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Slate: I Insist You Play Mass Effect as a Woman

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.

But here’s one choice you absolutely shouldn’t make: Do not, under any circumstances, play the protagonist as a guy.

Look, there’s nothing wrong with men. I’m one myself! It’s totally OK to be a man, and in most circumstances, it’s perfectly OK to choose to play a male character in a video game when given multiple gender options. Many men find it very affirming of their identity to see their body type and masculine presentation reflected by their choice of on-screen simulacrum. According to BioWare, more than 80 percent of Mass Effect players chose to play as the male version of Shepard over the course of the trilogy’s initial release, and I’m sure most of these players simply didn’t know any better. That’s why I’m telling you before it’s too late that the female version of our hero Commander Shepard is the superior Shepard, and I insist you play as her.

I already completed ME1 as a dude.
I guess, I am ruining EVAN URQUHART's day!!

For the record, I have played all games as Fem and Male Shep and consider Mark Meer to be better, but both are good.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Yo, I'm running with the ultimate ugly, cookie cutter, mofo ever....

I could get behind this cuteness though...

qQjedR8.jpg
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
I preferred Fem shep at the time but Jennifer Hale is now one of the most over casted voice actors. I'd play as a dude if I was playing it the first time today.
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
I think it was in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Queen Gertrude said "The simp doth protest too much, methinks"

Link me to the future inevitable #metoo moment thread where we hear he is creeping on women. Just like all the other men who protest too much.

For the attention of the journalist "you can promote something by saying the voice work for FemShep is better without making some dumb comment like you have. It is true that FemShep is better, you haven't broken Watergate."
 
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Shai-Tan

Banned
"But here’s one choice you absolutely shouldn’t make: Do not, under any circumstances, play the protagonist as a guy."

Pissing journos off is my favourite passtime, so GuyShep it is.
uh your reaction is baked into basically any provocative over-reaching op-ed. ie anyone who has a reaction like that is part of the intended audience
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
OP would you summarize why they think you should only play Femshep? Not giving that shithole any clicks.

And LOL at “affirming of their identity to see their body type and masculine presentation”. Jesus, shut the fuck up Slate.

Let me know when they have an obese neckbeard body type with Cheeto-stained sweat pants. That would truly be affirming of my identity.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
I hate articles like this. Ive always played mass effect as male shep, not because i hate women like the article implies, but because every time ive played mass effect over the past 14 years i try to role play, which means choosing and creating a character that is represenative of me. I think people should choose whatever gender they want, and they shouldn’t be bullied by articles like this to pick an option just because one is considered more “woke”. Mass effect is very personal to me, and i want my shep to be a reflection of myself. Both mark meer and jen hale are great as shepard as well, so its not like one performance is vastly better than the other.
 

mansoor1980

Member
I hate articles like this. Ive always played mass effect as male shep, not because i hate women like the article implies, but because every time ive played mass effect over the past 14 years i try to role play, which means choosing and creating a character that is represenative of me. I think people should choose whatever gender they want, and they shouldn’t be bullied by articles like this to pick an option just because one is considered more “woke”. Mass effect is very personal to me, and i want my shep to be a reflection of myself. Both mark meer and jen hale are great as shepard as well, so its not like one performance is vastly better than the other.
12414.gif
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Okay guys I held my nose and clicked the link (with ad block) to see what the author’s points were:

- Jennifer Hale’s VA is really good

- The author voted for Elizabeth Warren

- Femshep is unmistakably a highly accomplished woman, not a man

- allowing you to choose between a male and female Shepard is an example of giving you too much narrative choice

- author fantasizes about getting pegged but is too afraid to ask
 
I never understood the hype around female Shepherd in the first place when these games first came out. Forums etc were extremely vocal about how great she was (this was mostly before wokeness so it was "genuine" support), but honestly I think the performance isn't all that good. Male Shepherd has a kind of funny nasally aloofness/sarcasticness to his delivery of most lines that somehow works really well.
 
