By John Walker on August 18th, 2011 at 12:51 pm.
I’ve not been paying enough attention, but I don’t remember the Facebook vote for what the Female Shepard should look like being in multiple stages. Perhaps it always was, or perhaps it was a reaction to the phenomenon of this article by Kim Richards, but either way the process is now extended to include a choice for Shepard’s hair colour. Yes, it really has come to this. It’s interesting to note that the blonde hair that was thought to have motivated much of the first round win is currently very far behind. I’m very pleased to report that red hair is currently far ahead, with black hair in second place, far ahead of blonde and brown. (Now I’m just going to build a fort around me to protect myself from my blonde fiancée.)
18/08/2011 at 12:54 Colthor says:
You only wrote this post to show off you have a fiancée, right?
18/08/2011 at 15:03 Inigo says:
It’s actually a Golden Retriever.
John forgot to refill his prescription, so he’s become a little… erratic.
19/08/2011 at 16:58 The Colonel says:
Go-ooo-oooolden retriever!
18/08/2011 at 12:54 Richard Beer says:
Good God. Are they going to be voting on her bra size next?
It’s like some kind of collaborative, online game of dress-up dolls, and nobody’s noticed.
18/08/2011 at 12:55 John Walker says:
I’d be genuinely interested to see how gamers would vote on that.
18/08/2011 at 13:04 Nalano says:
Based on the hundred-page long threads during Rift Beta where people were complaining that the women were FLATCHESTED OH MY GOD THEY’RE BARELY C CUPS, I hold no hopes for the gamer population were that choice offered here.
18/08/2011 at 13:05 JackShandy says:
Call me crazy but I’d be genuinely interested in an online interactive game of dress-up dolls.
18/08/2011 at 13:13 DrGonzo says:
That’s what Second Life is.
18/08/2011 at 13:13 Nalano says:
There was that weird promo, JackShandy, where beta players for APB got to vote on how we did the hair and clothes of a real life mascot.
We gave him a horrible blue mohawk.
18/08/2011 at 13:14 DeathHamsterDude says:
I so hate that trend of gazoongas like the effing moon in games. They’re so unwieldly! Although, I would love to have the option to change body type more in games, especially RPGs. The only time i could make a facsimile of myself was in APB, and well . . .
Actually, it would be interesting to see what a gamers ideal girl would be, no? If it was carried out with a bit of class I would be interested in seeing the results. Would it be as objectified and superficial as gamers are seen to be, or would it end up with a nice, normal girl? Personally, I always get a little mouth-sick when I see women with nary a stitch on, make-up caked on, a full ten pounds of extensions, and boobs to cripple backs. Give me my short, Fae-like girls with blue eyes, brown hair, APPROPRIATELY SIZED BOOBIES, and most importantly personality.
18/08/2011 at 13:29 Kdansky says:
They should do that. I want to know if people would really jump onto the GIANT BOOBS bandwagon.
18/08/2011 at 13:30 JackShandy says:
No no, think about it. Customization, Creativity, Avatar Personalization, it’d have all the stuff that’s interesting in games right now. You’d throw in some basic survival stuff; you need to construct clothes to protect yourself from wind, rain, bears, etc – and then some crafting stuff; you’d have to gather stuff to make into clothes (wool, iron, bears, etc). The players could be golems or something that can construct itself into new shapes, so that your entire appearance would be totally customizable. It’d be Minecraft, except you wear your house.
18/08/2011 at 13:30 sbs says:
Nalano: ahahah
AaAHHAHAHAH
Link please
18/08/2011 at 13:32 Richard Beer says:
It’s not so much gamers who like stereotypical, big-boobed women, it’s teenagers who haven’t met many girls yet and still giggle when talking about sex. Sadly, there’s a big, Venn diagram-like overlap.
18/08/2011 at 13:32 Screwie says:
@sbs: http://www.thehumanavatar.com
18/08/2011 at 14:16 Nalano says:
@sbs
What he said, unless you were talking about my first post, in which case: Here.
18/08/2011 at 21:50 DaFishes says:
Have a little pity on David Silverman and the rest of EA’s marketing dorks. They still think that “marketing to women” = “holding contests to see what the existing male market will fap to the hardest.”
18/08/2011 at 12:54 Flappybat says:
I’m holding out for the all important eye colour vote.
Go heterochromia!
18/08/2011 at 13:02 DeathHamsterDude says:
Oooooooooh!
That’d be interesting.
My own preference in the lady area is light blue, but heterchromia is pretty awesome too.
18/08/2011 at 13:12 JackShandy says:
If your lady area is light blue, consult a doctor.
18/08/2011 at 13:17 Orija says:
Oh, JackShandy, what would we ever do without you?
18/08/2011 at 13:17 DeathHamsterDude says:
Uhm . . . It was a necrophilia joke. Yeah. Mmm, deeeeeeaaaaad people!
Nothing to see here folks, move along.
