BioWare Splits Difference with Reversible FemShep Mass Effect 3 Cover

[GeorgW]

I love that they're doing this, very good compromise.

Still, the executives at BioWare get my respect for putting their money where their mouth is. Printing double-sided covers with both male and female Shepards on every standard copy of ME3 is not a small expense. That they did so just to appease a tiny but vocal group of fans was a great PR move.

Does it really cost that much? Sure there are a lot of copies, but it can't be more than, for example printing the game discs, right?

 

[CBanana]

I still don't understand the complaint of the 'more female friendly' stance. Shepard is a male, always was from the start, and for no specific reason. I don't complain when the Metroid series doesn't make a male equivalent protagonist.

People like to complain about the stupidest things, this is time and money that could be spent making a better fucking game.

Completely different. Mass Effect has always allowed people to choose Shepard's gender. Metroid never has.

As for it drawing away resources from game development. This Femshep stuff is mostly about marketing. All AAA games will divert resources towards marketing.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I still don't understand the complaint of the 'more female friendly' stance. Shepard is a male, always was from the start, and for no specific reason. I don't complain when the Metroid series doesn't make a male equivalent protagonist.

People like to complain about the stupidest things, this is time and money that could be spent making a better fucking game.

Completely different. Mass Effect has always allowed people to choose Shepard's gender. Metroid never has.

My point still stands I think, it doesn't matter what gender the protagonist is, as long as it's a good game. But people (mainly females in this case) are arguing about this crap none the less.

As for it drawing away resources from game development. This Femshep stuff is mostly about marketing. All AAA games will divert resources towards marketing.

I knew that already, but it just annoys me anyway. Not only is this happening, but people who claim to support the medium are making this happen.

 

[Woodsey]

Good of them, but not charging people who've bought the full game for Day 1 DLC is better.

And let's face it, they wouldn't do this if it weren't a) cheap to do already and b) likely that they got a deal on it with the manufacturer.

I still don't understand the complaint of the 'more female friendly' stance. Shepard is a male, always was from the start, and for no specific reason. I don't complain when the Metroid series doesn't make a male equivalent protagonist.

People like to complain about the stupidest things, this is time and money that could be spent making a better fucking game.

Completely different. Mass Effect has always allowed people to choose Shepard's gender. Metroid never has.

My point still stands I think,

It doesn't: it's more of a "thing" when someone other than a white (probably American) male is in the protagonist role for people who are of the same gender/race, and since there's no canon Shepard (there is a default Shepard, there is no canon Shepard), and since FemShep gets a lot of praise (even if the percentage of players is a minority), it's good for them to market both.

We are white males, we don't get the fuss because most games pander to us in the first place.

As for your other point implying it's whiny women, the biggest support for FemShep I've seen has come from male players who prefer the female voice actor.

And concerning Metroid, the other guy was 100% right.

One question I have: Is there even a fricking manual in the box?! Call me pedantic but for some reason I dont feel the game is complete without a physical book I can read telling me what weapons I can expect or what class has what powers so I can plan my Insanity playthrough. It may be in the pause menu or the starting menu like in Kingdoms Of Amalur but who wants to read that in the game itself?

Few more years and they'll all be gone; waste of paper.

 

[Saulkar]

You know, at first I didn't have a problem with all of this day-one stuff, but having consumers enter three codes when they just want to start playing is pretty lame.

I know this site is pretty harsh when it comes to admittance of piracy but are you allowed to say that you are going to bypass all that by cracking your LEGITIMATELY BOUGHT copy so that you can play without all of that hub-bub with no intention on using online multiplayer?

I understand that pirating in protest only gives publishers and developers more reason to implement more draconian DRM measures but at the same time I disagree with many of their practices such as Always Online, the Origin platform, Day one DLC, etc. But rather than pirate in protest, I will just show them that their measures do not work in protest. They will get their money's worth but only after having spent God knows what on DRM protection that did nothing.

OT: I do not know what to say really, good on Bioware? It was never a problem I really considered but at the same time I cannot condemn others for wanting to rectify it.