Why I Chose Tali

"Um, isn't that the game where you can screw aliens?"

This exact sentence came out of the mouth of my best friend after I told him that Mass Effect 2 was one of the best games I had ever played. Thanks to Fox News, gaming blogs, and all sorts of internet meme madness, Mass Effect has become "the game where you have sex". Why should it deserve such a reputation? Sure, the first game had some pretty provocative imagery (enough, at least, to make Fox News throw up their hands and declare it that week's downfall of western civilization) but it was really nothing worth ruining a game's reputation over. Other games have since one-upped the original game's sexual content, such as Heavy Rain, which allows the gamer to interactively participate in disrobing and groping. Yet somehow Fox News hasn't gone on a holy crusade and Heavy Rain hasn't been labeled "the game where you control naked men and women in showers".

The truth is, this series has a lot more going for it than its unfortunate stigmas. In particular, Mass Effect 2 (and the first game to an extent) is the sociological game of the century. Like Star Trek and Farscape before it, the story centers around a cohesive unit of many races, standing unified against a galaxy where everyone seems to hate one-another or hold grudges. To me, this sets Mass Effect apart from many video games. Its universe is complex, dynamic, engaging and living. Unlike what we saw this fall in Avatar, these races all have their dirty laundry to air. All are victimized, corrupt, uncooperative and hostile in some way. Even the Galactic Council, the so-called "unifier" of galactic races, is unbelievably corrupt and excludes the admission of certain races due to "unfavorable characteristics". In a sense, Mass Effect is a science-fiction version of our own world…an allegory to our own disconnection and disunity on Earth in 2010. Nothing is perfect, and that's what separates this game from, let's say, a Gears of War or a Halo. Thanks to some excellent dialogue, plot elements and character development (not to mention page after page of detailed codex information about each race, planet, culture, government and so on), the Mass Effect series stands on its own in a gaming market of rehashed sci-fi and unoriginal narratives. It makes everything in the ME universe more unique in my honest opinion.

This uniqueness spreads to the complexities of Mass Effect's brilliant characters. BioWare RPG's are the video game world's best examples of excellent RPG character development, going back to the days of Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic. What Mass Effect has done is take these elements a step further by adding in a romantic and personal element to each supporting character's back-story. Although every female Mass Effect 2 crewmember had her own struggles, the character I identified with most was Tali'Zorah, a minor but important character in the first game who becomes, in my opinion, one of the second game's centerpieces.

Without going into much detail (as I have written a journal and a poem on my deviantART account about the background and complexities of her character), Tali lives a rough life. In fact, her entire race is not exactly what you would call "fortunate". Not only are the Quarians blocked from their surroundings thanks to a weak immune system, but also isolated from a true homeland because of their own rapacious experiments with artificial intelligence. Tali, also, is one of the most conflicted characters in the series. The Quarian migrant fleet essentially "kicks her out of her own race" during her "loyalty mission" and she relies on Commander Shepard to clear her name. What results, in my opinion, is the most logical set-up for a romantic scenario. I won't spoil much, but if you're playing the game as a "paragon", you'll see how conversations and actions dive a lot deeper into the emotional realm. Not to mention that after said loyalty mission, Yeoman Chambers (I apologize if I messed her name up because I'm going by memory) tells Shepard that Tali, in lack of a better term, is "crazy for him (or her)".

But that's all fine and good until you realize that Mass Effect's infamous "love stories" rely on the gamer's own subjective opinion. In a way, the character you choose to woo is (ideally, in many cases…or at least in mine) a reflection of the traits you see in real life people. Which is why I "chose" Tali.

To break this down a bit, let's remove the characters from their natural environments, races, bodies, whatever, and place them in a real-life, human scenario…High School, for example. Let's start with Miranda. In my opinion (keeping in mind that every character is open to interpretation), Miranda resembles the super attractive (but not very cute), strong-willed yet quiet cheerleader who doesn't have a problem opening up a can if anyone talks down to her. She reminds me a lot of Megan Fox's character in the original Transformers…the random attractive girl who instantly takes control of Shia LeBeouf's introverted life with her sheer presence. In my world, such a girl is reserved for movies and nothing else. Jack seems like one of the girls that could hold her own with men, there's a level of empowerment in her that is feminist. She also seems like one of the girls who would find enjoyment in bullying "weaker" boys in school. Like all female characters in Mass Effect, however, she also has a "breaking point" but it takes much longer to reach than with any other character. Long story short, she'd be the kind of person who'd bully me in school. Samara is in an entirely different category, however. She's the "cougar" of the group with enough intelligence and wisdom to classify her not as a student but as a professor. And I wasn't into teachers.

Tali, on the other hand, is the extremely intelligent, practical, introverted and somewhat nerdy exchange student in the back of the room. She's come a long way to be where she is now and she's seen too many horrible things in her original environment, so she makes the most of her time. She's an outsider because of her appearance and her concealed identity (I sometimes think of her as having a very Islamic look) but you sense there's a level of beauty not seen with the naked eye. When you talk to her, you can sense she's very serious and erudite in her rhetoric, like an extraterrestrial Lisa Simpson…but start to talk personal and a level of naïve shyness and genuine "cuteness" peeks through the learned exterior.

