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Burr · 02-03-2003, 08:03 PM

Take a domesticated dog and a human with the same intelligence and experiences as that dog. Stick them both on Mount Everest, in the Amazon, in the Sahara, or some other extreme. Who is going to life the most satisfied life? I'd place my money on the dog. If it were a cat, or a pig, or an antelope, or a canary, I'd still place it on the animal over the human.

When it comes to evolution, humans don't look all that much different from each other compared to how different different breeds of dogs look. Consider the chihuahua vs. the great dane. For humans, even our smallest pygmies would be of a roughly normal height if properly nourished. Probably the most surprising difference between humans is eye color, something that would not factor in much when it comes to races on a mud.

Frankly, humans just don't seem all that "adaptable" to me. Intelligent, yes, but not adaptable in the way that muds mean when they say "adaptable." Muds generally define adaptability as something other than intelligence. Somehow elves can be more intelligent than humans, but less adaptable.

This "adaptability" is often expressed in terms of the number of classes/guilds the human can choose from. If adaptability were defined in terms of intelligence, I would understand that. The more intelligent you are, the more broadly you can educate yourself, and thus the more opportunities you will have for future education.

If adaptability were defined in terms of culture, I could still understand it to a certain extent. By all means, put particular guilds only in particular cities, and restrict particular races due to prejudices or social pressures. But even then, I would expect humans to have an equal chance of being the race exluded. One race may turn out to be the most adaptable race, by chance of social pressures, but there's little reason why that race would be the humans.

Certainly you need to make your mud human-centric enough that people can relate to the story. But that should not require an artificial advantage, especially not if your world is supposed to make sense RP-wise. Why not just make your other races human enough? Or else, why not find a natural advantage humans would really have and use it instead? Or surprise everyone and make humans something other than average through and through. Give them that extra intelligence that we consider so important in ourselves. Make them something other than average, and they will be no less a benchmark. What will keep them from being a good benchmark is if their advantages and disadvantages aren't realistic, such as "adaptability."

02-03-2003, 08:03 PM	#1
Burr Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 123	Take a domesticated dog and a human with the same intelligence and experiences as that dog. Stick them both on Mount Everest, in the Amazon, in the Sahara, or some other extreme. Who is going to life the most satisfied life? I'd place my money on the dog. If it were a cat, or a pig, or an antelope, or a canary, I'd still place it on the animal over the human. When it comes to evolution, humans don't look all that much different from each other compared to how different different breeds of dogs look. Consider the chihuahua vs. the great dane. For humans, even our smallest pygmies would be of a roughly normal height if properly nourished. Probably the most surprising difference between humans is eye color, something that would not factor in much when it comes to races on a mud. Frankly, humans just don't seem all that "adaptable" to me. Intelligent, yes, but not adaptable in the way that muds mean when they say "adaptable." Muds generally define adaptability as something other than intelligence. Somehow elves can be more intelligent than humans, but less adaptable. This "adaptability" is often expressed in terms of the number of classes/guilds the human can choose from. If adaptability were defined in terms of intelligence, I would understand that. The more intelligent you are, the more broadly you can educate yourself, and thus the more opportunities you will have for future education. If adaptability were defined in terms of culture, I could still understand it to a certain extent. By all means, put particular guilds only in particular cities, and restrict particular races due to prejudices or social pressures. But even then, I would expect humans to have an equal chance of being the race exluded. One race may turn out to be the most adaptable race, by chance of social pressures, but there's little reason why that race would be the humans. Certainly you need to make your mud human-centric enough that people can relate to the story. But that should not require an artificial advantage, especially not if your world is supposed to make sense RP-wise. Why not just make your other races human enough? Or else, why not find a natural advantage humans would really have and use it instead? Or surprise everyone and make humans something other than average through and through. Give them that extra intelligence that we consider so important in ourselves. Make them something other than average, and they will be no less a benchmark. What will keep them from being a good benchmark is if their advantages and disadvantages aren't realistic, such as "adaptability."