Commander Shepard is Female

[Z(ombie)fan]

Sounds like you need to play IJI. Main character is female, and a rather humanized one (if you decide to be a killer, rather than pacifist, she goes insane and becomes a crapload more violent, for example.) why couldnt THAT trump the lara croft nonsense?

and, I haven't played mass effect, if I do, Ill go for female then

 

[MinishArcticFox]

Definatly a good argument but I personally don't care for Hale's voice. She is a good voice actor I just don't care for her voice. Also they have another game left so they may develop male Shepard more in the next one. Though it is nice to have a female character who isn't ridiculous and actually capable.

 

[Sephychu]

I prefer man Shep, but I feel Meer shouldn't have been used. Who would I suggest? Well, you should read my posts more, it's Nathan Fillion.

That would have been amazing. I'm not he would fit Mark Vanderloo, but that could be fixed but putting Fillion's face in instead.

Either that, or Nolan North would have done well. He seems to have the hero part down, although he may be a little overused.

Perhaps selectable voices like SR2? Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Noland North, Steve Downes, Yahtzee, and Liam Neeson.

That's a hell of lot of voice recording.
Though Liam Neeson would make a much better manShep than Mark Meer.
Stupid Fallout, killing him off halfway in.

Oh, spoiler alert.

Yeah, but Nathan Fillion AND Adam Baldwin!

AT THE SAME TIME.
Like how the Turians have dual layered voices. It could turn out in ME3 that the Cerberus project had a hiccup involving larynx issues, and Fillion and Baldwin could do some dual layered Master-style stuff.

 

[Nimbus]

In the canon, he's male.

Says who?

 

[darthzew]

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 dunno. Recognisable aliens? The Normandy? The big "Mass Effect" logo at the end of trailers/on the box?

It's not as if alternative box arts/trailers haven't been done before. Admittedly less so for trailers, but considering how many of them they made for ME2, is it too much to ask for just one to include a FemShep? ;|

Well I guess it is, otherwise they'd have done it. *sigh*

But neither the aliens nor The Normandy are the stars of the show, Shepard is. Also, let's be honest - the regular gaming public is far more likely to remember a human's face than the name of a ship when it comes to picking up a game for their PlayBox 3000.

BioWare aren't sexist jerks, but they're not stupid, either. If there was a good way for them to use female Shep without sacrificing recognition, they would've done it.

One of the paradigms I'm happy Bioware broke for Mass Effect is how they treated the protagonist. Usually, it's that you make an unnamed character that represents you.

Instead, Bioware gave you a character and let you mold that character to your liking. There's a difference here that gives Mass Effect more life than most RPGs.

All I'm saying here is that I wish Bioware had a taken a leap with a female character. It would have done them wonders too, especially considering I fully believe the female Shepard wound being a stronger character, although I don't think they really could have seen that coming as they made the game. I feel like it's more of something that just kind of happened.

 

[BoxCutter]

I can't say why it started off that way but as for why it still hasn't changed. They've been using a male Shepard in all their advertising for the games up to this point, if they changed it to a female Shepard it would be nothing if not counterproductive at this point.

I can't stand femi sheps voice to me it doesn't sound human...

Whaaaaaat? Did you not play KOTOR?
Bastila fucking Shan.

Jennifer Hale is fucking awesome, I have no idea whats going on in here but that is simple fact.

 

[darthzew]

In the canon, he's male.

Says who?

It's that way by default. All of the trailers and references outside of the game refer to Shepard as male.

 

[darthzew]

Once you get used to it, FemShep's voice is better than MaleShep. However, it just seems so forced and gruff sometimes that it's a little bit jarring.

Yeah, she doesn't do the renegade stuff as well as she could. But when it comes to parts that I feel need deeper emotional response, such as the conversations in Mordin's loyalty plot or any of the romances, I feel like she does a much better job.

 

[Jackalb]

Jennifer Hale is fucking awesome, I have no idea whats going on in here but that is simple fact.

My point exactly, Good Sir!

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Gender is what you make of it...its not important compared to what the characters personality is and how the story flows.

 

[Nimbus]

In the canon, he's male.

Says who?

It's that way by default. All of the trailers and references outside of the game refer to Shepard as male.

Yeah, because trailers are totally canon. Never mind that the books go out of their way to not mention his/her gender, and that you can choose his/her gender in game.

There are no "canon" version of the choices you can make in game. Shepard has no canon team, personality, gender, background, or anything else one can change in-game. (With the one exception that according to canon, he survives ME2.)

 

[Awake-]

It's surprising to me, because in my opinion, Mass Effect has an excellent cast of voice actors, (Brandon Keener as Garrus sounds really awesome, wish I had a voice like that) but both Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale as Shepard sucks. Their voice fits the characters but they sound bland, bored and toneless.

EDIT:Okay, a little too far back there but you know what I mean.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Commander Shepard is neither male or female. Despite what BioWare claims there obviously is a canon Shepard, but I doubt that this Shepard has a clearly defined gender.

One of the things BioWare as said repeatedly is that there is no canon Shepard. Now this obviously isn't true though, since a lack of a canon Shepard would make sequels outside of Shepard's story impossible. You can make choices that have a huge impact on the world. If BioWare makes games in the Mass Effect universe, there simply has to be a canon Shepard. The choices Shepard makes are to big to simply ignore. However, there isn't any reason they need to define the gender of the Shepard that made these choices, so they will most likely avoid doing so. Hence while a canon Shepard does exist, it does not have a gender.

Regardless, I don't see the point in even debating this. I think Hale and Meer both did a decent job voice acting Commander Shepard. I don't think any of the romances for one gender are better than those for the other (in that they are all equally terrible). It doesn't really matter what gender the canon Shepard is anyways, so it doesn't matter.

 

[darthzew]

In the canon, he's male.

Says who?

It's that way by default. All of the trailers and references outside of the game refer to Shepard as male.

Yeah, because trailers are totally canon. Never mind that the books go out of their way to not mention his/her gender, and that you can choose his/her gender in game.

There are no "canon" version of the choices you can make in game. Shepard has no canon team, personality, gender, background, or anything else one can change in-game. (With the one exception that according to canon, he survives ME2.)

I would say that the "canon" would be whatever the default is. If you didn't play Mass Effect 1, then there's a set of choices there made for you Mass Effect 2.

 

[martin's a madman]

Well, you chose female, so... problem solved!

 

[ultrachicken]

I like to play the male shepard because, every time I hear an npc refer to shepard as "she," my immersion is broken.

 

[Lizmichi]

I do like fem Shep over the male Shep, it gives the roll more depth I think. I would like to see more lead female characters like the fem Shep and not like the Tomb Raider. Part of my love for the fem Shep is Jennifer Hale's voice acting.

I prefer man Shep, but I feel Meer shouldn't have been used. Who would I suggest? Well, you should read my posts more, it's Nathan Fillion.

That would have been amazing. I'm not he would fit Mark Vanderloo, but that could be fixed but putting Fillion's face in instead.

Either that, or Nolan North would have done well. He seems to have the hero part down, although he may be a little overused.

Perhaps selectable voices like SR2? Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Noland North, Steve Downes, Yahtzee, and Liam Neeson.

See, that would have been amazing with awesome-sauce and a cherry on top. I at least would have liked it if you could choose between accents. You know, Irish or British Shepard anyone?

haha oh god Yahtzee doing voice over would make me buy the game just to see the one liners he throws in there.