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[Remuthra]

That's what the word feral means.

Actually, the word feral implies a domestic animal that has become semi-wild. Fully wild creatures are not feral.

[forsaken1111]

Just call them packbrowts.

[10ebbor10]

Yeah, I don't think we should alter the name when we just tame it. We could alter the new when our domestication results in a genetically different subspecies. (Ie, differences between dingoes and dogs, as wel as mustangs and other horses. The one is a subspecies of the other)

How different are mustangs from horses?

Mustangs are horses. They're a subspecies of horses. There's a genetic difference between a mustang and any other horse race/breed. Differences are small, but they exist.
Mostly this is becoming a problem because press often wrongly uses the word Mustang for any wild horse, which is not correct.

LInk

Anyways, you've still missed the central point, which is that

puns are horrible

FTFY

[GreatWyrmGold]

That's what the word feral means.

Actually, the word feral implies a domestic animal that has become semi-wild. Fully wild creatures are not feral.

IIRC, feral can also apply to creatures whose ancestors were all tame. Of course, if I'm remembering wrong that means that there's a different word for wild horses*, which helps my case.

*One kind of wild horse, at least. It's not like the browts are the only sub/species of their kind, anyway.

Yeah, I don't think we should alter the name when we just tame it. We could alter the new when our domestication results in a genetically different subspecies. (Ie, differences between dingoes and dogs, as wel as mustangs and other horses. The one is a subspecies of the other)

How different are mustangs from horses?

Mustangs are horses. They're a subspecies of horses. There's a genetic difference between a mustang and any other horse race/breed. Differences are small, but they exist.
Mostly this is becoming a problem because press often wrongly uses the word Mustang for any wild horse, which is not correct.
LInk

And presumably there are some genetic differences between browts and packbacks.

[forsaken1111]

This is a stupid discussion but I refuse to give in because the pun is equally stupid.

[10ebbor10]

Yeah, I don't think we should alter the name when we just tame it. We could alter the new when our domestication results in a genetically different subspecies. (Ie, differences between dingoes and dogs, as wel as mustangs and other horses. The one is a subspecies of the other)

How different are mustangs from horses?

Mustangs are horses. They're a subspecies of horses. There's a genetic difference between a mustang and any other horse race/breed. Differences are small, but they exist.
Mostly this is becoming a problem because press often wrongly uses the word Mustang for any wild horse, which is not correct.
LInk

And presumably there are some genetic differences between browts and packbacks.

You'd better hope not, because that would mean we probably can't tame any browts. (Wild creature usually doesn't have the right genes to tolerate sentients)

[GreatWyrmGold]

Yeah, I don't think we should alter the name when we just tame it. We could alter the new when our domestication results in a genetically different subspecies. (Ie, differences between dingoes and dogs, as wel as mustangs and other horses. The one is a subspecies of the other)

How different are mustangs from horses?

Mustangs are horses. They're a subspecies of horses. There's a genetic difference between a mustang and any other horse race/breed. Differences are small, but they exist.
Mostly this is becoming a problem because press often wrongly uses the word Mustang for any wild horse, which is not correct.
LInk

And presumably there are some genetic differences between browts and packbacks.

You'd better hope not, because that would mean we probably can't tame any browts. (Wild creature usually doesn't have the right genes to tolerate sentients)

...
By that logic, wolves are untameable because dogs have genetic differences from them.

[Remuthra]

Yeah, I don't think we should alter the name when we just tame it. We could alter the new when our domestication results in a genetically different subspecies. (Ie, differences between dingoes and dogs, as wel as mustangs and other horses. The one is a subspecies of the other)

How different are mustangs from horses?

Mustangs are horses. They're a subspecies of horses. There's a genetic difference between a mustang and any other horse race/breed. Differences are small, but they exist.
Mostly this is becoming a problem because press often wrongly uses the word Mustang for any wild horse, which is not correct.
LInk

And presumably there are some genetic differences between browts and packbacks.

You'd better hope not, because that would mean we probably can't tame any browts. (Wild creature usually doesn't have the right genes to tolerate sentients)

...
By that logic, wolves are untameable because dogs have genetic differences from them.

They sort of are.