18/08/2011 at 14:19 eclipse mattaru says:
Re heterochromia: You reminded me of a cosmetic mod for Bloodlines that (among other things) gives the Malkavian character a pair of Marilyn Manson-esque eyes that work really nicely with the whole insanity thing.
18/08/2011 at 12:57 razgon says:
Can they just focus on making the damn game, and just select some playboy model for the Femshep role, since clearly its what they are going for here..
Its a sign of the times, and its kinda sad
18/08/2011 at 17:37 Chuck84 says:
A sign of the times? That companies try differing marketing strategies?
Or that they’re going to wind up with a traditionally attractive femshep?
18/08/2011 at 12:57 CloakRaider says:
Still do not understand the rage about the blond haired one getting voted highest previously. She had blond hair, and this somehow made her a bimbo etc. But a redhead shep would be good once again.
18/08/2011 at 13:04 Lars Westergren says:
Exactly. Amazing how some people were projecting these enormously different personalities on FemShep one to five…. and the only difference was the hair color. Same haircut, same face, same body. But no, appearently one is a vile bimbo and another a smart sassy free spirit.
18/08/2011 at 13:08 shoptroll says:
If they were the same face, hair style, and skin color (I’m pretty sure skin color was different on at least one), wouldn’t this be a “do-over”?
The one that won looked more goth than bimbo if you subbed out the blonde hair for black.
18/08/2011 at 14:55 jealouspirate says:
Yeah, I just had to shake my head at the women who were outraged that Femshep was going to be some “blonde bimbo”. Way to subscribe to the exact type of prejudice you’re supposedly against, there.
18/08/2011 at 15:39 SLeigher says:
yeah, the whole point of this revote is because most people voted for the blonde one because she had the best hair style. Nothing about the blonde shep was bimbo-esque but people panicked anyway, glad to see the red head winning now though, as my femshep was red hair, green eyes with glowing orange facial scars due to her being a renegade.
18/08/2011 at 22:04 DaFishes says:
People have taken the minority of complaints about the femShep contest–in this case, the instances of people calling the blond model a bimbo–and pretended that was the only argument of “the women who were outraged.” The women who were outraged were mostly sad that Shepard looked like a 20-year-old model, not a badass space marine. Bimbo epithets, when I saw them, came mostly from men.
18/08/2011 at 12:57 Dr. Fred West says:
I do love red hair.
18/08/2011 at 13:06 DeathHamsterDude says:
It’s crazy, but now that they’ve changed her hair to red she looks the spitting image of a girl I used see. I hadn’t noticed it with blonde hair (even though technically she was blonde but dyed it red).
And now to offset the fact that I talked about past ladies of mine on RPS I’ll pretend it was satirical of John mentioning his fiancee. SATIRE! DOWN YOUR THROATMINDS!
18/08/2011 at 14:32 Tams80 says:
Mind goose.
18/08/2011 at 12:58 rustybroomhandle says:
I also imagine that a woman on her way to save the universe would prolly wear less make-up. Maybe they will indeed add a class choice of “rouge” into the game.
18/08/2011 at 13:34 Askeladd says:
She’s a soldier and a hero, risen from the grave to save the universe again and again and again.
How do you imagine a person like that would look like?
What happens now will shape the look of the games in the next years Bioware is making.
I’m talking whats coming after Mass Effect 3. It could end like CoD. Playing another stroy and it feels the same. Playing again, again and again.
Wait, Disregard that I’m only fantasizing…. I wish.
18/08/2011 at 13:48 Flappybat says:
Which one increases demographic appeal?
18/08/2011 at 14:52 rustybroomhandle says:
It’s not about look, it’s what the look says about the character. Shepard is a badass character that’s all about doing what needs to be done. I somehow doubt someone like that gets up in the morning and spends two hours doing their hair and putting on makeup, yaknow?
Warpaint, maybe. Eyeliner? No.
18/08/2011 at 15:15 Solcry says:
So… women soldiers don’t wear makeup. Right.
Maybe you need to meet more women soldiers.
18/08/2011 at 16:01 Askeladd says:
Well, I cant say to know a women soldier or any soldier at all, but do they all look like the girls in the playboy?
Maybe they do, man! We’re in the future!
18/08/2011 at 12:58 Jnx says:
They should make her look like Janeway from Voyager. This one is too kiddy to be taken seriously.
18/08/2011 at 12:58 Orija says:
Heh, this is the essence of Bioware’s games, style over substance. A lot of glitter over a pile of poop.
18/08/2011 at 13:01 GLSteve says:
Sadly, this is my thoughts these days too.
Why can’t they just listen? :(
18/08/2011 at 13:00 Wizardry says:
She looks like a young boy. Quite disturbing really, though it does reflect the game’s target audience.
18/08/2011 at 13:27 Unaco says:
What? Young girls?
18/08/2011 at 13:38 JackShandy says:
I think maybe Wizardry is saying that Mass Effect fans are paedophiles.
