Category talk:Alien life-forms

Regarding the Ways of Classifying Minor Alien Life-forms, and a Proposal Thereof

Since I was just glossing over the Pkunk dialogue and I saw a lot more minor alien lifeforms mentioned than I originally thought, perhaps it would be a good idea to make a "List of minor alien life-forms" page, which would include all those creatures mentioned by the Pkunk, the Utwig and the Shofixti (therefore replacing the Dgrunti, Pootworm etc. pages)? Valaggar 09:27, 9 May 2008 (CEST)

I think such a list would be useful, especially for those lifeforms which we know very little about aside from the name. My only concern is determining where we draw the line between minor lifeforms and lifeforms that deserve their own page. What are your thinking about using as the criteria for this? --Fyzixfighter 00:33, 12 May 2008 (CEST)

I don't think any of the only-mentioned-but-not-seen-in-game life-forms deserve their own page (except for "Them", as they're important - and "They" are seen in-game in a way: you see their projections into TS, the Orz). The reason isn't always that there is little information about those life-forms — some, which is to say the Algolites, the Grah, and maybe the Chimt, have fairly sizeable articles (although for the Algolites article specifically, the style is a bit long-winded and I think it could be greatly shortened without any loss of information) — but that they are of little importance to somebody who's played the game, appearing just a passing reference and not as gameplay/immediate plot elements (by "immediate plot" I mean the plot of the game, and not the backstory). Valaggar 12:45, 12 May 2008 (CEST)

I disagree with you only slightly. I think there are a few cases where the minor life-forms should have their own page. For example, I think Grah is one since it is important in a major races backstory; however, something like Dgrunti definitely shouldn't. Admittedly, where the division is for me is gray. Though I think there could be a compromise - the list would include all the mention-but-not-seen minor lifeforms with brief (one or two sentences) descriptions, and if there's more story to tell about them, link the name (or a Main article: Fulan) to the larger, more complete article. Thoughts? --Fyzixfighter 16:53, 13 May 2008 (CEST)

The compromise sounds good (exhaustive list, short descriptions which make it more like a list; actually, I'd also add to the list the seen life-forms, but only those that are actually meant to be a single species: the Evil Ones, the VUX Beast, "They" and the Talking Pets), but we still need to figure out exact criteria regarding which mentioned-but-not-seen life-forms deserve their own page and which don't — unless I misread you (which I probably did), and you're saying that life-forms about which more information is available are the ones deserving their own article (in which case I would agree). Valaggar 17:25, 13 May 2008 (CEST)

Yes, that's a fair summation of my position, with one minor modification. I would also add that those life-forms for which more information is available and that are in some way important either in the universe mythology (eg the Grah) or the fan community (eg the Chimt) deserve their own page. There is still some grayness to the division, but taking it on a case by case basis shouldn't be too hard. As to the very exhaustive list, we'd have to change the title a bit (it wouldn't just be minor anymore), but we could subdivide it kind of like what we've done on the List of characters, possibly with subheadings like Sentient races, Observed minor lifeforms, Mentioned minor lifeforms or somethings along those lines. I'd say go ahead and start it and let's see where it goes. It will also help us figure out which currently existing pages should be merged into the list. --Fyzixfighter 21:24, 14 May 2008 (CEST)