Probably not. Hive mind species are one of the genre cliches of sci-fi, and have been probably since even before sci-fi movies were being made.

Orcs are actually not in all fantasy games, usually there are goblins, but orcs aren't as common. Elves and dwarves have roots in European mythology, which is what most fantasy settings are based on. And demons/evil spirits are found in most religions worldwide.

Edit: and looking up group mind on wikipedia shows the oldest mention of hive-mind is very similar to the modern zerg. It was from 1930. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_and_First_Men#Human_species (Eighteenth Men)

"The most advanced humans of all. "Superficially we seem to be not one species but many." (One interesting aspect of the Eighteenth Men is that they have a number of different "sub-genders," variants on the basic male and female pattern, with distinctive temperaments. The Eighteenth Men's equivalent of the family unit includes one of each of these sub-genders and is the basis of their society. The units have the ability to act as a group mind, which eventually leads to the establishment of a single ground mind uniting the entire species.)"

Its a sci-fi baddy which is merely the result of a combination of the sci-fi tropes of a hive-mind and giant bugs, it was around way before Cameron crawled out of his cradle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_mind_(science_fiction)

So then, when was the first combination of the tropes used?

Again ... I personally think that the first "real combination" of the tropes wasn't in effect until the MOVIE Starship Troopers because the book left it up to interpretation.

Hive mind humans are boring and don't fill the quota at all

Still, I felt that the "buggy" part of the trope-combo (and really Alien-Bugs are a trope unto themselves) was crafted to become 80% of what we see in Tyranids and Zerg today in the movie Aliens.

If you merely mean that, Yes-there were Giant Bugs back in the 40s and 50s, and yes, there were Hive Minds in the 40s and 50s ... then that doesn't completely qualify.

What I mean, is the fact of scary looking aliens that kinda look like bugs, and are slightly more reptilian, and basically are powerful enough to conquer the entire universe. Sort of like a Super-bad-guy-Alien-monster-trope.

This is different from the normal Alien Dominator trope because these aliens are mindless and animalistic ... and it is only via the RARE intervention of the Hive Mind that they pose an organized military threat ... however their military threat without organization is still quite extreme, due to their vast numbers and rapid reproduction. As well as their tendency to kill everything.

Well, as for the Orc bit ... I just see it as a mistake to lump Orcish lore in with the Tyrannids, in saying the whole "Orcs are part Fungus" and "Orcs replicate by spores."

Orcs were FAR more interesting when they were more like humans, and reproduced in more normal (if still savagely orky) ways. Now they are just noisy bugs that are easier to squash than tyranids

And the games ALWAYS contradict this lore by never having the Orcs use massive numbers to overwhelm their enemy (only tyranids do that) .... I mean, maybe they are true to the lore on table top games, but I have never gotten the idea that Orcs are Fungus/Bugs that can vastly out-produce me in population.

I mean ... orcs are way cooler when they are a semi-primitive warlike society, with vast reproduction and crummy half-technology, and a cast of Weirdboyz society that keeps them in the Space Age "just barely".

For me, the "Spore" part of Orcish lore just seems contrived and detracts from the believability of Orcish culture (imho)

The zerg are animal and vegetable, no mineral.

I'll point out Blizzard is horrendous in their ripping-off of established IPs, or even basic mythology, though you really can't call them on the second one. Almost everything is, so. . .

Anywho, what's the point of this post?

I suppose the post is more of a comment, as opposed to a specifically directed purpose. If you don't find how similar Tyranids and Zerg are to be odd or uncanny, then you don't have to add.

I suppose the real question is which came first? Tyranid or Zerg?

Tyranids were created in 1993

Zerg were created in 1996 or 1997.

Eldar and Protoss

Those two aren't alike at all. Only thing they have in common is that they are the elder hightech race with superior technology.

Eldars armies are expensive, deal high damage, are very fast and focuses on ranged combat. They're fragile though.

Protoss are also EXPENSIVE, got mostly ranged units and do high damage but they're very durable. They also got lots and lots of special abilities like Psi Storm (which the Eldar also got though they call it Psychic Storm), feedback, Blink, Forcefield, Guardian Shield and Hallucination to name most of'em. They got 3 casterunits.

Ender's Game combines the bug and hive mind tropes, and it was written in its first form in 1977.  This successfully predates the movie Aliens and leaves us with an easy counter-point to the original debate.  

There are lots of variations of the bug/hive-mind theme in scifi novels that predate Ender's Game, but I'm not familiar enough with them to point to one that specifically relates.

As for the Protoss, it really isn't hard to come up with an alien race that has superior, expensive technology.  I really don't think we can say anyone ripped off anyone else.  This is especially true in the computer game scene, which is  sixty years late to the party.

The point I was trying to make was that Zerg has some unique differences to the movie Aliens.  The Protoss, however are very much like Predator if Predator had martian psychic abilities, technology and enlightenment.

I wasn't referring to units in specifics except the Space Marines -> Terran Marine bit.

I was saying more along the idea. Though my SC lore is sketchy at best, so Tau may not be the best representative of it. I just thought I remembered a sort of 'Greater Good' idea from the Protoss campaigns. My memory, of course, may be deceiving me.

Really though, now that we've established Tasunke's original problem, it's all argument for the sake of itself, at this point.

(And I would never dare compare Tau Broadsides to Protoss Colossus. How dare you accuse me of something like that. Broadside Suits would tear an army of Colossi apart.)

Thank you for elaborating.