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[FArgHalfnr]

specie

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

A specie is a group whose members are able to reproduce together. I don't see where I was wrong. Of course I was talking about intelligent species but I thought that was obvious enough in context not to require me to specify.

That requires an s at the end.  Without the s it means money.
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specie
Specie may refer to:
    Coins or other metal money in mass circulation
    Bullion coins
    Hard money (policy)
    Commodity money
    Specie Circular, 1836 executive order by US President Andrew Jackson regarding hard money
    Specie Payment Resumption Act

See also
    Species, unrelated classification system for flora and fauna

My bad. English isn't my first language so I make a few mistakes from time to time.

There's a ton of crappy novels where the author invents a dozen unpronounceable words for the various castes and social groups of various aliens, and it's hard to follow and it's hard to tell if there's any payoff.  Being incomprehensible can be a replacement for actual depth.

That's a slightly different problem. In this case the author is no more creative than those who use standard rpg races, but he is also aware of that fact so he tries to hide it by giving random names to everything.

Found a relevand Xkcd.

[SealyStar]

Species is a weird word, loaned directly from the Latin 5th declension which is (for the subject/nominative) identical in singular and plural. Now, the Latin 4th declension is even more awkward because the singular and plural were spelled the same but pronounced differently, so in English we just said "fuck it" and pluralized them like English ("apparatus"/"apparatuses", although I have seen a few pedantic types write "apparatus" for plural too).

[Rolan7]

Found a relevand Xkcd.

Heh, I totally had that XKCD in mind when I wrote my post.  It really is frustrating to get a couple chapters into a book and then realize it's relying on that technique, to the detriment of interesting storytelling.

[TBeholder]

A bodyguard full of basic lieutenants would be ridiculous.  A fresh lieutenant has been trained in command, but might have *no* combat experience - it'd be like having a bodyguard of expensive privates, and a waste of expensive training.
A bodyguard of sergeants, even sergeant majors, would make more sense.  Seems like corporals would be more normal, though.

Normally, yes, but... They won't be simply assigned there from an academy, of cours, but any group considered "elite" could be treated this way - much like with pilots, why not?
This can reflect that they should be treated as officers in some important matters, like advanced training (they have to protect someone from ninjas commandos who will have advanced skills), logistics (pay, quarters, supplies, etc; where do they eat?), legal and chain-of-command issues (what it takes to shuffle them to a different unit? in what circumstances they should be moved from and back to active service? what security clearance they will be given and via which procedures? should they be able to command soldiers and NCO around the command center in an emergency? a squad of bodyguards would need its own commander, presumably of a higher rank - should the rest be ready for a field promotion?) - and, yes, plain old status.
It's easy to see how bodyguard for high-ups may have more in common with officers than with soldiers. Just from the way a military organization rolls. So it can be appliable in settings from "war elephants" to "spaceships", as long as the basic structure of ranks is similar enough.
Of course, all this applies only when the protected officer is high enough on the food command chain - close to whichever is considered "strategical level" of importance in the given setting.

My understanding of the pilot thing is that planes are incredibly expensive, so it makes sense to only let people fly them after extensive education.

This, in itself, does not make much sense.

And anyone with that much education (which is very separate from experience and live training) is a commissioned officer, or warrant officer, almost by definition.

Even not counting "purely technical" side. They must be ready to act autonomously - make decisions on their own. Which also requires screening and training, of course. And is supposed to be an officer's job, kind of by definition.

I might be misremembering my history lessons, but didn't USSR have sports teams made up of "officers"?

Right, it was already done with commandos - obviously, handpicked ones, not random rank-and-file.

[Bohandas]

I guess this complaint includes more than just video games, but I absolutely hate it when a fantasy game limit itself to the few standard fantasy races, and even more when they are given their even more generic personalities. What I really hate about it is not their concept but rather the fact that they were so massively overused. Even worse to me when a game try to pretend to be imaginative by adding a single new race which is presented as "different" or "unique" while being basically a human with one or two main differences and having a culture that is blatantly a rip-off from a real life civilization (Minor variation of another fantasy races also counts). I'd love to actually see some creativity from the genre that is supposed to be all about creativity.

Seeing standard races being interpreted differently is a step in the right direction, but I don't think it's enough.

Also posting again to state how much I agree with this.

I am peeved by the fact that different races are almost always just humans but stout (dwarf), or tall (elf) etc. And that these are now "the" races in fantasy. How boring!

The unfortunate result of madmen running the asylum.
In that when there is a story, an average "developer" is going to be at best tolkienist, and at worst trekkie - and either way, writes what amounts to an "original character Donut Steel" fanfic. And when there's no story, it's going to be just a plain rip-off. 9/10 of the stuff within 2-3 first Sturgeon law's tiers, anyway.

Other cultures are almost always just some generic ancient culture. So you end up with tall blonde Aztec's, for example.

That's if the authors can tell their own butts from their shoulders... If not, it's going to be Mayincatec, Ancient Grome and Chinampan.

Also the fact that people from those other races almost uniformly fit a single culture.

Space operas have it much worse: a Planet of Hats is the same one-note, but, y'know, a flippin' planet.
Games usually don't need "one! more! plot!" and thus random cheese gratings on top, or even as many details - so they are ostensibly worse, but in essence the same, since the "lolrandum" layer is knee-deep for a flea anyway.
Except RPG, those combine patches of "hats" and "lolrandum" (like Neverwinters Nights).

