BioWare Exec "Blown Away" By Support for Mass Effect's FemShep

[ImprovizoR]

FemShep represents a woman that defied the kitchen.

 

[uguito-93]

The reason why i decided to go with FemShep for my playthroughs was mostly due to the fact that Jennifer Hale' voice acting completely blew her male counterpart out of the water.

 

[putowtin]

whenever a game gives you the chance to be male or female/ good or bad, I always play male/ good first, swiftly followed by female/ bad

ME was the first game I ever played as female/ good

 

[kyogen]

About. F-ing. Time.

"We have two people doing the voice acting. One is a guy who barely has a resume, the other is one of the most prestigious female voice actor's in the industry. Why don't we completely exclude her from the advertising? That's a great idea!"

:|

I actually heard that Hale asked BioWare to consider using FemShep as part of the advertising for the first game and they refused. Good to know the fans have finally set the company straight.

Edit: Rereading it, I'm a little put off by how they treated FemShep up to this point, but now their trying to take all the credit for her popularity.

Of course, it's not the Stellar voice acting or writing, it's the fact that you can even be a female in BioWare games. That's the important thing right there.[/sarcasm]

My question is if they're so dedicated to being inclusive and providing an "escape into an epic adventure," why did it take them this long? I read his excuse about providing an character for people to identify with, but that goes directly against what he said about having a "hero of their own creation." How can we have a hero of our own creation if you're telling us right out the door who you think the hero is supposed to be.

Honestly this looks like damage control. They finally realized people weren't happy about them ignoring FemShep and are backpedaling.

This. Couldn't have put it better.

 

[Mr. Socky]

Hale was infinitely better as Bastila in KotOR.

Yeah, I can't stand her FemShep impression either, it just sounds like a bored killing machine after amazing performances like Fall-From-Grace.

I think both performances have their strengths and weaknesses, but I find that Mark Meer's performance was just plain more consistent. Some of the lines that Jennifer Hale said got delivered perfectly... and some of them sounded like she was asleep. When you're trying to talk down some crazy-ass krogan, you should not (in fact) sound bored.

OT: Ultimately, I couldn't care less about Female Shepard myself. However, she's important enough to other people (hell, the ability to play as a female is basically what got my sister into gaming) and that's good enough for me. I can also understand why she isn't all over the advertising, given that it's a primarily male-driven demographic right now, and only about 20% of people who played ME2 used her, if I remember correctly.

 

[Metalrocks]

femshep rules.
have 2 of them. one is always nice. the other is bad. all custom made. wile i have one maleshep who i tried to look like my self and make decisions how i would make them.

 

[Irridium]

It'd be nice if either Shep had certain choices available. Like white hair, glasses, piercings...you know...normal ideas like that.

Oh please. Everyone knows that heroes don't wear glasses. They must be perfect! Only they need a sketchy past, so they can appear flawed. But don't give them the weakness of sight or age that they must overcome in such an overwhelming galaxy. That'd just be silly, and it's not "epic and badass".

[sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]Was I being too sarcastic? Nah...[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[theultimateend]

I think the initial advertising just came down to the fact that due to the canon, Shepard is male.

Shepard does not have a canonical gender. When will this misbelief die?

Probably around the time everyone admits that it is inconsequential.

If the gender can be flopped around without dialogue changing in any meaningful way then Shepard could very well be a Hermaphrodite or further still not even need to be a living human (could merely be an android or something).

His character is just a vehicle for the dialogue, the dialogue doesn't really stem from the characters property traits. Such as gender, skin color, or whatever else might come up that I'm not thinking of this early in the morning.

My captcha was "76 Gas".

Talk about misdirected advertising.

 

[PrinceofPersia]

Actually I like both the male and female Shepard. What can I say their both appealing as characters to me.

 

[raankh]

Seems like a personal preference, judging from the above, but I find Jennifer Hale's voice acting to be many orders of magnitude better than Meer's.

To me, ManShep sounds like a whiny teen with self-image problems, while FemShep sounds more like a B-scifi-marine (a schizoid teen with self-image problems). Which is entirely appropriate to how I play her. Man, that is one crazy homicidal b'tch.

 

[Hotshots]

I don't get why this is news. It's not a big deal, nor is it interesting; but if it floats your boat, who am I to complain.

 

[lovest harding]

I still feel David Gaider's explanation was pretty flimsy. If you want to do something like that you spend time and characterise each person, instead Bioware felt it was easiest to just make everyone bisexual, less script and less time spent changing things.

Unfortunately, I think we will see this laziness in ME3 where pre-established straight and fleshed out characters suddenly get the hots for Shep. If you're going to do it, do it right Bioware and write in this stuff properly.

