In the trilogy there were no changes if you chose BroShep or femShep. This gave my friends and I no incentive to play as the opposite gender Shep. We all defaulted to the Shep of our gender.
What unique advantages would you give BroShep and FemShep?
For example the Asari are an all female race, so they naturally trust FemShep more while BroShep would have to turn up his playboy charms.
There are differences in the dialogue for each... so, the incentive is in switching up the story a bit. For an RPG, this is as it should be and there should be no game/combat related advantages or disadvantages to playing as either gender.
Hold this L fam.
There are differences in the dialogue for each... so, the incentive is in switching up the story a bit. For an RPG, this is as it should be and there should be no game/combat related advantages or disadvantages to playing as either gender.
That would be disingenuous.
In the original ME Shep had stamina constraints for sprinting. You can make the game more realistic by giving BroShep a longer stamina bar.
FemShep could be designed with more flexibility and better at the dodge roll.
For example the Asari are an all female race, so they naturally trust FemShep more while BroShep would have to turn up his playboy charms.
Why should they trust any stranger that is armed and armoured at the start? it doesn't matter what gender, besides asari most likely don't care about that in general.
I used to LARP sex differences back in the day with sheploo and femshep, I played the former as a soldier and the latter as an infiltrator/sniper. The rationale being that the door busting soldier class better suited sheploo due to his obvious athletic superiority, while infiltrator was better suited to femshep(i based this loosely on the soviet female snipers of WW2 as well).
While i'm indifferent on actual gameplay differences between the sexes, it'd be nice if there was some worthwhile story/character/dialogue differences between them. It'd be an improvement over the genderless drone Shepard.
That would be disingenuous.
In the original ME Shep had stamina constraints for sprinting. You can make the game more realistic by giving BroShep a longer stamina bar.
FemShep could be designed with more flexibility and better at the dodge roll.
Not really how real life works.
If we where being realistic based on gender averages then male Shep would just be better across the board in combat including reflexes/reaction times.
Just take that as these 2 individuals who just happen to have the same level of mental and physical abilities and you may get people who treat them differently based on what they would want out of a male of female.
That would be disingenuous.
In the original ME Shep had stamina constraints for sprinting. You can make the game more realistic by giving BroShep a longer stamina bar.
FemShep could be designed with more flexibility and better at the dodge roll.
... and that would be succumbing to gender stereotypes... I'm sure there are individual female soldiers who have more stamina than a lot of their male counterparts and male soldiers who are better at dodge rolls than some of the female ones.
I used to LARP sex differences back in the day with sheploo and femshep, I played the former as a soldier and the latter as an infiltrator/sniper. The rationale being that the door busting soldier class better suited sheploo due to his obvious athletic superiority, while infiltrator was better suited to femshep(i based this loosely on the soviet female snipers of WW2 as well).
While i'm indifferent on actual gameplay differences between the sexes, it'd be nice if there was some worthwhile story/character/dialogue differences between them. It'd be an improvement over the genderless drone Shepard.
There were smatterings of "meaningful" dialogue differences between BroShep and FemShep (e.g. - interview with Harkin in ME1 and recruitment for Archangel mission in ME2... along with the whole romance arc), but I agree that they could certainly expand on those differences in more places than they did in the ME trilogy.
Not really how real life works.
If we where being realistic based on gender averages then male Shep would just be better across the board in combat including reflexes/reaction times.
Just take that as these 2 individuals who just happen to have the same level of mental and physical abilities and you may get people who treat them differently based on what they would want out of a male of female.
A massive piece of ME gameplay is the dialogue wheel. Women on average have better social skills. What BroPC would be better at in combat can be made up for through FemPC's conversational skills.
... and that would be succumbing to gender stereotypes... I'm sure there are individual female soldiers who have more stamina than a lot of their male counterparts and male soldiers who are better at dodge rolls than some of the female ones.
I don't know about you, but I'm all about increasing the game's replay value.
The differences create a variety of experiences.
A massive piece of ME gameplay is the dialogue wheel. Women on average have better social skills. What BroPC would be better at in combat can be made up for through FemPC's conversational skills.
