BioWare Adding Female Shepard to Mass Effect 3 Marketing

[Josh123914]

Where do people keep getting the idea that maleshep is canon? There is no canon Shepard, only the default Shep they use on the box art (which understandably ticked off the people for whom the box art didn't match their own personal idea of the Commander).

How is any such rage (if it indeed exists) even remotely justified? There are untold thousands (if not millions) of possible Shepard appearances. Unless Bioware let fans order a custom printed box (at a hefty fee) how would you actually expect them to produce a cover that happened to have your interpretation of the character plastered on the cover?

I don't think it makes sense to have Shepard on the cover at all. I think it would be entirely possible for a decent artist to make a compelling cover while sidestepped Shepard completely. Not only would that not interfere with people's personal characters, but it would also deter them from getting the silly idea that there's a "canon" in a game with thousands of forking conversations, decisions and plotlines.


Or, failing that, at least give us some variety. Mass Effect, Fable, and Dragon Age (2) all suffer from the same compulsion to put white, brown-haired men on their covers, despite having games where there is no true canon character. And I get it, the average gamer is 18-35, white and male, and they want to appeal to that audience by saying, "Hey look, it's you on the cover! Buy the game!"... but would you really not buy a game because it had a woman on the front? Or a black dude? Or an asian chick? Speaking from experience I can say it gets pretty tiresome having your own demographic constantly erased.

better yet, they could just have Shepard have the N7 helmet on him/her for the cover(everyone DOES start wearing the same thing)

 

[MasterChief892039]

snip

better yet, they could just have Shepard have the N7 helmet on him/her for the cover(everyone DOES start wearing the same thing)

Yes, I think that would be a perfectly acceptable (and logical) alternative.

 

[KezzieZ]

They're actually going to market FemShep? Awesome. No offense to MaleShep fans, but I'm not fond of his voice-acting.

Also, they're not shying away from homosexual relationships? What caused that sudden boldness after only having Liara the discount lesbian?

I'm starting to sound a bit mean with the sarcasm but I really am glad for the changes up ahead. It speaks well for their attention to the entirety of the fanbase.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

How the hell can you discuss a canonical character when the very first mechanics in the game are establishing your own character for that individual playthrough's canon? Besides. ManShep doesn't exist. He just doesn't. Nope. Refuse to believe it. Personal canon is a female Sheppard. That's just how it goes.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I don't think it makes sense to have Shepard on the cover at all.

It would be strange to have a cover devoid of the Star of the experience even if some aspects of said star are mutable (i.e. appearance and, to a much lesser extent, personality). Honestly, were I to have made the ME2 cover, I'd probably have gone with a wide shot of Shepard in full armor (including helmet), taken from an angle where it's impossible to determine what gender the character is looking at the wreckage of the Normandy. This is a defining characteristic (i.e. everyone's Shepard died in the opening minutes of the game) and the event that set the plot of the second game in motion.

I think it would be entirely possible for a decent artist to make a compelling cover while sidestepped Shepard completely.

Sure it is possible but the question is why would you remove the star and indeed one of the primary reasons people love the series so much?

Not only would that not interfere with people's personal characters, but it would also deter them from getting the silly idea that there's a "canon" in a game with thousands of forking conversations, decisions and plotlines.

There is canon in the universe. The exact details of the story vary of course but that represents a very small portion of the game world's fiction. While details pertaining to the Mass Effect games themselves (and more specifically the player's interaction in the world) might be variable we do have some canon established. For example, Shepard is a military veteran holding the rank of Commander. Using modern (present day) military as a benchmark, this places him somewhere around 15 years in service and at the minimum rank necessary to command a vessel of any significant worth. Thus we know Shepard is likely mid to late 30's. We also know that Shepard has confronted the reapers directly once and their various agents on multiple occasions. We also know that Shepard is perfectly willing to work with a known terrorist organization if it serves the greater good thus demonstrating that Shepard in general sways towards the renegade persuasion.

This could go on for some time. There is a canon to the universe. And there are common threads that link all interpretations of Shepard regardless of choices.

And I get it, the average gamer is 18-35, white and male, and they want to appeal to that audience by saying, "Hey look, it's you on the cover! Buy the game!"... but would you really not buy a game because it had a woman on the front? Or a black dude? Or an asian chick?

Let's look at this from another angle. In Mass Effect I play a military officer who is selected to serve as Humanity's first real liaison to the council. I flew around in a Space Ship powered by impossible physics allowed by the inclusion of a magical substance that ignores all known laws of physics and visited many planets culminating in stopping, at least for the moment, a cycle that has extinguished all sentient life in the galaxy more times that I can count. In the sequel, I am killed, resurrected, and I do the same all over again. There is almost nothing in this story that remotely resembles my or my life. Sure I served in the Army, but as a grunt and I didn't spend my four years tooling around the world saving the day; I spent it sweating my ass off trying to not get shot in the face.

I am not Commander Shepard. I simply play the character as close to how I think I might react if I were a near immortal super soldier charged with the protection of all advanced organic life. Commander Shepard, regardless of my interpretation, is the star of the show and they belong on the cover. That doesn't mean you have to tell me what Shepard looks like of course. You could always play coy in a fashion like I suggested above.

