Commander Shepard is Female

[JimJamJahar]

I much prefer a male Sheperd. I really don't see how Jennifer Hale delivers the lines any better than Meer, in fact her voice irritates me as Sheperd. She was great as Bastila, but I really don't like her voice in Mass Effect.

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.

Oh my God! That would be freakin' awesome!!

 

[USSR]

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

Sorry to intrude, but she voiced Bastila?!
Damn!
I knew it sounded familiar >.<

 

[Erana]

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.

 

[Shockolate]

Listening to FemShep makes me wants to bash my head into the wall.

Not saying ManShep is that much better, it's just bareable.

I hated the voices for both Sheps, but ManShep's is the lesser of two evils for me.

 

[Loonerinoes]

Heh, this thread again.

You know what? I'll be honest here. Within Mass Effect 1, I agree - Jennifer Hale dominated Mark Meer in terms of voice acting on every level I can recall I think. And though he did his own version okay for my part, really she was far more flexible while maintaining a certain strength of her voice.

However...in Mass Effect 2...holee shitballs...Sure...Jennifer Hale did well there most of the time too, but when it came time to be explosive or authoritative Mark Meer dominated HER! Seriously, whenever I run through the entire Suicide Mission endgame once again you can hear such a commanding voice coming from Mark Meer that I was like O_O when I first heard it. When he gives orders in mid-battle it sounds truly desperate and authoritative. And his final speech before the final assault on the Reaper is nothing short of the most badass speech I've heard ever before. When he says "Make me proud...make YOURSELVES proud." I just feel like I could do anything, whereas when Jennifer Hale said it I was like "Yeah...well said."

So...my own tally for them is Mass Effect 1 goes to Jennifer Hale. But Mass Effect 2 in the end goes to Mark Meer. I just can't wait until the final game where I literally don't know what to expect anymore from either of them.

 

[Kragg]

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.

I disagree. Bioware chose those choices because they suck. They probably wanted to discourage going with the default and encourage keeping your save file. Not because it is the official "canon".

Perhaps canon is a wrong word, but if you ask anyone about Shepard, they'll pretty much automatically say "he." My personal Shepard I play with most is female, but I even don't say "she" unless I'm referring specifically to her.

going further, canon is actually default male shep, i actually had one of the premade other heads for my mass effect 1 plays, one that doesnt do the weirdass grin. and seeing def shep in the ME2 trailers was weird too

you're pretty much biased towards the actor though, best ever etc, and its borderline sexism really

 

[ray=out]

make adverts/promos for both genders and keep the choice element imo

 

[DarthInfernus]

Best voice actor EVER? Well, I don't know about that.

What about Steven Blum? That guy has been in tons of Anime and Games and he has the voice of a god.
Or how about Keith David? He played Captain Anderson in Mass Effect and The Arbiter in Halo, and he's pretty damn good too.
Oddly enough, both of these guys have done work for Bioware (David, as I said, having played Captain Anderson, and Blum having a minor role as a Dwarven Shopkeeper in Dragon Age: Origins.)

But, she is pretty good. I'm not sure if I prefer her over male Shepard or not (personally, I like them both), but she's definitely good at what she does.

I do have a few female Shepard's, and although I think the hair design for a female Shepard with a ponytail looks fucking stupid because the hair has absolutely no depth, I still enjoy playing as both sides of the sex spectrum.
Wait, that didn't come out right.

You're not enough of a BioWare fanboy! That "minor" shopkeeper was Gorim, your right hand as a Dwarven noble origin. He also played Oghren.

In Mass Effect 2 he played the major role of Grunt, and the minor roles of Wilson (the mole in the first Cerberus facility), Vido Santiago (the Blue Suns leader in Zaeed's loyalty mission), and one of your crew members leading up to Joker's cockpit. His voice is instantly recognizable.

 

[Talvrae]

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.

There is no Canon... Drew Kapynky said numerous times that there is no Canon for SHepard story or gender, he is what you what s/he is...
Even if the comic book where Liara try to find Shepard body one of the character of the comic comment that he could not tell if the corpse in the cofin was male or female...

 

[RN7]

The voice actor for the female Shepard seems to convey the character much better than the male voice actor. So I agree with Darth.

 

[Broken Orange]

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. But I agree with OP that she did an awesome job at voicing Shepard, but since I am male, I defaultly play as a male. Not meaning to be an sexist, but that's the way the cookie crumbles for me.

 

[PoliceBox63]

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

Ya I'm getting that vibe aswell. :/ It's like she's trying too hard.

 

[Mistermixmaster]

Personally I prefer the female version too. I just can't stand the male voice actor (unless he does the "renegade"-options). But I think it's great that you get to choose, as it allows more people to immerse themselves.

oh and there's also the fact that

Spoiler: small ME2 loyality spoiler

Seeing a female Shepard headbonk a Krogan without as much as flinching is f**kin awesome xD

 

[Ghostkai]

Pretty sure the canon Shep is Male Soldier. Just look at the front covers of both games.

 

[Zhukov]

Yeah, I always preferred the voice of female Shepard. I don't know about "best voice actor ever", but she's definitely better then the guy.

Can't comment on your point regarding the Jacob romance option 'cause I didn't go there.

Also:

Spoiler: small ME2 loyality spoiler

Seeing a female Shepard headbonk a Krogan without as much as flinching is f**kin awesome xD

Yeah, totally agreed. When I saw that I laughed so hard that the housemates were knocking on my door asking if I was alright.

 

[MasterChief892039]

Since I'm a chick, I played female Shepard first and to be honest, I often forget Shep can even be male. I don't think there's anything wrong with character customization, but if Shepard had been exclusively female, I agree that it would have done a whole lot for the depiction of female protagonists in videogames. Femshep is good example of how a female character can be attractive without having a ridiculously unrealistic figure, and is also a good example of how a female character can be attractive without it being her only feature.

Bayonetta should write down some notes here.

Edit: Also, I really don't understand why maleshep is on the box art. Usually in games where you have customizable characters, it's common practice to omit the character from the cover, regardless of whether or not gender is an option. They could have easily filled that place with Jacob or Garrus or any number of other appearance-static characters.

 

[squid5580]

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.

That is also the Shepard they used on the CE tin

 

[stiffy]

I know I'm going to get in trouble for this one......does anybody else think male Shep sounded too.....Canadian....haha just an observation.

With as much emphasis as Bioware puts on having the ability to choose genders (two fully voiced protagonists) you'd think they'd market it more.....(like another member put it) with alternate box covers...something.....

Default Female Shep has no famous real world equivalent. So look at how much marketing mileage they've gotten with Yvonne Strahovski as Miranda Laweson, or male-model Shep.