The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    Luxury brands continue hiking prices in Korea

  • 3

    INTERVIEW'One Day Off' star Lee Na-young, director on creating subtle, feel-good series

  • 5

    BTS producer encourages anticipation for future messages from group

  • 7

    Napoli's Kim Min-jae named Serie A's best defender, makes Team of the Season

  • 9

    Pyongyang as lived experience: existentialism and identity in North Korea

  • 11

    US, China trade blame as hopes for military dialogue fade

  • 13

    Defense chiefs of S. Korea, US, Japan to meet in Singapore amid NK threats

  • 15

    House lawmakers urge US to rally allies over China's Micron ban

  • 17

    S. Korea, US agree on joint probe into NK 'space rocket' debris once salvaged: Seoul official

  • 19

    US, Japan, S. Korea aim to share NK missile warning data

  • 2

    India train crash kills over 280, injures 900 in one of nation's worst rail disasters

  • 4

    China flags consequences of Yoon's stronger coupling with US, Japan

  • 6

    From hip-hop idols to global superstars, BTS shatters records over decade

  • 8

    Wall Street leaps, nearly escapes its bear market after strong jobs report

  • 10

    'The Roundup: No Way Out' tops 3 mil. admissions

  • 12

    UN official calls out Security Council for inaction on N. Korea

  • 14

    Reasons to talk about North Korea

  • 16

    PHOTOSTrain collision in India

  • 18

    Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready to launch counteroffensive

  • 20

    EU's top diplomat discusses Ukraine's ammunition needs with S. Korea

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
Mon, June 5, 2023 | 09:05
Times Forum
Animal rights group claims Anipang is animal abuse
Posted : 2012-09-28 15:37
Updated :  
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link

James Pearson
By James Pearson and Raphael Rashid

Picture the scene: a frightened, lonely rabbit is unwittingly pushed into a large, black, rectangular opening, crammed ear-to-ear with other confused-looking animals; crushed together like terminally ill battery hens or calves, separated from their mothers. Scared and alone, the doe-eyed bunny finds momentary peace when reunited with its family yet, moments later, is mercilessly banished into an existential void, merely for attempting to seek solidarity with its nearby peers.

The last thing the petrified bunny sees is not

Raphael Rashid
his family, his loved ones or, indeed, a cartoon carrot. His last sight, etched onto his very conscience like a metaphysical kimchi stain, is the indiscriminate thumb of a sweaty commuter. Worse still, our bunny protagonist might survive this messy gauntlet only to be suddenly destroyed by an indiscriminate and perpendicular cartoon suicide bomb. With a face. Like rabbits caught in the headlights, or thumbprints, they have no choice but to accept their fate, with little time to reflect on life, death and morality.

Welcome to the cruel and bitterly violent world of “Anipang.” That’s according to CARE (Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth), a Korean animal rights organization who this week implied Anipang, South Korea’s most popular smartphone game, simulated the abuse of animals.

But despite CARE’s claims, Anipang is in fact a fairly harmless and annoyingly addictive knock-off of “Bejeweled:” a sort of reverse-Tetris where the object of the game is to group together similar shapes (in this case cute little animal faces) into combos that disappear before a time limit is reached. The actual mechanics of the game are almost less violent than a family game of Scrabble. Almost.

Spreading via popular Korean messaging service KakaoTalk like some sort of entertaining strain of the bird flu virus, Anipang invites come thick and fast; almost as frequent as the invites for KakaoStory, Kakao’s very own smartphone-only Facebook clone. To date, Anipang has clocked over 10 million downloads from Google’s app store, making it the most popular free smartphone app in Korea and earning it the unofficial title of the “People’s Game” ― North Korea, however, has had no official role in the game’s development.

But for CARE, Anipang’s popularity fails to excuse what it argues is an encouraging simulation of animal cruelty. Picket signs made by CARE, with the words “Why does it have to be Anipang?” and “When you tap the screen, I disappear,” was carefully planted in a flowerpot in front of the Sejong Center in Seoul. Pictures of the picket surfaced on the Korean Internet, vexing confused netizens, many of whom found the picket so absurd they thought it to be a hoax.

“WTF, there are already games where you kill people, they say nothing about those games and then start criticizing Anipang after it gets popular? If you just go to a PC-bang you can see people getting killed by knives or guns, you would start a firestorm if you call that abuse.”