Or, better still, Bioware could offer custom print options for your cover art. I'm fairly certain plenty of people would pay ten or twenty bucks extra to have their Shepard on the cover. At least then my ultra special edition would actually be special.

 

[MasterChief892039]

.

 

[Lucifus]

Finally! Gay relationships! If your going to shoehorn a love interest into a game and ram it down my throat, now it can at least be with the gender I actually fancy.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I also disagree that the protagonist of a game is required to be on the cover. Off the top of my head some games that don't depict the protagonist in the box art are Bioshock 1 (has a big daddy on the front),

The character of Jack was a literal blank slate and was devoid of defining characteristics for most of the game. Jack wasn't the star of the show, Rapture was. And Rapture is well represented by the Big Daddy.

Fallout 3 (has either a Brotherhood of Steel member or the protagonist in power armor,

Which follows the usual trend of Fallout cover art of showing person in power armor on the cover. Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics all had a close shot of dude in power armor (brotherhood of steel for 1, Enclave for 2, BoS for 3). The only game that diverged from this trend was the relatively terrible console title Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

not sure which. Either way the person is concealed), and Oblivion Elder Scrolls (another game where the character is customizable).

A game where the player has almost no character interaction. You play an avatar in Oblivion not a character.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

TOOK THEM LONG ENOUGH.

It still annoys me to no end that blandtastic manshep is cannon, though.

 

[Ghengis John]

BioWare does seem to be trying to be more inclusive with Mass Effect 3 though, as evidenced by the inclusion of homosexual romance options [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110063-Its-Old-Flames-Only-in-Mass-Effect-3-Says-BioWare-UPDATED] - something the studio has shied away from before with the Mass Effect games - and this could be another part of that effort. Of course it could also be a marketing ploy. Heck, it could be both.

Well said, Logan. My thoughts exactly.

Of course it is a little dismaying that femshep will be on the collector's edition box... There hasn't been a mass effect yet where I haven't bought the collector's edition and yet I play as the canonical Male Shepard. Considering this will be Shepard's last chapter. Oh well, the first box had Saren on one side and the second had a Collector on one side. I suppose I'll live.

 

[AngryFrenchCanadian]

Played Mass Effect 1 and 2 with FemShep on first playthrough.

 

[Reaper195]

the advertising for mass effect always bugged me, they loved to stick the most boring looking version of shepard in the ads and it was annoying how they only used the maleshep since femshep had a much better voice actor, in my option

I didn't mind the voice actor of male Shepard, but I hated at how generically "I am rugged man who beats aliens ans saves the universe from the bad guyz!" he looked. I always made him look about twenty or more years older on the two times I have played as a guy. I always prefered a mid-thirty looking Female........Shepard.

<<

And also Jennifer Hale's voice is pure gold.

 

[Kroxile]

Shepard is canonically a male? I distinctly remember BioWare saying that Shepard's gender is canonically whatever the player wants it to be. Hence them always being so elusive on revealing the gender of Shepard in anything else in the Mass Effect universe.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

I'd back Jennifer Hale in any day of the week for any female voice acting, but for when it comes to ME I think Mark Meer just hits the lines with a bit more gusto.

Incidentally, I can't remember, is there a "default" look for FemShep or does it randomise? You have Mark Vanderloo who is default MaleShep and is obviously used in the promo material.

 

[Abedeus]

Wait what? 1/5? I feel like a hipster.

 

[AwesomeNinjaPowers]

And about time too =D Girl Power!

 

[hyperdrachen]

I bite my thumb at these petty crumbs. But femsheps already get a better reward. every scene, every spoken line. I'm typically not the guy who rolls a female, I rolled my femshep on second playthrough of ME1, and I have not looked back.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

I do not understand why Bioware is so incredibly bad at public relations for Mass Effect. They make great games that tend to be pretty inclusive, and then make incredibly stupid statements about the canonicity of those same games.

Including the option to play as either gender was a great idea, so why on earth would you say that only one option is "canon"? When will that ever be a useful distinction for them to make? Do they plan on reducing the number of options available in future Mass Effect games and using the fact that some are "canon" to justify the decision?

It's the same situation with the homosexual romances, although the game itself was a little weird with that. First, there's the fact that they did have homosexual relationships (Liara is without any doubt feminine - breasts, female pronouns, female voice), it just didn't have male homosexual romances. So their justification that Shepard was canonically straight is already a little shaky.

Then they added them anyway. So I'm still sort of unsure how to feel about that:
(1) If they were telling the truth that the reason they hadn't included them was that Shepard wasn't supposed to be a blank slate character like in other Bioware RPGs and that Shepard was canonically straight, then they essentially gave into public pressure and sold out.
(2) If they weren't telling the truth about the reason they hadn't included them, then that's just sort of generally fucked up.

Saying that any decision in Mass Effect is canonical just seems weird in general too. The point of establishing a canon is that you can make future games that disregard alternate choices that could have been made in prior games (imagine if ME2 didn't import saves and just started with the assumption that you had made certain choices in ME1). But the whole point of the game is supposed to be that decisions matter and that decisions carry over. If decisions carry forward, why would it matter which one was canonical? Shepard doesn't have a canonical romance and there isn't a canonical ending to the games. Why does Shepard have a canonical gender if none of the other options have canonical alternatives?