18/08/2011 at 13:46 Unaco says:
Reading his comment again, yes… I can see that, although he doesn’t appear to be saying it, he does indeed seem to be implying that Mass Effect is targeting an audience with a disturbing predilection for young boys. That isn’t just insulting, that is a downright disgusting thing to be insinuating.
@Wizardry,
Do you have any evidence to back your outlandish claim? You yourself recently stated on a Forum thread that “I very rarely (if ever) insult people”, whereas, it appears here that you have, rather deplorably, insulted a great, great many people… baselessly accusing them of something quite, quite vile.
18/08/2011 at 14:00 westyfield says:
I read it as meaning that most Mass Effect fans are young boys. Which isn’t offensive, just really stupid.
18/08/2011 at 14:05 Orija says:
Unaco, move on, will you? Release your rage on kickboxing or something, or just block Wizardry.
I for one tend to find his troll-esque comments highly amusing(which they are meant to be, I hope) rather than something offensive enough to vaporize a bunch of senior citizens.
18/08/2011 at 14:14 Wizardry says:
If I wanted to say that all Mass Effect fans are paedophiles I would have said something like:
“She looks like a young boy. Quite disturbing really, though it does sexually arouse the game’s adult target audience.”
But I didn’t say that because I’m not a despicable guy, regardless of how some may want to paint me.
18/08/2011 at 14:49 JFS says:
However, now that you’ve mentioned it, she really *does* look more like a boy. Somewhat androgynous. In reality, he’s probably the singer of a hip noise pop band, dressed up as an astronaut for a half-trashy-half-cute music video about astronauts finding love on a distant planet, shot in Super 8 in the garden of the keyboard guy and around a local lake. Well. Now that would be a story for Mass Effect 3.
18/08/2011 at 16:48 stahlwerk says:
It’s final fantasy all over again!
19/08/2011 at 08:48 MajorManiac says:
Having read this and looked over the picture again, I can now see a slight similarity to Peter Pan.
18/08/2011 at 13:02 Bilbo says:
No thanks, couldn’t give a shit. Anyone who plays with the default shepard is doing it wrong anyway, likewise anyone who cares whose mug they use on the poster
18/08/2011 at 13:03 Colthor says:
For a non-stupid-joke-post (cue munching by spamfilter):
Firstly, were there differences beyond hair-colour or style in the previous choices? Maybe a slight skin-tone change? As far as I could tell, they all used exactly the same model.
Secondly, what’s the point? There’s always been the default Female Shepherd who could be used for adverts, and throwing it open to public debate… Why? There’s a character editor. Everyone can play with the character they want. Many will be importing one anyway.
Oh, it’s all just a silly marketing stunt. Never mind, carry on.
18/08/2011 at 13:05 Corrupt_Tiki says:
I made mine look like RA2 Tanya :D
Quite enjoyed ME series, more than I thought I would, preferred number 1 to number 2 though. Number 2 had more annoying/time consuming bits, I only want the fun bits :>
18/08/2011 at 13:06 shoptroll says:
I’m starting to wonder if EA recently hired some of Sony’s old PR team.
I’m all for fan interaction with developers but this is really weird. I checked the Facebook page and there’s no indication on the old “poll” that there would be a part 2. So this somewhat invalidates the previous one (looks like “bimbo” won’t have blonde hair) and basically proves that EA PR doesn’t know how to properly issue surveys.
I really don’t have a horse in this race because I’ll probably get the Digital Deluxe edition, but it’s pointless junk like this which causes EA’s marketing teams to leave a bad taste in my mouth. I’m not looking forward to them kicking things into overdrive in a few months when they have to start shoring up pre-orders for “BEST LAUNCH EVER” numbers.
18/08/2011 at 13:35 briktal says:
Maybe there were a lot of comments along the lines of “I like the hair style on shep X but not the color” so they took the most popular one and let people pick the hair color too.
18/08/2011 at 13:07 Avenger says:
Sci-Fi geek fantasy? Redhead of course. Is this even a vote?
18/08/2011 at 13:14 Ysellian says:
lol have to admit I sure love my Redheads. Oh and Black hair too, funny how well I fit the voting stereotype.
18/08/2011 at 13:08 Teddy Leach says:
This is all very amusing.
18/08/2011 at 16:48 stahlwerk says:
This is all very arousing.
All of it.
18/08/2011 at 13:16 mcnostril says:
She looks like a 12 year old that just found her mom’s make up.
It’s freaking me out.
18/08/2011 at 13:18 tungstenHead says:
Well, this is good, because in the previous Mass Effect games blonde hair looked terrible.
What Bioware should have done was release an update to ME1 and ME2 that polled players’ savegames and pulled the average values for each feature. They would have ended up with a rather attractive, but not hyperfeminine woman. Completely average features add up to being somewhat above average. Well, maybe they shouldn’t have done that because it’s an unsettling invasion of people’s privacy, but it would have definitely been the popular result.
18/08/2011 at 13:22 patricij says:
REDHEADS ARE THE BEST, woot
18/08/2011 at 13:24 JohnH says:
/facedesk
18/08/2011 at 13:28 NaFola says:
I preferred the potato ARG.
