Mass Effect - Shepard Was Originally Female

I found this little article on Game Informer that might be of interest for a few Mass Effect Fans. It seems Commander Shepard was originally modeled as a female.

When BioWare first revealed the Mass Effect trilogy, the company showed off gameplay that featured a male Shepard, but the character's earliest incarnation was as a female.

Nearly 20 percent of Mass Effect players played through the game with a female Commander Shepard, but I wonder if that number would have been higher if BioWare had initially advertised the game with a female Shepard in the lead role. According to Mass Effect 1 and 2 lead animator Jonathan Cooper's twitter feed, BioWare always intended to let players pick their Shepard's gender, but the game's earliest animation tests reveal a female Shepard.

More information.

It was worth playing through again as femshep; she gave quite a different feel to the role. Nice voice acting too.

Ohhhhhh…the plot thickens…

This sort of turns the tables a bit, doesn't it?

I like playing as both genders, but Jennifer Hale did a better voice job than Mark Meer.

I'm not sure what the article is trying to say, but I don't really see what relevance the initial animation test has.

Then again, I don't really care about this whole gender thing. I tend to focus on people instead.

Well, unless I'm looking for a partner, in which case gender starts feeling more relevant than most other things

Good for you Dart have a cookie on me. Glad your back as the boards got dull.

It did seem kinda dead

I wasn't planning on returning, though - as the time investment has been way too high, considering the amount of bickering involved

But I guess I missed you guys *kisses*

Haha!

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I like playing as both genders, but Jennifer Hale did a better voice job than Mark Meer.

Different tastes.
I'll disagree and say they both did a good job.

On the topic of the first model, at least femshep didn't get boobjob and lipjob overtime like they did with Ashley.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I like playing as both genders, but Jennifer Hale did a better voice job than Mark Meer.

Totally agree, I played first as female, and so when replaying it was rather a letdown to have considerably worse voice acting.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I'm not sure what the article is trying to say, but I don't really see what relevance the initial animation test has.

Then again, I don't really care about this whole gender thing. I tend to focus on people instead.

Well, unless I'm looking for a partner, in which case gender starts feeling more relevant than most other things

I think it is interesting as an option because similar to playing warrior vs Mage, light vs dark, and so on, there are often differences in the overall feel of a play through that enhance the replay ability of a game.

But when it is a non choice such as in a FPS where nothing is different … Totally agree, who really cares. But then I am thinking of Jedi Academy, where again you get Jennifer Hale as the female voice …

I think it is interesting as an option because similar to playing warrior vs Mage, light vs dark, and so on, there are often differences in the overall feel of a play through that enhance the replay ability of a game.

But when it is a non choice such as in a FPS where nothing is different … Totally agree, who really cares. But then I am thinking of Jedi Academy, where again you get Jennifer Hale as the female voice …

Oh, I didn't mean I don't care about the option. I simply don't care whether a game is designed around a particular gender or not.

Personally, I always play males - because I'm big on roleplaying my character, and I find myself unable to identify with the female psyche - as I don't have it.

But I would never let my own personal preference get in the way of what developers want to do with their games.

You make sense for once DA

Also the only reason it took too much of your time is because you enjoy arguing too much

Originally Posted by joxer
On the topic of the first model, at least femshep didn't get boobjob and lipjob overtime like they did with Ashley.

She actually had a boobjob.

Originally Posted by Pladio
You make sense for once DA

Also the only reason it took too much of your time is because you enjoy arguing too much

You'd think that, but the truth is that I don't enjoy arguing at all. I don't even enjoy debating very much. But I like to be understood - so I tend to go on until such time as I no longer feel it's possible to be understood, or the miracle happens and people finally understand what I'm saying.

Of course, having a lot of unpopular opinions tends to provoke people. But, from my point of view, it seems a lot of people really want to tell me I'm wrong and they get upset as I'm not easily convinced

But I'm going to try to avoid arguing as much as I can, as the alternative is that I have to stay away for good.

