Why do dudes play as Fem Shep?

[the_mango55]

That always seemed like the oddest reason to me. For me personally I could care about my characters body anymore than I want my mailbox to be sexy.

Wait, you're saying you don't want a sexy mailbox?

[The Dude]

Problem is that female heroes are rarely done properly. Often they are not believeable due to being overly sexualised. This is not the case with shepard. Personly I am writing a story about a female hero actually, my motivation for that was to portray a female hero in a realistic way. Theres a delicate path there though.. you dont want the female hero to be too manly since that might make her unlikeable, but not too feminine either since that could get unrealistic.

I always hold that a person is first their species, then their gender. Women are conditioned by society to be a certain way as much as men are, and while certain differences in are genetically hardwired (physical differences like strength and stamina, but also things like women being more emotional for example) there is a lot of room for variation. A female action hero is convincing if the story's circumstances are what shape her rather than the author's preconceived notion of what a female action hero should be like. Human beings are extremely malleable and capable of adapting to almost any type of challenge.

If the fate of the world rested on a single male tasked with designing a fashion pageant, there is no reason it couldn't turn out to be a major success. It's just something that most men, when given the option, prefer not to spend their time on. Same with women; action and combat is overall considered to be a male thing but if a woman is thrust into a situation where she is forced to fight and be a hardass, then that's what she will become. Most of the ways in which we prefer to behave ourselves are luxuries, and when faced with enough adversity I'm convinced that even the greatest girly girl will sooner or later abandon her role and act with prudence.

[Inhuman One]

Pretty much yes, the world I am writing about has few women fighting. I dislike games where they take the equal genders thing a bit too far and have as much female soldiers as male.

As for why my lead character fights, both her parents where warriors. Her father being a barbarian even. And her mother was the only child of her grandfather who raised her by himself and was a warrior of no small reputation either.
She is drawn to battle, just like her parents and her grandfather. Not to prove she is tough, but to do what she does best. It gives her purpose. A normal settled life would just confuse her, she has no interest in romance and neither is she trying to make any feminist statement. Through troubled times there is a call for heroes, and she answers the call at a young age already, having an inherited talent for battle.

[Outlawstar15a2]

I genuinely don't get it.

Because I'd rather look at a woman for three games then a dude for three games. Also Fem Shep/Liara romance FTW!! :XD

[Okuto]

Because Jennifer Hale is Femshep's voice actor and I'm a big fan of any character she plays...

Thus I prefer playing Femshep over Maleshep....

[Lysimachus]

Because I'd rather look at a woman for three games then a dude for three games. Also Fem Shep/Liara romance FTW!! :XD

But Femshep doesn't even look that good. Hell, in the first two games she has fish lips and it's only really the third where she looks half-decent. Plus there's the fact that none of the armours or casual appearances are flattering at all. So, yeah, I don't really get that reason for playing Femshep.

[David93]

Always play broshep 1st and as my canon playthrough. Always do at least 1 playthrough as a fem shep just to see the dialogue differences, I prefer man shep, but I like to get my moneys worth when I spend $60 for a game and imo it would be a waste not to at least do 1 fem shep play through.

I prefer Meer and man shep (because in my mind it just "fits"). But Hale is probably the better Voice actor... why wouldnt you play both?

Yes, just to widen the differences and check out some dialouge options, i was told hales the better actor and basicly, why not
sci-fi girl on girl actions always a plus i guess

[ivan_the_terrible]

Renegade Shep, man.

Paragon Shep, woman.

EXACTLY.

Paragon male Shepard comes off bland and goody-two-shoes while female paragon Shepard comes off genuinely caring and compassionate.

Renegade male Shepard, on the other hand, seems more natural as a rough type who is charismatic but very blunt. While female renegade Shepard just comes off forced and as a cliche 'strong woman' type.

It's just my opinion though, no need to go spreading it around.


EDIT: Or maybe it's that no female sci-fi space hero can ever be as good as Ripley.

[vinh834]

Male, all the way here, Tali is the best.

[Ngugi]

A bit odd question really, for a RPG-serie (or games what so ever)?

Why do I want to play a campaign as a bad ass renegade in ME-games when it do not really fit my personal moral preferences?
Why do I even want to be a über space soldier when I'm quite the pacifist (if possible)?
Why do i want to be an Orc in Wow or Undead commander in Heroes of Might & Magic or Elf in Baldurs Gate or Dwarf in Dragon Age? - especially as there's bigger difference between me and another species than me and another human gender.
How come I'm a genious mechanic i Arcanum, a necromancer in Diablo II, a tiny elf-like swordwielding Link in Zelda-games or fat italian plumber any Mario-game etc etc?
And so we can go on hehe

We want new challenging experiences and different angles of those experiences

[Inhuman One]

Same here, its interesting to walk a new path instead of just follow the path you have followed your entire life. Its a game, you can play with it and experience different things. thats pretty much the purpose of it.

[Xebenkeck]

@OP
Personal preference in games like these.
I know in DA2 I played a fem Hawke for the simple reason that she had a better voice then male Hawke. Also simple exploration of the game, I like to see male female romances and the dialouges involved etc.

[hellheaven1987]

Lets be honest, we play female character because we want to make our ideal woman in game...

[SoulBlade]

Lets be honest, we play female character because we want to make our ideal woman in game...

None of them has long hair though

[ivan_the_terrible]

How come I'm a genious mechanic i Arcanum

Because it's more fun than magick, and you get to travel on trains. Unless you have the Dog.

[thespaniard]

But Femshep doesn't even look that good. Hell, in the first two games she has fish lips and it's only really the third where she looks half-decent. Plus there's the fact that none of the armours or casual appearances are flattering at all. So, yeah, I don't really get that reason for playing Femshep.

because for the majority of the game ur not looking at her lips :/

[vanian]

Prefer to play as the male Shep. I tried the female Shep once and felt a little uncomfortable chatting and flirting with male characters. I had a lot more fun romancing Kelly Chambers, Ash and Miranda than Kaiden.

[Inhuman One]

Why would you feel uncomfortable about what you tell a character on a computer screen to do? Killing people in that same game might be far less comforteable then.

[Slaytaninc]

Lets be honest, we play female character because we want to make our ideal woman in game...

So you're ideal woman can kick your ass

Anyways, I played my first ME-ME2 playthrough as Renegade MaleShep, and then I started to play a Paragon FemShep to get to the lesbian scenes, but then didn't feel like rehashing the storyline again.

Anyways, I no longer understand the excitement about female-female sexual relations, after hearing a rumor that a girl I obsessed over for 2 years is bisexual, so I kinda lost taste for girl-on-girl action because it reminds me of her.

[alexanderswift]

So you're ideal woman can kick your ass

Oh yes.

I kind of switch between the two, depending on the game. Shepard just feels more appropriate as a female to me, dunno why. Just seems like it.