Left 4 Dead 2 Catch All

Yonder wrote:

Super Calculus Dog

Thanks for posting that link. Very interesting.

We've really sunk to debating how realistic the Special Infected are as zombies? Really?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

We've really sunk to debating how realistic the Special Infected are as zombies? Really?

Hey man, I'm at work, I have nothing better to do with my time.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

We've really sunk to debating how realistic the Special Infected are as zombies? Really?

Yes...I will begin:

For all you evolutionary folk, has anyone ever considered how this virus came about? I mean, there are only three ways this virus could exist.

First, it could be a random mutation in some virus that completely worked the first time it mutated...and I'm talking completely random with no gradual progression. Just a lucky few base pairs being switched around and presto: Zombie. This would more than likely mean that the mutation would not survive since there doesn't seem to be a way for the virus to continue (pass on to new hosts) since it appears to be all-consuming.

Second, there could have been some gradual progression in the evolution of the virus and it could have just happened to infect us years after it came into existence, similar to AIDS/HIV that some suspect made a zoonosis between species. This would mean there's some evolution involved that is potentially sustainable, but this kind of works its way back to the first option since it's all-consuming.

Finally, and my favorite personal theory, the zombie "infection" is actually a Superorganism like termites, bees, and ants. We question what the evolutionary purpose is of a Boomer or a Hunter, and it all looks to me that these are just specialized "cells" (like how we have white and red blood cells...we are essentially a superorganism in this sense) serving a bigger purpose. This is my favorite idea I've had because if this is something that is/could be true, then that'd suggest that there's a "hive" or a "queen" zombie. Ideally, this would all be worked out in Left 4 Dead 4 (which I think is an appropriate stopping point in the series) where you'd have to battle some kind of final infected or whatever. I'm not trying to hash our any fan-fic, but this is something that is plausible.

I forgot to mention, some of us have been role playing our characters (Survivors and Infected) as we play. I suggest you give it a go if you haven't participated yet.

It is hilarious.

In Left 4 dead 1, in the commentary section, the devs said they had the rabies in mind. A family dog is a beloved companion, but the rabies virus warps its brain. The virus is a human version of that

Yes I too am work and have nothing better to do

I personally like to think of the virus as an augmentor of some human attribute of the host before infection

-The tank would be some bodybuilder whose steriods mixed with the virus and made him exaggerated huge upper body
-Spitter would be some sort of bulimic
-Hunter would be one of those parkour guys
-Smoker would just be ..errr a person who smoked. Cigarette chemicals + virus = tongue mutation
-Boomer = super obsese guy?

camnipotent wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

We've really sunk to debating how realistic the Special Infected are as zombies? Really?

First, it could be a random mutation in some virus that completely worked the first time it mutated...and I'm talking completely random with no gradual progression. Just a lucky few base pairs being switched around and presto: Zombie. This would more than likely mean that the mutation would not survive since there doesn't seem to be a way for the virus to continue (pass on to new hosts) since it appears to be all-consuming.

Second, there could have been some gradual progression in the evolution of the virus and it could have just happened to infect us years after it came into existence, similar to AIDS/HIV that some suspect made a zoonosis between species. This would mean there's some evolution involved that is potentially sustainable, but this kind of works its way back to the first option since it's all-consuming.

Is there really a difference between these two theories? It seems like whether it was a big evolutionary jump from a virus into the zombie virus or a gradual change it's the same deal.

Also it may be sustainable, if it isn't a fatal disease the infected may not die, allowing the zombies to keep on living (obviously most of them would die as the worlds agriculture has been shot to hell, but there may be a stable population in the hundreds of thousands around the world where they could forage and hunt small animals. Although admittedly the survival of the zombies as a species seems unlikely. They probably aren't very nurturing and I would imagine that even zombie babies need a lot of care.