I don't know about you, but I'm all about increasing the game's replay value.
The differences create a variety of experiences.
Another stereotype. Some women have poorer social skills than some men. IMO, creating combat "advantages" for one gender or the other does not increase replay value as players will most likely limit themselves to selecting whichever gender of character has the "advantages" that fits their own combat abilities the best. The combat differences are best handled through the changes in classes, not gender. Story options/changes do increase replayability, however... and there are many more (and better, IMO) "individualized" directions the writers could go with this rather than relying on blanket gender stereotypes.
A massive piece of ME gameplay is the dialogue wheel. Women on average have better social skills. What BroPC would be better at in combat can be made up for through FemPC's conversational skills.
I don't know about you, but I'm all about increasing the game's replay value.
The differences create a variety of experiences.
Replay value is nice and all but your expectations are terribly unrealistic.
This wouldn't even be a matter of gender, your simply asking for too many variables in a pre-made character, how deep your voice is, your physical build, color of hair, all these things can also greatly affect how others treat you.
That and combat always takes up the lions share of gameplay.
Just stick with Shepherd as some sort of human paragon in there field of expertise with the odd reasonable change based on gender. Your simply asking for too much.
Another stereotype. Some women have poorer social skills than some men. IMO, creating combat "advantages" for one gender or the other does not increase replay value as players will most likely limit themselves to selecting whichever gender of character has the "advantages" that fits their own combat abilities the best. The combat differences are best handled through the changes in classes, not gender. Story options/changes do increase replayability, however... and there are many more (and better, IMO) "individualized" directions the writers could go with this rather than relying on blanket gender stereotypes.
1) This is why people love Mass Effect. You're given choice to make decisions that come with advantages and trade-offs.
2) Just because you'd limit yourself doesn't mean everyone would. There are countless examples of how someone would switch the gender up depending on the desired style of combat. You see it demonstrated right in this thread.
I used to LARP sex differences back in the day with sheploo and femshep, I played the former as a soldier and the latter as an infiltrator/sniper. The rationale being that the door busting soldier class better suited sheploo due to his obvious athletic superiority, while infiltrator was better suited to femshep(i based this loosely on the soviet female snipers of WW2 as well).
While i'm indifferent on actual gameplay differences between the sexes, it'd be nice if there was some worthwhile story/character/dialogue differences between them. It'd be an improvement over the genderless drone Shepard.
There shouldn't be any because …
Another stereotype.
Not trying to start anything, I don't even agree with making changes to Shepherd as an individual they should just be treated the same physically and mentally even just for simplicity's sake but saying "another stereotype" as if it's a negative doesn't apply to pointing out the differences between men and women.
Men and women do have fundamental differences that have allowed us to get this far.
Not trying to start anything, I don't even agree with making changes to Shepherd as an individual they should just be treated the same physically and mentally even just for simplicity's sake but saying "another stereotype" as if it's a negative doesn't apply to pointing out the differences between men and women.
Men and women do have fundamental differences that have allowed us to get this far.
You're pointing out "averages" and Shepard (i.e. the player character) is anything but "average" - so it is, IRL, another stereotype. Creating an ingame difference that says, for example, "if you select a female PC, you'll be more flexible but less strong" does not in an of itself promote or create replayability that cannot be offered just as well by saying adepts are more agile than tanky soldiers. The combat advantages are built into the class system already in place in the game. That system can easily be tweaked or added to without bringing in this "idea" of gender averages (i.e. stereotypes)... since we both know that there are undeniably individuals IRL of both genders who do not fit the "averages."
Meh. I think the replay value is already there. MaleShep have some different dialogue from Shepard, and there are already different romance path for male and female. Quite frankly, some dialogue/reaction/situation and romance are all the differencee I need as replay value.
I think there should be roleplaying differences but not so much gameplay differences.
This is easy, difficulty level should be tied to race/gender identity and accurately reflect IRL.
Easy mode should default you to a white male PC, with whiteness, maleness, and therefore privilege gradually decreasing with each subsequent difficulty level.
Insanity would of course feature a transgender black woman PC. Let's make her a Muslim for good measure.
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