[TV] Deadliest Warrior

[Oerwinde]

Is anyone else watching this? I actually got pretty excited the first time I saw an ad. Its pretty interesting so far. Though what gets me is they have the perfect opportunity to finally settle the age old question of Pirate vs Ninja and they put Pirate against Medieval Knight, and Ninja against Spartan.

 

Seeing that katana cut through two and a half pigs was pretty crazy.

 

Edit: Does anyone else think we need an official TV thread?

Edited April 15, 2009 by Oerwinde

[Slowtrain]

I've been watching Warriors on the Hsitory channel, which is kinda the same thing. ALthough it looks at Warrior Cultures as a whole rather than individual fighting 1 on 1.

 

So far Warriors has looked at Vikings, The Maya, English knights ,Samurai, German Barbarians.

 

I think Terry Schappert is a great host. The show is pretty interesting, though as usual with these things there is a little too much LARPING and renactments for my tastes.

 

I remember seeing an ad for the show you are talkign about, but at the time I thought it seemed a little too goofy to bother with.

 

History Channel and Discovery Channel are pretty much the only things I watch on TV

 

 

Edit: The show you are talking about is on SPIKE TV right? WHich is one of the reasons I dismissed the show as most likely being extremely silly.

Edited April 15, 2009 by CrashGirl

[Hurlshort]

There is another one where these two guys go around the world learning different fighting styles. Then they take on a few locals using that style. It's pretty awesome. Surprisingly I think it's on the travel channel or something.

[Slowtrain]

There is another one where these two guys go around the world learning different fighting styles. Then they take on a few locals using that style. It's pretty awesome. Surprisingly I think it's on the travel channel or something.

 

 

I thknk you are talking about Fight Quest on the Discovery Channel with Jimmy Smith and Doug Anderson.

 

Its a pretty good show, but ti hasn't been on much recently. I think its had 2 short seasons to this point.

 

Its sometimes a little cringeworthy watching how bad the guys are at some of the styles they try, but they only have a week to learn what other people spend all their lives practicing.

 

I think its remarkable how well they do at their end of the training week fights against native fighters and a tribute to their own skills and toughness in their choosen disciplines.

 

Jimmy, I think, is particularly a tough fighter with his long MMA background, but he often has difficulty with the complex and nuanced moves of the native styles.

 

I keep hoping for a new season.

[Gorgon]

I think back to back seasons might be a little hard on the presenters. They seemed to end up with injuries resulting from grueling training regimens in practically every episode.

[theslug]

Yeah fight quest was pretty sweet most of the time but the duo was an odd one. I'd never heard of the mma fighter and having a football player was like Eh? They do however have a new show on travel channel that kind of follows a similar tactic and that's Dhani Tackles the Globe. It's a football player Dhani Jones who goes to different countries and tries out their "sport" whether it's rugby or martial arts and he takes a week to learn what he can and then he goes against someone at the end to show his skill. I've only seen like 2 and a half episodes but it seems legit. I have noticed however that Dhani is a little immature, he'll sometimes whine and take umbrage with a call against him, whether he deserved it or not you have to let those kinds of things slide in those situations and just man up.

 

I've also seen the the first episode of Deadliest Warrior and it seemed somewhat neat. I'm not sure how long the premise can really last since there's only so many notable warriors and I can definitely see the novelty wearing off. Also I wasn't too inclined to the rivalry presented, not sure if that was something production wanted or if it was some "native pride" but it just wasn't something I wanted. On the plus side you can't go wrong with Chuck Liddel slicing meat with his punches.

[Slowtrain]

having a football player was like Eh?

 

 

Were there different hosts in an earlier version? Doug ANderson is 5'6" tall, skinny, and ex-military. I wasn't aware he played football.

 

Jimmy isn't the most famous MMA dude around but he has some cred.

 

As usual with tv shows like this, charisma and physical appearance are just as important as actually having street cred. Ultimately it's about entertainign people, mostly non-fighters, and getting them to watch.

[theslug]

Whoops I was thinking about a totally different guy from a completely different fight show.

