236 réponses à ce sujet

[mvictorine]

Great voice acting, completionist experience, predilection toward strong female leads.

[Stenun]

I've been playing computer games for nearly 30 years now and for as long as I can remember, I've always gone with a female character if given the choice. Just look at my user pic to the left there - no sign of my manly beard at all.
And it IS manly! *glares*
*ahem*

Back when computer games first started giving us a choice of gender - way back in the 80s - they also made slight differences between them. Usually it would be somehting as simple as "Male character = tougher", "Female character = faster". I quickly found that I much prefered the speed bonus over toughness bonuses, so by default I would just gravitate to the female character for the speed.
Eventually, of course, differences between genders were pretty much done away with once character classes started being introduced instead. But at that point, I'd been selecting female characters for so long that I just stuck with it. I mean ... why not?

Plus I do find it far more interesting.
I love strong female characters and they are few and far between - especially as a LOT of writers confuse the phrase "strong female character" with "being a ****". Too often (and I see this as a fault of male writers more than anything else), a woman is writen to be ****y and the writers insist this means she is strong.
No, it doesn't. Quite the opposite in fact.
So to find a genuinelly strong female character, one who doesn't need to be strong for the sake of it but just naturally is like "FemShep" (I really hate that moniker, btw), is really rather fun. And it's still - unfortunately - rare and distinctive enough that she really is a standout in modern computer games; hell, she's a standout in all modern culture combined. There are very, very few other female characters that can hold a candle to her and I for one think that's something BioWare should actually be rather proud of.

[Descy_]

 Some guys would rather stare at a females butt than a mans.

[Elishiaila]

Kobrakai7 wrote...

 Reading the story discussion on these forums has surprised me just how many guys refer to their Shepard as "she". In a game all about immersing yourself as the main character it just seems awkward to me to play as the opposite sex, especially given all the romance plots, etc. 

I have played the whole series through multiple times but have never made a single female Shepard... am I missing any major plot elements or great scenes? Anyone else feel the same way? 

If you look at pen and paper RPGs, you know one thing for sure: As a DM / GM you have to roleplay characters of both genders, and immersion is important in both sides. If you accepted this as part of the hobby, you won't see a problem with FemShep, and once you reached this point, it will be your choice about which one you prefer.

Backgound of the character, looks, voice acting, etc. can determine your choices. Well, even some romance options can influence your choice. If you want to romance a lesbian NPC, you will play FemShep.

[AntonioA9011]

What does "IRL" mean? Sorry, I don't speak Internet.

[CRISIS1717]

They are gender confused and want to explore their female side.

[MadRabbit999]

Cos most men are pervs that needs to stare at girls mASS effect and lesbians.

[Zardoc]

Don't like her voice. Can't play femShep.

[orangesonic]

Tritium315 wrote...

Lesbians bro, lesbians.

this... and i like watching and listening to a cool woman talk rather than and ugly Robocop talking

[Descy_]

MadRabbit999 wrote...

Cos most men are pervs that needs to stare at girls mASS effect and lesbians.

Yeah, fo' sho.
'
Every guy is a male chauvinistic pig!

[Shared]

For me its really simple. Femshep has magnitudes better voice acting then male shep. I dont get how anyone can play male shep, when the voice acting for femshep just is that much better.

[Draconis6666]

Lazyskater130 wrote...

ive never played as a femshep. it is weird that all these dudes enjoy being a femshep lol IMO femshep is cheesy as hell

I personaly think its the exact opposite, Male shep is incredibly cheesy and cliche, hes a sterotypical overdone scifi character wihtout anything really interesting about him as a character.

Femshep however is very atypical of a strong protagonist, strong willed protagonists such as shepard are very rarely female even in science fiction. 

[orangesonic]

Descy_ wrote...

MadRabbit999 wrote...

Cos most men are pervs that needs to stare at girls mASS effect and lesbians.

Yeah, fo' sho.
'
Every guy is a male chauvinistic pig!

Yeah, fo`sho

[MadRabbit999]

Descy_ wrote...

MadRabbit999 wrote...

Cos most men are pervs that needs to stare at girls mASS effect and lesbians.

Yeah, fo' sho.
'
Every guy is a male chauvinistic pig!

Prove me wrong

[The Lightspeaker]

AlexXIV wrote...

To be immersed the main character doesn't have to be your sex. Also doesn't have to be you. I prefer female characters because they are more pleasant to look at. And because I hate the 'male white marine' prototype of hero in most games. If it was like in the witcher and the hero is somewhat 'different' I'd rather play male, but Sheploo is really sort of a turnoff for me. Not my type of hero.