Yes, most space operas seems unable to make anything that is not a human with a different skin color and maybe some pointy ears if they feel risky (I'll give credit to mass effect for doing something unique, even thought I'd love to see a specie that isn't humanoid). This annoys the hell out of me . I know it would be hard for the audience to sympathize with something completely different to us but goddammit I can't believe they can't come up with something at least slightly original. Giving a single personality to an entire specie is also annoying. I know it's hard to imagine a culture completely different to ours and make a diverse set of personalities out of it but a single mold for an entire civilization is just plain lazy.

At least on Star Trek they occasionally wrote it off as the culture having been influenced by human intercerence (as in the case of the Nazi planet and the gangster planet)

[Bohandas]

specie

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

A specie is a group whose members are able to reproduce together. I don't see where I was wrong. Of course I was talking about intelligent species but I thought that was obvious enough in context not to require me to specify.

That requires an s at the end.  Without the s it means money.
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specie
Specie may refer to:
    Coins or other metal money in mass circulation
    Bullion coins
    Hard money (policy)
    Commodity money
    Specie Circular, 1836 executive order by US President Andrew Jackson regarding hard money
    Specie Payment Resumption Act

See also
    Species, unrelated classification system for flora and fauna

My bad. English isn't my first language so I make a few mistakes from time to time.

According to Wiktionary it's also a synonym for species, but it's singular only and discouraged in formal usage (similarly to "ain't" and "y'all"). And the monetary meaning is pretty obscure.

[Bohandas]

Stupid generic fantasy races
I guess this complaint includes more than just video games, but I absolutely hate it when a fantasy game limit itself to the few standard fantasy races, and even more when they are given their even more generic personalities. What I really hate about it is not their concept but rather the fact that they were so massively overused. Even worse to me when a game try to pretend to be imaginative by adding a single new race which is presented as "different" or "unique" while being basically a human with one or two main differences and having a culture that is blatantly a rip-off from a real life civilization (Minor variation of another fantasy races also counts). I'd love to actually see some creativity from the genre that is supposed to be all about creativity.

Seeing standard races being interpreted differently is a step in the right direction, but I don't think it's enough.

Personally I particularly dislike orcs and halflings, as they carry the dubious distinction of being both generic AND clearly derivative of something specific and well known


EDIT:
Apologies for the multi-post. It's difficult to edit new quotes into an old post on my tablet.

[Neonivek]

It doesn't help that outside Warcraft Orcs are incredibly generic.

[Bohandas]

On the opposite end however, are trolls. Which are generic but incredibly varied and almost never derivative; Pratchett's trolls differ from Tolkien's trolls which differ from Hussie's trolls which differ from Gygax and Arneson's trolls.

I like trolls.

[Neonivek]

In all fairness Trolls are usually just monsters that are used in passing. They are usually not "races".

Besides if you want "extremely generic making things interesting" Dungeons and dragons Goblins and Kobolds for example.

They are a small wimpy generic species that fights in swarms and attack the weakest people first and are rather fodder when they don't plant traps.

Yet because they are a species that sort of sways things in their favor without using the full force of their combat aptitude they become interesting, their cunning makes them interesting.

Since Orcs are just brutes, Halflings might as well just not exist in dungeons and dragons, and Elves only have a 50/50 chance of even feeling separate from humans.

[Sergius]

Iron Kingdoms has trollkin as a race. Playable. The fungus D&D kind.
Also Goblins as a civilized race (Gobbers) and a feral version (Boggers). Gobbers are great at hitting machines to make them work.

Pratchett's trolls are a very central part of almost every novel, along with dwarfs, certainly not "monsters in passing".

[SealyStar]

Stupid generic fantasy races
I guess this complaint includes more than just video games, but I absolutely hate it when a fantasy game limit itself to the few standard fantasy races, and even more when they are given their even more generic personalities. What I really hate about it is not their concept but rather the fact that they were so massively overused. Even worse to me when a game try to pretend to be imaginative by adding a single new race which is presented as "different" or "unique" while being basically a human with one or two main differences and having a culture that is blatantly a rip-off from a real life civilization (Minor variation of another fantasy races also counts). I'd love to actually see some creativity from the genre that is supposed to be all about creativity.

Seeing standard races being interpreted differently is a step in the right direction, but I don't think it's enough.

Personally I particularly dislike orcs and halflings, as they carry the dubious distinction of being both generic AND clearly derivative of something specific and well known


EDIT:
Apologies for the multi-post. It's difficult to edit new quotes into an old post on my tablet.

Honestly, I think there should be more fantasy games with "little people" other than the archetypal minin', drinkin' Scotio-Nordic dwarves. There really aren't that many.

[Shadowlord]

In all fairness Trolls are usually just monsters that are used in passing. They are usually not "races".

Presuming race=species, which it tends to in sci-fi and fantasy, if they exist, they have to either be their own species, or a variant of another species, or a hybrid (like mules), etc.

Also, Blizzard's Warcraft games have been pretty popular, and trolls exist as their own species/race in that. Yes, you can play one in World of Warcraft. http://wow.gamepedia.com/Troll_(playable)

[miauw62]

Iron Kingdoms has trollkin as a race. Playable. The fungus D&D kind.
Also Goblins as a civilized race (Gobbers) and a feral version (Boggers). Gobbers are great at hitting machines to make them work.

Pratchett's trolls are a very central part of almost every novel, along with dwarfs, certainly not "monsters in passing".

Yeah, Pratchett is pretty good about that. I especially like the explanation for their thickness.

[FArgHalfnr]

Elves only have a 50/50 chance of even feeling separate from humans.

That is something that really annoys me. The fact that they can breed with humans in most settings means that they would be of the same species that humans. Why even bother giving them pointy ears if all of their differences can be explained by being from a different culture? Hell, I'd prefer a human civilization with elf-like traits to actual elves because the former at least shows a minimal will not to blatantly copy Tolkien.