18/08/2011 at 13:34 fenriz says:
lol now the girl looks slightly less aryan, but still very aryan.
Am i the only one who thinks hybrids are the future? Very light brown eyes is clearly perfection.
Lastly, ok ok we got it, people still love Winona Ryder!
18/08/2011 at 13:40 LionsPhil says:
JPEG artifacting is totally hot. Oh god, check out the high-frequency noise all around her eyes. Ung.
18/08/2011 at 13:59 bear912 says:
SO SEXY
18/08/2011 at 16:40 metalangel says:
*faps desperately*
18/08/2011 at 16:50 stahlwerk says:
Image transcoding: Putting the “peg” in JPEG.
18/08/2011 at 13:48 bit_crusherrr says:
Proper don’t get the kerfuffle over shep being blonde. Her hair colour doesn’t make her a vapid bimbo.
18/08/2011 at 14:01 AMonkey says:
That article by Kim is one of the worst I’ve seen. Its essentially “wahhh people voted for something I didn’t like, they’re all wrong!”
18/08/2011 at 14:12 Jamesworkshop says:
John W
I sugggest building the fort out of pillows and sofa cushions
18/08/2011 at 14:18 kament says:
What I really don’t understand is why should I be interested in appearance of defaultShep at all. Since they allowed us to customise Shep’s face, I mean, they can make defShep greenhaired, or bald, or with proboscis instead of nose, I just don’t care about it. The whole thing is plain pointless if you ask me, which you didn’t but anyway.
18/08/2011 at 14:21 eclipse mattaru says:
High five for red hair! The best thing about a blonde girl is that she can easily dye their hair red, I say.
Also, nice jpeg compressing there.
18/08/2011 at 14:24 Ezhar says:
You’re still not calling her She-pard – please edit post now. Thank you.
18/08/2011 at 14:37 LockjawNightvision says:
Now this is an article on gaming feminism I would love to read: Is there a bias toward attractive women in the gaming community? I’ve heard it discussed as a problem in the skeptic community – a lot of it dredged up by the whole Dawkins versus Rebecca Watson thing – and I wonder if there’s any overlap amongst gamers? (ie: your capability with a keypad decreases in an inverse proportion to your looks)
Which is a long way around trying to make the point that some people might be voting for HawtShep because they find it easy to identify with her as an avatar, not because they’re a leering group of schoolkids.
(Though to be fair, they’re probably just a leering group of school kids).
18/08/2011 at 14:52 Nalano says:
What is this Dawkins vs Watson thing, and what does it have to do with gamers objectifying when?
Near as I can figure it, Dawkins is angry that Watson implied that atheists are sexist because she was sexually harassed at an atheist convention. From that point to the one you’re making is quite a stretch.
18/08/2011 at 14:58 LennyLeonardo says:
Yeah, I’m having trouble making sense of your post too. Are you suggesting that the sexier a woman is the better she is at games, therefore female gamers are generally more sexy, therefore female gamers chose the ‘sexiest’ Shepard because they relate to her?
I hope you’re not suggesting this, but if you are, stop it because it’s ridiculous.
18/08/2011 at 16:41 Wulf says:
To be honest… I think we could use more ugliness in general in games. Both for the women and the men. How often have the men been completely unattractive due to how unnaturally perfect they are in regards to everything about them? As a realistic gay person, I just don’t enjoy that, and I’m really put off by all that perfection. It’s like all game engines can manage is perfection.
No. Sigh. This is not an attack on Bioware. Hold your finger away from that mouse button, I know you have the cursor hovering over Reply. No, this is just a complaint in general, because since the dawn of time I’ve noticed that this has been an issue. Consider this: Uru sticks out in my mind for many reasons, but one of them is that you can actually have a chubby character. Can you imagine that? Chubby!
I had a chubby guy in Uru, in a maintainer suit, even. It was amazing. And that I can actually name instances like that just goes to prove my point – that the gaming industry tends to fixate over some form of sexiness that just doesn’t appeal to me, a form of ethereal perfection that really invites the uncanny valley. I’d like to see more options for weight, blemishes, scars, and so on.
Does anyone else see what I’m getting at here or is this just one of those things where I’m a crazy loner who desires things of the gaming industry that the vast, vast, vast, vast majority does not? I’m genuinely curious. Am I the only person who’d, say, want to play an overweight, grubby Nord? Or a Khajiit with a torso-long, since-healed gash? Is that unusual?
But again, I just don’t connect with this sex-appeal through perfection thing. It doesn’t click with me. I could assume that it’s meant for younger people who aren’t that acquainted with the world quite yet, but I don’t know whether that’s a fair assumption, it might actually have a more broad appeal than that. But I know I’ve heard many a lady say that she’s fed up of having to play a sex bomb in a game, and I can totally relate to that. I understand that. I sympathise. And I think it’s something we should be doing something about.
