Guild Wars 2

Fact: Skritt are known to be more intelligent when amassed in groups. Their IQ increases in proportion to the amount of skritt in the surrounding area.

Observation (1): The skritt living in small groups out in the wild speak plainly with little variety in their vocabulary. Their well known phrases are grammatically incorrect.

“More come yes?”
“You ran from Skritt!”
Etc.

This usually comes from hostile Skritt – who are intent to steal ‘shinies’. However, friendly skritt seem to speak in a slightly more constructive language. (At least the ones able to be negotiated with). And such skritt are usually intent to trade with adventurers for the ‘shinies’ instead of outright steal them.

Conclusion: The smart skritt that amass in groups are more inclined to speak proper grammar, and tend to take interest in trade.

Now…

Observation (2): Let’s look at Lion’s Arch. We have skritt living there. But have you heard them converse? The one near the Black Lion merchants is driving the human trader crazy with her marketing tactics. Two skritt by the square speak in proper grammar, and have a broader range of vocabulary. These are examples of very intelligent skritt, and one of them is interested in the market.

Query: Where the heck are all the other skritt in LA? There’s gotta be a whole underground city of smart rodents to match the other skritt’s intellect. Where in the world could that many skritt be hiding?

D:
You have a really good point. We know the Skritt live underground, so it’s possible there are tunnels under Lions Arch.

But also you have to consider that the NPC’s we see in Lions Arch are only a partial representation – it’s a thriving city and trading port, so there are a lot more people in LA than what we see on screen. So I guess you could easily argue that there are tons of Skritt in LA, just as there are tons of Asura, and Humans, and Sylvari etc. we just see a small visual representation of them.

Any advanced city have implemented a pest management system, to prevent the fast growth and sequential infestation. Rodents are a menace to Lion’s Arch and should be erased.

With the hate Asura have for the Skritt, i would believe that they are the ones responsible for relieving the city of such threat. Till the last one of them!

/cheers

But think….how many skritt are in LA if they can speak this elegantly?

Perhaps they don’t need just skritt around them to be more intelligent, other sentient beeings may have thesame effect on them.
So skritt living in a crowded multicultural area like Lions Arch could be intelligent because there are simply a lot of people there.

QUICK KILL IT!!!!

Ironvos.9014:

Perhaps they don’t need just skritt around them to be more intelligent, other sentient beeings may have thesame effect on them.
So skritt living in a crowded multicultural area like Lions Arch could be intelligent because there are simply a lot of people there.

That a realty cool idea and changes to a hive mind more of a if a person is near other ppl who are smart they too become smarter. In a way that a lot like how humans work.

Skritt possess a ‘hive-mind,’ or so we are lead to believe. We are told as much during one of the personal story missions (think I was vigil when I did it, lots and lots of destroyer eggs are involved). Our character points out that the village leader is more intelligent after the scouting party is returned to the fold, and he tells us that skritt are smarter in greater numbers. So I don’t think it’s just that the skritt are around large groups of intelligent people, when it comes to the intelligent ones in LA. I would not be surprised if there were large numbers of skritt in or under LA that we just can’t see, considering (as someone else said) it is a large, prosperous city.

“larger groups of skritt are capable of expressing a greater number of ideas and making a greater number of decisions in a shorter amount of time, so despite the short attention span of an individual skritt, a large group can collectively possess a formidable intellect, and a full-fledged colony can rival even the asura for cunning” – from the wiki

Jski.6180:

Ironvos.9014:

Perhaps they don’t need just skritt around them to be more intelligent, other sentient beeings may have thesame effect on them.
So skritt living in a crowded multicultural area like Lions Arch could be intelligent because there are simply a lot of people there.

That a realty cool idea and changes to a hive mind more of a if a person is near other ppl who are smart they too become smarter. In a way that a lot like how humans work.

I think the Asura are going to disagree with that statement…they’ll say there are too many dumb skritt in their surrounding areas that they simply can’t be leeching off the ‘hive mind’ of the intelligent Asura.