That might be an opportunity to get rid of me

Originally Posted by azarhal
She actually had a boobjob.

Nah, that's just a new bra.

Well, since I love very strong stories in games, I'm kind of against choosing gender, because if you want to have a really strong PC and make a detailed relationship in regards to him/her to other characters, it is very tough.

Not that I am a big fan of tomb raider or such, but I think it wouldn't work very well to choose Lara's gender for example.

That said for Bioware games where the PC is an empty shell most of the time that can be shaped by the player it might work.

I tend to make female protagonists (when choice is given) about 30% of the time in games. Really depends on the setting. In the case of ME, I had zero interest in femShep, or even replaying some day as femShep. It's too bad, since I hear Hale did a great job.

I think a lot has to do with the stronger romance elements in the story. I just don't feel comfortable flirting with dudes. Even if you don't pursue romance relationships, there's still flirting built-in (at least there was with manShep). My imagination can only go so far while roleplaying…

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
I think a lot has to do with the stronger romance elements in the story. I just don't feel comfortable flirting with dudes. Even if you don't pursue romance relationships, there's still flirting built-in (at least there was with manShep). My imagination can only go so far while roleplaying…

I played through with zero flirting/romance by femShep; it didn't hurt the experience one iota.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Oh, I didn't mean I don't care about the option. I simply don't care whether a game is designed around a particular gender or not.

Personally, I always play males - because I'm big on roleplaying my character, and I find myself unable to identify with the female psyche - as I don't have it.

But I would never let my own personal preference get in the way of what developers want to do with their games.

I mostly agree …

For the vast majority of games gender is a false choice - in other words it is just substituting a female avatar for a male, with perhaps an extra quest option. For example, Dungeon Lords gives you the 'sisterhood' quest path for playing as a female … and that is it.

Some games at least TRY … Arcanum tries to recognize the oddity of a female lead at the time in history it represents. But being a Troika game, they only got the gender for your PC right ~75% of the time anyway … so it was unintentionally funny way too often.

But I like when you can tell when there was intent of at least thinking outside of the norm … because I think if we accept that development teams are almost monolithically males who grew up playing almost monolithically male characters, there is potential for tunnel-vision (OK, looking at big name games, 'potential' is an understatement ) … so anythign that shakes the 'creativity tree', is a good thing as far as I am concerned.

Kniw what I mean?

But I like when you can tell when there was intent of at least thinking outside of the norm … because I think if we accept that development teams are almost monolithically males who grew up playing almost monolithically male characters, there is potential for tunnel-vision (OK, looking at big name games, 'potential' is an understatement ) … so anythign that shakes the 'creativity tree', is a good thing as far as I am concerned.

Kniw what I mean?

I suppose. I just want people to do what they feel like doing - as the result tends to be better if you care about what you're doing.

So, if there's something there outside the norm, I'd prefer it to be about what the developers wanted as part of the vision - and not some lame attempt at being politically correct - or an attempt at maximizing profit.

As such, I don't really think of "outside the norm" as a creative concept, necessarily. It seems to me that a lot of stuff that's "new" is merely an easy way to stand out so you can look cool to the audience. Since so many of the AAA titles are so much alike - that's an obvious route to fooling the players into believing there's something they haven't seen before, where as the reality is that it's absolutely minimal and is just a little twist on an extremely familiar concept.

I often feel that way about female protagonists, for instance. Like how Ripley in Alien supposedly stood out in a very big and important way because she's female. The joke being that all the characters were written as "unisex" where gender was interchangeable. But people made it into a big deal anyway. That's how these things work, I guess.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of vision involved in the vast majority of "big name games" as you put it. Well, not true, there's a vision called profit.

Absolutely agree … passion fuels creativity, 'ticking checkboxes' breeds contempt. Oh let's make this one 'dark & gritty', let's add a 'same sex' something or another … if the impetus isn't pure, the outcome will be transparent.