Comments on: On Xenobiological Considerations

By: Ashraf

Ashraf — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:49:48 +0000

Heh– it all reminds me a bit of what my wife had mentioned to me while playing; She’s a field scientist for the Gov’t, mapping out plants, geology, and soils on FS Land. Not 5 minutes pass after she picks up herbalism and loads up cartographer that she mentions she’s impressed how much Blizz has paid attention to thier plants; some are riparian, others are in forests, mountains, and grasslands. Further, I think she’s made mention that many of the herbs you find have real-life versions, looking both similar, and growing in similar kinds of areas :D. So, I suppose, someone, somewhere in Blizz thinks about these kinds of things, too.

Anyway, always love a fascinating post on the metagame!

By: Yossir (w/ Torc & Ravioli)

Yossir (w/ Torc & Ravioli) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:29:24 +0000

Sorry about the double post, but I understand what you’re saying Dvalin. The first time I ever went to Thousand Needles and Tanaris I thought “How come there aren’t any prey animals?” Excluding the turtles, everything was a carnivore. A lot of zone on Azeroth are like this.

Mongolia was probably the only place IRL that ever had an eco-system like that. Around 80 million years back, most of the animals in the environment were predators and only a handful of prey species existed. Its not proven but the larger predators probably ate some of the smaller ones to get by.

By: Yossir (w/ Torc & Ravioli)

Yossir (w/ Torc & Ravioli) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:20:20 +0000

Zorigan, I haven’t even read the article. I just know all that from all the books on prehistoric life that I’ve read over the years.

By: Emowin

Emowin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:52:10 +0000

All I have to say to the author is, ITS FANTASY QUIT TRYING TO ANILIZE IT AND ENJOY IT FOR PEATS SAKES! I dont know about any of you guys but I play wow to get AWAY from reality.

By: Dvalin

Dvalin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:17:17 +0000

Yossir, the size of a zone in the “real World” would be considerably larger I would have thought than their in game size. I mean the density of life in STv is far too great to be encompassed in a zone that is 2 miles long, plus the predator – prey dynamic there would be interesting to examine since there seems to be very little in the way of prey species for the majority of the predators to feed on as the majority of creatures you seem to encounter in STv are predominantly carnivores with the exception of the gorillas.

By: Cryptography

Cryptography — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:24:09 +0000

A non-bug like ravager is certainly possible.

Turtles in dinosaur times were car-sized. Armored dinosaurs (Ankylosaurs of various sorts) are quite large, and multi-ton in mass.

The modern armadillo and some of the larger sea turtles are quite big. South america had HUGE armadillo type creatures (and real life Tallstriders and sabertooth kitties!) 15+ million years ago. Thats just yesterday in geological time.

google “gastornis” for the strider clutchmother. These guys munched on our ancestors!

All of the above are non-insect forms, with lungs, bones and a spine.

By: Zorigan

Zorigan — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:26:05 +0000

Yossir – did you read the article or come to that conclusion independently? Because I spent a lot of time discussing that very fact (I even quoted the 35% oxygen content of the atmosphere)

Thanks all for the comments both positive and WTFlike.

By: Yossir (w/ Torc & Ravioli)

Yossir (w/ Torc & Ravioli) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:26:47 +0000

Insects and for the matter all arthropods back in the Carboniforous period were enormous. That was a time when 10-foot millipedes, hawk-sized dragonflies and 2-foot spiders were among the dominant lifeforms. Food was very plentiful. This was mainly because the huge oxygen content in Earth’s air back then was able to fuel and supply their relatively ineffective respiratory systems. So if Azeroth (and Outland) were to exist scientifically, that world would need an massive oxygen to allow those creature to reach such a size.

And I think Herne is right about ravagers not being entirely exoskeleton animals. They have hindged, chomping jaws after all and most insect IRL have mandables.

Dvalin, the Barrens is probably only 4-6 miles long since Blizzard said that STV is roughly 2.

By: Oturiel

Oturiel — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:25:26 +0000

Or as an alternative line of thought, perhaps the Ravagers’ chitin could be explained away not as an insectoid material, but more in the line of a turtle’s shell. If you combine some of the hardier traits of both insects and reptiles, you can get a shell-strong exoskeleton with a bone structure supporting it and the vital organs within, leaving room, protection, and support against gravity. Possibly a sort of chambered skeleton, probably with a high ratio of cartilage to bone.

I love drawing up new creatures, and the anatomy brings up fun questions for your mind to wrestle with. Ah, intelligent gaming conversation. Refreshing! ^_^

By: herne flyingfox

herne flyingfox — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:31:50 +0000

Exoskeleton or armoured body? I always saw Ravagers as the later — the xenobiology of WoW is an interesting idea to think on. Not useful, but interesting :)

I know of the limitations of insect size (I did a bit of study in entomology), the limitation is due to the circulatory and respiratory systems being unable to cope with larger sizes. If the theoretical large insectoids in WoW evolved different (or modified/strengthened) systems to those on earth, they could perhaps overcome the size limitation.