A game involving

By Prince J. Grimes December 25, pm ET. By now, your travel plans are finalized, gifts are under the tree, dinner is marinating and Christmas music — good or not — has been blaring for several days now. The only thing missing to make this holiday season complete is the perfect parlay for the Christmas Day slate of games. The NBA has always been the main sports attraction on the Christmas holiday and that remains the case despite a wave of COVID outbreaks that threatened to change the look of its five-game slate.

A couple other players outside the rotation are also out. In fact, the Nets are 1. That only increases the value of a Lakers win. LA is mostly healthy, sans Anthony Davis, and one of these vintage LeBron James games has to eventually translate to a win, right?

As I think on genetics as a concept, I would include plot devices like genetically modified super-soldiers and genetic mutant creatures but also heredity and breeding. However, I think it's important to constrain the definition so that you're not just creating a list of "games involving mutant creatures" or "games involving heredity", so the genetic component of those sub-concepts should be specifically called out in the game.

Most of these games are likely to be in the science fiction genre, though there may be a few in other genres as well. To me, the ur-example is Metal Gear Solid. In this game, genetics is clearly called out as a component of the narrative multiple times and in numerous ways. I think this list should include games that are similarly direct about the inclusion of genetics, which means a game like Starcraft is also included because some Terrans in the narrative are genetically modified, and the Zerg and Protoss races are the result of genetic experiments by a progenitor race called the Xel'naga.

With these definitions in mind, let's construct a list of games including the concept of genetics! Solid and Liquid Snake are "clones" of Big Boss.

Liquid claims to have "all the recessive genes" and that Solid has "the dominant ones". The FOX-DIE virus is a virus that is specifically coded to attack particular individuals based on genetics and cause a heart attack. The game also concludes with a discussion of genes and memes the latter of which is a term coined by geneticist Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene" to describe the transmission of ideas between individuals. There is also the plot point that FOX-DIE is mutating such that it will eventually infect anyone not just those it was originally targeting and could wipe out humanity.

The concept of "genetic memory" is brought up in Xenogears, as is the concept of genetic engineering. Westbrook was briefly in the protocols late last week, before returning at least three negative tests and being cleared to return to play without missing a game. The league and the National Basketball Players Association have been discussing a plan in which teams in desperate need of players would be able to sign reinforcements to day contracts but without those deals impacting salary cap and luxury tax figures.

That deal has not yet been finalized, though talks are continuing. Email to a Friend.