Killing good people is bad karma, but this isn't about that - this is about eating, why would eating be bad karma when there's no other food around in the wasteland and you need to survive?

Eating long pig lol is definetly bad karma. There is a lot of food in the wastes to be had. Its not like we will get trapped someplace with no other choice.

To expand on this, there is a variety of wild life to eat. There is still plant life you can eat. There are stores where food can be bought. There are many places to scavenge for food or scavange for things to sell to buy food.

If you eat human meat your making a deliberate choice to do so, when there are many other options. Thats some bad vibes your putting out into the universe when you decide to do that. It aint right man!!

How is it not? Karma is cosmic. And the cosmos don't care about morally grey negotiation.

if you are starving and they are dead then it's dinner time

Under extremely dire circumstances, it's either eat and survive, or join the dead. When there's still food about (even if it's 200 year old meatloaf) it becomes something else entirely.

But bad karma? Assuming that karma hasn't been scrapped, I would say it probably should be, however, I seriously hope karma has been completely scrapped in favor of a reputation system similar to New Vegas.

Just...you know...don't let anyone else see you do that because no one ever goes "all good, eat up" when they see a person eat another person.
Sure you could kill them and eat them too, but by then we've veered back to bad karma.

Eating the dead is ~barely~ acceptable as a last resort to avoid starvation. Actually killing people to eat them is not acceptable...even if you'd starve otherwise...it's murder. Cannibalism as a lifestyle choice is evil and anyone doing it should be killed forthwith.

Its not like this game is a survival simulator, food will be very easy to come by if its anything like new vegas or f3. Also the last games that included it made you have to take a perk to even do it. Since you have to go out of your way to do it, i'd say its morally wrong

I would expect people to react negatively to it, but I don't think it should give you negative karma.

In addition, did anybody see the movie "Ravenous"? I think it would be cool if it had superior health regenerative effects but then would have withdrawal effects like "the shakes" which would be reflected in your accuracy and endurance..

I would rather die like a human then live like an animal!

^ not last long in wasteland world if you don't make compromises.

That's easy to say when you've already got a bellyful.

What about cannibalism is unethical or wrong?

Sure, if you're a soccer team trapped in The andes after a plane crash and people are dead/dying.
But we know codsworth will whip us up something, so. No.
Cannibalism itself can cause physiological problems, aside from any ethics associated. Laughing sickness can kill you.

Also, Karma as a system would be great only as a luck modifier. It is a completely separate thing from reputation, if you ask me.

Long pig? Is this a fallout term?

Cannibals get Book of Eli treatment in my book unless it's a The Road setting.

Slang term for human flesh used as food. Human meat apparently tastes like pork thus the name.

I'm going to call Chinese restaurant and see if they sell long pig and gravy rolls.

Huh, so that's what it means. Before I looked it up I thought it was something...different.

Only if you don't share. But seriously, I agree with others - if it's Karma-based, it should cause bad Karma, but if reputation-based, it should depend on which faction sees you. If whoever sees you is also cannibalistic or evil, your rep with that faction should improve, but go down if it's the opposite. Something like that...

Not only would a non-cannibal faction not approve, you'd more than likely get run off. Cannibalism is still a major taboo. It's not something sane people do, especially around other people. It shows you as a potential threat and unstable maniac.

Pre-war taboos may apply, but we're in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where everyone is trying to survive.

...Are you trying to say that a semi-civilized settlement or faction of people trying to keep their sanity would approve of you hunkering down to eat the face of a raider right in front of them...? And NOT go "wtf, you sicko"?

It's been around for hundreds of years. Here's a humorous example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NugQUneMAE

This was the only video of the clip I was looking for.