Mass Effect's Commander Shepard "Originally a Woman"

[Dragonbums]

So why was her animation in the final game just reskinned from the MaleShep?

Because like any corporate AAA video game structure they forced the devs early on to make Commander Shepard "default" male and female Shepard had to be an afterthought to the male counterpart.

I mean, this kind of thing has been discussed heavily about for years now in regards to the game industry.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

It still makes me INCREDIBLY sad when I think up of that info graph they published some years ago that showed only about 11% of players went with Femshep. Tried playing as a Manshep, and even the much pandered Mirandas arse couldn't make me play that through more.

It makes you sad that boys want to play as boys most of the time? Sheesh the game does not even change depending on what gender you choose, and I usually skipped threw the voice acting as soon as i finished reading the lines of text to get back into the game, pausing only to hear the whole thing when I had to really consider what I wanted to say. People are different.

Let me clarify, as my post seems to have given you a feeling that it was an attack on masculinity. I found it sad that Hale put in a resoundingly superior VO performance then Meer, whilst it is mostly my personal opionion, most professionals would agree with this stance. Since you skip the cutscenes to get back to the "game" just reinforces this, as I'm assuming you're skipping Meers performance. I personally play ME for the opposing reason, I prefer the dialogue engagements over the boiler plate gameplay, but different strikes for different folks.

So TL;DR: it's sad that 89% of the player base missed Hale's performance, became IMO she did a way better job of it. Not because people have attachments to their own particular gender.

played threw thrice, twice as male once as female, did not notice a very big difference.... not that I think I would really care. I consider my time better spent playing then listening to lines I can just read myself three times as fast.

So what's the point we're arguing? That Mass Effect should've gone Legend of Zelda style and have no VO at all? That Bioware was stupid to have a male and female avatar in the first place and it would've been money better spent elsewhere?

As of so far as I'm getting; people play games for different reasons and just because Person A, thinks this feature is a throwaway doesn't mean it should because it's why Person B plays the game.

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

[quote="MrHide-Patten"

So what's the point we're arguing? That Mass Effect should've gone Legend of Zelda style and have no VO at all? That Bioware was stupid to have a male and female avatar in the first place and it would've been money better spent elsewhere?

As of so far as I'm getting; people play games for different reasons and just because Person A, thinks this feature is a throwaway doesn't mean it should because it's why Person B plays the game.

No its good that they have voice overs, I'm just saying its not sad that most people play as male Shepard. To each their own, I give myself as an example of someone who turns subtitles on in every game I play, and skip ahead when I am done reading.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

I imagine this guy could say anything he wants now after the fact ---

What next? The color code for Mass Effect 3 was developed after Casey Hudson saw a maxi pad turn red, got terrified --- threw it in the toilette that had the blue-dye in it, and suddenly became happy because the maxi pad was bio-degradable and therefore he was keeping green.

I'm going to guess its one of those media ploys to seed the forums and blog sphere with Mass Effect chatter in lue of ME4.