Hope this works. I don't always get the little [ ] things right.
Goodwood wrote...
Back on the old BioWare forums, I was a big advocate of female Shepard over male Shepard, and for a plethora of reasons beyond their voices. But, to be frank (and to get that argument out of the way), Hale's performance is just orders of magnitude better than Meer's, whose charactarization has all the charisma of a tin can. That's just the most obvious argument, and like Samara says, if there are three humans in a room, there will be six opinions.
I love Hale's performance but I have to say that I am starting to like Meer's voice acting for my male Shepard. I've even started noticing some tonal changes when he's talking to different NPC's and he's just the voice of my male Shedpards so I'm used it it. And I agree - get six people in a room and you will have six opinions.
Moving right along, there are two very improtant reasons why, I feel, that a female Shepard should be embraced as a "canon" protagonist..
In ME1 I was really hoping for a cover like they have done in the past without the main charcter on it. I perfered what they did with KOTOR or Neverwinter Nights. I didn't want either Shepard on the cover and if they had to do it I wanted both of them. Something to show that you could play either sex just by looking at the cover and reading the description. As much as I'd like to see Fem Shep acknowled I doubt if they will change it for ME3.
1. There are, already, far too many masculine heroes and main protagonists out there not only in video game land, but in other media such as literature, television, and film. This is, obviously, an artifact of most human societies being dominated by the male ethos; only within the last few decades have females come into their own as plot-centered characters in mass media. The Mass Effect games, so far, give a real sense of how a woman is just as capable of being such a driving force as any man out there, and demonstrates the value of diversity.
I agree. But unfortunately, untill we get some more game developers including some women, who have the same type of vision as
Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk willing to make the games showing women as capable as her male counter part, I'm not sure it will happen very often. Which is why I've bought more BioWare games than any other company.
2. Girls and young women need more strong female role-models, both fictitious and real, and a female Shepard can be lauded as being such a role-model. Given the interactive nature of the Mass Effect games and how a player can imprint their own personality onto their chosen avatar -- even more so, given the possibility of molding Shepard to appear as a self-portrait of sorts -- this drives the point home even further. A female Shepard shows that standing tall against long odds is something that anyone can do if they have the gumption.
I agree with the idea of this, and would like to see some games for the under 16 group something like The Legend of Zelda with Zelda being able to save herself and her kingdom.
I played video games with my step-daughter when she will younger and tried to make sure at least some of the games had a female that didn't faint or need to be rescued even if she wasn't the main character. Shining Force and Chrono Trigger were her favorites.
To sum it all up, male protagonists are boring and staid. It's time to change things up by showing that women are just as capable of saving civilization as men are, without suffering any of the stereotypes so commonly (and unfortunately) applied to women today.
Oh, and before anyone asks, I am a thirty year old man with a progressive point of view.
I don't find all male protagonists boring, but I'm all for change and showing that women can save the world, and probably help destroy it too.
and so they know. I'm a 59 year old female who hopes someday we will travel to the stars and there will be women like Shepard doing some of the exploring.
edit typo
Modifié par mopotter, 18 mars 2010 - 02:20 .
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(Not to mention Liara, Ashley, and Kelly!)
