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Comments
Let's try to nail your argument down to its most basic element, "It hasn't happened with a male character so it shouldn't start with a female character." That in and of itself is hilariously hypocritical if you think about it; it should only happen to a female character if a male goes first? Or, rather, because it wasn't done with the male character in this particular game, it shouldn't be done with the female character.
It's an interesting point but ultimately moot; technically nothing happens until it does, and that can be at any time. There was a philosophical idea proposed once that there is no causal relationship between events. The best way to illustrate this is with the sun; because the sun comes up every morning, we expect it to do so the next morning. Until it doesn't. There will of course be an explanation for why it doesn't, but the point is that you can not logically judge most events by what has occurred previously. Maybe the idea to do this kind of poll hadn't occurred to them until now. Maybe they just wanted to try something new, a testbed for future development concepts, and this was the game that came up for the test. Maybe they just fucking felt like it; in the end it was still Bioware's decision what to do from a design perspective. They decided to do something new and it didn't sit well with some folks; this happens a lot.
The other major issue you bring up is that it took the form of a "beauty pageant". What would you have preferred, in order to determine a character's visual design? Rorschach blots? Personality quizzes? This point is just foolish on face value alone. Apparently that's not alright with you simply because it's a woman and not a man. It's a game character. If they'd had a block of Turians or Krogan or Salarians up there to pick as a new crew member, would you argue these points at all? Would it still be a condemnable beauty pageant if it were just the screenshots of five Turians? Of course not. Why not? It's the same situation, after all, selecting a character based purely on aesthetics.
Everything starts somewhere. Bioware decided to take a chance with their design, to let fan feedback influence their decision, and I am all for taking chances and experimentation. The decision they chose to involve fans in was a visual one, and so images were used.
Your argument lacks substance. It has a point, it has a more reasonable interpretation of the issue than most, but it's still flat as can be. Your opinion is interesting, though, if hypocritical and illogical. (As most opinions tend to be, come to think of it.)
My point is for two games FemShep was only represented by her personality and character, each player represented her differently. But they turned that around and made it about appearances with this vote, and I think that's what people don't like about it, I know that's what I don't like about it. FemShep5 doesn't look like a soldier.
and that's why I don't like Mass Effect.
Shepard's default is male. He's been featured on all the promotional material until now, and even now he's still on the standard box art. And when you get right down to it, he's the character who most players choose.
So I don't need to specify Shepard as male.
Ok, I'll get my coat >_>
Ok, I'll get my politics <_>
<_>
< v >
As far as this one seen, people speak simply Shepard when they are not talking about anything specific to male and female version. When they are talking about specific version, they often do add Male!Shep or FemShep respectively.
Can't claim that it is universal, though.
It's an internet poll.
Get. The fuck. Over it.
Lack of feminine figure? Sure she's not as Gag-Boobsy as they tend to go in a lot of games, but that's about as curvy a suit as you can get without starting to get impractical.