[10ebbor10]

...
By that logic, wolves are untameable because dogs have genetic differences from them.

Have you tried taming a wolf recently? Kinda hard to do. And I said probably. The reason for that is that if the packbrowt is a different subspecies, it implies that the original Browt didn't have the correct traits to be a pack animal. Since our Browt's are wild, taming would be problematic and would require a multigenerational domestication process, which would finally result in something similair to the Packbrowt. Same thing with wolves.

Some Russians did the such an experiment with foxes some time ago. (Still doing actually)

[SharpKris]

derail list:
1st the trench WAR
2nd orgy pit/kitchen/bathroom 
3rd the orgin name of wild horses and use of horrible puns for what looks like a giant brown sprout turtle.

did i miss anything?

------
greet the newcomers with our blue hat to look offical and superior.
gut the browts for the filfth pit and burn one on the alter

+1

[GreatWyrmGold]

If wolves are untameable, explain dogs.

Anyways, I could have chosen any domestic animal, it's just that the wild ancestors of dogs are better-known. Cattle are genetically different from aurochs, pigs are different from, um, wild pigs, chickens from Asian jungle fowl, sheep from whatever they're descended from, and yet each was tamed. Moreover, taming is different from domestication; for instance, while the Asian elephant has never been domesticated, it has been tamed. Obviously enough (since domestication starts with taming, and some people keep tame animals of species which are undomesticable as pets), taming lacks the rigorous requirements of domestication.

(And yes, it took many generations to turn dogs to wolves. Guess what? It'll take that no matter what we choose to tame or domesticate.)

-----

My point was, if genetic difference is enough to justify a different name, and domesticated animals show genetic differences from wild ones (both of which, I should add, have been mentioned by those who aren't me), then there is justification to give tamed browts a different name.

[Remuthra]

Dogs are not wolves, and dog taming took hundreds of years. Essentially, the prescence of humans giving the animals food worked to make fear of humans undesirable, and thus the creatures slowly evolved into dogs, which became tame.
But this all depends on how hard browts are to tame, since the fact that one is being used as a pack animal suggests they are natually suitable for domestication, having been domesticated already. Thus, it will take much less genetic shifting to domesticate them.

[kaian-a-coel]

You are mistaking taming and domestication.
Taming is the process of making an INDIVIDUAL ANIMAL not dangerous to humans, and not fearing humans.
Domestication is the long, grueling, multigenerational work of completely transforming a species into something more suited to human needs, like wolves to dogs.

We obviously can't domesticate anything at all in this particular game, because of time scale. We can, though, tame pretty much anything (I guess. Humans tamed almost everything he tried to IRL. With various degrees of success I'll admit). We already tamed a hat.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Dogs are not wolves,

My original point. They are descended from wolves, however.

and dog taming took hundreds of years.

And how is this different than any other animal?

Essentially, the prescence of humans giving the animals food worked to make fear of humans undesirable, and thus the creatures slowly evolved into dogs, which became tame.

The way I've heard it, wolves were attracted to scavenging food from human villages, which selected for a shorter "flight distance" when a human was seen, which lead to half-domesticated scavenging wolves, which were domesticated.

But this all depends on how hard browts are to tame, since the fact that one is being used as a pack animal suggests they are natually suitable for domestication, having been domesticated already. Thus, it will take much less genetic shifting to domesticate them.

You'd say that about horses, pigs, and certainly dogs if all you knew of them was that they were docile and whatnot when domesticated--and you'd have pretty good evidence in the behavior of feral dogs. However, you'd be wrong.

You are mistaking taming and domestication.
Taming is the process of making an INDIVIDUAL ANIMAL not dangerous to humans, and not fearing humans.
Domestication is the long, grueling, multigenerational work of completely transforming a species into something more suited to human needs, like wolves to dogs.
We obviously can't domesticate anything at all in this particular game, because of time scale. We can, though, tame pretty much anything (I guess. Humans tamed almost everything he tried to IRL. With various degrees of success I'll admit). We already tamed a hat.

I actually brought this up.

But you're all missing my point. If many domestic animals have different names from their wild ancestors, so can browts/packbacks.

[forsaken1111]

Point of order:

The GM said its the same animal. Its not a domesticated strain of the same genus.