Regarding the Federation "Medal" recently used in promotions.

alexandraraimark · May 2017

Guys,

I'm kind of two minds on this subject, and I don't know if it's been brought up anywhere else. However, I want to bring attention to the medal used in recent promotions Specifically the design elements of having the light blue ribbon bar with nine stars and the large metal star with the point facing down. My hope is that the artist who created this was doing some sort of tribute to what appears to be its inspiration - the United State's Congressional Medal of Honor. Mating it with the Starfleet insignia might be an interesting and speculative evolution of an iconic award, and I get it if that was the notion intended. That's what I'm one mind about: the notion of evolutionary creativity and so on.

However, here's the issue I'm taking with it. There's a vast world of difference between individuals who are nominated for this award, who are committing acts of heroism that either result in the loss of their lives or sustain a level of peril to their health and well-being that should have killed them... and someone playing a video game. The fact that the design of this medal is so close to all of the American services' Medal of Honor is a little jarring. Normally, I'm not the type to easily take offense with anything (I mean, it's the gamersphere, I get it) and I want imaginations to roam free, but to put something in this particular world that is so evocative of tragedy to individual recipients of this award and say, "hey, it's part of our product now," might be somewhat off-base. I mean, when my first reaction was, "Oh, it's a Medal of Honor, but not quite..." actually touched something reverant of my fellow servicemen... and not so much Star Trek, in any of its iterations.

I would say, perhaps, come up with a different award and artwork - especially if there's a notion of going forward with this in some other aspect of the storytelling in the future. The artist did a great job, and I bet there's another design (s)he can do that will be closer to Starfleet and leave the MoH, Victoria's Cross and other nations' highest honor winners in their own well-deserved sphere of respect.

Thanks kindly,
GM

@alexandraraimark

risian4 · May 2017

While I don't know what medal we are talking of, there's so many little icons, images and small objects in the world. Something will always resemble something else, that's almost impossible to avoid.

Moreover, the value of / status attached to the real medals is unlikely to be affected by this.

baddmoonrizin · May 2017

The medal in question is indeed the United Federation of Planets Medal of Honor and it's been in-game for as long as the STFs have been. Almost all such STF Accolade medal imagery is based on a real world counterpart. As a service member going on 20 years of service, I have no problem with the imagery of the medals.

angrytarg · May 2017

My character can get the title of "Doctor" or "Professor" without going through the hassle of higher education. I however don't feel it somehow lessens the prestige of my degree.

saurializard · May 2017

alexandraraimark wrote: »

Guys,

I'm kind of two minds on this subject, and I don't know if it's been brought up anywhere else. However, I want to bring attention to the medal used in recent promotions Specifically the design elements of having the light blue ribbon bar with nine stars and the large metal star with the point facing down. My hope is that the artist who created this was doing some sort of tribute to what appears to be its inspiration - the United State's Congressional Medal of Honor. Mating it with the Starfleet insignia might be an interesting and speculative evolution of an iconic award, and I get it if that was the notion intended. That's what I'm one mind about: the notion of evolutionary creativity and so on.

However, here's the issue I'm taking with it. There's a vast world of difference between individuals who are nominated for this award, who are committing acts of heroism that either result in the loss of their lives or sustain a level of peril to their health and well-being that should have killed them... and someone playing a video game. The fact that the design of this medal is so close to all of the American services' Medal of Honor is a little jarring. Normally, I'm not the type to easily take offense with anything (I mean, it's the gamersphere, I get it) and I want imaginations to roam free, but to put something in this particular world that is so evocative of tragedy to individual recipients of this award and say, "hey, it's part of our product now," might be somewhat off-base. I mean, when my first reaction was, "Oh, it's a Medal of Honor, but not quite..." actually touched something reverant of my fellow servicemen... and not so much Star Trek, in any of its iterations.

I would say, perhaps, come up with a different award and artwork - especially if there's a notion of going forward with this in some other aspect of the storytelling in the future. The artist did a great job, and I bet there's another design (s)he can do that will be closer to Starfleet and leave the MoH, Victoria's Cross and other nations' highest honor winners in their own well-deserved sphere of respect.

Thanks kindly,
GM

@alexandraraimark

Considering Star Trek is an American show and the medal is about an event giving more credit to captains for fighting threats to the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, I don't really see a problem with the resemblance, especially since it uses symbols of the Federation: the delta, the crown of laurels, the blue color and the stars, as opposed to just copy paste the MOH.

For me, on the contrary, it shows that, if anything, the Alliance takes you taking on and beating foes like the Borg with only 5 ships very respectfully, instead of a tap on the shoulder and a "Good work, Champs! That's the spirit.".

alexandraraimark · May 2017

Interesting. Good discussion so far. Like I said, I'm not bringing it up to stir things up, but it was something of a surprise to me. Heaven help I should come up for air from work long enough to get some time in busting up another Tholian invasion here and there and doing missions with fleetmates... so I'm kind of easy to surprise (just found one of those heavy ion doohickeys for my Manticore). Always interesting to see where thoughts lay on something like this.

gaevsman · May 2017

Sorry if this is not popular, but i dont care. What i mean, medals are pieces of metal, and also i'm not north american, so it means nothing to me besides been pretty, i understand that it may mean something to you, and thats great, but for me is just artwork. Cheers!

nikeix · May 2017

People who don't know a dammed thing about military customs and courtesies blithely announcing that the misuse of those symbols doesn't bother them doesn't make it ok.

The new log in screen for marks weekend really doubled down on the straight up theft of the iconography.

Maybe it's meant as flattery. Maybe its ham-fisted ignorance. Either way it is definitely in in questionable taste. If I have to hear over and over how Star Fleet isn't a military, them maybe it ought to not copy-paste the USA's highest military award...

angrytarg · May 2017

nikeix wrote: »

People who don't know a dammed thing about military customs and courtesies blithely announcing that the misuse of those symbols doesn't bother them doesn't make it ok.

The new log in screen for marks weekend really doubled down on the straight up theft of the iconography.

Maybe it's meant as flattery. Maybe its ham-fisted ignorance. Either way it is definitely in in questionable taste. If I have to hear over and over how Star Fleet isn't a military, them maybe it ought to not copy-paste the USA's highest military award...

Damn those pesky civilians!

Don't confuse canon with STO. Cryptic is very much on the Starfleet=US Military train, their MACO promotion picture was a carbon copy of the US Marines uhm... imagery. The canonical Starfleet Medal of Honor looks like this:

latest?cb=20070329192715&path-prefix=en

The image in question is Cryptic's original creation.

saurializard · May 2017

angrytarg wrote: »

So the French honour medal of courage and devotion or of Foreign Affairs?

angrytarg · May 2017

> @saurializard said:
>
> So the French honour medal of courage and devotion or of Foreign Affairs?

Probably what they had lying about when they were shooting the episode xD

artan42 · May 2017

Damn those in-game doctors devaluing real doctors.

shadowkosh · May 2017

It's a in game medal based on the real thing with changes I like it. Next thing you are going to here is someone crying that it needs to be nerfed

alexandraraimark · May 2017

Interesting, showing the medal from Tholian Web. I don't know if that's their Medal of Honor, per se. But yeah. Interesting group of viewpoints. Pretty much the mix of "yeah, it was yoinked" to "live and let live." And another point that came up was the sheer number of "attaboys" this game has that have ribbon bars of some kind attached to them. With that number, it'd make you wonder when/if that design didn't come up, actually.

Regarding the Federation "Medal" recently used in promotions.

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