Another user, frustrated both at the protest and at the government, commented: “‘When you tap the screen, I disappear’ what’s that supposed to mean? You should’ve spent your time looking into the morals, and politics of our president instead. If you choose your president well, then perhaps those animals you like so much will be able to live in a better environment.” Indeed, hopefully we will soon see a game where the faces of Miss Park and Misters Ahn and Moon are systematically removed in a similar fashion.

Another took the logic further: “Tetris, the game where you penetrate four rows with a single long ‘piece’ simulates sexual relations, go ahead and ban that.”

CARE responded, saying: “The intention of the signs was that, if possible, game companies should develop games that help people to love animals. But now people are spreading rumors that our organization called Anipang an animal abuse game.”

A frustrated intern at CARE, said to be responsible for the pickets, argued, “I have never called Anipang an animal abuse game and I have never described it that way to people during our protests. But now I am deeply hurt by the online criticism, which is based largely on false information.” The intern explained, “I only made the signs out of a desire to see a game where players peacefully take care of animals become ‘The People’s Game.”’

So what would the perfect pro-animal smartphone game look like? Perhaps it’s “Whac-a-hole,” the artificial insemination simulator for vets, or “Mario Karp,” a fish-themed multiplayer racing game. What about “Need for Steed: Hot Pursuit,” a side-scrolling FPS that follows the furious, high-octane process of adopting a horse?

When their efforts have been focused elsewhere, CARE has worked well to highlight the abuse of dogs in Korea. From the “Devil Equus” scandal that saw a driver drag a dog to its death on a Seoul motorway, to the military man beating a puppy in a sandbag, it’s perhaps a shame that a well-intentioned but perhaps misguided intern’s acts have been publicly supported by the organization.

Meanwhile, having just received unsolicited invites to download the Saenuri Party’s indispensable new Android app, we wait with great excitement for “Ahnipang,” whereby the software tycoon draws on his business experience to create an entertaining platform to eliminate his political competition. He could use it to KakaoStalk his followers.

James Pearson and Raphael Rashid are editors of koreaBANG (www.koreabang.com), a daily-updated blog that translates trending topics on the Korean internet into English. They can also be followed on twitter @koreaBANG or on facebook.com/koreaBANG.
 
wooribank
Top 10 Stories
1[LIFE'S OLLE TRAILS 1] How hiking Jeju's 437km of trails changed my life LIFE'S OLLE TRAILS 1How hiking Jeju's 437km of trails changed my life
2Election watchdog under fire for refusing to accept inspection Election watchdog under fire for refusing to accept inspection
3S. Korea, Japan agree to prevent recurrence of maritime disputeS. Korea, Japan agree to prevent recurrence of maritime dispute
4Concerns rise over Samsung SDS' growing intra-group transactions Concerns rise over Samsung SDS' growing intra-group transactions
5Korea denies discussion with EU on sending ammunition to Ukraine Korea denies discussion with EU on sending ammunition to Ukraine
6Korea sees record-high number of flu patients for late spring Korea sees record-high number of flu patients for late spring
7K-food transforms global culinary industry K-food transforms global culinary industry
8Korean bio firms to seek new opportunities at int'l convention in BostonKorean bio firms to seek new opportunities at int'l convention in Boston
9Shipbuilding stocks rally over hope for 'super cycle' Shipbuilding stocks rally over hope for 'super cycle'
10Public welcomed to rediscover newly demilitarized land in Yongsan Children's Garden Public welcomed to rediscover newly demilitarized land in Yongsan Children's Garden
Top 5 Entertainment News
1Baritone Kim Tae-han wins Queen Elisabeth Competition Baritone Kim Tae-han wins Queen Elisabeth Competition
2Busan Film Festival accepts director Huh Moon-yung's resignation Busan Film Festival accepts director Huh Moon-yung's resignation
3[INTERVIEW] 'One Day Off' star Lee Na-young, director on creating subtle, feel-good series INTERVIEW'One Day Off' star Lee Na-young, director on creating subtle, feel-good series
4'HyeMiLeeYeChaePa' producer Lee Tae-kyung hopeful of second season 'HyeMiLeeYeChaePa' producer Lee Tae-kyung hopeful of second season
5How artist Michael Rakowitz resurrects lost past of Iraq through food packaging How artist Michael Rakowitz resurrects lost past of Iraq through food packaging
DARKROOM
  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group