I admit, I've had crushes on many "nerdy" female fictional characters throughout my life (such as the aforementioned Lisa Simpson during my Simpson-watching elementary and middle school days) and my girlfriends have always been the "introverted types" throughout school. For example, my last substantial relationship was with a fellow poet who I thought was extremely well-versed in her work, lovely and intelligent but extremely coy. We instantly hit it off and had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, I eventually clammed up because of her different religious background, Judaism, which my mother didn't approve of. I wish I wouldn't have been so scared because I loved her in spite of such "differences". I don't see people in terms of "races" or "colors" or "religions" in the first place, which makes my decision in Mass Effect that much more personal. If this is what BioWare wanted gamers to do, they obviously landed me in their concept hook, line and sinker.

And here comes the part where I address the perceived silliness of it all. After all, why do I choose to write about a video game character, an alien video game character, when I could easily have a person with the same exact traits I see in her in real life? First off, I haven't literally fallen in love with the character. Hell, I didn't play Mass Effect to "bang aliens" in the first place…I played it because of its gameplay, RPG elements and story, the same reason I'd play, say, Modern Warfare, Half-Life or Fallout. And if I did play the game to "bang aliens", I'd go to a psychologist for fear of agoraphobia (no offense to anyone out there reading this who disagrees, I don't mean to offend). Although the whole "flirting" aspect of the game is silly (if I ever talked to a girl the way "Shepard The Pimp" talks to a girl, I'd be hit with a civil suit) and the romance scenes, while certainly provocative, are insubstantial, there's still a TON of amazing characterization going on.


It's that reason why I feel the character is so special. It puts a lot of things into perspective for me. First, it made me realize the plights of the unfortunate a bit clearer. There are many people out there who've been "othered" through no fault of their own…for religious reasons, for health reasons, for psychological reasons, whatever…it made me sympathize with those people a lot more. I recently saw a Dan Rather Reports documentary on HDNet about young Afghan women and it gave me the same feeling, but with a real life spin: here were young girls, extremely intelligent and practical, forced into arranged marriages (although this is common practice in many Islamic sects), raped, beaten, left for dead and on the brink of suicide. One of the girls interviewed was a poet and hid her work from her parents, feeling that her parents would think she was "in love" if they discovered any of what she wrote. Later on in the show, the same girl told the interviewer that she only had two decisions in life: to accept her arranged marriage and kill herself, or to run away from her family, ruining her family's name and reputation. It may sound silly, but going through Mass Effect 2 with Tali as a "love interest" actually increased my sympathy for this girl in the documentary. It was that profound an experience.

Secondly, it reaffirmed my real-life interests in the traits of the girls I aim to pursue. Personally, I would feel better with "the quiet, introverted, shy, intelligent exchange student" than the "sexy, badass, powerful cheerleader" for the rest of my life. I relate more to the traits of the former, as already mentioned. And, additionally, I'm not looking for the most attractive or the most prestigious woman on the face of the earth. Just one with a keen mind, sound spirit, and gentle demeanor.

Finally, the character helps me to re-think the concept of "beauty". I tend to believe that beauty is not upfront. I'm not the kind of dude that has posters of Asia Argento or Megan Fox strewn around my basement just for looks or for sexual titillation (bad pun, I know). Beauty, to me, is expressed through one's actions, judgment, words and demeanor. True, physical attractiveness still has something to do with it (something, in my opinion, a lot harder to find in the Tali character despite her physique) but at the end of the day, I'd rather have an introvert with practical intelligence and "cuteness" lying next to me than a debutante with vapid thoughts and "sexiness".

There's no doubt in my mind that the Mass Effect Galaxy is the 21st Century's most provocative and realistic science-fiction environment. The fact that it actually made me think deeper about the real-world topics it allegorically references in its story makes me even more blown away by its complexity. After all, our world isn't all sunshine and rainbows and the Mass Effect Galaxy takes that into consideration. I'm not a "fanboy" in any sense of the word, but I appreciate thought-provoking and intelligent art, whether on the page, screen or canvas. What drew me to things like "South Park", "SCTV", Let The Right One In and "Freaks and Geeks" over the years was the attention to detail each show, video game, film or work possesses. Detail and complexity are important in art, and because of these influences, I strive to structure my work in the same regard. Mass Effect is no exception. Dr. Ray Muzyka and his team at BioWare have created something to be proud of, something totally unlike what Electronic Arts is known for, a video game that goes beyond mere video gaming. It's something that allows us to rethink the world around us, to re-analyze concepts of love, plight, war, coexistence…something truly special and unique in the world of entertainment in spite of all its similarities to other great works of modern science fiction (Star Trek, Star Wars, Farscape, Firefly/Serenity, et cetera).

So, the next time your friend makes fun of you for "screwing virtual aliens" on your PC or 360, tell him it's for the betterment of society and your own well-being.