It’s funny, only the other day, one person I know said that she’s going to play a charr in Guild Wars 2 because of the nature of women in games. This is both praise for and perhaps one of the few strikes against GW2 that I can make. The non-charr races… with perhaps the exception of the Asura, maybe… all have very, very sexed up female counterparts. Cosmetics, large breasts, china doll perfection, and all that noise. It’s perhaps the element of Guild Wars 2 that I am least fond of.
With the charr though you have a thing of fangs, claws, fur, and fury, and without giant breasts somehow being held up by sexy magicks attached to them. I can see how that would be appealing as opposed to the other options women have available. Again, I can sympathise with that.
Anyway, I’ll leave it at that. Food for thought for you to chew over. My second piece thereof in this thread.
(DISCLAIMER: This is not directed at Bioware, if you read the post then I’ve actually pointed out that it’s a problem across a broad selection of games, even my favourites. I think it’s something that we should fix, in general.)
18/08/2011 at 16:46 Nalano says:
I dunno. The Witcher 2 has some pretty ugly, ugly dudes.
18/08/2011 at 16:51 Sian says:
@Wulf: You’re not alone. I always test those body sliders to see if I can get a chubby guy. It worked in Saint’s Row 2, where I managed to basically copy my own body and face! I usually don’t aim to play myself, being a roleplayer at heart, but having the opportunity for once, I just had to go for it.
I must admit, though, that I wouldn’t create an unattractive woman to play. Maybe that’s chauvinistic, I don’t know. I don’t necessarily dress females up in revealing clothing, though, if I have the choice. My latest Champion’s Online is in a battlesuit and it does NOT have breasts attached to it, even though that was hard to pull of with the sliders CO gives you.
18/08/2011 at 17:02 Wulf says:
@Nalano
I was actually thinking of that just now and you’re right, it does. This actually goes for Geralt, too, now that I think of it. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s heroes like Geralt that make me think like this. But I wish they’d kept his original face and not listened to the community, you know? He looked much more haggard before, but they changed him up to look more rugged and handsome. That’s one strike against them right there, and it is a shame, but I can understand why they did it.
If you look at Geralt in the first game though, he is pretty cut up as I recall, and that’s amazing. There are so few instances of this and I really think there could be more. But look at what you did – you cited one instance, like I did with Uru. It’s so uncommon that you can pick the games which do it out as rarities, but they are uncommon. And often even if it allows it for the men, it doesn’t for the women, so there’s imbalance there, even.
Some women want to play as sex bombs and they have that option. That’s fantastic. But what about the ones that don’t? And again, same goes for guys, but we do have it slightly better in that regard, but still, I am disappointed at how often there are chances for imperfections, blemishes, chubbiness, hell even things like lost teeth or a lost eye. Hell, perhaps even an amputated limb. Could you imagine how that would change up how an RPG is played? You’d have a permanent debuff on yourself, but you’d choose it. If you wanted to, anyway.
It’s just something I think games should be exploring.
@Sian
Yeah, Saints Row was great in that regard. It was indeed possible to create an interesting looking character that wasn’t as pretty as the norm. And Champions Online’s sliders are very handy. You can almost pull off chubby with certain uses of mass and a lack of visible muscle. I did that for one bear character I made, but I still wish I’d been able to make him even more rotund, because that suited the character. As amazingly diverse as CO is, I could still see room for even more.
—
If I was ever involved in a game, one thing I would love to do is a steampunk character whose lost an arm and a leg (on the same side) from an accident. And I’d love to work that into the gameplay mechanics. Wherein you actually have to keep them powered up, and the more their power goes down, the more disabled you become.
So when you’re fully fuelled up and you have the smokestacks going at full blast, you’re actually far, far stronger than you normally would be, but over time that goes down. You could even have little steampunk drones working to refuel you that you’d have to defend.
It’s just an interesting little side concept that would add a little more to a game, for me.
18/08/2011 at 17:14 LennyLeonardo says:
@ Wulf: totally agree with your first post. But I would add that, as you yourself suggest, imperfect does not necessarily equal ugly, but perfect always equals boring.
My Shepard is a blonde but and she’s kind of mean and rugged, attractive at certain angles but also a bignose and a bit funny looking. I actually meant to make her more attractive but the character editor in ME1 didn’t really give you the full picture and you had to sit through a bunch of cutscenes before you get to see her properly, and after a couple of attempts I got bored and stuck with her.
Thing is, I’m so glad I did because I believe in her (I BELIEVE in you!) way more than I would any plasticy sex-bomb.
Plus, if there’s no ugly people in games, how do we know who’s hot? It MAKES SENSE.
18/08/2011 at 17:35 DigitalSignalX says:
My amateur hypothesis is that someone who is considered “really good looking” will gravitate naturally into careers and social dynamics that are not relatively isolated like the gamer/computer geek stereotype.
Obviously with exceptions, but my guess is if you lined up 100 Police officers, 100 physicians, and 100 Java programers, the “hot or not” scale would decline in the latter group.
