The infamous ME3 F!Shep Contest

[wallwalker]

(Cut out the other stuff to post in its own post.)

I've read about the controversy that is apparently happening over the FemShep vote on Facebook and the fact that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed model is in the lead. (In fact, I think that it's been decided, with her as the winner.) The general point of that article appears to be that blonde model makes Shepard look like a bimbo, and Shepard deserves better.

All I have to say is, you have to be very careful using that argument. Because when you strip it down to its core, what you're saying is this: "It doesn't matter what a female character has done; what she looks like is more important." Because apparently blonde!Shepard is a bimbo - despite the fact that she's the same Shepard that's blown up Reapers, destroyed alien bases and punched out incredibly powerful aliens in single combat, and figured out ways to avert inevitable invasions. Why does it matter what she looks like? Either to us, or to Bioware?

And where is the female Shepard that we've seen for the past two games, the default one that more fans will recognize than any of these newcomers? Why wasn't she at least an option? What's the deal with that?

Comments

[nan]

That article you linked to is disgusting. And I love blonde!Shepard's hair. |D

[wallwalker]

I really hope that Bioware's rendering skills have improved! They really have been terrible with long hair up until now. I always play a short-haired protagonist, not because I necessarily prefer short hair, but because when I try to play someone with long hair it never really looks right.

[crankyoldman]

This echoes my thing about femShep best.

What she looks like doesn't matter, but the fact that they had to do a whole contest with the general public unlike with the male Shepard really does. Because that sends a message that what she looks like DOES matter.

Believe me, I work in EDUCATIONAL gaming and I have to get into arguments with developers over how they design womenfolk (for grants that are supposed to emphasize diversity). It's ridiculous.

[owlmoose]

That's a really good article. I haven't played Mass Effect (although I've been thinking I really should), but Dragon Age, another BioWare game in which you can choose a male or female PC, has some of the same issues with the male be treated as default in the marketing, and by the characterization/dialogue etc.

[wallwalker]

It's a tangent, but you know what always irritated me about DA:O's character customization? You couldn't actually play a black character. The closest you could get was a mix of dark-ish skin and red hair, which was too Ambigiously Brown for my tastes. :/

[owlmoose]

Yeah, it's true. My husband, T, who is Chinese-American, was able to make a PC who was tolerably close to his skin tone/hair color/eye shape, but it took some doing, and the character doesn't really look "Asian". But then, pretty much everyone in Ferelden reads as white to me, party members and NPCs alike. Racial diversity is not DA's strong point (not, so far, in DA2 either).

On the other hand, I do think that the DA series does pretty well by its female characters, at least in DA:O and the first half of DA2 issues mentioned upthread notwithstanding. It's not perfect, by any means, but I've found it one of the better games I've played in that respect.

[wallwalker]

*nods* That's a much better article. Thanks for the link. (And I've read some of your rants about your co-workers. Argh, is all I have to say. I don't think I'd be able to deal with it.)

I honestly think that the first article was trying to say some of this stuff, but it took a left turn into frothing rage, and that's what turned me off. Because the rage was directed at the character and her perceived competence due to her appearance, not at the game designers who decided to make such a big deal out of it when one didn't have to be made. Also, it leaves me wishing that Bioware had, at the very least, created a poll for DudeShep's appearance as well... because, really, why not? How difficult could it possibly be to give both sides the same choice?

(As a side note, my very first reaction to the vote was, "Why is this even here? We HAVE a default female Shepard, a perfectly good character model. She's more recognizable by fans than some new model would be. Why can't they use that?" And I still don't think there's a good answer to be had for that question.)

[vilkacis]

Hahahahahahaha that article.

"If the future is in the hands of this blonde bimbo, I'm out."

Please do let the door hit you on the ass on the way out! If it's one of those fancy sliding doors, it might just chop it off and that would be hilarious.

...I find the blonde boring because she's the most generically white-and-western-mainstream-pretty of the lot. I'd love to see the female Shepard with the same buzzcut as the male default, or one who's... you know, not white like every other protagonist of all time. (Then there's the fact that Bioware can't make long hair for shit and that hairstyle looks awful in both previous games, and I'm not convinced that this is going to change with ME3's "new and improved" graphics.)

But those "bimbo/slut" comments are just mind boggling. Why so stupid, fandom?

[wallwalker]

I wouldn't have voted at all if not for that article, and I wished I'd found/shared it earlier so that maybe I could've gotten a few more people to vote. (I went for #4, myself.) I think that a lot of the people who would've voted for a more interesting/diverse Shepard were in the same vote boat; they didn't even know that the vote existed.

And yes, it does boggle my mind. I can kind of see what she's trying to say, but trying to say it by insulting another female character... really just doesn't work.

Oh, and yes, Bioware's attempts at long hair - hell, CG attempts at long hair in general - do nothing for me. There's a reason why the longest hair either of mine had was the incredibly short ponytail.

Also, something else I forgot to mention - I actually know quite a few people who voted for #5, the blonde, because they looked at her character design and were reminded of Samus. Not because of any stereotypical view of beauty, not because they said that if there must be a female Shepard she has to adhere to THAT standard, but because of an association with another beloved kickass female character. Another reason this article's slant bugged me.

[kadrin]

I didn't know about this contest! ...I will admit, mostly I'm just thinking it's a good thing that they're finally putting a female Shepard out there. Since I and most of the people I know played as a female Shepard. I will admit that the eyeliner bugs me a little - as you say, it would be nice to see default Shepard there - but eyeliner or no eyeliner, this is the same Shepard who is Queen Badass of the Universe and cannot be killed with falling Reaperbits.

Honestly, I think the best option - one that Nano suggested long ago - would be to give Shepard distinctive gender-neutral armour. You see Master Chief, you think "that's Master Chief". You see Samus, you think "that's Samus". We gamers are good at identifying people by their all-concealing suits of armour. Then you can put whatever squishy human in there you want.

Though of course Shepard is never squishy. I never did trigger the Renegade interrupt where she tries to headbutt a krogan, but it does not surprise me that she does.