I watch the show because I enjoy the concept and the weapon demonstrations/tests. I do, however, totally agree that their approach at least as far as simulating the battles is majorly flawed.
The simulation was correct though; it wouldn't have killed the enemy. Doesn't mean that it didn't play in to the kills of other weapons. I'm obviously not all too sure about how their computer program works, but it seems to me like it would take that in to account and apply it to how effective the other weapons were. You never know how it accounted for accuracy, dodging on the part of William, the effectiveness of the rest of William's ans Shaka's weapons, and so on. Can I say it's a completely accurate rendition of how the fight would have turned out? Of course not. There are plenty of fallacies in the show, and plenty of reasons any number of fights could turn out differently. That's not quite the point though; the show is meant for entertainment, and to give a bit of a "scientific" approach to the age-old question of "who would win in a fight between ___ and ___?" (Notice the "s around "scientific.")orangeban said:Alright, so you've justified the lack of tactics, but what about this example, where they prove just how full of shit the show is. It was Shaka Zulu vs William Wallace, and one of Shaka's weapons was spitting poison, which was designed to blind your foe, therefore making it incredibly easy to kill them. Do the showmakers take this into account? No, of course not, the spit (which would of turned the tide of battle in a one on one fight) was dismissed and earned 0 kills in the end battle because it couldn't kill enemies. That one made me angry, and not in the same way the show normally does, which is a way that makes me laugh at how stupid the show is, but in a way that finally cemented the show as crap.Apollo45 said:snip
Sorry, but time to burst your bubble regarding the simulation. Slitherine studios is a game developer. http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/deadliest-warrior-combat-simulator/ and that article says all the rest.Apollo45 said:The simulation was correct though; it wouldn't have killed the enemy. Doesn't mean that it didn't play in to the kills of other weapons. I'm obviously not all too sure about how their computer program works, but it seems to me like it would take that in to account and apply it to how effective the other weapons were. You never know how it accounted for accuracy, dodging on the part of William, the effectiveness of the rest of William's ans Shaka's weapons, and so on. Can I say it's a completely accurate rendition of how the fight would have turned out? Of course not. There are plenty of fallacies in the show, and plenty of reasons any number of fights could turn out differently. That's not quite the point though; the show is meant for entertainment, and to give a bit of a "scientific" approach to the age-old question of "who would win in a fight between ___ and ___?" (Notice the "s around "scientific.")orangeban said:Alright, so you've justified the lack of tactics, but what about this example, where they prove just how full of shit the show is. It was Shaka Zulu vs William Wallace, and one of Shaka's weapons was spitting poison, which was designed to blind your foe, therefore making it incredibly easy to kill them. Do the showmakers take this into account? No, of course not, the spit (which would of turned the tide of battle in a one on one fight) was dismissed and earned 0 kills in the end battle because it couldn't kill enemies. That one made me angry, and not in the same way the show normally does, which is a way that makes me laugh at how stupid the show is, but in a way that finally cemented the show as crap.Apollo45 said:snip
The article seems to confirm what I was saying, actually. It's obviously not completely accurate, but any decent RTS game takes in to account maneuverability of the units, their ability to 'dodge', the damage they would take, the effectiveness of different weapons, the effects of different weapons, and so on. Of course it limits the strategies that are used to ones the computer can understand, but on a purely weapon-by-weapon basis the simulation seems accurate; the poison shooter would weaken the opponent, leaving them more vulnerable to alternative forms of attack, just as it would in real life. The writer of the blog hits it on the nail as far as martial arts goes - Obviously it'd be impossible to take in to account every strategy a unit might use or can use against an enemy - but he underestimates its ability to account for weapon strengths and weaknesses, armor strengths and weaknesses, effects of each weapon on the opponent's ability to fight, and so on.orangeban said:Sorry, but time to burst your bubble regarding the simulation. Slitherine studios is a game developer. http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/deadliest-warrior-combat-simulator/ and that article says all the rest.Apollo45 said:sliceorangeban said:snipApollo45 said:snip
Nor should they. There were times when the US clearly won. The CIA vs KGB episode comes to mind as one of those.TheDooD said:They can't let US lose to everybody (eventhough imo we lost each time) the show would have been cancelled. I saw the rage on the Spike forums when the Spetsnez beat the Special Forces. If the streak kept going they might have tossed up the bias card.
On the first point, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. While I have no sympathy for the IRA whatsoever, calling them "freedom fighters" doesn't offend me. They were, allegedly, fighting for their rights to self-govern, no matter how idiotic or misguided they were. The term freedom fighter only has a positive image in society today due to shitty films like Braveheart. Revolutions are always violent, bloody and generally pretty monstrous...orangeban said:Now, I say that the IRA vs Taliban episode was in poor taste for a few reasons. Firstly because according to the show the IRA (Irish Republican Army, a group of terrorists trying to make Northern Ireland part of the Republic of Ireland) are "freedom fighters" fighting for "the freedom of Ireland". The show is incredibly sympathetic to them (but not to the Taliban of course) despite the fact that the IRA were terrorists, who killed innocents. You may say why worry, but I say that there is a strange amount of IRA sympathism in America already, and while people are entitled to opinions, I want people clear that the IRA are terrorists, not freedom fighters, not oppresed liberators.
The other reason is about an event that happened for a split second, but disgusted me. While watching a video of an IRA bombing (which killed civilians) the main host went, "WOW, HARDCORE!" I wonder what he did when he watched the videos of 9/11, did he say HARDCORE then? Seriously, what a moment of utter tastelessness.