Editorial On FemShep's Popularity In Mass Effect

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: BioWare; Mass Effect

<p>Gamasutra put up an <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30143/Analysis_On_FemSheps_Popularity_In_Mass_Effect.php?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29" target="_blank">editorial</a> concerning the popularity of female Shepard.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>What, You Can Play As A Female?</strong><br /><br />The weird thing about the popularity of the female option is that there has been absolutely no marketing for FemShep. Commander Shepard, as evidenced by posters, box art, promotional videos and television advertisements, is male. He is voiced by Mark Meer and the character is modeled after Mark Vanderloo. In some ways, he might as well be Mark Shepard.<br /><br />Any casual observer may be entirely unaware that playing a female protagonist is even an option in Mass Effect or Mass Effect 2. So why is FemShep so popular? Any standard textbook on marketing will lay down some laws about brand and name recognition. Icons, figureheads and mascots tend to be very clearly defined for just this reason. Imagining a completely unadvertised female version of Kratos is, while sort of sexy, mind-boggling.<br /><br />There are two main reasons as to why this has occurred. The first and admittedly less academic of the two reasons is pretty simple to explain: female gamers may jump at the chance to play female characters. (Not to mention that anyone wanting to romance Jacob, Thane or Garrus has to play as FemShep.) That isn&rsquo;t to say that females can&rsquo;t play as Mr. Commander Shepard but simply that, given the rare option, it seems like women would be prone to trying to play their own gender.<br /><br />With the more general hypothesis out of the way, the second is that people play as the female version precisely because Commander Shepard is male in all other ways. The lines, the character animations and various other tidbits are male-oriented in a way that makes FemShep more than your stereotypical RPG female protagonist. For one, she wears practical armor. Well, mostly, but it is science fiction after all; we can accept floating visors and the like.<br /><br />Mass Effect is a bit of an odd franchise because while all the official materials that relate to marketing and the like showcase a man, leading many to assume that the canonical Shepard is one, the story within makes every effort to avoid such insinuations. Pronouns are used sparingly and often tend to be gender neutral at best and at worst the &ldquo;he/she&rdquo; conversion is integrated smoothly into the dialogue. Even in the Mass Effect: Redemption comic series, they refrain from referring to the Commander as one or the other, going so far as to say that it&rsquo;s difficult to discern gender from the remains they found.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=48933" target="_blank">Remember</a>, only 20% of all players played the female Shepard. So for ME3 we can just streamline Femshep away. Only the male version stays, voiced by Jennifer Hale.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/99645-on-femsheps-popularity-in-mass-effect.html">GB</a></p>

 

[Grunker]

As long as Jennifer Hale does the voice, I don't care. As long as I don't have to listen to MaleShep's voice for another second.

 

[Trash]

The reason to play as a female is the awesome performance Hale does as a renegade.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

With the more general hypothesis out of the way, the second is that people play as the female version precisely because Commander Shepard is male in all other ways. The lines, the character animations and various other tidbits are male-oriented in a way that makes FemShep more than your stereotypical RPG female protagonist.

Interesting way of saying it.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Remember</a>, only 20% of all players played the female Shepard. So for ME3 we can just streamline Femshep away. Only the male version stays, voiced by Jennifer Hale.

How very Codexian.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Jennifer Hale

I was expecting that to be one of the main reasons (if not the)... but, yeah... gaming journalism...

 

[Miew]

That article has a pretty long winded way of saying what it wants to say.
I, for one, enjoyed female Shepard because she didn't wear armor that exposed her midriff or had a big cleavage.
She's pretty much what Samus Aran was before they started ruining her with the skin tight zero suit and, most recently, whiny dialogue in "other M".

It's a refreshing personality, compared to all the other female game characters who are mostly just there to appeal to male sexual instincts. FemShep doesn't do anything of that sort, except maybe in one of the romances I guess.
Even supposedly strong female personalities, like Lara Croft for example, are really just there to appeal to males. Lara wears those skimpy outfits to be appealing. That is obviously a decision that the designers made and the same dress codes that exist in the real world don't really apply to games and such, but it still makes her seem like she's trying too hard to appeal. "Like me! Come on you must like me, I'm a girl! I have a huge chest, look!"
Shepard on the other hand does nothing of that sort. Funny enough, it seems to be the lack of attention that went into distinguishing the two versions (or rather distinguising Her from Him, since you won't ever see MaleShep act girlish) that makes her such a great character. (In that light, it's probably a good thing that Bioware's statistics say only 20% play FemShep. Otherwise they might get the idea of spending more time on diversifying her from her male counterpart by adding some extra girly stuff)

 

[Ulminati]

As long as Jennifer Hale does the voice, I don't care. As long as I don't have to listen to MaleShep's voice for another second.

This. She's probably one of the best (if not the best) voice actors lending their voice to games presently. Her performance as renegade femshep was the biggest plus for the game.

 

[Sceptic]

The only reason to play FemShep is that you don't have to listen to Mark Meer.

It's not that Hale is so great (she's alright; it's really not her best performance), it's that you'd have to be a raging masochist to want to listen to Mark Meer for 20+ hours.

 

[commie]

The only reason to play FemShep is that you don't have to listen to Mark Meer.

