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

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

It's not reflected by sales figures, that's why.
Afaik, there are only 2 exceptions: metroid and tomb raider.

Everything else is in the "not profitable enough to push" category.

Bayonetta did pretty well.

Given that staunch support for femShep existed way back before Mas Effect 1 was even a month old, the devs then would have known that ME2 would have sold just as well regardless of who was on the cover.

 

[silver1881]

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.

Chatting about handbags, having a mini-game in which you can paint her nails, showing far more skin and cooking for everyone on the Normandy?

[sup]Oh man, I'm such an asshole.[/sup]

Quite frankly, she is just far too butch for my liking. Even ParaFemShep (so many shortened words!) seems like she's saying lines originally written for ManShep.

What do you think a woman would do differently? How is being competent, tough, and good at her job "too butch"? There's no need to have different lines for each gender.

Hoo boy. Bioware, there's more to it than this and I'm hoping you know it. Unless you've got stats we don't have access to, which is always possible.

But here's why Fem-Shep has such a following:

1. Because of what she represents: Yes, you're right, but in the wrong way. Male Shepard can be customized as well, after all, but it's the female Shepard who's gotten the attention. And a big part of that is that she is female, and furthermore, that this [/i]changes the story[/i]. Bioware's stories are stories of personal struggle and emotional issues -- look at all the loyalty missions. It's no coincidence that most are driven less by revenge and machoism than by senses of betrayal and hurt. (Miranda, Archangel and Mordin are betrayed by those they trusted; Jacob and Tali feel betrayed by family members; Samara feels betrayed by her daughter; Kasumi by her lover.) So, with that in mind, look at M-Shep. He's a soldier who's been really damn good at his job, and becomes the first human Spectre. Neat. But female Shepard? Hey, we get a good look at that army, and it's pretty damn male. Suddenly, she's fighting against her own institution just to get to where she is. She's become strong from adversity. Just by virtue of being female in a male dominated arena, she gains a massive boost to her story.

2. The Voice Acting, and the Actor: OK, let's be honest: Hale has a fandom. That's part of it. That said? I'm pretty sure myself and anyone else with an acting background would agree that Hale kicked Meer's ASS in ME1. She had endlessly more range, able to find tender emotion when called for and steeliness when needed. Meer actually probably did 'steely' a bit better, but that's all he did. He had no light and shadow in that performance, it's bleached out in one direction. Hale found more in the character.

Spoiler: An Aside

Why are they so bland? Simply put, because both have to act two characters at once: Paragon Shepard, and Renegade Shepard. Not easy; you need to think about every line and deliver it in a way that can be interpreted to match either character. Meer, in the first game, did this by just blanking out any sense of motivation. Hale did a better job by introducing ambiguity into her phrasing. To his credit, Meer picked up on her tricks and used a lot of them in the second game; it's endlessly more enjoyable as a male Shepard than the first one as a result. I actually think both gave good, solid performances in the second game.

3. The female fanbase: It is a Bioware RPG, guys. They've always had a strong female following. Is it little wonder a large section of that fanbase might be pleased as punch to have a female character for once? And to a lesser extent, this follows through into the male community. A female lead is unusual enough that a lot of guys will take her just to be different.

4. The boobs?: Eh, I don't buy it. Shepard's armor is designed to be fairly non-sexy; a smart choice from the designers. Overall, I think this isn't as huge a factor as people have made out.

A medal. Give this man one.

Basically voiced all the opinions I had

Seconded. I love that her armor is functional and practical. And yeah, we like to be included. We like to have characters we can relate to, that are made for us and not for teenage boys. Their willingness to acknowledge their female fanbase without pandering (much) is one of the many reasons that Bioware has earned my undying loyalty.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

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.

Totally agree. I know she is capable of a lot better which is why her voice acting in the Mass Effect games is so disappointing. Mark Meer takes the honours for me as he seems to have more consistency. Hale just sounds over it most of the time.

 

[Danceofmasks]

It's not reflected by sales figures, that's why.
Afaik, there are only 2 exceptions: metroid and tomb raider.

Everything else is in the "not profitable enough to push" category.

Bayonetta did pretty well.

Given that staunch support for femShep existed way back before Mas Effect 1 was even a month old, the devs then would have known that ME2 would have sold just as well regardless of who was on the cover.

Bayonetta did well because it's a top notch game.
I think it got a perfect score in Famitsu or something, which is extremely rare.