It could also be sustainable if the humans would recover from the disease (although most of the time this happened they would probably be eaten by the other zombies, unless they still had the pheromone that makes the zombies not eat each other), then the human population could recover and be struck again. Sort of like how a new strain of the flue comes around every year.

The most obvious way, however, is that it just lives in the carriers!

Edit: Now that we have been talking about hoodies I am thinking of Switchbreak's avatar as a hunter.

It is making the symbol for peace, maybe it is a zombie ambassador?

Don't trust him police officers! Shoot Switchbreak!

mooosicle: Which just makes questioning the charger's origin all the more fun.

Oh no, he works out. His right arm.

Andor wrote:

mooosicle: Which just makes questioning the charger's origin all the more fun.

Oh no, he just works out. His right arm.

IMAGE(http://z.about.com/d/movies/1/0/o/x/M/ladyinthewaterpubm.jpg)

Yonder wrote:

Is there really a difference between these two theories? It seems like whether it was a big evolutionary jump from a virus into the zombie virus or a gradual change it's the same deal.

Yeah, that's why I mentioned that two kind of ties into one.

Also, whenever I see Switch's avatar, I think of Prototype.

Andor wrote:

mooosicle: Which just makes questioning the charger's origin all the more fun.

Oh no, he works out. His right arm.

We were talking about this the other day. I think Lobster said that the charger was a chronic masturbator before he turned.

This explains the overwhelming irony I feel when I see BurntToast miss a charge.

One question that's never been answered is whether the special infected are some sort end-stage for the common infected, or whether certain people just react differently to the infection. The guy in the church in Death Toll clearly transforms directly from human to special infected, but that might have just been put in for gameplay purposes. It might even be that there are different strains of the infection that result in the different infected types.

camnipotent wrote:

Also, whenever I see Switch's avatar, I think of Prototype.

Yeah, that's pretty accurate. If I make it into work in the morning without drop kicking a helicopter, something is out of the ordinary.

I think, in the same way some people are immune, some people just turn into Special Infected.

muttonchop wrote:

One question that's never been answered is whether the special infected are some sort end-stage for the common infected, or whether certain people just react differently to the infection. The guy in the church in Death Toll clearly transforms directly from human to special infected, but that might have just been put in for gameplay purposes. It might even be that there are different strains of the infection that result in the different infected types.

Spoiler:

All the special infected have been put in for gameplay purposes :)

Dimmerswitch wrote:
Spoiler:

All the special infected have been put in for gameplay purposes :)

Filthy atheist.

Dimmerswitch wrote:
Spoiler:

All the special infected have been put in for gameplay purposes :)

Spoiler:

As opposed to the historical accuracy in the rest of the game :)

evilseed wrote:

I'll add to this silly idea, the jokey has kuru. He was common zombie infected by eating a clown while in Whispering Oaks, or it could be lupus.

No one picked this up?

It's NEVER Lupus, evilseed.

syndicatedragon wrote:
Dimmerswitch wrote:
Spoiler:

All the special infected have been put in for gameplay purposes :)

Spoiler:

As opposed to the historical accuracy in the rest of the game :)

Spoiler:

I was disapointed the realism mode contained zombies.

camnipotent wrote:
Andor wrote:

mooosicle: Which just makes questioning the charger's origin all the more fun.

Oh no, he works out. His right arm.

We were talking about this the other day. I think Lobster said that the charger was a chronic masturbator before he turned.

This explains the overwhelming irony I feel when I see BurntToast miss a charge.

Yeah - maybe I should follow your lead and just surf Google images while we sit in lobby until I get better handle on the inner workings of the charger.

It does help explain why others are so much better than me with the charger. Unlike Camni, I won't name names.

Spoiler:

Camni is a poofter!

I kind of like the third theory you propose - about the hive mind. Beyond the appeal of a great series finale boss, it helps explain much behaviour including their amazing ability to all swarm to YOU when an alarm goes off. They don't run to the alarm, but to the survivors. Some sort of collective consciousness is a nice concept.

