if the pigs really enjoy the “colorful display of fireworks” when a goal is achieved.  Perhaps the human should get the fireworks, and the pig should get an edible treat.

  • [ocatagon]

    The human and the pig should get edible treats!

    • [Dog Robinson]

      The pig is the edible treat

• [technogeekagain]

  On the plus side: Environment enrichment is certainly a Good Thing for animals.

  On the minus side: Environment enrichment can be done much less expensively…

• [John]

  Gives new meaning to playing with our food…

• [Robbo]

  And then we eat ‘em.  Omnomnom.

• [xzzy]

  I was hoping it’d cut to a scene of pigs actually using an iPad where they play a game of stealing eggs from birds.

• [destroy_all_humans]

  get them addicted to video games so they never want to go outside.

• [Romeo Vitelli]

  Presumably, pigs taste better if they’re kept entertained while they’re waiting to be butchered.

  • [Joshua Bardwell]

    Right. Because people who raise animals for food don’t care at all about the animals’ welfare, except as it relates to the quality of the ultimate food product.

    Did you catch the sarcasm?

    • [travtastic]

      Tough love, amirite!?!?

    • [Jay Stephens]

      That’s basically the central point here.
      I’m a strict vegetarian, but I don’t think meat eaters are monsters, and I don’t think most pople are gonna stop eating meat anytime soon. So… surely anything that a) makes the animals lives more fun before they’re slaughtered, and b) increases interaction between our 2 species has to be win/win?

      • [travtastic]

        ‘b)’ is a valid point.

        But I  imagine that the primary effect of ‘a)’ would be to prolong the whole situation. “Well, I mean they’re having fun now, right? Not so bad?”.

        It would end up the same as ‘humane’ meat and ‘cage-free’ eggs. People (largely) know what’s going on, but they need an excuse to keep the system and their habits rolling along.

        • [Tess]

          Or some of us really just have no problem eating ethically raised animals.  It’s not a habit, it’s a conscious choice.

        • [travtastic]

          Or some of us really just have no problem eating ethically raised animals.

          You’re just proving my point here.

• [Robert Cruickshank]

  When it’s ported to Nintendo, those little piggies can go Wii Wii Wii, all the way home.

• [Daemonworks]

  mmm…. entertained bacon…

• [eyemyth]

  The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

• [Andrew Turnbull]

  This is really a delightful little bit of creativity.  The project page talks about how pigs quickly become bored and need stimulation.  They’re often given balls but grow tired of them.