Games let us (gamers) be what we largely are not: Attractive heroes, etc. Also technically, it’s more difficult to make game elements that suit a wide (no pun) array of character model types. Having very obese or overly short, tall etc variances cause issues with animations, clipping of various models/meshes.
18/08/2011 at 17:46 Nalano says:
@ LennyLeonardo
In answer to your question: Easy. Just do what Hollywood does.
18/08/2011 at 17:59 LennyLeonardo says:
Oh yeah! I forgot that glasses make you ugly. Thanks for reminding me.
… man, I should get contacts….
18/08/2011 at 20:03 LockjawNightvision says:
I think Penny Arcade hit the nail on the head, basically.
In nerd communities, it’s mean and unfair to make fun of fat or ugly people. But a good looking blonde girl? Hell, she probably can’t even read anyway.
As marketing material, I’m personally totally fine with a good-looking blonde girl, because I know I’m still going to be able to make my ManShep look like K-Fed, which is all I really want out of life. But the sneering outcry against Blondie isn’t a cool, punk rock way of showing the prom queen you didn’t actually mean that love poem you wrote her. It’s just plain-ol’ misogyny.
PS: I don’t want to belabor the Dawkins/Watson connection because it probably isn’t that germane, but definitely read up on it if the nested misogyny of geek subcultures is of any interest to you. The Salon article linked above is a good place to start, but definitely listen to the relevant eps of SGU, and check out skepchick.
18/08/2011 at 20:04 Nalano says:
Atheism isn’t a geek subculture.
18/08/2011 at 21:08 LockjawNightvision says:
Skepticism is. The two are related, but not synonymous.
Honestly, dude, I want to stay lighthearted, but would it kill you to click a link before firing off an Angry Internet Man response? Either of the two in my last post could have told you that.
19/08/2011 at 04:59 Nalano says:
I skimmed both links before I posted my statement. I stand by my statement.
18/08/2011 at 14:45 LennyLeonardo says:
I was about to post and say I find this whole ‘choose a sexy She-pard’ thing a bit icky, but then I realised it’s basically a public consensus version of what we all do when we fire up the game and create a character.
Then again I do always feel a little bit icky when using a character creator anyway. I recall spending hours trying to start a new Oblivion character and hearing my girlfriend say “why don’t you stop making sexy men and actually play the game?”
Why indeed?
18/08/2011 at 14:46 silver1881 says:
My problem wasn’t that she was blonde, it was everything else. The long, messy hair is impractical. The face is too young – she’s 31 in ME2, and this woman looks like a teenager. Too much makeup, no lines or scars. And only one nonwhite choice. I could have lived with a blonde, if it wasn’t for all the rest of it.
Personally, I hate that the vote is on Facebook. Firstly because I don’t use it, and secondly because if they’d had it on the BSN or something I think the voters would be more likely to be people who actually care.
18/08/2011 at 14:58 Durkonkell says:
Not that I particularly disagree with you on any specific point, but I do suspect that in the future people who are 31 will not look like people who are 31 today. After all, we can regenerate life threatening injuries in the field in both ME1 and 2, so it’s likely that medical science as a whole is improved.
18/08/2011 at 15:01 silver1881 says:
That’s a fair point, and you’re probably right. But looking at it from a 21st-century perspective, it throws me off a bit. And all of the other humans (except Miranda) seem to look their age, unless I’m forgetting one.
18/08/2011 at 16:29 Wulf says:
They do pretty much look their age. At least the men. See: Joker.
So I’ll +1 this. I never had a problem with her being blonde either, I’m all for that, but it’s just that everything else seemed so wrong.
18/08/2011 at 14:49 metalangel says:
My own thoughts, slightly amended from Eurogamer:
“After the breast size poll (Gianna Michaels, Katerina Konec or Trinity Post) will come buttock tightness (Dawn French, J-Lo or Keira Knightley) and minge trim (The 1970s, the Hitler or the Glitter’s Delight).”
Also, someone on Eurogamer posted THIS picture to what appears to be a very common look for Femshep (mine is similar, but oriental and older):
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x65/FrizFroz/DanielleShepard2.jpg
yummmmmy!
18/08/2011 at 15:00 Anthile says:
Robert Heinlein approves of redhead femshep.
18/08/2011 at 15:05 The Kid says:
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
18/08/2011 at 15:11 silver1881 says:
Dying
Is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.
18/08/2011 at 15:10 McDan says:
Probably the closest we’ll get to my shepard (the real shepard), you know, the one with short red hair, with that scar, who’s a bitch.
18/08/2011 at 15:59 Inigo says:
I want them to have an optional Beta Ray Bill cosmetic option. Because I hate Bioware and I want their degenerate, filth-sucking character designers and 3D modellers to suffer as they struggle to implement a gaunt, equine head into their lip synch animations.
Also I want Varren romance options. The deliberate absence of bestial romance in the Mass Effect series is glaring evidence towards their discrimination against relationships that offend their narrow-minded, ignorant sensibilities and they should be ashamed of themselves – obnoxious half-breed frogeaters that they are.
