"Yes, like giving nuclear weapons to cave men. Krogan unprepared for spaceflight, technological advance. Krogan could have evolved alone. Worked out aggression. Been ready to use new tech responsibly. Instead salarians came. Disrupted krogan culture. Used krogan as blunt instrument against rachni. Shortsighted. Foolish."
- Dr. Mordin Solus, Mass Effect 2, Bioware 2009.
This is a quote from my collection of favorite games that I have, Mass Effect 2 from Bioware. The quote was extracted from a conversation between the player, who is controlling Commander Shepard with a Salarian crewmate of his, Dr. Mordin Solus. Being a Salarian, Mordin is a highly metabolized individual who lives short of a human lifetime but think and act faster than most humans do. Once in the Mass Effect universe, there was a war between the intergalactic species with a threat known as the Rachni, a bug-like species who reproduced in a very fast manner that made it a galactic threat when it became hostile. The salarians discovered the Krogans, a breed of highly adaptable species with high fortitude and constitution and also a high regenerative and reproductive rate. The Salarians then uplifted the Krogans by offering them technology in order to fight the Rachni and they succeeded in that. However, Krogans being highly aggressive and not aware of the dangers and consequences involved with such a high destructive armaments that were supplied to them, made war with the whole galaxy and was then subdued by the Salarians who created the Genophage, a substance that was delivered via rivers, waterways etc. to target the reproductive ability of the Krogans to only be able to birth a young with one out of a thousand chance.
Enough about the game. Why did I quote the dialog? Mainly because I agree with it in a sense, especially the part where if we give weapons to men, they will use it in the most aggressive sense without first understanding it. The proof can be seen in history, where people fought over supremacy, warring with each other without having the sense of reason to actually think it through and resolve the conflict diplomatically in a sensible manner. We see men fight and kill, and repeat the cycle over again numerously.
And we are lucky, as we are, that today there is a global consensus to put wars behind and learn from it. We can work past our past transgressions and cooperate to work out our aggression. What would happen if we didn't then?
It's interesting that this kind of situation being brought up by a game with a sci-fi theme that has no literal relevance with the modern world. In a way, the game is metaphorically addressing the issues today inside its story, implementing education and incorporating gamers with enough common sense to start thinking of these issues and relate to it. While most games are about having nonsensical fun, some of the games nowadays are and can be very good base-education materials, to stimulate the minds where general education syllabus fails to.
All that said and done, I'd say thanks to the people at Bioware.
(Also to the people who made the Age of Empires long ago since they helped me much in picturing Medieval history, and also to many other developers and gamers that I can't remember)