I also feel these have become less and less romances (throughout recent Bioware games) and more Shep/Hawke gettin their leg over with less and less character interaction in between. I don't know if it's the hand of EA or lazy writers but it's got to stop imo, they have stopped progressing in quality with their IPs.

They have clarified that turning straight characters gay is not necessarily true, so it's impossible to claim that they'll ruin characters when we don't know what they'll do.
Check this tweet. [http://twitter.com/#!/CaseyDHudson/status/70154686367404032]

You can also find all the information he's tweeted on same sex relationships here, as well as more links to his real tweets. [http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/325/index/7625505/40#7647125]

Even if we don't take that into account, you can't harp Bioware for destroying Mass Effect 3 without actually playing it. The Dragon Age team is a separate entity (and that game had a year and was rushed). Mass Effect 3 is being given the time it deserves. The only way we'll know if they used that time wisely is when we can play it.

On Topic: To be honest, they're both a bit bland (both are very "I'm a tough as nails space marine!") and I think the only reason people like FemShep more is because as a woman, she's a relatively unique tough as nails space marine. xD
I prefer them both in personal asides and when dealing with relationships. When softer it was more interesting. I think Jennifer Hale played the bigger moments better, but Mark Meer shined when doing the small things. I really liked his voice during intimate moments.

In any case, I normally choose female characters when given the option, but my own personal canon Shepard is MaleShep(he's very attractive and I like his voice actor a lot). Who can't wait to finally get a romance option. xD

 

[duchaked]

still not sure if that one particular BioWare fan was truly a homophobe
then again I'm not sure homophobia is a term used properly 90% of the time
butttt well Hale DOES seem to project more emotion for FemShep from what I've heard
but I still prefer just going with the default male. maybe I just prefer the original design they put out (or maybe everytime I try to make a custom character I become dissatisfied a few hours later >:[ or he's just ugly)

 

[Worgen]

any other version of shep is a much better choice then the boring ass bald guy they have had in ads so far

 

[Kahunaburger]

On Topic: To be honest, they're both a bit bland (both are very "I'm a tough as nails space marine!") and I think the only reason people like FemShep more is because as a woman, she's a relatively unique tough as nails space marine. xD

This. It's not like Shepard is that great of a character (to the extent that Shep's a character at all) but it's nice to have the ability to play a female character who doesn't conform to gender roles when video games in general and Bioware games in particular tend not to write female characters that way.

 

[Sparrow]

I've never understood people that say FemShep is some big role model for female rights because she does everything ManShep does. Seems like she's just a big role model for women that want to act like the stereotypical male hero.

Maybe it's just me though, because on my one FemShep playthrough I was just confused as to why FemShep spent the entire game acting like a man opposed to acting more like a woman. Alternatively, the fact that ManShep and FemShep can do mostly the exact same things in every situation could be some kind of super-equality point BioWare is trying to make.

[sup]Oh, God, I don't know. I just hate playing as FemShep.[/sup]

Can't say I "get it" myself (beyond looking at a woman's arse for 30 hours).

Jennifer Hale just sounds like she's doing an impression of a macho guy - I've not seen anything with any more range than Mark Meer (who I also thought stepped up a fair bit from the first game to the second), who sounds much more natural when ManShep is speaking.

I think in many ways, this quote kind of sums up my badly-phrased opinion. Shepard, to me, will always be male due to the fact that FemShep acts like a super-macho man stuck in a womans body. It's as if FemShep is just trying to be ManShep. I guess that means we had homosexual romance options all along!

 

[Bob_Marley42]

Femshep is awesome.

Because she's Major Sarah Parker.

Seriously, thats the only explanation i can think of as to why come the events of Mass Effect 2 Shepard is the only female in the Galaxy, aside from those who are members of uniformed state militaries or mercenary groups, who think it might be a good idea to put on some body armour when going into combat. Or you know, a mission on which the chances of survival are at best slim.

Honestly ladies, put a damn flack jacket on. No, it can't have a clevage window.

 

[Smertnik]

Meh, I don't need a female Shepard on the cover or anything like that. It wouldn't make any difference compared to having only the male Shep being shown - it would still be A Shepard, not my Shepard. And I already know that my Shepard is female, I don't need BW to remind me of that.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I've never understood people that say FemShep is some big role model for female rights because she does everything ManShep does. Seems like she's just a big role model for women that want to act like the stereotypical male hero.

Maybe it's just me though, because on my one FemShep playthrough I was just confused as to why FemShep spent the entire game acting like a man opposed to acting more like a woman. Alternatively, the fact that ManShep and FemShep can do mostly the exact same things in every situation could be some kind of super-equality point BioWare is trying to make.

This whole line of thought has never really made sense to me. What would FemShep do (beyond not sitting down like this [http://philosophicalgamer.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/female_shepard_legs_200.jpg?w=200&h=200]) to be more female? Shooting people is pretty gender-neutral.