It's not that Hale is so great (she's alright; it's really not her best performance), it's that you'd have to be a raging masochist to want to listen to Mark Meer for 20+ hours.

I specifically altered the appearance of Shepard to look more weenie to fit the voice better as it seemed ridiculously out of place with the stock, square-jawed hero Shep. After this the voice was perfect!

 

[Zomg]

She's pretty much what Samus Aran was before they started ruining her with the skin tight zero suit and, most recently, whiny dialogue in "other M".)

I read that, lol. I liked that Samus was like Doom guy or some some other pure video game protagonist in that she spends all of her known existence completely alone, in hell or hell analogs, calmly killing things. They're not males or females or humans, they're like the replicants in Blade Runner, i.e. weird superior aliens.

Doom guy lived in Indiana, the second of two children. He got a girl pregnant in high school, but she was killed in a car wreck before she told anyone else and he feels guilty the he felt relieved

 

[racofer]

 

[Drakron]

The only reason to play FemShep is that you don't have to listen to Mark Meer.

Who speaks on the exact same tone every fucking time no matter what the situation is.

 

[Phelot]

Doom guy lived in Indiana, the second of two children. He got a girl pregnant in high school, but she was killed in a car wreck before she told anyone else and he feels guilty the he felt relieved

 

[Andyman Messiah]

This.

edit: Jesus christ the article goes to great lengths to describe why Female Shep is popular and forgets that it's really just because Mark Meer is so fucking awful and Jennifer Hale is so fucking awesome. One sentence and the article could have been done.

 

[LazyD]

I played as femshep in the 2nd assfect. I had lezbo carpet munching session with my bridge bitch

 

[GarfunkeL]

I played as femshep in the 2nd assfect. I had lezbo carpet munching session with my bridge bitch

Really? I had heard that they had purged all non-hetero options from the sequel.

Anyway, the little I played of both ME and ME2, I've played with FemShep.

 

[ironyuri]

I played as femshep in the 2nd assfect. I had lezbo carpet munching session with my bridge bitch

mmm nomnomnom

 

[Drakron]

Really? I had heard that they had purged all non-hetero options from the sequel.

Well its not stated or obvious, you can read it as such.

Now Liara in Lair of the Shadow Broker on the other hand is pretty damn clear on what is going on, minus the ME1 sex scenes.

 

[Jack]

I hate Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer.
What's the point of having the PC voice acted?

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

A distilled reason is Because It Is Expected. There's been a rebellion against the silent protagonist (Link is perhaps now the only holdout), but really - protagonist voice - and full voiced dialogue in general - has now become a fully expected part of games. If you DON'T have it, there's the danger of an audience believing your game looks and feels unpolished (correct me if I'm wrong, but people BAWWW'ed over the fact that the protagonist is silent in Dragon Age).

Mind you, I'm not saying this is right or that I agree at all - I'm just saying it's the prevailing opinion in many circles, and one of those circles seem to be the publishers, so there you go.

 

[Phelot]

A distilled reason is Because It Is Expected. There's been a rebellion against the silent protagonist (Link is perhaps now the only holdout), but really - protagonist voice - and full voiced dialogue in general - has now become a fully expected part of games. If you DON'T have it, there's the danger of an audience believing your game looks and feels unpolished (correct me if I'm wrong, but people BAWWW'ed over the fact that the protagonist is silent in Dragon Age).

Mind you, I'm not saying this is right or that I agree at all - I'm just saying it's the prevailing opinion in many circles, and one of those circles seem to be the publishers, so there you go.

Hey Annie, will you and Brian be providing voices for Dead State?

 

[Jack]

A distilled reason is Because It Is Expected. There's been a rebellion against the silent protagonist (Link is perhaps now the only holdout), but really - protagonist voice - and full voiced dialogue in general - has now become a fully expected part of games. If you DON'T have it, there's the danger of an audience believing your game looks and feels unpolished (correct me if I'm wrong, but people BAWWW'ed over the fact that the protagonist is silent in Dragon Age).

Mind you, I'm not saying this is right or that I agree at all - I'm just saying it's the prevailing opinion in many circles, and one of those circles seem to be the publishers, so there you go.

But I can hardly think of any form of RPGs that have been fully VA'd.
Now that I think about it the only other RPG that have had a fully voiced PC is Alpha Protocol.
Actually I think ME is the one that started it, because they tried out the dialogue wheel.
I think it was because of the target audience, as this game's major focus were on the popamole combat and "cinematic" experience rather than a classic A-RPG.

 

[Achilles]

(correct me if I'm wrong, but idiots BAWWW'ed over the fact that the protagonist is silent in Dragon Age).

Corrected as requested. I'd rather have more dialogue choices than listen to the (often lame) voiceover. The fact that idiots set the trends for mainstream gaming makes me sad and bitter.

 

[Raghar]

A distilled reason is Because It Is Expected. There's been a rebellion against the silent protagonist (Link is perhaps now the only holdout), but really - protagonist voice - and full voiced dialogue in general - has now become a fully expected part of games.

I hate voice acted games, they can break immersion.

(correct me if I'm wrong, but people BAWWW'ed over the fact that the protagonist is silent in Dragon Age).

People are bitching about whatever they can bitch. They even bitched about Morrigan.