[Oerwinde]

I've been watching Warriors on the Hsitory channel, which is kinda the same thing. ALthough it looks at Warrior Cultures as a whole rather than individual fighting 1 on 1.

 

So far Warriors has looked at Vikings, The Maya, English knights ,Samurai, German Barbarians.

 

I think Terry Schappert is a great host. The show is pretty interesting, though as usual with these things there is a little too much LARPING and renactments for my tastes.

 

I remember seeing an ad for the show you are talkign about, but at the time I thought it seemed a little too goofy to bother with.

 

History Channel and Discovery Channel are pretty much the only things I watch on TV

 

 

Edit: The show you are talking about is on SPIKE TV right? WHich is one of the reasons I dismissed the show as most likely being extremely silly.

 

 

Well what deadliest warrior does is they demonstrate various weapons and techniques for each warrior, have doctors and such examine how that affects forensic dummies, sensors, and the armor of the warriors, then plug it all into a computer program that simulates 1000 battles, and whichever wins the most of those thousand is deemed the winner. Samurai beat Viking last night, and Apache beat Gladiator last week. Spartan vs Ninja is next week.

[Gorgon]

Doesn't sound particularly scientific.

[Gfted1]

Doesn't sound particularly scientific.

 

 

Well, its all for the lulz. After all, they cannot measure the single most important factor, individual skill.

[Oerwinde]

One review described it as men's drunken arguments with a budget. They said it that in a negative way, but thats exactly what I figured it was and I love it.

[Monte Carlo]

They need to make "Ultimate Geek!" where different groups of gamers could show off their skillz.

 

Series One could focus on the eternal emnity between WoW button-mashers and Goth V:TM LARPers.

[Monte Carlo]

Apache beat Gladiator

 

Which is about as useful as saying "A grapefruit beat an orange in a zesty-fruit drink competition."

 

Gladiators came from any number of backgrounds with a range of martial skills and abilities over a period of hundreds of years. How did they configure their 'typical' model gladiator, just out of interest?

 

Mind you, an Apache armed with a Winchester rifle owns the average Gladiator wielding a cestus or trident, I suppose.

 

Cheers

MC

[Slowtrain]

The most important question: was the gladiator in a chariot?

 

 

Gladiators in chariots rule.

[Monte Carlo]

Clearly, the chariot issue goes without saying. Ben Hur versus, say, the 12th SS Panzer Division? No contest.

[ouiouiwewe]

Heh, I'd say the Deadliest Warrior is meant for casual entertainment and little more (well, it's cool to see the power of the weapons and moves). In terms of the scientific process, the whole show is a joke (and they have a biomed engineerer no less!).

 

Due to the complexity of the system and heterogeneity of weapons and fighting styles, there's actually no conceivable way to come up with a model that is even remotely accurate short of getting doing a detailed FPS-like model or getting 1k real gladiators and apaches fighting each other. The final cut-scene alone raises questions on the way the process is done - the gladiator punched out the apache and let him catch a breath (guess hubris/idiocy is supposed to be a gladiator-only trait).

 

Judging from what I saw on the screen, I assume their model works by entering probability coefficients and then do some sort of Markov process. How they got those probability values? Probably just made them up. Where do they condition those probabilities on? Probably just one environment rather than a set of different types of battlegrounds (enclosed, forest, grass field, etc).

 

Aside from the modeling aspect, I think gladiators fight with long-ranged weapons. Though I am not sure if they actually used bows (despite the fact that Romans definitely had some very sophisticated bows developed back then), throwing spears were definitely used.

 

Finally, the ego thing b/w the two types of fighters is annoying. But then again, it is SpikeTV - a station that promotes testosterone. I do hope they didn't fix the fights to just to please certain warriors though (i.e. native pride was so prominent in the first episode).

[Oerwinde]

Apache beat Gladiator

 

Which is about as useful as saying "A grapefruit beat an orange in a zesty-fruit drink competition."

 

Gladiators came from any number of backgrounds with a range of martial skills and abilities over a period of hundreds of years. How did they configure their 'typical' model gladiator, just out of interest?

 

Mind you, an Apache armed with a Winchester rifle owns the average Gladiator wielding a cestus or trident, I suppose.

