Why Natural Selection?
wacko76
Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 72854Members
Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 72854Members
Hello,
I have been made aware of this game by a gamer buddy, and after having a look at it I began to wonder.
Why is the game called "Natural Selection". As far as I can see, there is NO natural selection in it. I can see a lot of interspecies competition between the humans and the aliens but not any type of selection, be it natural or sexual.
In what way (in terms of gameplay or game mechanics) do the indiviudal marines or aliens compete with their peers for ressources and reproductive opportunities to warrant the name "Natural Selection"?
Thanks in advance, if anyone can shed some light on this dilemma.
I have been made aware of this game by a gamer buddy, and after having a look at it I began to wonder.
Why is the game called "Natural Selection". As far as I can see, there is NO natural selection in it. I can see a lot of interspecies competition between the humans and the aliens but not any type of selection, be it natural or sexual.
In what way (in terms of gameplay or game mechanics) do the indiviudal marines or aliens compete with their peers for ressources and reproductive opportunities to warrant the name "Natural Selection"?
Thanks in advance, if anyone can shed some light on this dilemma.
Comments
Also, take Charles Darwin's theory on Natural Selection...It is basically the fight for survival.
But also because "God did it: The game" was awkward to market.
Well the natural selection comes from the final outcome. As you know, evolution / natural selection is a slow progress.
So over time, the best will survive, or everybody will adapt to each other.
You can see some of the evolution between NS1 and NS2, especially with the aliens that evolved armor plates etc.
As for the humans, theyr evolution was only a technological one. The cause for this is perhaps the lower reproduction rate of humans, aliens will simply evolve faster.
Another reason is that you only see male solders. So only the human males are selected in combat vs aliens. Females not, this will further slow down the evolution. If the aliens have female soldiers is not know, but neither is the exact reproduction mechanism.
Another problem for the humans to evolve in this combat is that probably the soldier go to war and never have children. the new soldiers come from earth where there was no natural selection vs aliens, but just the usual natural selection that adapts you for life on earth.
With the arriving of female soldiers in NS2, the possibility exists that in NS3 or later, humans too will have evolved (armor plates?), but still, they reproduce less fast than aliens, so don't except big changes.
But also because "God did it: The game" was awkward to market.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hm, I guess "Inter-species competion: Reloaded" sounds equally stupid.
But natural selection makes normal people think that natural selection is one species fighting another species and makes biologists go *facepalm* and *sigh*
/facepalm
/sigh
But I think you are reading too much into it, personally.
Well the natural selection comes from the final outcome. As you know, evolution / natural selection is a slow progress.
So over time, the best will survive, or everybody will adapt to each other.
You can see some of the evolution between NS1 and NS2, especially with the aliens that evolved armor plates etc.
As for the humans, theyr evolution was only a technological one. The cause for this is perhaps the lower reproduction rate of humans, aliens will simply evolve faster.
Another reason is that you only see male solders. So only the human males are selected in combat vs aliens. Females not, this will further slow down the evolution. If the aliens have female soldiers is not know, but neither is the exact reproduction mechanism.
Another problem for the humans to evolve in this combat is that probably the soldier go to war and never have children. the new soldiers come from earth where there was no natural selection vs aliens, but just the usual natural selection that adapts you for life on earth.
With the arriving of female soldiers in NS2, the possibility exists that in NS3 or later, humans too will have evolved (armor plates?), but still, they reproduce less fast than aliens, so don't except big changes.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hm, you would have natural selection if there were several human and alien factions, competing with each other on who can wipe out the other species better.
Having males die in combat will not necessarily slow down evolution, since you don't really need a lot of males to keep procreation going, but if unchecked it could lead to only the cowardly and or physically inferior males to reproduce, thus creating less and less combat able soldiers. On the other hand, if human females had a preference for courageous and physically strong marines, we would get sexual selection, with the females mating with the preferred males BEFORE they go into battle. Also, some of the males (the most bad-ass ones) will survive and produce offspring.
