Guild Wars 2

Can it still communicate and influence the rest of the members of its hive mind? It seems like this would be an incredibly quick and efficient way for Jormag to create a small army(pun intended). They may not make the strongest of troops but there are a fair number of them, plus I assume among all of their shines they would have some artifacts with magical power that could be gifted to the dragon.

By all that we know, skritt don’t have a “hive mind”, just a method of unbelievably fast and efficient communication. Still, I would agree that one corrupted skritt could convince other skritt to become corrupted, though this would be on a scratch-by-scratch basis, not the whole race at once. They’d probably be more useful as scouts or infiltrators, rather than a case of overwhelming numbers, as any one scratch isn’t particularly numerous (Skrittsburgh excepted); and the odds of a given scratch having any magical artifacts, let alone one of particular value, is slim to none.

All in all, while corrupting skritt may make for a good harassment technique, there isn’t much to be gained by it.

As Aaron said, it’s not a hive mind. They just talk really fast, which allows them to discuss amongst themselves fast enough to understand things quicker – and their talking is fast enough that it just seems to other races that they become smarter.

This said, I do not think that a corrupted skritt would be able to talk his way into making others corrupted. No more than a corrupted human would eventually talk another human into accepting corruption.

Hmm… I think I’d disagree with that. Humans each have their own individual understanding of what the corruption would do to them and why that’d be a bad thing. Skritt may not- off the top of my head I can’t think of any skritt community that has had any interactions with dragon minions beyond “bad things trying to kill us all”, so they may easily lack the cultural experience, not to mention individual sophistication, to understand that serving a dragon will destroy everything that they are. If a corrupted skritt, something that they’d have no reason to be suspicious of, came up and said “Hey, this dragon makes lots and lots of shinies that he’ll share with us”, most of the scratch would waste no time rushing to the nearest crystal. If any escaped that experience they might know better, but there is no shortage of examples proving that skritt will play with the proverbial fire until they get burned- and when the burn is dragon corruption, there’s no escape or healing.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

As Aaron said, it’s not a hive mind. They just talk really fast, which allows them to discuss amongst themselves fast enough to understand things quicker – and their talking is fast enough that it just seems to other races that they become smarter.

This said, I do not think that a corrupted skritt would be able to talk his way into making others corrupted. No more than a corrupted human would eventually talk another human into accepting corruption.

In the Skritt sympathy Story, after you round up a couple of Skritt, their speaking abilities actually seem to improve (Grammar, etc.). Wouldn’t that imply that they actually get smarter?

It’s one of those many, many, many things Anet hasn’t delved too deep into, but the way they explain it, the skritt don’t get smarter- but the larger the group, the better the odds one of them might happen to have a better solution, and then that one can instantaneously share it with the rest. As for the new-found capacity for having the right word to express their ideas… that’s harder to explain, but a spike in intelligence wouldn’t account for it either. To take a stab in the dark, my guess would be that a skritt is able to benefit from the collective vocabulary of the entire group, by means of the other skritt in their own way all suggesting what his next normal word should be.

The skritt naturally evolve a leader as they begin to gather permanently in one place; that leader is usually chosen for his or her ability to most rapidly parse the information brought by other skritt. The rest of their race at that location respect the leader as something of a first-among-equals, allowing that individual to choose future strategies and plans for the entire colony. The entire group gathers en masse at least once every moon (usually on the full or new moon, as it is easiest to note) in order to share large-scale information. They commune, discuss the events of the past month, and prepare for any difficulties they know to be approaching during the next moon.

The most likely theory (It is eventually confirmed in game) is that the skritt simply communicate so rapidly that, when together, they can vet their ideas and choose the best one within seconds, rather than going with whatever plan each individual first conceived. Certainly, the skritt have exceptionally sharp auditory skills. They can communicate with one another almost instantly if they are within earshot. If you meet one skritt alone, he might not appear particularly intelligent, but if you meet several, they can discuss their surroundings in amazingly swift, almost ultrasonic chirrups and chitters, and are able to process information and make more intelligent decisions. Therefore, the skritt seem less intelligent in small groups and more intelligent when they gather in larger ones. Because of this, the skritt in their scratches are the most intelligent—and possibly the most dangerous.

This is the reason for their change in speaking “ability”. It’s not what the skritt are limited to but that the skritt assume everyone else has all the info they do:

Skritt have some difficulty communicating with other species. Due to the unique method of their race’s interpersonal communication, skritt often simply assume you know what they’re talking about. They also assume that you have the ability to keep up with their fast-paced idea transfer, and will speak rapidly and without specifics—because another skritt would simply understand without needing those details. Skritt also occasionally get over-excited and repeat themselves to make sure the “slow-witted not-skritt” actually understand them.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Those_Sneaky,_Sneaky_Skritt

Skritt problem isn’t in their intelligence, it’s in their ability to focus. But multiple skritt examine problems from multiple viewpoints. That’s why skritt NPC’s say the asura thoughts are “too linear”.

There is a personal storyline where the skritt steal destroyer eggs and get into trouble. I don’t remember any suggestion of them being corrupted or being more susceptible due to their hive intelligence. Their biggest weakness was their individual stupidity.

Sorry for the poor explanation that follows:

There’s a theory on A.I. development that assumes that you can ‘teach’ a brain or a computer by allowing it to make connections with other ‘units’. The more connections you make, the smarter the brain/computer becomes, to the point where it can start learning things from experience.

To me, the Skritt seem to be exactly that. They’re communicating at such high speeds (on ultra high frequencies only they can hear) that they start to make ‘connections’ to eachtother like a brain connecting cells. They don’t have a memory per sé, but everything is constantly repeated and improved upon. Once they split up again, they lose that ‘collective memory’ like the RAM on a PC.

It may be a little hazy, but this is how I picture the Skritt intelligence working. They’re essentially learning on the fly through a large, united discussion, in a very rapid pace. But individually, they can hardly store or use any of that knowledge.

Again, sorry for the poor explanation. It all makes sense in my head, but I have no idea how to properly put it to writing.

acedragonz.9387:

In the Skritt sympathy Story, after you round up a couple of Skritt, their speaking abilities actually seem to improve (Grammar, etc.). Wouldn’t that imply that they actually get smarter?

Beyond what Dustfinger said, I view it as the skritt’s discussing amongst each other the “proper way” to speak to other races. They speak to each other in chirp sounds, they don’t usually use the shared language of Tyria.

Think of it like people who are not native English speakers talking to others in their native tongue to discuss the proper English grammar – and just view this native language to be an extremely fast speaking language.

They don’t become smarter – no more than you and I would by conversing with people if we all talked really fast – but they seem like they become smarter, by knowing how to properly talk and being able to discuss amongst themselves more.