In Memoriam: Tali'Zorah, a Footnote in Video Game Storytelling

I've never been the biggest fan of moral choice systems. As a rule I avoid their annual parade, social mixer and jiggly ball tournament in favour of a whiskey on the rocks and some manly air guitar. The problem I've always found is that no matter how hard a studio tries, they invariably end up making a parody version of actual morality. A cut and dry set up where decisions are this or that with no in between. Because in between would be boring I suppose, who wants realism in their games anyway? Being a champion of evil or good is the best that you can hope for. Due to this, the only way to retain my interest is through good, solid storytelling. By making the decisions I make seem tangible. As while I can control only the extremes of my virtual soul, maybe I can make more of an impact in the virtual world. Maybe, just maybe I'll matter and at the same time make me question my decisions, bypassing the messy moral game system and communicating directly with my own grey matter. Now, having played many an RPG, from SWTOR 2 to Dragon Age: Origins, I have learned not to expect such dramatic self determination. If I kill I'm bad, if I find away out of the situation without killing, I'm good. Ring a bell?



Tali'Zorah

So you can imagine my shock, my surprise when in the conclusion to Bioware's sci-fi oddysey I felt myself regretting, nay, fully questioning myself and my decisions. If you haven't completed Mass Effect 3 or generally like to retain some mystery in your life, this is the point where you look away. Go twiddle your thumbs or play on the motorway. Anyway, so the story goes while pulling the universe together in one final effort to defeat the intergalactic machine menace, the Reapers, you must make a variety of tough and at times branching decisions. This in itself of course is not where the gut wrenching doubt emerges from, but it sets the scene rather nicely.  As you encounter friends, old and new from across the fiction of Mass Effect's past video game forays, you begin to realise that your priorities may have changed, that they no longer coincide with your former comrades in arms.




My allies, for the greater good!

Some will betray you, others drift away and a few will end up as blood on your hands. It is in one such instance that my doubt finds root. Enter the Geth, the Quarians and 200 years of conflict. Their war is coming to an end and you must choose who to grant the right of life, and who to in the process let wither on the vine. Entire civilizations in the palm of your hand. Again, this in itself without any personal connection could have fallen flat on it's face, just a bunch of inconsequential pixels blinking out of existence. But thanks to one Tali'zorah you seal not only the fate of an entire species, but your friend as well. It's an interesting question, what would you sacrifice to hold onto those you loved? In this instance, could you let countless billions possibly die all for one individual? I chose the billions, I aligned with the Geth and I watched the Migrant Fleet go down in flames. Just so many pixels. In the process however, I destroyed a character with whom I had travelled the galaxy and like you do with some well written characters, cared about. It was a bittersweet moment and one that I would like to see more in modern gaming. As an interactive medium without the support of good storytelling we're really just killing time and possibly improving our hand eye co-ordination. So we need more Tali'zorahs, we need more heart wrenching moments as otherwise, what's the point? We're just feeding studios to pump out more of the same. So I salute you Tali'zorah and I truly am sorry. But the needs of the many... Well, you know the rest.