Oh, and a side quest where Shepard contracts scale-itch and has to get it treated in the most discreet manner possible.
18/08/2011 at 16:03 Wulf says:
I would be for all of that. Not because I hate Bioware, but because I want Bioware to do interesting things, and all of that sounds interesting.
I don’t see that there’s anything wrong with interesting, myself.
(I mean, good grief, can you imagine how a relationship with a sentient Varren would twist people up inside? Games need to DO this. They need to go to these places and explore these things, just to get people out of their damn comfort zones. The only requirement I’d have is that it would really have to be well-written, and perhaps Obisidian might be the only ones who could pull it off properly. I don’t know. But I would love to see Bioware try!)
(Really, I’ll add to this because I honestly would love to see Bioware deal with the issues of granting rights to a newly sentient, non-bipedal race of small creatures. Should they be allowed property? Land? Should interspecies romance be a taboo purely because they’re non-bipedal? How would racism come into this? How would the media handle the first human-Verran relationship? Seriously… there’s good stuff there, for a decent writer.)
18/08/2011 at 16:31 Inigo says:
Also it needs a James May style character trait where Shepard gets a “fizzing sensation” while driving the Mako.
They just have to hire one first.
HAHAHAHAHA.
HA.
Ha.
Ha.
Anyway.
18/08/2011 at 18:13 1R0N_W00K13 says:
@Wulf: Have BioWare actually done anything interesting since KOTOR1 and NWN? Their original series (ME and DA) feel more like plastered over versions of these games but with less depth, in my opinion. I played NWN and KOTOR1 (as well as KOTOR2 and NWN2, even though these are both Obsidian but still) after ME1 & 2 and DA:O, and the similarities were remarkable – not just the general settings but I found a lot of characters, locations and plot features to be directly comparable.
20/08/2011 at 16:57 Dolescrounger says:
Bioware do use a lot of archetypal characters and stock plots. There’s not anything inherently wrong with that, so long as you pull it off with flair.
18/08/2011 at 16:01 Wulf says:
What was wrong with the original FemShep? Really. :[
I just didn’t bother voting because not only did I not see any of the options as an upgrade, but because I don’t do Facebook.
18/08/2011 at 16:25 Bettymartin says:
There’s not been a poll on how Man-Shep might look on the cover or has there and I just missed it? Blah blah equal opportunities tin foil hat blah blah.
I don’t care, thought I’d just mention it to give someone an in to be furious about it and then presumably blame either Steam or Origin.
18/08/2011 at 16:53 Sirbolt says:
Jeus tittyfucking Christ that PC Gamer article raises my bloodpressure by a… lot. Substitute “blonde bimbo” with “lazy black person”, “job-stealing latino” or any other disgusting racial stereotype and see if you could get that shit published. But she’s white so it’s okay, right?
18/08/2011 at 17:56 LennyLeonardo says:
Kim Richards doesn’t use the word “bimbo” in her article at all, but even so, “blonde bimbo” is not a racial stereotype, it’s a character archetype with very different connotations to your examples.
I don’t agree with Richards’ opinion that blonde = boring, but she is making a valid point about diversity in games.
18/08/2011 at 18:29 Sirbolt says:
The caption underneath the picture of Shep 5 says; “If the future is in the hands of this blonde bimbo, I’m out.” Would it have been okay if she was upset over the fact that the character had black hair and then called that character derogatory names? My point is, she draws all kinds of conclusions based on the way Shep 5 looks and in my eyes it is quite close to racism.
18/08/2011 at 18:50 kament says:
Maybe I’m getting it wrong, but in my understanding it was about hair, not race. My wife is perfectly white and she’s brunette. Though since my mother is blonde I do find all that prejudice against blonde women (not men, isn’t that interesting?) a little fucking irritating, I don’t think it has anything to do with the race.
18/08/2011 at 19:01 LennyLeonardo says:
Ah, yes, I see the “bimbo” now.
It’s a tricky one. On the one hand Richards is calling for fairer treatment of women in games by suggesting that resorting to the overused ‘pretty blonde’ archetype is lazy and contributes to the misrepresentation of women as a whole in games.
On the other hand, she does seem to have a problem with blondes, and does use the word “bimbo”, which isn’t very fair to blonde women and could be seen to be perpetuating an outdated stereotype.
I for one think that misrepresentation of women in games is a far more serious issue, and that the language Richards uses in addressing it is mostly appropriate, if a little petulant.
However, her argument has absolutely no relation to racism and it is quite offensive to me that you defend this link.
Edit: what I mean is that racism is not just discrimination based on looks. It’s discrimination based on race. To suggest that voicing a preference for non-blondes is the same as voicing a preference for non-blacks (for example) is plainly wrong.
2nd Edit: I said “misrepresentation of women as a hole.” Har har.
18/08/2011 at 21:18 Sirbolt says:
Maybe i’m reading too much into this, but for some reason i don’t think that, had Shep 5 been non-white and dyed blonde, the writer”d be so upset over it.
