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Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web.

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No More Mudkips
Topic Started: Feb 20 2011, 01:22 PM (2,065 Views)
Jasonguppy
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Cardinal
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Yeah. The plural is pokemon.
I do art sometimes.

"if you want green eat a salad"

Projects:
Amammalia: A strange place where mammals didn't make it and the land is, once again, dominated by archosaurs.

Oceanus: An endless sea dotted with islands, reefs, and black holes. Literally endless, literal black holes.

❤️❤️~I'm not a boy~❤️❤️
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Kamidio
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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Who cares? The entire damn Pokemon culture, who outnumber you several billion to one.
SSU:NC - Finding a new home.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Canis is has every right to disapprove of Pokemon-based topics. It's his opinion.

This is heading nearer to flame-war territory. Desist, please.
Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction!
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Ook
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not a Transhuman
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indeed,they started filling anti-stupid-pokemon-meme with pokemons -_-
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Adman
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Totally not lamna
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It's pokemon, more specifically, pocket monsters, as the Japanese call it.
Projects and concepts that I have stewing around
Extended Pleistocene- An alternate future where man died out, and the megafauna would continue to thrive (may or may not include a bit about certain future sapients)
Inverted World- An alternate timeline where an asteroid hit during the Barremian, causing an extinction event before the Maastrichtian. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and notosuchians make it to the present, along with a host of other animals.
Badania- Alien planet that has life at a devonian stage of development, except it exists in the present day.
Ido- Alien world where hoppers (derived flightless ballonts) and mouthpart-legged beasts are prevalent.
Leto- Life on a moon orbiting a gas giant with an erratic orbit; experiences extremes of hot and cold.
The Park- ???
Deeper Impact- a world where the K-Pg extinction wipes out crocodilians, mammals, and birds; squamates, choristoderes, and turtles inherit the earth.
World of Equal Opportunity- alternate history where denisovans come across Beringia and interact with native fauna. Much of the Pleistocene fauna survives, and the modern humans that end up crossing into North America do not overhunt the existing animals. 10,000 years later, civilizations exist that are on par with European and Asian societies.
The Ditch- Nothing is what if seems..
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

First of all, I don't want to spark a war. So get that in your minds rght now. This is just a big long explanation of my opinion coming up and I have no intention of sparking a flame war. If I see any post that looks like a flame war starting, I won't hesitate to delete it or use another of my mod abilities. I won't delete your post if you disagree with me. But if you violate the TOS, be warned (and fellow mods, if this following post violates the TOS, please let me know and delete it).



Second of all, did I ever once say that speccing Pokemon wasn't hard? Did I ever say that it doesn't require thought? No, I never did. I downright admitted it was hard. I personally could not do it, seeing as 1) I just play Pokemon for the games, not to see how real they can be and 2) I'm not really all that good at creating an evolutionary history for a creature that exists.



Third of all, the reason that I do not consider Pokemon-made-real topics (or any video-game-made-real topics) spec is because the creatures are already there for you, with every external detail visible. While it does take considerable creativity to make a plausible evo history for Pokemon (I've seen some quite implausible evo histories), there is no creativity in actually making the creatures.

Yes, like Fakey said, you could tweak the organisms to fit some convoluted evolutionary history. But that's more like creating your own creature based on a Pokemon (so long as it's different from a Pokemon, I'm fine with it. I freely admit that some of my own creatures have been inspired by Pokemon) instead of creating an evolutionary history for a creature that is a Pokemon. The latter is the point of video-game-made-real topics.





So yes, while I freely admit that it is hard work, that it takes some creativity and ingenuity, and that I even base some of my creatures on Pokemon, I still don't consider it spec since the creatures are already set in stone and don't require any imagination on that front.

My own definition of speculative evolution (and I realize that this probably differs from some peoples's own definitions) is that you speculate a plausible evolutionary history that leads to a plausible creature of your own design to fit a particular landscape.

That is why future evo, alt evo, and xeno evo are all part of spec in my book. Heck, this forum was originally made to speculate on those three, not Pokemon or video games.





Now I know this is going to be brought up. Is fantasy-made-real actually spec?

Yes, it is. Since mythology doesn't really have all the creature design features together, you can frelly add your own personal touch to your creations so long as its plausible.

Plus, fantasy-made-real topics usually also have creatures that exist in our time alongside of the fantasy creatures (though this can vary). So you not only have to speculate about your fantasy creature, but also how existing fauna are affected and how the existing fauna evolved to live with your fantasy creature.

IMO, ten times harder than Pokemon-made-real projects because, usually, you can just make stuff up, saying "It's a different universe, dammit!"




All that said, I won't hold a grudge against you if you do do a Pokemon-made-real topic. Heck, I'll probably still read it (I'm reading Jason's Pokemon-made-real topic). I mean no disrespect to those of you who completely disagree with me; you have a right to your opinion.

However, do not do what Fakey suggested. If you don't want to read my projects, fine by me. Your choice. But don't let my criticism of Pokemon-made-real topics encourage you to boycott my own topics. Use a legitimate reason if you're going to do that.
Edited by Canis Lupis, Feb 21 2011, 04:26 PM.
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SIngemeister
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Hive Tyrant of the Essee Swarm

jasonguppy
Feb 21 2011, 03:38 PM
Correct. And SInge, so that makes 4:1
No. Fuck off. I have the decency to keep my project on deviantart.

Also, Canis, don't quote-mine me. Please. I respect you as a friend and colleague here.


