80% of you Played the Crappy Shepard

Personally, I prefer the male version of Commander Shepard. Something about his voice just feels right for some reason. Also, I love Jennifer Hale, probably would have initially chosen female Shepard if I knew she was voicing her when I first started Mass Effect.

No, fuck you. In my opinion male Shepard is great and for me my male character will always be my "main" and the female one will come behind. Not that I have anything against the female Shep just a personal preference.

While I agree that there isn't a difference on a gameplay level (besides possible relationships) I still felt more connected to Shepard as a male. It may be a shallow thing to say but I do find it hard to emerge myself into a female character. While I do agree that the voice actor is much better for the female, if I have a choice I always choose a male character.

You guys seem to be ignoring that the male voice actor is sucko.

Agreed completely Brad. I played male off the bat in the first one (and as my vanguard "main character" was the first I played in both games) but when I played the female in a second go I knew I had to play her again in the sequel. I only wish they allowed for gender changes for previous characters. I don't want to have to make a new femme vanguard character in ME1 and play through again ME2 just so I can have her ready in ME3

I also feel the male is way too neutral in all of his speech. Bad acting or not he just feels like a robot half the time. The female shep sounds a bit more.... sarcastic? involved? or at least more natural and leaning towards one emotion or another most of the time.

Forgot one thing; the smile. Jesus Christ he looks weird when he smiles. The female model's smile is at least non-nightmare-inducing.

While I myself am a female, I feel the female Shepard is the superior one simply for the voice acting. She just pulls of a more confident, realistic Shepard in my opinion. In most video games where you can choose the gender I play males; this is simply because I am used to it. I mean what are 95% of video game protagonists?

I am not complaining by any means, as long as I am invested in the character I am playing then I don't care if it is a male or a female or something else entirely.

I don't understand why many video game playing males I meet feel like they have to play a man and only a man at all times. Feeling insecure much? After all video games like other means of entertainment are a form of escapism so why does it matter if you are 'controlling' someone of the opposite gender for a time, it does not change who you are essentially as a person. Not saying anything about guys who choose males and only males though...it may be just that they are trying to connect to the character more.

Thank you Brad. C: You are always very considerate for thinking of females in video games.

I think the statistic is that 80% of people have a male Shepard. This doesn't mean that only 20% have a female Shepard though. I apologize if you knew this already.

I agree that femShep is much better; I have only one mShep and the rest are femSheps that I've used for countless playthroughs.

One has to wonder though about these statistics. They say that they're using them to create a better game based on the feedback, but what about people that make minority decisions? Will their content take a back seat to the more popular decisions? The implications are troubling.

Even as a female I'm usually pretty open to playing a male character just for something "different" but not in the case of Mass Effect. Playing a character with such a monotone is like playing with a dead piece of meat. Jennifer Hale actually makes the character of Shepard likable and even hilarious at times.

I'm not gonna lie, female Shepard's VA is a lot better when it comes to emotion and such, but the male's VA has grown on me. I honestly favor my male character because the VA goes along with the fact that my Shepard is a "hardened" commander. I'd hate for them to switch VAs for the last installment of the series, but I wouldn't hate them if they did.

tl;dr: Yes, the female VA did a better job, but I prefer the male's VA all the same

"Im commander shepard, and this is my favorite store on the citadel"..that one line says it all lol. most of the time, commander shepard(Male) sounded like he was a robot/some dude reading lines: it his tone often didnt match the situation he was in

I always felt it looked as though Bioware had put more effort into creating the male Shephard, and so picked to play as him in both games. However... Right now in both games i'm further as female shephard, so i guess it's voice-work over graphics >.<

I almost always play female, and the first time I played as a male Shep, I felt that the voice was sort of awkward. The tone and emotions (or seemingly lack thereof) that Meer offered were very different from what I had received with Hale.

Thing is, after playing as a male, and deciding to do another playthrough as a fem Shep, I felt the same way that I first did towards my male character. Not so much on that lack of emotions, but more so that overall awkwardness. My memory of the first ME isn't all that great, but when playing as a female renegade in ME2, there were several scenes where Hale's voice almost made me cringe. She just sort of went into some whispery, "seductive" tone. Meanwhile, a male renegade would sound like a tough badass.

