Monday, August 01, 2011

using google to assess the hivemind

On a whim I decided to see what google had to say about some common terms from D&D. The chart below shows the results.


Note that the image results were probably skewed by my choice to leave SafeSearch on moderate.  If you want to google up images of orcs or goblins with SafeSearch off, that's your business.  Here are the first images to come up for the various image seaches:


"orc"

"mage"

"wizard"
[Most of the 1st page of wizard results were Gandalf types.]

"dragon"

"magic-user"
(???)

"dwarf"

"goblin"


"halfling"

"elf"

9 comments:

  1. Not a huge surprise to see so much World of Warcraft and Warhammer stuff in there.

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  2. I certainly hope the armored warrior in the "wizard" picture gets a cure disease cast on him soon to cure that polio.

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  3. I like the dwarf & the goblin.

    The rest aren't my cup of tea.

    I'm an old curmudgeon who likes Otis, Tramps & Dee (Or Gladwell & Mullen of the new brigade).

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  4. Anonymous5:02 AM

    Orcs as big burly savage barbarians are extremely boring to me. They're completely indistinguishable from human burly savage barbarians.

    Woman wearing what is apparently some sort of armour, judging from the pauldrons and bracers, but which goes out of its way to not cover a single vital organ. Plus it looks pretty stupid, especially those metal feather-like things. Probably represents some overwrought fashion fad among high-class ladies rather than anything intended to be worn in combat.

    I don't like anything about big spiky tin can guy, but I'm intrigued by the wizard - if you look at her right forearm, her arms seem to be actually burning away even as she hurls a fireball or whatever it is she's doing. I might steal that.

    That dragon looks insufficiently draconic to me - I like them classic, serpentine, with crocodile smiles and snake eyes. This one just looks dopey. Is it wearing jewellery?

    The drowned magic-user is both bizarre and characterful. Saved for later use.

    The dwarf is suitably quirky, although like the mage I have to question why he bothers wearing spaulders when his entire torso is naked. Presumably fashion is the answer here as well.

    That goblin is evil and nasty, a fairy tale sort, and I approve of everything about him.

    Those halflings are so boring I think I just had a seizure.

    Lastly, picturing all elves as humans wearing pointy ears is probably a good cure for snooty elf syndrome. Kind of like picturing people naked.

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  5. I'd play that dwarf in a second--I want him to live in my basement.

    I have to ask what "hippy" actually means nowadays, since it must not mean what it used to... :)

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  6. Cool.
    Sometimes when I'm googing for images, I like to jump to the 10th page of results just to see what the state space of, say, "medieval boat" is on the interwebs.
    Things can get weird.

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  7. Kesher, I mean't with "hippy" the tree-hugging type, the flower children, you know those types you see in Star Trek episode "The Way to Eden".

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