ANALYSIS of the n7 day teaser: maleshep fans vs femshep fans,
(Let me clarify something, this is not an analysis of the content of the N7 day teaser but of the little arguing there was about the maleshep vs femshep fans on the teaser on the N7 day.)
(Due to some legit criticism by some people I decided to change this thread just a little a bit because there are things that I should have talked about in the first place and I did not. As of this may 7 16: 00, I did made a few update)
(Sorry for my bad english guys, I hope it will be understandable)
Hello
You could think it’s a bit late for me to come with this month after the facts, but I just want to do it because I wanted it to do it a long time ago, and why not.
And before you say that I am an SJW licking the ass of femonazis or a misogynistic patriarchal macho, I would ask you to plz read until the end before you jump to conclusion because I will probably answer to your question or arguments in this text. And I am serious about that because a lot of time, I have to copy and paste pieces of my first message to people replying and that is painful. Thank you to read until the end before you writes a comments.
You see months before there was N7 day trailer with Jennifer hale narrating it and saying a final goodbye to the ME franchise through this teaser. The teaser itself was good and I have nothing to complain about it, but it was under criticism for some reason and we are going to see if the criticism was legit or not.
Some people were not happy that only femshep was voicing it,
-some says that it should have been maleshep narrating the trailer since the majority of player choose him and that maleshep was the face of the most of the ME trilogy.
- Others that its fine that femshep is the only one doing it because maleshep had most of the attention before.
-And there are people in the middle thinking it should have been narrating by both of them or there should have a trailer for both individual sheppard.
Now there is extremist exists on both side, some saying its only femshep because bioware wants to appease the femonazis and the other talking about the “sweet male tears” for some people complaining over this or whatever…
Like jim sterling said many times, the truth is somewhere in the middle among the discussion (not the insults match).
Legit criticsm or not
Now let’s see why some maleshep fans were upset about this trailer. Some would say it’s because male gamers have difficulty accepting not being catered to, there might be a bit of truth there but I think it’s much more complicated than that.
Let’s take for example another bioware commercial, like the trespasser dlc trailer of dragon age inquisition. In this one there is only a female inquisitor shown. And well, I have never heard a major complaining about that (if you have seen a SIGNIFICANT complaining please show it to me). Same for the trailers “stand together” who only had one version of a female inquisitor there (unless someone wants to show me that there is male version of that).
And even if I cannot find it, I am pretty sure one of the many teasers of ME 3 had only female sheppard in it. But maybe I am wrong. Anyway we have example where the male demographic was not bother when a female character is presented alone in a trailer instead of a male.
So what’s the difference between these teasers and the one of the N7 day?
Why the N7 day teaser did upset people about the absence of maleshep while other teaser did not? Well I would say those trailer are different in nature, like COMPLETELY. The N7 day teaser of 2015 was a final goodbye from commander Sheppard, it was not just a promotional trailer, well it’s half promotional but it’s mostly a tribute to not only space exploration but also the voice actor who worked on that trilogy since 2007.
So it’s more than just the character of sheppard, it’s the actor behind who leave the franchise and tell that to the fanbase. And it’s beyond the characters that the fans played during the trilogy. Many people played with Mark Meer voice and other played with Jennifer hale voice, from that point of view I see why some people are not happy to see their favorite voice actor not getting the opportunity to say goodbye to mass effect.
So here is a point, fans of maleshep have every right to think it’s a bit of a shame that bioware did not allow each voice actor to say goodbye and express their disappointment as long as their expression is not insults, conspiracy theories, misogyny but valid criticsm that rely on facts and arguments.
And for the one saying it would be too expansive to do trailer with both sheppard, remember that It would not require that much resources to ask an actor 4 big lines of dialog. Especially for the N7 day and for a franchise that sells million upon millions of copies. it’s not like they HAVE kurgan from highlander threatening bioware and forcing them to choose between one trailer for maleshep or femshep saying “THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!”…
If the trailer is purely promotional, then there is no problem in making it one gender, that’s fine. But when it is a tribute to a franchise (like this one), and the final adieu of the voice actor, both male and female should get the opportunity to say goodbye to their fans, especially when the resources needed to do it for both is not big.
THAT SAID Maleshep fans,
Remember that you do not deserve a specific trailer just because the majority of the marketing was on maleshep before or that the cover of the first and second mass effect was on maleshep exclusively.
You can say it’s a bit of a shame that maleshep is absent because you are a fan of his character and you are a legitimate customer, and therefore you want equal treatment as the fans of femshep, which is a valid point. But not because most of the players choose maleshep or that the marketing was on him before. Having a special treatment before will never be an argument on ANYTHING.
