Mass Effect's Commander Shepard "Originally a Woman"

[DeimosMasque]

I see... Bioware hasn't been in the news lately since DA:I released... so someone has to come forward and say something that sounds really progressive. Eh, each to their own. I'm with some of the other comments on here and feel that "originally" anything is utterly meaningless.

Also, love some of the slams on male Shep here, as if the gender you chose matters one ioto. It does not. The story was the same no matter what.

Actually the guy doesn't even work for Bioware anymore, he just was commenting on it since it's the 10 year anniversary of Mass Effect and the month he worked on the original walk animation.

Also the slams on Sheploo isn't about gender, it's about Mark Meer's flat voice acting in the first game.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I've always preferred FemShep. She just seemed much more human than her male counterpart. I can also relate better to female characters because I have about as many male hormones as a plate of jelly. As far as my opinion is concerned, FemShep has always been the protagonist. Always.

Also Garrus, which is, like, the main incentive to play ME anyway play as a female character. Without Garrus, the male route just becomes barren and depressing.

 

[Dogstile]

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.

Why? Both voice actors did a decent job.

 

[Baresark]

I see... Bioware hasn't been in the news lately since DA:I released... so someone has to come forward and say something that sounds really progressive. Eh, each to their own. I'm with some of the other comments on here and feel that "originally" anything is utterly meaningless.

Also, love some of the slams on male Shep here, as if the gender you chose matters one ioto. It does not. The story was the same no matter what.

Actually the guy doesn't even work for Bioware anymore, he just was commenting on it since it's the 10 year anniversary of Mass Effect and the month he worked on the original walk animation.

Also the slams on Sheploo isn't about gender, it's about Mark Meer's flat voice acting in the first game.

It was pretty flat, I can't argue there, but I almost feel like that was an implicit part of the character. Like people develop different personality traits and some are boisterous and talk loud and others are quiet, and Shepard felt like he was the calm cool collect guy who was always in charge. It's not like they offered different voices as an option, you had one male and one female voice.

I find the whole MaleShep vs FemShep thing kind of kind of funny. People will always have a preference but it can't really be said that either one is explicitly better in some way, which is how sex should be handled in a game. It's just a game decision that has no impact except for personal. Sometimes when I play a game I make my girlfriend and she always gets a kick out of it and I have her make the decisions (she is not a gamer, so she would never do it on her own). That series was always a double edged sword for me. I really liked it but sometimes I was just in the mood to shoot stuff. I really liked the combat in that game and sometimes I was just stuck in an area with nothing to do but talk talk talk all day. Other days that worked out really well because I was into the characters and the lore and hearing peoples stories.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I doubt that.
Shepard was originally a faceless genderless blob because the game was meant to be an RPG from the start and you could make your own character and pick your own sex. Stinks of an "see, we were progressive before it was cool" drama. And I'm still mad that the user voted FemShep didn't become to official FemShep because apparently blond women are sexist. That and the awful voice acting. Playing FemShepard felt like watching an anime where a cute loli acts tough. Just that the loli is cute and funny while Bioware was actually serious with the writing.

 

[Gatlank]

The marketing rests completly on EAs shoulders thought. All Bioware could do was to beg EA to include femshep and show them some numbers.

And even then less then 22%s of Sheps where female.. so i say EA was not off about not making femshep the focus of their marketing campaign. Marketing is hella expensive and sometimes makes up to half the total costs of a game (especially with EA titles)

Wasting it on a barely existing demographic is the epitome of stupid

Also it was the first animation... "was originally a woman" has jack shit to do with anything. A more apropiate title would have been "the first animation for Mass effect was that of a woman"

But i guess thats not clickbaity enough in the current enviroments of minefields that armchair feminism has turned gaming websites into

And there you have it. There's nothing more to be said about these "news".

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

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.

 

[Brockyman]

And?
Halo was originally PC exclusive.

