Commander Shepard is Female

[Susan Arendt]

Uh...Why not just let you choose your gender?

They do, except that in all the trailers, commercials, etc., Shepard is male. If you choose the standard Shepard option, he's male. In the canon, he's male.

I asked about that, actually. I was visiting BioWare for a look at Mass Effect 2, and I suggested to Casey Hudson that perhaps in one of their demos, they could use a female Shepard. For me (and many others), it's a major selling point of the game. His response was "...but he's male in all of our marketing and on the box. How would you know it was Mass Effect?"

He's right, of course, but it's a bit disappointing just the same.

I don't usually post without reading through an entire thread, but I gotta point out that I really love the way you think, and so greatly appreciate that you're here to help represent the female gaming demographic.

Thank you so much. What a lovely thing to say.

 

[Boba Frag]

Interesting point, well argued.
I have to admit that as enlightened a guy as i think I am... I have a hard time believing the female character's voice actor to be the toughened yet stoic veteran of interstellar wars that the male Shepard conveys.
Perhaps that's a personal preference.

Also... there's something about the actual voice itself that kinda turns me off. This may have been a choice by the actor, but it seemed sort of monotone and flat...
Perhaps to make her character seem tougher, masculine? I'm not sure it worked for me.

I think that while her interpretation as Shepard was no doubt a very good one, perhaps it really shone in the quiet human moments than in the confrontational or persuasion necessary ones.

For me, my Shepard was a charismatic soldier-diplomat type, who reasoned when necessary, but stuck the boot in when all else failed.
If he didn't shine as much in the human moments then I reason it to be just a sign of a toughened military man.
Emotionally in control, but guarded. After all he's seen and done in the galaxy, it's just part of how he operates, it's not a failing at all.

So, while I see your point, I don't think I would have believed a female Shepard nearly as much as in a male one.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Uh...Why not just let you choose your gender?

They do, except that in all the trailers, commercials, etc., Shepard is male. If you choose the standard Shepard option, he's male. In the canon, he's male.

I asked about that, actually. I was visiting BioWare for a look at Mass Effect 2, and I suggested to Casey Hudson that perhaps in one of their demos, they could use a female Shepard. For me (and many others), it's a major selling point of the game. His response was "...but he's male in all of our marketing and on the box. How would you know it was Mass Effect?"

He's right, of course, but it's a bit disappointing just the same.

Jerks, to me Shepard is most definately female rather than Male, Male Commander Shepard is just a face on a box and has very, very little actual bearing on the character I actually see in the game.

The sad thing here is that Bioware or possibly EA clearly think of Shepard as more their character than the players, which sort of distorts the whole point of the series, players building their own story and all that rot. I'm worried that in Mass Effect 3, Female Shepard will be a complete after thought, ignored in favor of their marketing darling.

There's absolutely no reason to think that at all. Both Shepards were very well thought-out and complete characters in both 1 & 2, despite the fact that the male character has always been the focal point of the marketing. It's unfair to BioWare to suggest that they're going to suddenly change all that simply because you'd prefer that they favor the female over the male.

Let's remember, the only reason we can even be having this conversation - that we wish Chica Shepard was better displayed - is because her representation in the game was good enough for us to have formed an emotional bond with her. If BioWare was half-assing her development, we couldn't have done that.

 

[Frankster]

I'd have liked Liam Neeson for a paragorn shepard

But otherwise regarding the default voices, i like them both tbh. Neither of them are the voices i'd imagine them to be in my head were they not voiced, but i got used to them and warmed up to them throughout the game.

 

[Mr. In-between]

It's funny that you would post a thread like this. This dude, Greg "Dratsab" Huffman makes these tounge-in-cheek reviews on YouTube and had done one on Mass Effect accusing the main character of being a butch lesbian.

EXTREMELY NSFW


EDIT:

I decided to edit that out in case the video auto-plays on anyone's system.

Watch at your own risk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J56RCXuMk

 

[Riven Armor]

I don't see how the "wo-man" characterization is offensive.

I didn't say it was? Female characterization is fucked. The idea the closest anyone can come to writing a good female character are gender neutral templates created specifically so no functional difference between that choice exists isn't "offensive," its tragic.

Where did you get the idea that the gender neutral template was the closest anyone got? Are we just talking about video games here? Because there are widely praised female characters even in this realm...

 

[Lordmarkus]

Well, I'm vastly more satisfied with my female Shepard than my male Shepard and Jennifer Hale is a more believable and skilled voice actor.

