W&W and Darwin's theory of evolution

[Wyvern]

The other day my son reminded me of a game called Creatures that we had played a number of years ago. Cute game, cute creatures but so fundamentally dumb that they had no justifiable reason to exist. They weren't even smart enough to feed themselves without you telling them to do so.

SO - with that in mind - how do you think the inhabitants of W&W measure up?

What is the evolutionary significance of a guild leader who can't remember that he rewarded you a particular quest a few nano-seconds ago? And how about Talrik who is known to have up to 6 (missing) hooks at a time? Or toads perpetually stuck in tunnels? Or Salads? (I do have to favor the salads on an evolutionary scale) Or nearsighted dragons? Or Torin?

Wyv

[gurthang]

"After seven days
He was quite tired, so god said:
"Let there be a day
Just for picnics, with wine and bread"
He gathered up some people he had made
Created blankets and laid back in the shade

The people sipped their wine
And what with God there, they asked him questions
Like: do you have to eat
Or get your hair cut in heaven?
And if your eye got poked out in this life
Would it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?

God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at him"

Possibly something got lost in the shuffle.

[Bungleau]

Okay....

In general, I think the denizens of the Gael Serran behave a lot like crash test dummies [img]smile.gif[/img]

They move on to their objective (you), and never shirk from their task, no matter the odds. I'd almost prefer a little Fallout-style play, where if they're too close to dead, they start to run away. Can you imagine having to chase Haleabus around Shurugeon Castle to finish him off? Granted, that could get very annoying very quickly, but I think the concept of morale (wow, with one spell this wizard decimated half my buddies! Think I'd better leave...) would be very worthwhile.

They are not very intelligent. I would imagine that a creature, say a salad, nearing its deathbed would breathe its noxious fumes as often as it could. I mean, do you say, "naw, I'm not going to cast another flamedrop. Heck, that'd be six in a row... I want to keep 'em guessing"? I think not. I suspect you find a spell or attack that works, and you keep doing it.

Imagine if you got into a safe spot, say on the walls of Shurugeon Castle. Might not some goblin decide to climb those walls as well? There would be a challenge...

So, from an evolutionary perspective... they're far behind us. We can do so much more, and so more effectively. Pity we have to go to these mere mortals for training and such...

[bsftcs]

Ah, but we must give them a chance.

Evolution takes generations. Generations take reproduction - sexual or otherwise. How does a hopeless shade reproduce?

[moiraine sedai]

I feel really sorry for Rumphy... Or Rethpian...

Must get awfully lonely for them down there, with no 'companions' (female or otherwise [img]graemlins/showoff.gif[/img] ) aside from rats... and cockroaches... I can just imagine what a conversation would be like:

Rethpian: Oh! Hello? Have you seen any rats?
Rat: Squeak!
Rethpian: Oh, I do love a good piece of rat! *smack* Ooh! Delicious!
Rat: SQUEAK!!!!! SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK! ~Rat procedes to run straight towards the nearest area effect spell that could kill it quickly; namely flamedrop~

Moiraine Sedai

[ZaRos]

Hehe... The mobs is this game isn't wery evolved.
The trolls last thought "hey look at that guy over there, he just took out ten spiders, 28 ratling and 7 salads. charge!!!"
But it is no wonder that they dosn't evolve. Only the weak who dosn't enter the battle field survives, so what do you think would happen if only handicapped (mentally/physically) trolls were to reproduce them selves?
Rhetorical question, no answer needed

[CerebroDragon]

Ahh, I remember the cutesy platformer game Creatures - I still even have it on my ol' C64. There was a sequel as well. I didn't really go in for them that much, but I did quite like the music!

Perhaps Lord Cet discovered some kind of evolutionary gene experimenting upon the cerebral cortexes of the creatures of the lands, which zombifies the general intelligence of all citizens, creating the behaviour contained within this thread. [img]smile.gif[/img] It does seem that most creatures within the game have a distinct lack of even game consciousness to death...they simply charge at you wave after wave! I guess in that way, the strongest do inded survive!

Hmmm. Something else that hit me with a wacky snicker the other day:
I'm almost certain that some evil force replaced the actual town hall mayors with robotic clones who only have two or three body language gestures.
Afterwhile, they can look so mechanical, its almost sinister.