Poll: Female Shepard vs Male Shepard - Mass Effect Series

[HellbirdIV]

FemShep, because;

- Better voicework. Look, Mark Meer is awesome and his acting talent is not to blame for MaleShep's uninspiring monotone, but it just doesn't hold up to Hale. It couldn't.

- Looks snazzier. Sleek, violent, and lethal suits my favorite classes - Infiltrator and Adept - far better than brick shithouse.

- Space lesbians. Just space lesbians.

 

[Brian Tams]

Male Shepard. I tried to create myself, but then virtual me went on to be more successful that real me, got all the women he wanted, and become super-cool galactic guy numero uno. I got really depressed for some reason D:

 

[DRTJR]

I have Shepards of both genders, but I always preferred female Shepard due to the superior voice acting.

Jennifer Hale actually puts some nuance into her voice. Mark Meer alternates between sounding bored and sounding hungover. Although, to be fair, he did improve over the course of the series. Then again, so did Hale, so dude-Shep was still left in the dust throughout.

Except for humor. Hale does nuance and emotion better than Mark Meer, but he is way better at being funny. His deadpan delivery is hilarious, especially in Citadel.

Eh, I guess.

He certainly says "Big stupid jellyfish" better, I'll give him that.

Hello I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite store on the Citadel.

 

[The Hero Killer]

Shepard to me was my female Shepard, I dont even acknowledge the default male one. Its always a interesting topic starter when people ask me why I refer to Shepard as "she" or "her".

 

[The Great JT]

Personally I like them both, but I play ManShep more. No reason why, nothing against Jennifer Hale, just prefer ManShep.

 

[votemarvel]

In regard to the voice acting I think that while Jennifer Hale's low points are worse than Mark Meers, her high points are also much better than his. It's weird because Mark Meer is a fantastic voice actor but his Shepard seems to be playing it safe, whether that is his fault or the fault of the voice director I couldn't say.

Most of my Shepard's do tend to be female though Simply because I find it easy to role play. If I play a male Shepard I start to think on what I would do in that situation rather than what Shepard would do.

 

[Olas]

I've played through the trilogy as both, and female Shepherd always seemed to have more attitude and charisma to her. Male Shepherd is okay, just a little bland.

 

[w9496]

I like ManShep. It's easier for me to identify with being as I'm a guy too.

I can understand the complaints about his voice acting in the first game, but he improved by leaps and bounds, and I felt that he had surpassed FemShep by the time BE3 rolled around.

I never got the praise for Hale either. She just always sounded bored.

 

[Madame_Lawliet]

I always play femshep
Partially because I like Jen Hale's voice acting a little bit more, but also for a slightly more eh... personal reason.
As someone born male who's spent a considerable amount of their life either questioning or outright wrestling with their gender identity, being able to play certain games, like Mass Effect, as the gender I more closely identify myself with feels... good.

But I won't preach to you all about how games that allow gender choice are a helpful thing for transfolk, I have Tumblr for that, suffice it to say I like playing as Femshep and I'm probably going to continue doing so in future playthroughs.

 

[xeyra]

I tend to mostly play female characters, unless the game's protagonist is specifically male, so I have played as female Shep throughout the entire trilogy. I have seen played (and even tried once) the male version and it didn't really work for me, because the voice acting does make female Shepard sound so badass and much more charismatic. Plus, it's the whole competent woman in charge in an often man's world thing.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

I tried to roll male Shepard but I couldn't get into it at all. So I went for Femshep and it turned out to be a different experience. I avoided the romances when I could (sometimes you stumble into them when you're trying to befriend someone like Liara) but I dunno, I guess I just clicked with the character better.

I just hate that you can't make a decent looking Male Shepard. Well, I couldn't anyway.

Yeah, I got a male Shepard started up in Mass Effect but I could never really make him look like anything other than a potato with facial features and hair.

 

[Xarathox]

I always preferred female Shepard due to the superior voice acting.

I've always found this remark odd. To me, Jennifer Hale is one of the worst voice actors in the industry, going all the way back to Metal Gear Solid.

Mark Meer wasn't any better, in fact he was absolutely horrible in the first Mass Effect. But Hales voice just sounds like nails on a chalk board.

 

[kahlzun]

Femshep, always always always.

The male voice actor was terrible, for the first one at least. And the story seemed to make more sense as a girl, dunno why.

 

[LordVikingofFire]

The child of man shep and femshep

 

[conmag9]

Femshep, virtually every time. Something just felt...off...about Mark Meer's voice, the first time I heard it. As time went on I've gotten a bit more used to it (even playing through two games for the sake of Tali's romance). But I love Jennifer Hale's voice and the design options fit better with what I had in my head (which was quite different than the default head).

 

[kasperbbs]

Female, because 'dat ass!', also the voice actress was better than males. Also lesbians.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

Femshep because I'm a sucker for tough female space marine types.

Also, as Femshep you can romance Garrus. That alone should be reason enough.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Male because I like to imagine that I am the one who gets drunk passes out, revives in a toilet, saves the world 3 times. Falls trough the atmosphere after being exposed to vacuum, gets frozen, gets revived - kicks ass.

 

[Eppy (Bored)]

I think a female Commander Shepard is more interesting, so I've always played femsheps exclusively (it's nice to see that I'm not the only man who does that). I'm not a particular fan of Mark Meer and I love how Jennifer Hale does the role, and I think the character's potential range of personality suits my two favorite classes very well (Infiltrator and Vanguard: Chick with Giant Gun and Chick Who Punches People to Death respectively).

 

[Raikas]

Taken by itself, MaleShep VA is good enough for a game like Mass Effect. But when you compare it to the VA of FemShep, that's where it sounds like dog farts. It's not fair to Mark Meer, but that's probably the biggest reason people prefer FemShep over MaleShep.

I think Hale did more of an acting job, but that's actually why I prefer manShep - Meer's voice is neutral enough that you can project a variety of tones onto it, and I prefer that for a game like this. I also find that makes it easier to replay the game and imagine that Shepard to be a distinct character - Hale's version seemed to have more of a set character to the line readings, so I was never able to play more than one femShep (to my 7 manSheps).