Actually, it was originally gonna be released exclusively for the Dreamcast, and when the Dreamcast tanked it was going to be released for the PS2, Xbox, and PC. Other than that, your point is entirely correct. :3

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

Why make unique animations for another model when you can simply use the same one for the opposite gender. Obsidian did the same thing with the Pimp Boy 3 Billion by using the male mesh model for female players...and it resulted in the female characters holding the Pimp Boy at an odd angle whenever you bring it up.

No, Halo was originally going to be on the MAC, not Dreamcast or PC. Steve Jobs even showed it at an event. I watched one of the Halo 2 documentaries and they stated it there.

 

[Harry Mason]

What do you mean, "originally a woman?" Commander Shepard is a woman...

Seriously, though, I don't understand how anyone could have possibly played with Dudeshep. Hale's VO was amazing, and the male voice actor sounded like a gym rat on sedatives. His voice was like nails on a chalkboard, I swear...

There is this amazing thing called "People have different tastes". Might help you understand why people like things you don't like.

Wow, really? Wow! You've opened up my eyes! I'll never express a personal opinion using hyperbole again! Thanks, BRP!

See, now, THAT'S how you use sarcasm.

 

[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.

 

[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.

Why? Both voice actors did a decent job.

PERSONAL OPINION AHEAD, PROCEED WITH CAUTION:

I found Meer very dull and banal, and generally most chatter I see (probably just a confirmation bias) that Hale did a better job then Meer. Again, probably just my biases as I find 90% of male protagonists forgettable.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Femshep is the only shepard as far as I'm concerned. The 80% who only played male shep played the series wrong.

Especially if they only picked soldier class for all three games. Holy crap talk about the most boring possible experience you could have with a series that features an amazing female lead and bad ass biotic powers that make combat 10 times more fun.

But gurls have too many cooties to fight in epic space wars and I don't trust no high-fallutin' space magic neither!

OT

My entire world view is completely shattered and I don't think I can live with this heathen knowledge.

....


NOW GIVE US SOME GODDAMN INFO ON THE NEXT MASS EFFECT BIOWARE!!!

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Yay, more fuel for that vocal minority that loves to remind everyone that if you didn't play the game with Jennifer "I have been using this same voice since 98 and you only notice it now?" Hale's distractingly easy to recognize voice you played such an inferior version of the game that you shouldn't have even been able to complete it. As if they needed any more validation to act smug about it.

Also, this is going way before the point where saying "x was originally supposed to be y, you know" has any value. Guy used a female character model to test animations with, whoop-dee-fucking-doo.

Bullshit. No way. I do not believe someone could be that smug that they actually think there's a right and wrong character choice in this game ...

Femshep is the only shepard as far as I'm concerned. The 80% who only played male shep played the series wrong.

Especially if they only picked soldier class for all three games. Holy crap talk about the most boring possible experience you could have with a series that features an amazing female lead and bad ass biotic powers that make combat 10 times more fun.

... I stand corrected.

Did someone say Poe's law? I think someone said Poe's law

 

[Kahani]

It's something the studio has included since its earliest day as role-playing developer and, as the years have gone by, the gender options afforded to players have only expanded.

You used to be able to play as either male or female, but in their more recent games you can play as either male or female. Apparently this is some meaning of the word "expanded" I wasn't previously aware of.

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

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.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

What do you mean, "originally a woman?" Commander Shepard is a woman...

Seriously, though, I don't understand how anyone could have possibly played with Dudeshep. Hale's VO was amazing, and the male voice actor sounded like a gym rat on sedatives. His voice was like nails on a chalkboard, I swear...

There is this amazing thing called "People have different tastes". Might help you understand why people like things you don't like.

Wow, really? Wow! You've opened up my eyes! I'll never express a personal opinion using hyperbole again! Thanks, BRP!

See, now, THAT'S how you use sarcasm.

I wasn't using sarcasm, I was trying to figure out why people like you need to act like you don't understand why someone would pick something different from what you like.

 

[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.