So yeah, if NS3 will feature some sort of strategic level in the game over many generations, it can truly be called "Natural Selection".
Nanites
not true... it's reality!
But its still based on the simple fact of survival... and in some sort of way Natural Selection is giving the option to "evolve" the races. Either by mutating or Technological..
if this game would be like wow or eve... :)
Natural Selection is a <b>very specific</b> process where individuals within a species gain a reproductive advantage over other individuals of the same species.
Natural Selection is not the same thing as evolution. Evolution <i>can</i> involve Natural Selection but isn't a requirement for it and Natural Selection can also occur outside of evolution. For example, heritable traits such as eye colour or hair length may be selected over time because they provide a reproductive advantage without actually providing a competitive advantage for survival.
If you look at some alien reveals they talk about natural selection and how the aliens evolved armor plates. So there is natural selection / evolution at works.
Right, which is the point of the OP and the others. Natural selection =/= Evolution.
It doesn't matter though, I don't even understand why we are arguing about the title of the game.
If you look at some alien reveals they talk about natural selection and how the aliens evolved armor plates. So there is natural selection / evolution at works.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I thought I was alone on this one ;)
If you look at some alien reveals they talk about natural selection and how the aliens evolved armor plates. So there is natural selection / evolution at works.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I thought I was alone on this one ;)
If you look at some alien reveals they talk about natural selection and how the aliens evolved armor plates. So there is natural selection / evolution at works.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I thought I was alone on this one ;)
(and for the same reasons why is halflife called halflife?)
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Proposed new names: "Anti-Virus", "Operation: Meat Shield", "Aliens", "Lizards", "Alien-Lizards", "Space-Marines", "Capture-The-Node", "WTF".
This process occurs everywhere, so, it happens just as much in CS as it does in NS, which is to say: not to any notable degree.
How can you think its poorly titled...?
Natural Selection.
Species evolving to best survive their current predators/prey and enviroment.
However in this game we see in the case of the kharaa that they evolve at an increadably accelerated rate. Like the film evolution were the aliens change from growths to modern man in about a week?
In this case map and marines tactics/equipment.
Early game kharaa evolve silence/celerity/focus as skulk or to a lerk in small maps with lots of vents...
Because this is a good way to survive and kill marines.
Kharaa that get worse upgrades such as adrenaline (without only one hive) die...
Later game, if is still narrow and marines get HA aliens evolve into Onos.
These are better at surviving than skulks or lerks and fades in this circumstance.
And thus become the dominent and "best" evolution of aliens.
However in a wide open area with marines having JP then a fade would be better and thus fades would be the dominent and "best" evolution of aliens.
Also, natural selection teaches us that two identical animals placed in the same situations adapt differently sometimes and thus you could apply it to the fact that players use different combinations of upgrades. Some use silence and ambush, some use celerity and rush.
Some use focus for 1 hit kills and others use cloak for garenteed ambushes.
Anyway thats just my thoughts....
And no... humans would not evolve, not unless something drastic happened that put the kharaa in constant proximity of BREEDING, PRIMITIVE human populations that had lost touch with because in order for natural selection you need to have people breed with people of a certain strong charicteristics and with the technology the marines have in natural selection no human charicteristics are that important for survival... however if they were primitive humans then an obveous one would be strength and size and thus humans would evolve to be larger.... but this would still take hundereds of years....
If you look at some alien reveals they talk about natural selection and how the aliens evolved armor plates. So there is natural selection / evolution at works.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Evolution != Natural Selection
It doesn't matter though, I don't even understand why we are arguing about the title of the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Natural selection is evolution. Or can you explain me the difference? (ok, there can be technical evolution, but everything life based is natural selection, because the evolutions got selected somehow, if its armor plates or blue eyes is not important. evolution also does not mean "better", but more adapted).