 

Cheers

MC

 

Gladiator was wielding Cestus, Scissor, Sling, and some angled sword I don't remember what it was called. Gladiator was decked out in standard armored helmet and arm armor.

 

Apache wielded knives, tomahawk, bow and arrow, and war club.

 

The dramatization at the end is just to showcase all the weapons and have kind of a suspenseful way of revealing the winner. It doesn't represent any actual battle.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Oerwinde

[Walsingham]

Doesn't sound particularly scientific.

 

 

Well, its all for the lulz. After all, they cannot measure the single most important factor, individual skill.

 

What about operational skill? Surely where and when you fight is equally important? Otherwise how would a zulu with a spear ever beat a redcoat with a breach-loading rifle? Also, what program are they using?

[Monte Carlo]

What about operational skill? Surely where and when you fight is equally important? Otherwise how would a zulu with a spear ever beat a redcoat with a breach-loading rifle? Also, what program are they using?

 

Precisely, however in case of the Zulu Wars sheer weight of numbers (and, no doubt, sheer bravery... a difficult factor to measure) had something to do with it, which clearly isn't part of the equation. Ditto Communist Chinese 'wave attacks' in the Korean War.

 

Which is why this programme, although it sounds amusing, is utterly pointless. One high-tech Delta commando versus ten bog-standard third world infantrymen with AKs? Action movies notwithstanding, the smart money is on the ten guys with AKs. However, factor in force multipliers like comms, indirect fire support, aerial surveillance, night vision and you have a different story.

 

You see, there's actually an interesting counter-factual military history programme lurking in there, somewhere. It just hasn't actually surfaced.

 

Cheers

MC

[Azure79]

This shows sounds entertaining. I'll have to watch the Ninja vs. Spartan one. Wouldn't the ninja not really fight fair though?

[alanschu]

Apache beat Gladiator

 

Which is about as useful as saying "A grapefruit beat an orange in a zesty-fruit drink competition."

 

Gladiators came from any number of backgrounds with a range of martial skills and abilities over a period of hundreds of years. How did they configure their 'typical' model gladiator, just out of interest?

 

Mind you, an Apache armed with a Winchester rifle owns the average Gladiator wielding a cestus or trident, I suppose.

 

Cheers

MC

 

 

They consulted some "experts" on gladiator fighting. It's mostly just for fun, and it's fun watching the two camps argue for their side and trash talk.

[Calax]

I've been watching Warriors on the Hsitory channel, which is kinda the same thing. ALthough it looks at Warrior Cultures as a whole rather than individual fighting 1 on 1.

 

So far Warriors has looked at Vikings, The Maya, English knights ,Samurai, German Barbarians.

 

I think Terry Schappert is a great host. The show is pretty interesting, though as usual with these things there is a little too much LARPING and renactments for my tastes.

I watched the one on Samurai... and it seemed less about the samurai and more Musashi and Schappert.

 

It focused too much on the one character rather than the warriors it was supposed to be about.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Though what gets me is they have the perfect opportunity to finally settle the age old question of Pirate vs Ninja

Sniper.

[Slowtrain]

I've been watching Warriors on the Hsitory channel, which is kinda the same thing. ALthough it looks at Warrior Cultures as a whole rather than individual fighting 1 on 1.

 

So far Warriors has looked at Vikings, The Maya, English knights ,Samurai, German Barbarians.

 

I think Terry Schappert is a great host. The show is pretty interesting, though as usual with these things there is a little too much LARPING and renactments for my tastes.

I watched the one on Samurai... and it seemed less about the samurai and more Musashi and Schappert.

 

It focused too much on the one character rather than the warriors it was supposed to be about.

 

 

That one episode did focus on those two.

 

Each episode usually studies a particular warrior culture around a particular event. In most cases, a particularly significant battle. The most recent one focused pretty heavily on the actual tactics employed at the 1565 siege of Malta by the Ottoman Turks, rather than on either the Turks or the Knight s of St. John as a culture.

 

So there is some variation in how each episode presents itself. The samurai episode was the only one that focused some heavily on individuals.