As for mass effect, how would anyone know it "would have sold just as" well, unless they have both sets of data to compare?
You don't do science without a control group.
Claiming results based on hot air is something religions do.

 

[JediMB]

Because (marketing) people are convinced that male action heroes sell better than female ones?

Its not the 80's or early 90's anymore. Sex sells, and what sells better to the average gamer (who is believed to be early teen males) than an attractive female?

That only has a chance of working when the character is sexualized, unfortunately.

That'd be why the Tomb Raider franchise has been more successful (and is more well-known) than the Metroid franchise. The former's protagonist is usually seen in a tank top and short-shots, while the latter's is only seen on the covers and ads in full-body armor.

 

[Xaositect]

Besides fanboyism there really isnt anything seperating the two. Apart from Meer sounds geniuine, Hale sounds fake.

Personally I wish theyd just shut the fuck up about it and stop trying to be hip and trendy, since according to their own statistics, they are spending all this time wanking off a hugely vocal minority who make up not much more than 2/10ths of the fanbase.

 

[A-D.]

Dont really get the hate on Hale right now. I mean yes, Meer has stepped up quite a bit from previous Work. The shift from ME1 to ME2 being rather huge there, or that one little part of Dialogue in DA2, although that was only good due to its outright parody of it all, at least i think Meer actually went for that and they couldnt get him to read his lines properly.

Hale beats Meer, at least in my book. But its honestly preference there really. Both have their upsides and obvious downsides. Meer still doesnt sound very involved in paragon dialogue for example, of course its not as bad as he was in ME1 but still, he isnt there just yet. Hale can at least do both convincingly. Which may i point out, she never had to do for Bastila at all. She only had to do ONE voice recording, not 3 lines and two optional for renegade/paragon special choices for every single conversation in the game.

To me, Hale is Shepard, and Shepard is therefore female. Mainly because we had years upon years of male action heroes. So yeah, im going to take the bitchy FemShep Renegade over them

And yes, for the record. bioware is doing damage control. Or relatively, its all about hype. They are just putting everything forward now that they can.

 

[frobisher]

Hmmm so let me get this straight... after gathering some data and realising only small % of players was completing sidequests or achievements in Dragon Age I, they "streamlined" Dragon Age II and got rid of those "non-intuitive" features or turned them into something Awesome.

After learning only 18% of players decided to roll FemShep, they ... started to throw money @ promos of FemShep

Consistency is nice, Bioware

 

[AbstractStream]

Bollocks to all that, I'm only interested in Jennifer Hale's voice.

My sentiments exactly.
I am kinda surprised at how many people like FemShep though.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

That's advertising, not canon. Marketing has nothing to do with story.

The project directors signed off on the cinematic and marketing ideas. If they didn't want manShep to be canon, then there would be alternate intros for each gender.

Actually, no. The only reason Male Shepard is the one on the advertisements is because Mass Effect still has a significantly larger male fan base than female, and using a female Shepard primarily for their advertising would make it seem like they were trying to advertise it more to their minority audience than their primary one (not smart in business and marketing, no less).

Bioware has already come out to say that neither gender is canon. The player decides which gender is ultimately canon, as they are actually playing the game - influencing the Mass Effect universe with whichever gender they so choose to. So no, you are actually wrong on that account.

Edit: Also, I do agree that Bastila Shan was Hale's better performance. But I still favor her over Meer's voice acting, any day..

 

[JayDeth]

I love the voice acting for FemShep and love it better than DudeShep, but I think we can all agree the crowning achievement of FemShep was this, back in the first game:

"I get to watch a chick and a blue alien chick bump nasties? Sweet."

 

[BlindChance]

You need your own opinion, you don't need someone to tell you what to think.

What you want me to cite a scene? I can't remember, it's been a long time, although the first convo between Shepard and Jacob was where I started to hate femshep, so maybe your official investigation should start there.

I'm just looking for someone to back up the claim. I'm baffled by arguments that Hale's voice sounds blander than Meer's: People have accused her of sounding fake, of over-emoting, of being unsuited to the character or simply not being Hale's best work. And I disagree with all of those, but it's an opinion, and it's pretty subjective.