Clickbaity title, but really all he's saying is that he thinks the voice acting in Fem-Shep is better. I agree with that, and played as Fem-Shep back in the day. But I don't really feel all that strongly about it. I never did a full playthrough of Man-Shep, but he always sounded a little flat.
 

fatmarco

Member
Obviously Jennifer Hale is a far better actor than MaleShep guy, but I never really liked Jennifer Hale's performance in Mass Effect, it always came across as a bit try hard.

The voice actress for Ashley had a great voice that could have been FemShep imo.
 
I hate articles like this. Ive always played mass effect as male shep, not because i hate women like the article implies, but because every time ive played mass effect over the past 14 years i try to role play, which means choosing and creating a character that is represenative of me. I think people should choose whatever gender they want, and they shouldn’t be bullied by articles like this to pick an option just because one is considered more “woke”. Mass effect is very personal to me, and i want my shep to be a reflection of myself. Both mark meer and jen hale are great as shepard as well, so its not like one performance is vastly better than the other.

The article is shit but are you really advocating for censorship of opinions and a safe space from those opinions?

My how the turn tables
 

sobaka770

Banned
Call me a homophobe and close-minded but while I think playing as FemShep is nice (and I've done a renegade FemShep playthrough), my only issue is that I have 0 interest in romancing guys. Like it feels awkward to me personally so the only romance path for me is Liara. That makes the experience much worse for me because romance is part of the fun in ME.

And let's be clear: apart from romance options the only difference is voice acting. And I don't think that Hale is so much better than Meer as Shepard. Like I don't hear it. I don't care about themes of female empowerment in videogames, especially when it's totally unwarranted. I love playing as women and powerful women at that: Aloy, Returnal chick, Lara Croft, Ellie/Abby etc etc. - as long as they are good games and characters I think it's great. I played as female Pathfinder in Andromeda as well.

This is a fantasy RPG - play as whomever you fucking want and if 80% of people chose male Shep - maybe it's not something that needs fixing.
 
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I’m pretty sure I’ve played as FemShep more times than MaleShep at this point, but this article just comes across as either pathetic pandering/signaling or bait.

Finna feel up those Tali hips though when I get LE on sale a few months from now.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
I’m sure the wokeness anti white male shit is all over this today, but I did prefer the female VA when the game originally came out.
 
Call me a homophobe and close-minded but while I think playing as FemShep is nice (and I've done a renegade FemShep playthrough), my only issue is that I have 0 interest in romancing guys. Like it feels awkward to me personally so the only romance path for me is Liara. That makes the experience much worse for me because romance is part of the fun in ME.

And let's be clear: apart from romance options the only difference is voice acting. And I don't think that Hale is so much better than Meer as Shepard. Like I don't hear it. I don't care about themes of female empowerment in videogames, especially when it's totally unwarranted. I love playing as women and powerful women at that: Aloy, Returnal chick, Lara Croft, Ellie/Abby etc etc. - as long as they are good games and characters I think it's great. I played as female Pathfinder in Andromeda as well.

This is a fantasy RPG - play as whomever you fucking want and if 80% of people chose male Shep - maybe it's not something that needs fixing.
Call me a homophobe and close-minded but I'd only play as FemShep for the hot lesbo scenes tbh
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Only played male Shep but I have heard the female performance is good.

I'll still play as male though this time through.
 
Call me a homophobe and close-minded but while I think playing as FemShep is nice (and I've done a renegade FemShep playthrough), my only issue is that I have 0 interest in romancing guys. Like it feels awkward to me personally so the only romance path for me is Liara. That makes the experience much worse for me because romance is part of the fun in ME.

And let's be clear: apart from romance options the only difference is voice acting. And I don't think that Hale is so much better than Meer as Shepard. Like I don't hear it. I don't care about themes of female empowerment in videogames, especially when it's totally unwarranted. I love playing as women and powerful women at that: Aloy, Returnal chick, Lara Croft, Ellie/Abby etc etc. - as long as they are good games and characters I think it's great. I played as female Pathfinder in Andromeda as well.

This is a fantasy RPG - play as whomever you fucking want and if 80% of people chose male Shep - maybe it's not something that needs fixing.
Hey me, how am I today?


This is how I roll, always play as a woman and always romance women, because romancing dudes is gay. I think I'm going to start identifying as a male lesbian. We're still allowed to make shit like that up as we go along, right?
 
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