And finally, I prefer to think of Camni's mom when the witch is ravishing me. Ah, sweet memories.

Psych wrote:
evilseed wrote:

I'll add to this silly idea, the jokey has kuru. He was common zombie infected by eating a clown while in Whispering Oaks, or it could be lupus.

No one picked this up?

It's NEVER Lupus, evilseed.

Except the one time it was lupus.

Burnt Toast wrote:

I kind of like the third theory you propose - about the hive mind. Beyond the appeal of a great series finale boss, it helps explain much behaviour including their amazing ability to all swarm to YOU when an alarm goes off. They don't run to the alarm, but to the survivors. Some sort of collective consciousness is a nice concept.

I'm sure if I completely buy the hive mind idea, but some sort of superorganism operating through instincts and audio/pheromone signals makes a certain amount of sense. The special infected all have some highly specialized purpose, and some of those purposes only make sense in a group scenario. There's not much individual advantage in being a spitter or boomer.

muttonchop wrote:

I'm sure if I completely buy the hive mind idea, but some sort of superorganism operating through instincts and audio/pheromone signals makes a certain amount of sense. The special infected all have some highly specialized purpose, and some of those purposes only make sense in a group scenario. There's not much individual advantage in being a spitter or boomer.

Guess I should have read that post a little more closely, or bothered to click the link Camni included before I jumped right to the more science-fiction theory. (Heaven forbid I invoke sci-fi in a zombie apocalypse setting).

Let me do it for you all:

"Filthy skimmer"

Hah I'm reminded of an old moment when there was only one survivor left, and the infected were like "You guys lost. How are you going to repopulate the planet"

We responded "tie down a boomer"

muttonchop wrote:

I'm sure if I completely buy the hive mind idea, but some sort of superorganism operating through instincts and audio/pheromone signals makes a certain amount of sense. The special infected all have some highly specialized purpose, and some of those purposes only make sense in a group scenario. There's not much individual advantage in being a spitter or boomer.

Yo, this is from that Wiki page: "superorganism is 'a collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective,' phenomena being any activity 'the hive wants'"

Burnt Toast wrote:

Guess I should have read that post a little more closely, or bothered to click the link Camni included before I jumped right to the more science-fiction theory. (Heaven forbid I invoke sci-fi in a zombie apocalypse setting).

We're trying to be realistic here. Come on. Still, you're on the right track. "Hive mind" has the same origins of what I was proposing.

IMAGE(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3393/3290909053_9659355788_o.png)

camnipotent wrote:

Yo, this is from that Wiki page: "superorganism is 'a collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective,' phenomena being any activity 'the hive wants'"

I just meant I don't think they're all telepathically linked or something. They're more like ants or termites.

Edit: It would be pretty creepy if Valve released DLC or another sequel in which the infected actually started performing some group task like building a big nest or something.

muttonchop wrote:
camnipotent wrote:

Yo, this is from that Wiki page: "superorganism is 'a collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective,' phenomena being any activity 'the hive wants'"

I just meant I don't think they're all telepathically linked or something. They're more like ants or termites.

Edit: It would be pretty creepy if Valve released DLC or another sequel in which the infected actually started performing some group task like building a big nest or something.

That would be pretty awesome, actually.

...

Temptation to make Campaign... rising...

muttonchop wrote:
camnipotent wrote:

Yo, this is from that Wiki page: "superorganism is 'a collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective,' phenomena being any activity 'the hive wants'"

I just meant I don't think they're all telepathically linked or something. They're more like ants or termites.

Edit: It would be pretty creepy if Valve released DLC or another sequel in which the infected actually started performing some group task like building a big nest or something.

Yeah, I wouldn't/don't think they should be linked either. It's more of a worker bee/queen relationship...nothing too brain-intensive.

ok so let it be known that Burnt, wired, Bonus, and demon are the best this game has to offer.