To the participants: Please feel to comment on these issues. Collaboration among the many femShep players improves our position. As some will doubtless find, the list below may miss a personal plus or minus to the femShep character. This is intended as a starting point and includes some of the most often-stated comments. As suggestions relating to the overall improvement of the femShep experience gain the consensus of the community, they will be added to the list.
NOTE: This is not a thread to debate the merits of manShep vs femShep. Please keep the focus on the femShep player experience. Anyone trying to incite negative reactions will be reported to a moderator who will take appropriate action.
First, it is important to state some of the reasons why so many people love playing femShep. This will give BioWare an indication why the follow up queries are important to us.
People play female Shepard for a variety of reasons. BioWare has created a truly amazing female protagonist. She has captured our imagination and, as a result, we have grown extremely fond of her. It is refreshing to see a female take the lead role and do it with style and confidence. She has not been overly sexualised as in the usual associated paradigms of the gaming industry. Shepard is a warrior and she is portrayed as such. This is a unique feature that makes playing her distinctive. Not many games can compare to Mass Effect in this.
Additionally Jennifer Hale’s voice acting helps define her many personality options and boosts our gaming experience.
"...Our goal has and will continue to be to ensure that female and male Shepard have a truly equitable experience and that no one group of people feel left out." - Jesse Houston
This is a good goal to have and is something that is certainly achievable. At times this philosophy of character equality seems to be neglected leaving femShep feeling like an afterthought. This is pervasive throughout ME2. We hope our concerns have been or will be addressed in ME3.
So, the list:
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1. Better Animations
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In Mass Effect 1 female Shepard had her own custom rig, movement style and animations. This gave her a unique look that helped set her apart from her male counterpart. She had a sleekness and style about her while continuing to look the part of a marine and a Spectre. All of this served to let the player know the developers truly cared about giving femShep players an experience equal to that of maleShep players.
In Mass Effect 2 all of those unique characteristics found in Mass Effect 1 are gone. The care that was shown with femShep in the first game is no longer evident. The developers set themselves the goal of an equal experience for both femShep and maleShep players, but largely missed the mark. A return to unique animations for femShep would be a step in the right direction.
There are several examples of how these male animations don’t work on femShep. The most blatant is the sitting animation. It is especially egregious while wearing the dress. No woman would sit like that in a dress. Even in armour, this posture doesn’t look correct.
This lack of attention to femShep became very evident with the release of Dragon Age 2. In comparison the distinct animation of Lady Hawke improves the player’s immersion into the role playing aspect of the game.
Question: I hope in DA2 the shape of the female bodies will be more realistic, that is all.
Response: They have their own rig, now. Man-shoulders and boy-hips begone - Dave Gaider
Our request to BioWare is bring back our experience from the first game. We want our female heroine to be just that and not have that sluggish feel that comes with a rig and animations not intended to be used for her.
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2. FemShep & screenshots
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Seeing femShep in her bonus armours for future DLCs is important to us. When ME2 bonus items were announced, only male Shepard was shown in the new gear. Armour styles do look different in the game on the different genders. Showing femShep in the armour would allow players to make an informed decision when looking to purchase these DLCs.
We are fairly certain the trend of pre-order bonuses will continue with the release of Mass Effect 3. We would like to see screenshots of femShep in any bonus armours so that we may choose the appropriate place from which to pre-order the game.
That armour looks awesome BioWare! But does it look that good on female Shepard? Those armours have two different appearances and we can only see one.
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3. Script and Dialogue Issues with Romances/Flirting.
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There is no need to go into too much detail on this. Just say “Jacob” and everyone who has played femShep understands the problem. Most of the time the dialogue is perfect, but, on occasion, the line or the delivery is cringe worthy. Friendly and positive should not instantly equal romantic attraction.
"I want to be able to have her talk to her crew without sounding like she wants to give them a personal debrief in her quarters" - Akari Tenshi
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4. Hair and Textures
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The term that often best describes Mass Effect hairstyles is: Plastic! This is a big issue for femShep players as her hair is often longer and doesn’t have the male marine buzz cut. The textures and lack of movement don’t really flatter her at times.
Limited choice of styles is also an issue. Currently femShep players have to turn to modding if they wish a greater variety. At minimum we would like to see all female hairstyles that exist in the game available at character creation. New and more flattering hairstyles would be a welcome addition.
While not an issue specific to femShep, an improved character creator would be a brilliant feature, even though this is the final game. Mass Effect is still attracting new fans and the current fans want something new. At the very least, we would love to see improvements to skin textures and overall polish.
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5. Acknowledgement of Shepard's Gender.
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It is pleasing and helps game immersion when an NPC’s reaction is based on Shepard’s gender. Aside from romances, there are only two places in ME2 where this occurred.
1) The Batarian merc recruiter on Omega
2) Gianna Parasini on Illium.
It really was brilliant to see these unique situations as they help to make the game more personal and add more to the experience. We would like to see more of these situations. Even a simple sir or ma’am distinction helps.
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6. Armour styles arn't overly sexualised, so don’t change it
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This is more a compliment to what is being done right and is really just for reassurance things will be kept as they are.
As previously mentioned, one of femShep’s defining features is she isn’t overly sexualised in what she wears on the battlefield. Her attire is appropriate and fitting. We hope to see this continue.
In the Game Informer article there are a couple of images where female soldiers in ME3 appear to have rather excessive busts. We hope this won’t transfer over to femShep and her armour stays appropriate to her frame.
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7. Reduced Clipping Issues
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Worth a mention, although hopefully this will be resolved along with point one. We want to see clipping reduced.
As a direct result of the lack of unique animations, there are several instances where femShep is more prone to clipping due to the fact she occupies the same space as male Shepard, but is obviously smaller and has a different build.
This clipping issue disrupts the equitable experience we all wish to have. If unique animations are inbound, then this should be fixed in ME3. Instances of clipping in ME2 caused a lot of frustration for some players, as the lack of polish appears to be neglect, especially in important scenes.
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That’s all for now. As said above If any other issues are raised which are appropriate they will be added.
Big Thanks to scampermax who assisted me so much she virtually co-wrote it!
Also thanks jwalker, Akari Tenshi, JamieCOTC and rynluna for massive feedback and guidance
Modifié par Captain Crash, 20 juin 2011 - 07:51 .
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The most important of these issues, to me, is the animations. Second would be just a few more scenes/lines of dialogue that are gender specific. And more importantly, no NPCs addressing Femshep as "sir".
Just snipped the points you agree with. Im really glad that people also recognise these concerns.