Agreed with most of this. Plus Jennifer Hale is awesome.


To add to this: honestly I just find this a strange question to ask. The first thing that goes through my mind is "because why not?" I tend to play whatever feels right for a game to me. When I've played Fallout 3 and New Vegas I went with male characters. For Mass Effect and Dragon Age I went with females. I tend to mix it up in MMOs I play with a slight bias towards female characters. When I play Mount & Blade I can never quite get into it if my character is female.

I think its just a social and insecurity thing. The whole having to be a "manly man" pressure of society. I'm a straight male but have absolutely no problem identifying with female game characters and it doesn't make me uncomfortable in the slightest. I can't really say why, maybe it has something to do with the fact I'm a fundamentally sensitive and emotional person so can empathise with anyone?

I mean does gender really matter THAT much? We're all just people after all...

[CRISIS1717]

There is an interesting article on a social gaming site I found about how some male gamers explore their feminine side through roleplay and crossdressing. I'll see if I can find it.

[Hecuter]

Shared wrote...

For me its really simple. Femshep has magnitudes better voice acting then male shep. I dont get how anyone can play male shep, when the voice acting for femshep just is that much better.

^ This.

[curdy]

femshep rocks!

I tried playing as broshep the voice dosen't really convince me im afraid.

but femshep sounds much more convincing imo.

When you compare the scene with broshep and femshep stabbing kai leng, so much more emotion in femshep than in broshep.

just saying

[Obliterati]

CRISIS1717 wrote...

There is an interesting article on a social gaming site I found about how some male gamers explore their feminine side through roleplay and crossdressing. I'll see if I can find it.

2/10

You're trying too hard.

[Descy_]

MadRabbit999 wrote...

Descy_ wrote...

MadRabbit999 wrote...

Cos most men are pervs that needs to stare at girls mASS effect and lesbians.

Yeah, fo' sho.
'
Every guy is a male chauvinistic pig!

Prove me wrong

I can't, cause this male chauvisim is clouding my mind. We need to kill...all..men...GACK!


Oh god where am I? All I see are breasts and vaginas. Where am I? Breasts breasts? Vagina! Breasts! T-shirt time!!!!!

[AntonioA9011]

Hecuter wrote...

Shared wrote...

For me its really simple. Femshep has magnitudes better voice acting then male shep. I dont get how anyone can play male shep, when the voice acting for femshep just is that much better.

^ This.

^^^^This again

[Ck213]

I don't identify so much with the character
The character is not me. I'm controlling it like a puppet. So I have no issue with playing a female character.

[Sundance31us]

For Reference:

There's actually a group for people who enjoy playing the opposite sex.

http://social.biowar...roup/129/#group

[Fraevar]

Kobrakai7 wrote...

 Reading the story discussion on these forums has surprised me just how many guys refer to their Shepard as "she". In a game all about immersing yourself as the main character it just seems awkward to me to play as the opposite sex, especially given all the romance plots, etc. 

I have played the whole series through multiple times but have never made a single female Shepard... am I missing any major plot elements or great scenes? Anyone else feel the same way? 

Well since you asked nicely, I thought I'd give you a proper answer:

For me it's about adding more layers to the fiction. I played the first Mass Effect when it came out with a custom-made broShep, finished the game and kind of forgot about it. I never had any particular personal investment in Shepard, a very defined character with a specific voice and construction that I personally didn't find all that interesting.

Then later I went back and played as a female Shepard and I just found it so much more compelling. Jennifer Hale was better at giving reactions in the way I thought a character in those situations would, so that was a plus. But more to the point, all those things that made me not really interested in broShep? Well they suddenly had the reverse effect on me through female Shepard. Female Shepard is written 90% like her male counterpart, she's in no way softer or has any other agenda than getting the job done. And that's what makes her interesting, because you really don't see that with female leads in the action videogame space.

So the short version: Because Shepard was never me, or an expression of myself, other than getting to choose the character's morality. And based on that, I just find the female version to be a much more interesting character, because by her very existence there's something more unique to her. Male Shepard is not poorly done, but fact remains he's yet another male action hero, who I've seen/played a million times over. Female Shepard is not, so I prefer the game with her.

[DocDoomII]

Lazyskater130 wrote...

ive never played as a femshep. it is weird that all these dudes enjoy being a femshep lol IMO femshep is cheesy as hell

so am I weird when I play, say, Tomb Rider?
Or is it weird only because in me3 you have the choice?
I don't get it. it's an rpg, you should 'perform' a role, not yourself.