Anyhow, I can’t stomach her way of perpetuating a lot of stereotypes about blonde women and then seemingly trying to get a way with it by proclaiming it’s okay, because she is a woman too. So perhaps it isn’t racist, perhaps she’s just a bit prejudiced. Either way the article is a bit shit.
18/08/2011 at 22:15 kament says:
Well that’s where I happen to agree with you, sir: the article is shit indeed. :)
18/08/2011 at 16:53 Drinking with Skeletons says:
The blonde option is far behind because voting is largely a reactionary process. The people who were satisfied with the blonde Shepard already made their decision and probably don’t think there’s any chance that it will be changed. The people who hated the blonde Shepard are now furiously voicing their opinion, but probably didn’t participate heavily in the initial vote. So now we’ve got a situation in which a majority-rules decision will ultimately not reflect the majority because Bioware doesn’t want to anger the dissenters, despite the fact that there wasn’t anything to prevent them from being heard in the first place.
To quote Kent Brockman: Democracy doesn’t work.
18/08/2011 at 17:12 LennyLeonardo says:
Blarg. Reply fail.
18/08/2011 at 17:38 PORKHAT says:
Shepard is a man, so this is stupid.
18/08/2011 at 17:42 aircool says:
Red is good…
18/08/2011 at 18:57 Althilor says:
Redhead is winning by far.
The red hair kind of fits the Renegade FemShep Jennifer Hale voices so well, too.
18/08/2011 at 19:00 Prime says:
The One True Shephard has always been a redhead. :)
18/08/2011 at 19:23 Megadyptes says:
This is stupid.
18/08/2011 at 19:53 Ratamacue says:
I don’t really care what the character looks like, whether she’s blonde or brunette or got pink hair or what. I just don’t see any reason not to go with the same default female Shepard as they’ve had since ME1. It’s reasonably attractive, but also looks a bit older and more experienced and tough, like the male Shepard, which is appropriate for the “soldier/hero” archetype. The choices they’re offering here all look more like freshman college coeds.
18/08/2011 at 20:20 MadMatty says:
my thoughts exactly on the college co-ed thing
18/08/2011 at 20:08 Rii says:
The outcome is irrelevant. The entire exercise is misguided and offensive.
18/08/2011 at 20:19 MadMatty says:
My Femshep is Win! cheekbones to da Maxx!:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5101158/MassEffect2%202011-06-26%2004-18-23-98.jpg
18/08/2011 at 22:09 sinister agent says:
Are they actually going to release Mass Effect 3, or are they going to just have a poll for every decision Shepard makes in the game, and upload the resulting cut scenes to youtube?
18/08/2011 at 22:12 Inigo says:
“WILL YOU LEAD THE GALACTIC REBELLION, OR MAKE A SANDWICH?”
18/08/2011 at 22:37 Raiyan 1.0 says:
Shepard with no scars?
What a shame.
20/08/2011 at 17:02 Dolescrounger says:
I never asked for this.
18/08/2011 at 23:40 Nallen says:
Fucks given about this topic: 0
19/08/2011 at 00:44 Wozzle says:
u guys r fgts if u dont want big tits lol i mean really wtf is wrong with u
19/08/2011 at 00:51 Inigo says:
lol u tk him 2 da bar?
IDK my BFF jill?
O gd y cnt i rte gd nemre?
i cnt thnk gdd i thnk m H@vng a szre
o gd
hlp
hlp
it hrtz
blrg
drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
k poop is cming out
19/08/2011 at 03:15 silverhammermba says:
I have been unable to vote on both topics because I can’t figure out how to “like” the picture on Facebook. That’s depressing…
19/08/2011 at 03:52 Jake says:
It looks like the next round of voting is up. My personal preference is for number 1 because that is closest to my personal idea of femshep.
http://bit.ly/qvb6cW
19/08/2011 at 08:49 MajorManiac says:
Given her Red hair, green eyes and fair skin. There is a very strong Celtic-Irish look about her. Does this have a greater significant meaning with American culture and Europe?
19/08/2011 at 10:32 Milky1985 says:
Its probably because of the “outcry” initally about everyone voting for the (fake) blonde. To placate people a bit on that they can have another vote then if ti is blonde say “see peopel did like the blonde hair” or if not say “they liked the design, see it wasn’t just aboout the hair”
19/08/2011 at 14:46 Kaldor says:
The problem with the blonde is not that she’s a blonde, but because they never gave anything else but cheap, “unheroic” choices. Sure, you may like some of them, but the question is whether it’s an authentic choice for a protagonist, and if she is as convincing as the male Shepard. In a way, it’s a combination of anything from posture, build, expression, face, hair and context. Bioware clearly likes to build on their “hot/tough biatches” or in this case some average pop culture stereotypes, as opposed to “graduated from military Academy and fought in some wars” stereotype.
21/08/2011 at 12:10 Ham Solo says:
None of it matters to me, I’ll take my own shep.