Breeding Terminology for Future Reference - A Proposal

Breeding Terminology for Future Reference - A Proposal

As this is early access, all existing wolves should either have no heritage, or a very short one, and another thought occurred to me when thinking over that. This post isn't intended to start any drama at all, but rather a thoughtful discussion between members.

What sort of terminology, and what definitions of the terminology, should there be?

On Lioden, there's the (infamous) clean/dirty terms, with plenty of debate about how far back in heritage would inbreeding have to be for it to not count, should it only count if it's a descendent of one of the "big four" individuals, and if it should just be as black and white as absolutely no inbreeding is "clean", and even just one instance of inbreeding is "dirty". There's been plenty of arguments, and even claims of it breaking the game's economy a fair bit.

The trouble with "clean" and "dirty"

Based on both my personal opinions and the opinions of many others when the topic arose in chat, biased terms such as "clean" and "dirty" should probably not be used, though nobody can dictate what others choose to do! The issue with those terms is the connotations of the words, implying that one is better than the other and potentially leading to unsavory community drama here.

Nobody is better or worse for how they choose to play the game, which is part of the game's appeal to many. That should not be challenged by people who wish to feel like they're better than others.

My Proposal

Taking inspiration from what others have said, I propose two terms to be used, if any at all:

Not Inbred (NIB) and Inbred (IB)

Inbred wolves would be wolves that have any instance of inbreeding within their heritage, while Not Inbred wolves would have no instances of inbreeding.

Neither is better than the other, and nobody is obligated to use the terms at all, but they could prove useful if some mutations are more commonly achieved through inbreeding (per rumors/claims - not confirmed to my knowledge) due to recessive genes.

Who would benefit from this?

I think that any players heavily focused on breeding would benefit!

Someone who might be trying to breed for a certain mutation might appreciate knowing if the wolf would have a higher chance of producing it due to being inbred, and others might appreciate knowing if a wolf is inbred or not due to personal preference towards not inbreeding.

Great alternative suggestions!

A couple of people have given some great suggestions for terms to further move away from negative connotations:

Heck (#2831) suggested the terms  Line-Bred (LB) and Not Line-Bred (NLB) to avoid the negative sound of "inbreeding", and because the terms are also used in real-life dog breeding!

Newfluffland (#751) suggested the term Heirloom (HL) rather than Not Line-Bred, as it's used in things like plant breeding to promote wild-type growth and more random expression due to a lack of inbreeding.

VagueShapes (#828) suggested the term Outcrossed (OCR) to go along with Line Bred, used to describe a wolf that has Line-Bred ancestors, but has no repeated ancestors in the closest 5 generations of its heritage

At the end of the day, though, everyone is free to breed however they like, and I think we should all strive to create a kind, supportive community!

Love you all tons,

🍁Jason🍁

I was never really involved in the LD drama, I haven't played in ages, but even not knowing about it I prefer these terms. Whether or not you want to inbreed is up to one's personal preference, people shouldn't be putting others down... its a game! XD

Very well put together, thank you for taking the time to write this! <3

I agree wholeheartedly ^^

To be honest, those terms have always rubbed me the wrong way. There's simply no positive associations for the word "dirty", so you end up implying that whoever uses inbreeding, even to the low level % acceptable for real life domestic animals, is gross and wrong for doing so. Nearly every other breeding focused site (apart from LD) uses "inbred" vs "non-inbred". It just makes sense.

What about using the term line bred? It's the one used in irl dog breeding, and is less... gross sounding than inbred. I feel like inbred vs not inbred is almost worse than clean vs dirty because it has such negative connotations. I definitely don't cringe the same way at line bred/not line bred. 

That's also a good suggestion, I'll edit that in with credit! It definitely makes sense to use that with wolves, since it's used for dogs already

I agree with “linebred” but how about also “heirloom” for the clean?  Line breeding is common in the creation of animal breeds and denotes a line, often of related (inbred) individuals.  Heirloom is used in plant breeding and denotes wild-type results, or the possibility of random genetic expression due to lack of inbreeding.

Oh, that's also good! I'll add that in as well

I've seen some players already using the term, but not everyone knows it so it's definitely good to spread the word around about the terms. Thank you for making this thread as well because I could also point it to other people without having to explain it over repeatedly.

I love the NIB and IB terminology! It's easy to use, easy to remember and not confusing! Something people can easily use