October 18, 2012
The theory of recapitulation [ree-kuh-pich-uh-ley-shuhn] is often known as ‘ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.’ It was an idea of French physician Étienne Serres in 1824. In 1886 German biologist Ernst Haekel proposed that the embryonic development of an individual organism (its ontogeny) followed the same path as the evolutionary history of its species (its phylogeny). It is also called the ‘biogenetic law’ or ’embryological parallelism.’
It was a theory that tied evolution (change in organisms over time) with embryology (the way organisms develop before they are born). The theory basically stated that before they are born, organisms pass through developmental stages that look like adult animals of other species, in roughly the same order that these other species split off during evolution. Although there is something to this idea, it is no longer thought to be such a useful way to look at development.
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October 18, 2012
In biology, phylogeny [fahy-loj-uh-nee] refers to the evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms (e.g. species, populations). The term ‘phylogenetics’ derives from the Greek terms ‘phyle’ and ‘phylon,’ denoting ‘tribe’ and ‘race’; and the term ‘genetikos,’ denoting ‘relative to birth,’ from ‘genesis’ (‘origin’). The result of phylogenetic studies is a hypothesis about the evolutionary history of taxonomic groups. Phylogenetic analyses have become essential in researching the evolutionary tree of life. The overall goal of National Science Foundation’s Assembling the Tree of Life activity (AToL) is to resolve evolutionary relationships for large groups of organisms throughout the history of life, with the research often involving large teams working across institutions and disciplines.
Taxonomy, the classification, identification, and naming of organisms, is usually richly informed by phylogenetics, but remains methodologically and logically distinct. The degree to which taxonomy depends on phylogenies differs between schools of taxonomy: ‘numerical taxonomy’ ignored phylogeny altogether, trying to represent the similarity between organisms instead; ‘phylogenetic systematics’ tries to reproduce phylogeny in its classification without loss of information; ‘evolutionary taxonomy’ tries to find a compromise between them in order to represent stages of evolution.
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October 18, 2012
Calvinball is a game played by Calvin and Hobbes as a rebellion against organized team sports; according to Hobbes, ‘No sport is less organized than Calvinball!’ The game was first introduced to the readers at the end of a 1990 storyline involving Calvin reluctantly joining recess baseball. It quickly became a staple of the comic afterwards.
The only hint at the true creation of the sport ironically comes from the last Calvinball strip, in which a game of football quickly devolves into a game of Calvinball. Calvin remarks that ‘sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball,’ Calvin and Hobbes usually play by themselves, although in one storyline Rosalyn (Calvin’s babysitter) plays in return for Calvin doing his homework, and plays very well once she realizes that the rules are made up on the spot.
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October 18, 2012
Nomic is a game created in 1982 by philosopher Peter Suber in which the rules of the game include mechanisms for the players to change those rules, usually beginning through a system of democratic voting. According to Suber, the primary activity of Nomic is proposing changes in the rules, debating the wisdom of changing them in that way, voting on the changes, deciding what can and cannot be done afterwards, and doing it. Even this core of the game, of course, can be changed.’
The term ‘nomic’ actually refers to a large number of games based on the initial ruleset laid out by Suber in his book ‘The Paradox of Self-Amendment. The game is in some ways modeled on modern government systems. It demonstrates that in any system where rule changes are possible, a situation may arise in which the resulting laws are contradictory or insufficient to determine what is in fact legal. Because the game models (and exposes conceptual questions about) a legal system and the problems of legal interpretation, it is named after ‘nomos,’ the Greek word for ‘law.’
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October 18, 2012
Metagaming is a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game. Another definition refers to the game universe outside of the game itself. In simple terms, it is the use of out-of-game information or resources to affect one’s in-game decisions.
The term metagame arose in mathematics, passed to military use, and then to politics to describe actions or events that may have been originally thought of as outside the bounds of the situation in question, but that in fact play an important role in its outcome. For example, a specific military operation could be thought of as a game, with the political ramifications of that operation on the war in general as the metagame.
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October 18, 2012
Cheating in video games involves a player using non-standard methods for creating an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually to make the game easier. Cheats sometimes may take the form of ‘secrets’ placed by game developers themselves. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (‘cheat code’ implemented by the original game developers); or created by third-party software (‘game trainer’) or hardware (‘cheat cartridge’).
They can also be realized by exploiting software bugs. Cheating in video games has existed for almost their entire history. The first cheat codes were put in place for play testing purposes. Playtesters had to rigorously test the mechanics of a game and introduced cheat codes to make this process easier. An early cheat code can be found in ‘Manic Miner,’ where typing ‘6031769’ (based on developer Matthew Smith’s driving licence) enables the cheat mode.
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October 18, 2012
Gaming etiquette refers to the norms adopted while playing multi-player video games. While specific genres and games have their own accepted rules of conduct, some of these rules are universal across almost all games. Regardless of the game, certain behaviors are universally encouraged or discouraged.
Cheating is almost never acceptable unless all players agree it should be allowed, as it causes the game to become unfair and detracts from the enjoyment of legitimate players.
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October 18, 2012
A reward is a appetitive stimulus given to a human or some other animal to alter its behavior. Rewards typically serve as a reinforcers, something that, when presented after a behavior, causes the probability of that behavior’s occurrence to increase.
Note that just because something is labelled a reward does not necessitate it as a reinforcer. A reward can only be said to be a reinforcer if its delivery has increased the probability of a behavior. Certain neural structures, called the reward system, are critically involved mediating the effects of reinforcement.
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