But Hale, objectively, inflects more, varies her tempo more, adjusts her stresses more throughout Mass Effect 1 & 2. This isn't subjective: You can see it in any video of the game. Meer deliberately chose a flatter, blander tone than Hale did. And yet many people are accusing her of sounding bland. Either they're picking the wrong word, or I'm missing something big. I'd like to know which.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Actually, no. The only reason Male Shepard is the one on the advertisements is because Mass Effect still has a significantly larger male fan base than female, and using a female Shepard primarily for their advertising would make it seem like they were trying to advertise it more to their minority audience than their primary one (not smart in business and marketing, no less).

Bioware has already come out to say that neither gender is canon. The player decides which gender is ultimately canon, as they are actually playing the game - influencing the Mass Effect universe with whichever gender they so choose to. So no, you are actually wrong on that account.

The point was over which gender was canon, not which is the larger player-base.

They already have stated which is the canon path in the game, the canon path (presumably) has to have a gender assigned to it.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

There is no CanonShep. Shepard is whoever the individual player wants them to be.

Bioware have said that there is a canon path in the game, can't have a canon path without a canonShep.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Bayonetta did well because it's a top notch game.
I think it got a perfect score in Famitsu or something, which is extremely rare.

As for mass effect, how would anyone know it "would have sold just as" well, unless they have both sets of data to compare?
You don't do science without a control group.
Claiming results based on hot air is something religions do.

Based off the sales and support for Mass Effect 1.

from my post you yourself quoted...

"Given that staunch support for femShep existed way back before Mass Effect 1 was even a month old."

They knew then that femShep was popular.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

]
That only has a chance of working when the character is sexualized, unfortunately.

That'd be why the Tomb Raider franchise has been more successful (and is more well-known) than the Metroid franchise. The former's protagonist is usually seen in a tank top and short-shots, while the latter's is only seen on the covers and ads in full-body armor.

femShep's leather(ish) "dress" [whether or not they intended it to be leather I can't say, only what it appears to look due to the rendering of the engine] in the Kasumi DLC is somewhat sexualising. As a side note, Miranda's clothing (except the DLC addon) and Samara's are another two examples of needless sexualisation.

Given Metroid and Tomb Raider, the clothing is more or less justified by their settings.

 

[Sabinfrost]

See I beat the game with Male Shepherd the first time around and thought, stuff it, making a paragon this time and beat it with Female Shepherd for some different voice acting. I was blown away by Jennifer Hale. Don't just chalk it up to a pretty avatar.

 

[beefpelican]

Dont really get the hate on Hale right now. I mean yes, Meer has stepped up quite a bit from previous Work. The shift from ME1 to ME2 being rather huge there, or that one little part of Dialogue in DA2, although that was only good due to its outright parody of it all, at least i think Meer actually went for that and they couldnt get him to read his lines properly.

Hale beats Meer, at least in my book. But its honestly preference there really. Both have their upsides and obvious downsides. Meer still doesnt sound very involved in paragon dialogue for example, of course its not as bad as he was in ME1 but still, he isnt there just yet. Hale can at least do both convincingly. Which may i point out, she never had to do for Bastila at all. She only had to do ONE voice recording, not 3 lines and two optional for renegade/paragon special choices for every single conversation in the game.

To me, Hale is Shepard, and Shepard is therefore female. Mainly because we had years upon years of male action heroes. So yeah, im going to take the bitchy FemShep Renegade over them

I always play a male paragon soldier then a female renegade adept, just because I like playing opposites. So, to me, there is a male Shepard out there who despite all the crazy stuff that's happened to him still manages to stick to his morals, and a female Shepard who had to fight for every bit of respect she could get in the armed forces and doesn't take any crap from anyone. I guess what I'm saying is that their voices were unique and well acted enough that I was capable of building a story for my character that doesn't come across in the plot. I think that's a sign of some excellent voice acting.

OT: I remember there was a debate on the forums a while ago about this issue. I had basically the same reaction as Silverman: It makes sense to shoot commercials with only one version of the lead. Given the number of variations of Shepard faces, it would be silly to try to make a commercial for all of them. A trailer has 30-60 seconds to tell a story, and it's that much harder to get across if you have to explain that all of these different people are in fact the same person.

 

[lowkey_jotunn]

Gotta say, I think BioWare handled this perfectly. Kudos to them.

Use Male shep for the firts 2 games, let people recognize and remember "Mr. Hero Guy." Now that people have a basic understanding of what Mass Effect is, let the fans decide how to go forward.

Love it. And love seeing Twitter actually used for something productive, instead of : "Eatin cheerios #breakfast #fiber #apisflorea gonna poop next #2"