Guinea Pigs!

[KingTux]

I may have seen this last week, but I decided that I'd rather try my luck with Smoke Jaguar. The Guinea Pig is the secret resource of the Mesoamerican conquest. It's so secret that it doesn't exist at all. My question for you is: What ever happened to the ellusive guinea pig? Feel free to be silly with your responses.

For those of you who haven't seen him yet, here he is:

 

[pjmcb]

Actually, according to Jared Diamond's excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Guinea Pigs were one of the very few domesticable animals available to Mesoamerican societies. Diamond cites this truth as a factor in the inability of mesoamerican cultures to progress beyond a certain level; unlike the Europeans, there were no domesticated work animals, and their dependance on such a miniscule mammal as a food source helped prevent them from developing a more protein-rich diet lie the Europeans.

Interesting (and factually accurate) that they made it into the game...

 

[KingTux]

I saw the significance of it, but thought that people would like to come up with their own puns on this easter egg (a second one is "Yumbo!" I've seen it, but fail to see what makes it so great). For one, they failed to create a new resource picture for it. It, if you actually placed it on the map, would look just like the furs do. If I'm not mistaken, this is either a ferret or a mink, much too large to be a Guinea pig.

On second thought, this might not be too funny of an easter egg. I just thought that it was funny that they put it under strategic and wanted people to come up with their own ideas on why he's so rare and elusive. For one, this could be a "killer Guinea pig" that has been unrecorded by history and led to the destruction of the natives after the Europeans came. It's sweet looking like the "killer rabbit", but beware! It hates sunlight and so you never see it. It, however, attacks anyone who comes too close.

It's not necessarily the best idea, but it'll do for now. What about his demise? What led to it? Did it really ever happen at all, or is this just an illusion?

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

I think it is as much an Easter Egg as it could be. Because of a flaw in the AI worker handling (it won't use a Worker unless he can perform all Worker actions), all Conquests do have a 'Dummy' resource to prevent RRs, Airfields, etc. And considering the double meaning of 'Guinea Pig', it's a nice idea.


BTW, eating those pets can be beneficial, since they contain considerable amounts of Vitamine C

 

[necrolyte]

They should have a new guinea pig...

 

[necrolyte]

squeak

 

[warpstorm]

Originally posted by KingTux
(a second one is "Yumbo!" I've seen it, but fail to see what makes it so great)

You had to be there.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Originally posted by warpstorm


You had to be there.

What is exactly is Yumbo?