Capitalizing Races?

[Free]

I've been thinking...should the names of races in Wesnoth be capitalized or not? Different human races are, so why shouldn't the races in Wesnoth? Well, us humans usually don't capitalize our own race, (human, not African American, or Caucasian, or something else) so maybe the races in Wesnoth shouldn't be capitalized. I'm not really sure, but I leaning toward capitalizing.

[scott]

Wesnothian races are actually species. I spent a lot of time when I was first hired de-capitalizing "race" names. IMO, an elf is an elf, not an Elf. I would capitalize them if they were in traditional latin binomial nomenclature, but for common race names I'm against it, just like you pointed out with the human (Homo sapiens ) example. If the dev decision goes the other way, I'm in for some work.

[jg]

As Scott pointed out, they are species. So, if we compare it to our world, we wouldn't call a rabbit a Rabbit. Or a horse, a Horse, would we?

Though since this is fantasy, it might be something different...

jg

[Scharnhorst]

A Horse is a Horse, Of Course, Of Course.

[scott]

A Horse is a Horse, Of Course, Of Course.

Oh no! A German! I think I know what your answer will be.
A Horst is a Horst...

[Scharnhorst]

Lol, I'm American I just enjoy European history a little.

[turin]

BTW, I disagree that Elves and Men are separate species. They can interbreed, IIRC. (Although I suppose we've never actually seen interbreeding in any official campaigns...)

[Flametrooper]

Yeah, occaisonally a human will take a fancy to a hot elf babe. I wonder what the result would look like?

EDIT: more on the subject, I think there is no need to capitalize races.

[Zhukov]

You know, I thought this forum had produced the epitome of the trivial with the discussion about the plural of "Wose."
But you people have surprised me. I am cowed by your wonderous ability to argue about nothing at all.

*bows*

BTW, I disagree that Elves and Men are separate species. They can interbreed, IIRC.

So what? Lions and tigers can interbreed.

[scott]

BTW, I disagree that Elves and Men are separate species. They can interbreed, IIRC. (Although I suppose we've never actually seen interbreeding in any official campaigns...)

Orcs and humans are also supposed to be able to interbreed. Half-orcs anyone?

[NeoPhile]

So what? Lions and tigers can interbreed.

So can donkeys and horses. However they are only the same species if those half-breeds can produce their own offspring.

[Ken_Oh]

Small side note: Should the undead be the Undead or no? While they are technically a race in gameplay, they aren't really a race, but a supernatural group.

I really don't care either way, but since I'm near finished an undead campaign, maybe I should make sure things are in the right caps.

[JW]

So can donkeys and horses. However they are only the same species if those half-breeds can produce their own offspring.

I really don't care either way, but since I'm near finished an undead campaign, maybe I should make sure things are in the right caps.

You should test in-game to see if the Undead units can breed with the other Wesnothian races, and if so, if their offspring can progenate. If they can, then the Undead are not a different species.

Now, in order to run this test you'll need to download the Wesnoth Coffee mod...

[Jodwin]

On an other note, what's up with calling elven units elvish something, dwarves dwarvish something and orcs orcish something? For an example calling a unit "Elvish Archer" sounds like it's an elf-like archer, but not necessarily an elf.

At least the rest of the species' units are named "properly" (drakes are called drakes, not drake-ish).

[turin]

At this point I'd like to bring up again my proposal to not have the race name be part of the unit name - instead have it say something like

Code: Select all

[             ] HP
[picture] XP
[             ] MP
Kalenz
strong,quick

_Archer_
wood elf

sword
  5-2

etc...