Movie character effect real species interest

[AdamWargon]

@simono

Red Dead Redemption 2 has been praised for extraordinarily lifelike North American fauna

@kanescompendium

The level of true ecological detail in RDR2 is nearly unmatched compared to other fictional media

If you don’t know this game, but you’re curious to see what they’re talking about, here’s a short clip:
https://youtube.com/shorts/jpE4ivBugHQ

Animals in the clip:

• Virginia opossum
• Sonoran desert toad
• Desert iguana
• Silver fox
• Cuban land crab

If you want to stay current, then it’s important to pay attention to video gaming, as the industry is several times larger than Hollywood + streaming combined. I am combining those two things together into one thing, which we can call “storytelling through movies on screens” — both on the big screen (theatres), and on little screens, like your phone.

Video gaming, by revenue, is the number one type of storytelling in the world today. So it’s an important way of learning about the world, and it will only get more important!

So maybe a future thread will be called “VIDEO GAME characters affect real species interest” (feel free to start this thread, if you’re a gamer).

Edit: I think Nathan @kanescompendium did start a new topic about this, and then deleted it?

Thanks to the “Related topics” function, after I made this comment, I discovered that there are actually a lot of existing forum threads about real species in video games. Here are a few:

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inatting-in-video-games/

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/computer-games-based-on-real-ecosystems/

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inat-mention-in-the-guardian-gaming-section/

And also this article published in The Guardian about birding in RDR2:

Birdwatching like it’s 1889: my bird odyssey in Red Dead Redemption 2
By Nicholas Lund, 2019 Jan 11
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/jan/11/red-dead-redemption-2-birdwatching-birds

[triceratops_65]

Rio introduced most people to spix macaws

[kanescompendium]

Half baked thread with erroneous AI assistance that I didn’t vet thoroughly enough. Most was correct but there were some shining mistakes. Here are a couple quotes from one of my replies:

@kanescompendium

I was hesitant sharing this here and wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to formulate my message leading to my ineffective use of AI.. compiling details to save time did not pay off. RDR2 set a new standard for immersive environmental story telling in video games and id hope some here could appreciate the effect that can have on young audiences - creating a foothold for curiosity that would hopefully inspire real-world explorations.

@kanescompendium

This thread will be deleted sooner than later as it doesn’t sit well with me - I’m still interested in any feedback and feel relevant discussion is better carried out in a potential future thread that’s better directed.

[triceratops_65]

Extinct species yes but, both galimimus and dilophosaurus and even velociraptor were relatively obscure taxa before Jurassic Park

[yayemaster]

I read this as R2D2 at first and was so confused for a few seconds.

[exonie]

Please correct the title. The correct verb is “affect” and it should conform to the grammatical person of the subject. I suggest the title “Movie characters affect interest in real species” which is much more readable.

[cthawley]

Actually, it is reasonable to use “effect” here as well as “affect”. It is used less in this sense, but “e”ffect can be used in the sense of “to cause or bring about (something)”. In this sense the title could mean a movie character creating interest in a species in real life whereas “affect” would mean to change (i.e., increase or decrease) existing interest. Both seem reasonable given the discussion in the thread.

I think the title is clear enough that readers will understand the general content of the thread (even if not perfectly conforming to grammatical standards). The iNat Forum has a diverse user base, many of whom do not have English as their first language, so grammatical perfection is not a requirement to participate in the forum.

[exonie]

However the meaning meant by the user was that of “affect” as you can see if you read his further explanation mentioning several times “influenced my interest” and other phrasing.

[littlegroundjay]

For me, I’m not very perfect about the word choice, but I’m ok to change to a better word. However, I don’t have permission to make any changes after I created the topic/reply after one day.

[littlegroundjay]

@littlegroundjay

a character called Boris arouse my interest of snow goose

This is the page of Boris.
https://baltotrilogy.fandom.com/wiki/Boris

@littlegroundjay

Master Crane from Kung Fu Panda series

This is the page of Master Crane.
https://kungfupanda.fandom.com/wiki/Crane

[Clip]

Drives some serious birders crazy but the movie the Big Year has influenced many people to get involved in birding in general and probably from there to some specializing in specific species. I was birding before I had ever heard of the movie but it did help get my husband more involved.

[littlegroundjay]

The animation series “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils” influenced my interest of Whooper Swan, Canada Goose, and Domestic White Goose (or Snow Goose?).