TMC
03-22-2017, 03:32 PM
http://www.denofgeek.com/us/games/mass-effect/262932/mass-effects-hidden-kirkpicard-morality-system
Consider Captain Kirk. Kirk was created at a time when the Star Trek franchise still drew heavily from the well of Western genre conventions. Fittingly, then, Kirk is a bit of a cowboy. You can't exactly label him a “shoot first, ask questions later” kind of guy, but there is a brashness to his decisions which is indicative of that gunslinger mentality.
Kirk loves and respects his crew, but he never affords them the opportunity to forget he is the captain. He often makes split second decisions based on his instincts. This makes him an effective leader in many ways, but it also makes him an emotional leader who is prone to conceding the point to this anger.
Picard, meanwhile, is a man of logic. He’s a bit like Spock in that way. It’s not that he’s necessarily more intelligent than Kirk, but he’s a man who respects the fact that he is surrounded by some of the greatest minds in their respective fields.
He’s going to make the final decision, but he’s not going to make that decision until he’s had time to consider the advice of others. Ultimately, it's his goal to maintain the morality of the Federation by pursuing the best option available to him. He's a neutral character with a tendency to side towards lawful.
If you focus on this one set of character differences, you might be tempted to label Kirk as the Renegade and Picard as the Paragon. However, you also have to consider that Kirk’s passions extend well beyond his decision making. As evidenced in episodes like "City on the Edge of Forever," which sees Kirk struggle to let a woman die in order to prevent the Nazis from winning the war, he finds it difficult to make decisions he knows to be right if it will put those close to him in harm’s way. Yes, he’s brash and prone to aggressive strategies, but he desires to love and be loved. He’s someone many people secretly want to be.
Picard isn’t like that. A critic once said that he felt like he was listening to a social worker whenever Picard spoke to the Next Generation crew. Perhaps that’s harsh, but it speaks to Picard’s outwardly cold nature. His logical approach means that he treats even the direst situations as a blank slate, just as it sometimes affords him the ability to embrace ambiguities that Kirk might otherwise shun.
He accepts that “villainous” minds like Q exist in the universe and do not always need to be defeated by traditional means. He doesn't see everyone who opposes him as an opponent that needs to be defeated. He is also able to accept tragedies, such as the one that occurs at the end of "The Inner Light" when Picard must accept that an entire race of people he has grown to love have been destroyed because he accepts that even tragedies have a role to play in the universe.
The functionality of these characters’ respective moral compasses is exactly the kind of complex mechanic that BioWare seemingly desired to capture via Paragon/Renegade. That’s why it’s so fascinating to accurately recreate Kirk and Picard through the Mass Effect morality system.
Rather than being encouraged to lean towards one direction or the other in order to unlock some new gameplay ability or advance an ongoing personal effort, the Kirk/Picard method truly forces you to consider the merit of all available options in order to complete your goal of answering “What would Kirk do?” or “What would Picard do?”
Consider Captain Kirk. Kirk was created at a time when the Star Trek franchise still drew heavily from the well of Western genre conventions. Fittingly, then, Kirk is a bit of a cowboy. You can't exactly label him a “shoot first, ask questions later” kind of guy, but there is a brashness to his decisions which is indicative of that gunslinger mentality.
Kirk loves and respects his crew, but he never affords them the opportunity to forget he is the captain. He often makes split second decisions based on his instincts. This makes him an effective leader in many ways, but it also makes him an emotional leader who is prone to conceding the point to this anger.
Picard, meanwhile, is a man of logic. He’s a bit like Spock in that way. It’s not that he’s necessarily more intelligent than Kirk, but he’s a man who respects the fact that he is surrounded by some of the greatest minds in their respective fields.
He’s going to make the final decision, but he’s not going to make that decision until he’s had time to consider the advice of others. Ultimately, it's his goal to maintain the morality of the Federation by pursuing the best option available to him. He's a neutral character with a tendency to side towards lawful.
If you focus on this one set of character differences, you might be tempted to label Kirk as the Renegade and Picard as the Paragon. However, you also have to consider that Kirk’s passions extend well beyond his decision making. As evidenced in episodes like "City on the Edge of Forever," which sees Kirk struggle to let a woman die in order to prevent the Nazis from winning the war, he finds it difficult to make decisions he knows to be right if it will put those close to him in harm’s way. Yes, he’s brash and prone to aggressive strategies, but he desires to love and be loved. He’s someone many people secretly want to be.
Picard isn’t like that. A critic once said that he felt like he was listening to a social worker whenever Picard spoke to the Next Generation crew. Perhaps that’s harsh, but it speaks to Picard’s outwardly cold nature. His logical approach means that he treats even the direst situations as a blank slate, just as it sometimes affords him the ability to embrace ambiguities that Kirk might otherwise shun.
He accepts that “villainous” minds like Q exist in the universe and do not always need to be defeated by traditional means. He doesn't see everyone who opposes him as an opponent that needs to be defeated. He is also able to accept tragedies, such as the one that occurs at the end of "The Inner Light" when Picard must accept that an entire race of people he has grown to love have been destroyed because he accepts that even tragedies have a role to play in the universe.
The functionality of these characters’ respective moral compasses is exactly the kind of complex mechanic that BioWare seemingly desired to capture via Paragon/Renegade. That’s why it’s so fascinating to accurately recreate Kirk and Picard through the Mass Effect morality system.
Rather than being encouraged to lean towards one direction or the other in order to unlock some new gameplay ability or advance an ongoing personal effort, the Kirk/Picard method truly forces you to consider the merit of all available options in order to complete your goal of answering “What would Kirk do?” or “What would Picard do?”