I was wondering if a game such as Star Trek Online should have a place in it that has Religious and Cultural beliefs as a major part of how you (your character) or the world and species you interact with have these traits.

For example should you as a Vulcan meditate and become familiar with the teachings of Surak?

or what about playing as a Bajoran where their religion is such a huge part of their daily life.

This concept as we have seen in many shows has been the breaking point between a successful First Contact or utter disaster.

i think the religious and political aspect would be briliant. klingons need to do rights of passage etc. bajorans need to pray in the temples, even recieve visions from orbs. it could even throw u a couple of extra stats. where humans on the whole are prob the happy average and dont really do all that religious stuff.

it would be damn good if u could become emissary for a fortnight, or the kai for a limited time. i suppose the emissary positions gone, but i can hope!

it would add yet another dimension to the game.

Well, I hope stuff like this will be side stuff, and may even have ts rewards :P

To be honest I think its a great idea to have a "trait" system that is like a template for how NPCs will react to your avatar. These traits could include:

-Backround (how/where you were raised)
-Religion (even having no religion would effect how people react to you)
-Political Stance (what ideals you follow)

Obviously some traits like where you were born and how you were raised would be "permanent" and set in stone, and others like religion and political stance could be changed because throught life people change their ideals from time to time.

Its funny how many storylines in Trek are based around the interaction of differnt peoples and their ideals, and in my mind its almost like Trek is trying to say, if we can't become tolerant (at least to a basic dagree) on earth, how are we going to expand into space when we meet thousands of other possible races with their thousands of ideals?

So I say the devs shouldn't shy away from these "heavy" topics because they are at the heart of what Trek is all about.

I don't mind different political or religous beliefs being topics of exploration within STO.

However, I do not feel that STO should be used as a platform to comment on various topics of Religious or Cultural relevance.

What I mean by that: The players in an MMO build their world around them, and shape their characters in such a way. I think it is alright for the devs to throw in religious or cultural aspects, so long as in the end, the player is making the choice which way they or their character leans, and to that end, STO as a platform is not being used to tell players "you should feel this way, otherwise you are wrong." That doesn't make STO an immersive world, but rather turns it into a soapbox.