Canonicity
Then they are the one who says that this teaser make femshep canon, other says that maleshep is canon since he was the face of mass effect since the beginning.
Ok people remember that there are no canon sheppard, being the face of the marketing for most of the trilogy does not make maleshep canon, and being alone in that teaser does not make femshep canon.
And before you bring me that they were draft of the first mass effect and sheppard was supposed to be female only in the first script. It does not mean anything because we don’t judge a game or anything else on what it could have been but on what it is. I will not judge mass effect 3 on the ending drew karpyshyn wrote I am going to judge it on the one we got. The same way I will not judge the movie Cool World on the horror movie it was supposed to be but on the Roger Rabbit’s rip off that it is.
Many game or movies could have been different but we always judge results not the possibilities or what it could have been.
In the end, the marketing being predominantly on maleshep does not make it the real sheppard, the same way being alone narrating the n7 day does not make femshep canon.
In the end
I will answer a question some before people will ask me. IS IT THAT BAD THAT THERE IS ONLY A TRAILER ON FEMSHEP FOR THE N7 DAY?
Nope! It’s not THAT BAD! It’s not going to kill me and it’s not going to ruin the excitement I have for the future of the franchise, and frankly it’s not bothering me that much since the first time I watched this teaser I never even think about the fact that it was femshep instead of maleshep until the little controversy pointed it out. Analysing this might give a better look on the situation.
I just thought posting this would be a good thing since I prepared that like 4-5 month ago, I had a text ready and never got the chance to say it out loud for so many reasons and let’s say I hate when I do efforts for nothing.
Now remember, I don’t think this thread will give us a new N7 day teaser with mark meer narrating, I am not excepting bioware to do another even if would be damn cool, it’s just an analysis of the situation.
However I wanted to tell something to both the fans and Bioware.
Before I leave
BIOWARE,
Remember something when you are making a trailer. You have many customers that are male and female and when they play a trilogy where they get attached to a certain voice actor, I think they deserve to hear them saying goodbye especially if it’s the last time they hear them.
When you are doing a promotional video, you can do it on only one gender if you want, no problem in that, that’s purely promotion and doing both gender with every trailer would ask a lot.
-If you want to do most of the marketing on a female pathfinder for mass effect Andromeda, there is no problem.
But when you are doing this for a final goodbye or a tribute like the N7 day teasers, plz give the opportunity to both voice actors of the player character, if they worked for so many years on your games, I think they earned it.
Just keep that in mind for every other “goodbye” trailer of any of your franchise.
Now FANS of bioware,
(Keep in mind, what I am going to say does not concern every man or woman, just some comments that I have seen)
FEMSHEP FANS,
If you are saying, “well it happen to us for years and years to not being the target demographic, so suck it maleshep fans”. Read again the beginning of the text and see why some maleshep fans can be legitimately unhappy about their voice actor not being there. It’s not just one trailer, it’s the final goodbye that both voice actor should get the opportunity to tell their fans, just because an industry was unfair to you does not mean it should start being unfair to someone else especially when it’s that easy to do it for both demographic.
Now some of you might say, “Well femshep was neglected in the marketing before, so she deserves to be in that trailer” and you would be totally right. I am not arguing over that, she definitely deserves to be recognised as much as maleshep, she deserves just as much attention.
This analysis just concluded there should be a trailer for both player characters whenever there is a final goodbye, that both voice actors should get the chance to say it. When it is a promotional trailer, it’s a totally different story.
MALESHEP FANS,
If you say you deserve more attention from the industry simply because you are a guy; remember that just because most of the industry caters to you do not mean you should be the priority. You can ask to be treated equally to any other demographic if you have been there with the franchise since the beginning, sure.
But you cannot ask for special treatment just because you had it before, the same way Jim sterling said in this satire, he laughed at some people complaining about the presence of gay romance in DAI and the simple fact that Bioware decided that straight male, while not ignored by the game, did not deserves more attention than any other demographic:
Saying “Oh we always had that advantages before so we deserves more attention just because we are more numerous…” Nope it does not work like that and it NEVER WILL. I have seen tons of those comments saying the industry owe something to the male because they are the majority.
EVEN if you can prove most of the video game customer are male, it does not make you entitled to get more attention. Asking for equality is ok, asking for special treatment will never be.
So here it is, I finally said it, it might be late but I just wanted to share this. Anyone is free to disagree with me, but I would really like the conversation to not turn into a war but I have the bad feeling it’s going to be any way. Sorry again for my bad English.
Retour en haut
you just made my day.