Arikyali.5804:

Jski.6180:

Ironvos.9014:

Perhaps they don’t need just skritt around them to be more intelligent, other sentient beeings may have thesame effect on them.
So skritt living in a crowded multicultural area like Lions Arch could be intelligent because there are simply a lot of people there.

That a realty cool idea and changes to a hive mind more of a if a person is near other ppl who are smart they too become smarter. In a way that a lot like how humans work.

I think the Asura are going to disagree with that statement…they’ll say there are too many dumb skritt in their surrounding areas that they simply can’t be leeching off the ‘hive mind’ of the intelligent Asura.

Well… what dose that say about Asura intelligent hehe. Odds are its more about diversity of minds Asura tend to think the same you may have a few oddballs but for the most part Asura have a very set way of thinking so there is less for the skritt to work with or get in that type of settings. Say in LA there is a lot of diversity of minds for the skritt to be smart so the skritt in LA are far smarter then though in a test lab.

Look at it this way to test something you must first interfere with the test subject. The fact that ppl are near the skritt may cause them to become smarter.

The reason Skritt are smarter in larger groups is that they communicate in a high speed near binary language. One skritt proposes an idea then the community as a whole analyze it propose changes and vote on the best course of action. Imagine the Collaborative Development Initiative only with near instantaneous response and parsing from all participants. When a skritt talks fast to a human and seems impatient it is because their natural mode of communication is several orders of magnitude faster. So if a skritt is speaking with someone and they sound smart it is because the skritt community in the area is helping that skritt know what to say.

This of course backs the theory that there is a massive number of skritt in lions arch.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

D:

But also you have to consider that the NPC’s we see in Lions Arch are only a partial representation – it’s a thriving city and trading port, so there are a lot more people in LA than what we see on screen. So I guess you could easily argue that there are tons of Skritt in LA, just as there are tons of Asura, and Humans, and Sylvari etc. we just see a small visual representation of them.

I think this is the answer.

“With you it’s always cause and effect. Input output. Your thinking doesn’t have enough angles!”
“What…?”
“My point ex-actly!”

The upper limit on Skritt intelligence can be just as much of a barrier to communication as when they are operating as near-bestial lone gatherers. When you’re so smart it’s annoying to have to slow down and explain yourself to an Asura using only three dimensional words in linear time, yeah, conflicts are going to arise .

That said, we do see tons of Skritt literally dropping down out of the rafters during the escort the gift Dolyaks events in Lion’s Arch, so my vote is there are whole warrens of them up in the attics of a number of the city’s buildings and maybe some of the bridges too .

Some of them mention going down to the sewers, so between that and the fact that LA is scaled down (there are a lot more houses and people off-camera), there probably is a big skritt population lurking around.

Edit: part of why there are so many in LA right now that are all arglebargle is that they escaped Tixx’s experiments.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/If-a-skritt-is-corrupted/first#post3206227 you may find this useful

Ironvos.9014:

Perhaps they don’t need just skritt around them to be more intelligent, other sentient beeings may have thesame effect on them.
So skritt living in a crowded multicultural area like Lions Arch could be intelligent because there are simply a lot of people there.

Not really possible, Skritt have a “hive mind” by rapidly communicating with eachother in a way other species can’t hear. So other species shouldn’t have any effect on their collective intelligence.

Infamous Darkness.3284:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/If-a-skritt-is-corrupted/first#post3206227 you may find this useful

Having the common language as their second language is a good point, but the skritt in LA are still strategic (the one in the market for example). And that requires intellect.

I spotted two skritt in LA talking about an ‘above ground’ market and an ‘under ground’ market. Not word for word, but their conversation was something like this:

“Did you go to the market today?”
“Which one? The one above or the one below?”
“I don’t go to the one below. And neither do you!”
“Oh, uh…I was getting my lice treated.”

And skritt go to the sewers, so maybe that is where this underground market is – and this skritt gathering. So it stands to reason there really is an underground city in LA…

As Nike said, you see HORDES of Skritt appear out of nowhere when escorting the Festive Dolyaks. It’s probably like the kittenroach rule; for every Skritt you see, there’s at least 10 more you haven’t seen.