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.

[littlegroundjay]

Around 2008, I watched an animation series called “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils”, it influenced my interest of Whooper Swan, Canada Goose, and Domestic White Goose (or Snow Goose?).
Only one episode related to Whooper Swan (about saving swans from flood).
Canada Goose influenced by the character “Akka”, the wild goose captain through the whole series.
Domestic White Goose (or Snow Goose?) influenced by the character “Morten”, the pet goose through the whole series.

[littlegroundjay]

Another example, I interested in kangaroo (not specifically to species) from a documentary, but early than it effect by a story book. I look for an ideal cartoon kangaroo but it’s very hard. In a time, I watched animation moive “Boonie Bears: The Big Top Secret”, the kangaroo character is an ideal one. Later then, I watched “Dot and the Kangaroo” series, some of moives has ideal kangaroo characters. I also watched “Kangaroo Jack: G’Day, U.S.A.!”, it has an ideal kangaroo character, but the story isn’t very good.