Have you moved it yet?
Edited by SIngemeister, Feb 21 2011, 04:21 PM.
My Deviantart

RRRAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!!
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Sure. I'll delete my quote of you, since I share the same respect for you.

And I'll get right on it.
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Adman
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Totally not lamna
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SIngemeister
Feb 21 2011, 04:21 PM
jasonguppy
Feb 21 2011, 03:38 PM
Correct. And SInge, so that makes 4:1
No. Fuck off. I have the decency to keep my project on deviantart.

Also, Canis, don't quote-mine me. Please. I respect you as a friend and colleague here.


Have you moved it yet?
Whoa there singemeister, watch the language.
Projects and concepts that I have stewing around
Extended Pleistocene- An alternate future where man died out, and the megafauna would continue to thrive (may or may not include a bit about certain future sapients)
Inverted World- An alternate timeline where an asteroid hit during the Barremian, causing an extinction event before the Maastrichtian. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and notosuchians make it to the present, along with a host of other animals.
Badania- Alien planet that has life at a devonian stage of development, except it exists in the present day.
Ido- Alien world where hoppers (derived flightless ballonts) and mouthpart-legged beasts are prevalent.
Leto- Life on a moon orbiting a gas giant with an erratic orbit; experiences extremes of hot and cold.
The Park- ???
Deeper Impact- a world where the K-Pg extinction wipes out crocodilians, mammals, and birds; squamates, choristoderes, and turtles inherit the earth.
World of Equal Opportunity- alternate history where denisovans come across Beringia and interact with native fauna. Much of the Pleistocene fauna survives, and the modern humans that end up crossing into North America do not overhunt the existing animals. 10,000 years later, civilizations exist that are on par with European and Asian societies.
The Ditch- Nothing is what if seems..
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SIngemeister
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Hive Tyrant of the Essee Swarm

Step off, cowboy. I know what's tolerated on this site a hell of a lot better than you do.
My Deviantart

RRRAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!!
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Kamidio
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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However, unlike any of those things, I actually put an effort into making them so different from the source material that only the silhouette is recognizable. Take my Gengar. It's a freakin' panther, not a ghost.

Secondly, I do not, and never will bullshit this. Psychokinesis? Forget it. Electricity? Forget it. Soul Sucking power? Forget it. Power of a god? Down the drain.

So far I don't even include type weaknesses, simply because it makes no biological sense. Nor do I include a limit of moves to the number of 4, whereas, my thing is just varying intensities of damage. Take Scratch/Cut/Slash for example. They're all the same move, just with different amounts of force involved.

This pretty much makes Pokemon a skeleton, and a challenge. Because not only do I have to try and make my creatures different than those in the games, anime, manga, and TCG, but I have to try and keep up with GameFreak, who churns out a new generation every five years, on average.
Edited by Kamidio, Feb 21 2011, 04:30 PM.
SSU:NC - Finding a new home.
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Adman
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Totally not lamna
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SIngemeister
Feb 21 2011, 04:26 PM
Step off, cowboy. I know what's tolerated on this site a hell of a lot better than you do.
Why so mad?
Projects and concepts that I have stewing around
Extended Pleistocene- An alternate future where man died out, and the megafauna would continue to thrive (may or may not include a bit about certain future sapients)
Inverted World- An alternate timeline where an asteroid hit during the Barremian, causing an extinction event before the Maastrichtian. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and notosuchians make it to the present, along with a host of other animals.
Badania- Alien planet that has life at a devonian stage of development, except it exists in the present day.
Ido- Alien world where hoppers (derived flightless ballonts) and mouthpart-legged beasts are prevalent.
Leto- Life on a moon orbiting a gas giant with an erratic orbit; experiences extremes of hot and cold.
The Park- ???
Deeper Impact- a world where the K-Pg extinction wipes out crocodilians, mammals, and birds; squamates, choristoderes, and turtles inherit the earth.
World of Equal Opportunity- alternate history where denisovans come across Beringia and interact with native fauna. Much of the Pleistocene fauna survives, and the modern humans that end up crossing into North America do not overhunt the existing animals. 10,000 years later, civilizations exist that are on par with European and Asian societies.
The Ditch- Nothing is what if seems..
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Kamidio
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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It's because we've hit an ignition/freezing point.
SSU:NC - Finding a new home.
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WAA
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Adman
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Totally not lamna
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Is that bad?
Projects and concepts that I have stewing around
Extended Pleistocene- An alternate future where man died out, and the megafauna would continue to thrive (may or may not include a bit about certain future sapients)
Inverted World- An alternate timeline where an asteroid hit during the Barremian, causing an extinction event before the Maastrichtian. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and notosuchians make it to the present, along with a host of other animals.
Badania- Alien planet that has life at a devonian stage of development, except it exists in the present day.
Ido- Alien world where hoppers (derived flightless ballonts) and mouthpart-legged beasts are prevalent.
Leto- Life on a moon orbiting a gas giant with an erratic orbit; experiences extremes of hot and cold.
The Park- ???
Deeper Impact- a world where the K-Pg extinction wipes out crocodilians, mammals, and birds; squamates, choristoderes, and turtles inherit the earth.
World of Equal Opportunity- alternate history where denisovans come across Beringia and interact with native fauna. Much of the Pleistocene fauna survives, and the modern humans that end up crossing into North America do not overhunt the existing animals. 10,000 years later, civilizations exist that are on par with European and Asian societies.
The Ditch- Nothing is what if seems..
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Kamidio
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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Yes. A Freeze/Flame war is about to start.
SSU:NC - Finding a new home.
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