Though the commercials and presentation of the games are etched into my mind and I find it hard to imagine any other than a male Shepard even if I wish it was the other way around.

 

[Shock and Awe]

From what I have seen they are more or less equal. Sometimes on is better than the other and it goes both ways, here are some good examples, all are the same lines given by female and male Shepard respectively,

Female

Male

 

[Shepard's Shadow]

I agree. FemShep should be in the ads and trailers and the like.

 

[The Arc of Eden]

I played as FemShep first and fell in love with the story. Half of that was because of the Amazing performance Jennifer Hale brings to the game. She's one of my favorite voice actresses (Naomi from Metal Gear, Tira from Soul Caliber 3 & 4, Ect.) I then tried playing the experience with ManShep. I was grimacing during every dialogue scene. He could be a good voice actor, but he delivers no emphasis or emotion to anything. I could clearly hear he was reading lines from a paper.

 

[Riven Armor]

Where did you get the idea that the gender neutral template was the closest anyone got? Are we just talking about video games here? Because there are widely praised female characters even in this realm...

No one can write good female characters. Women over idealize/emotionalize, men write what they want to fuck, and sigourney weaver keeps getting cast in roles originally written for men.

The problem, tragedy, etc, (reiterated, as it went over your head), is the only way a female character can be a good character, is if gender is treated as a complete irrelevancy. But that doesn't mean its an accurate/good female character, its a good character that happens to be female.

Yeah, so what is the special quality that makes females female? I've never heard of this magical entity. What would be an example of a good male character with "male" qualities? Why would they be male qualities?

Quit condescending and define some parameters.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

I personally prefer her as female and will always refer to her as such.

However the point of Mass Effect was choice, thus choosing your looks, your opinions and some of your personality were simply a part of the game.

I'm on of those default Shepard haters. Hate the guy with a bloody passion. They put him as the face of the game yet, that isn't Shepard. Shepard could be near anything.

Now do I care what gender Shepard is? No. I just care that people who don't know the game assume that he, is the true face of it.

 

[Riven Armor]

Yeah, so what is the special quality that makes females female? I've never heard of this magical entity. What would be an example of a good male character with "male" qualities? Why would they be male qualities?

Quit condescending and define some parameters.

... If you need me to define a "female" for you, then you're beyond my ability to help.

Let me guess, it goes beyond the equipment? What a terrible dodge.

 

[Mr. In-between]

It's not that men write women that they want to fuck as much as it's the developers writing characters that they believe that their audience wants. As long as their are polls on gaming forums titled "Which of these characters is the sexiest?" and they are all unrealistic big tit, tiny waist pieces of digitized meat, then developers will keep writing those characters.

 

[Doug]

Just the idea of a female Shepard pisses me off, but maybe that's because I read the books.

The books? The ones that sometimes refer to Commander Shepard, not "Mr. Shepard" or "Mrs. Shepard"?

Anywho, the answer is simple - Commander Shepard is Commander Shepard. Wang or no wang.

 

[Loop Stricken]

I prefer Hale's voice as Ophelia in Brutal Legend, and compared to Mass Effect, Meer's come along a great deal for his ME2 work.

Both good, but default is male.

[edit]

... Jennifer Hale ... Tira from Soul Caliber

What?! Really?! Bloody hell.

 

[Keela]

For awhile playing the first game I thought he was voiced by Jonathan Frakes, I was a little disappointed when I learned otherwise. Meer's voice acting is very hit and miss, sometimes its very good and it other times he seems to give lines the wrong inflection or meaning. I haven't tried being a femi shep yet though.

It would have been nice to see them use femi shep as The Face of Shephard but considering your character probably won't resemble The Face anyway I don't think its incredibly important. The reason they probably used male shep was because most gamers are male and wanted to appeal to them and thought this would do it, or something.

It would be nice to see a female character with a decent amount of depth and an okay actor as the Face, but then again, there's also the "gamers are male" argument, and that without a pair of breasts that make jiggle physics necessary in this sort of game they'll just get bored after five minutes, and that gamers like me get seriously uncomfortable playing as a female character for some reason, but there's still the never-ending voice actor argument and that a fem-shep would be a nice break from the norm; but I can guarantee you that if I went to my high school and had a survey, that out of the 100 people who will play Mass Effect, 99 of them would say that they are men playing as men. Just go over your group of friends who play video games in your head and ask yourself it they would play as a female or male character when given the option. If you are like me, then almost all would probably choose to play as a guy.