There are moments, in all honesty, when I feel that both voice actors really aren't all that great. But for the most part, I think it's reasonable enough to say that Meer and Hale both excel with different types of dialogue and scenes.

Well NOW you tell me..

I never really put them side to side like this before, and I have played through ME1 as both Shepards. I most definitely prefer Jennifer Hale's version. She has great inflection and tone when she speaks, she knows where the stress of a sentence needs to be. The Tali Loyalty mission scene is a great example of this. The second video, 8:03 to 8:27 in particular. Jennifer speaks with great sincerity and changes the speed and volume of her voice while speaking. I suffered through a Voice and Speech class, this chick definitely has the chops of a great voice actress.

MaleShep just doesn't do it, not nearly as much. His VA is simply average. It's not particularly bad, but it's not good either.

My first character was male. 2 more after that were male. About 8 or 9 after that were female.

I could not stand the male voice actor. Though he was marginally better in ME2, Jennifer Hale delivers the lines sooooooo much better and well suited for the situation than Mark Meer did. My only gripe with playing a female was that she ALWAYS sounded like a bitch. That could partly be due to the fact that sometimes ME just fucked you over and mislead you with dialogue choices. I can't remember exactly the situation, but one of the choices seemed like it was respectfully disagreeing with the NPC, and so I chose it, and Shepard threatened the person. It was a "lolwut" moment.

But yeah, if you have not played ME as a female, you haven't played Mass Effect.

Yeah i always pick males because of ingame cooties.

Female shepard is the best, Sandra Shepard has been my character through both mass effect games, I tried the male shephard for a few hours, but I just wasn't feeling it.
I wouldn't say that they played wrong shephard, but they definently played the worst

That 80% could be misleading. I have a male AND a female Shepard. I also like the voice acting for both.

Elitism about Shepard's gender is really annoying to me, for some reason.

I played a Male Shepard, and I don't really regret it. I wouldn't say his VA is bad; he's simply outclassed by Jennifer Hale's voice work to the point that he looks bad by comparison.

However, Femme Shep can't romance Tali.

But if I were to ever play through either of the ME's again, I'd do it with a Femme Shep so that I wouldn't get bored with it.

While i have only played as the male Shepard (since I only recently got mass effect), from what I see on youtube i feel that both Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale can at times be rather stiff, but at other times really have their moments. Meer does a better job voicing a more threatening and tough Shepard, I think he does better voice work if you play as a renegade. Hale does a better job with the more emotional moments. Over all i would agree that Hale does a better job, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that male Shepard is crappy. I personally feel that Shepard was one of the most uninteresting characters in Mass Effect, because A) his/her voice acting is hit or miss, and B) because there is little character development with Shepard. And as to why I played as a male Shepard? Well i prefer to have relationships with the female characters in the game, but to each his own Brad.

I played them both. Didn't really like the female version. Nothing sexist or anything. I just didn't like it the way she talked. Felt more monotone to me. Yay for opinions!!

I disagree strongly. I can play both as I find that Meer is a much better paragon than Hale, who seems to exude renegade. While Meer can be dull and underwhelming, Hale's work in Mass Effect is often over-the-top and unbelievable. She puts TOO MUCH inflection into her speech, to the point that every conversation she has sounds like she's either morbidly bored or wants to jump the bones of any person she talks to.

Seriously, listen to any conversation with Jacob or her romance with Garrus. She's too forceful.

Male Shep sounds like a doucher.

One detail I think you may be overlooking is that the box art tells you Shepard is a dude with the default face. A great deal of 80% has to be people that don't want to experiment with what might be an alternate story on the first (possibly only) playthough.

Am I the only one who thinks her voice acting is terrible. Too me, it seems very fake and overdone, like the person in your drama class who thinks they can act and then says every line in a stressed way...when theres often no need to, I feel this is what hale is doing.

Whereas the male VA seems more appropriate to the character; bit stiff, but hardened. True, he does have some lines where he does literally sound like a robot, but for the most part I think the male VA is much better.

I dont have a closet fetish to be a woman..hence i was the male shepard.

Fortunesque, Chimera9...didn't see your comments :)

i never had an issue with either voice actor. both have different styles and they both work for their character. Neither 1 is really better or worse then the other. And to be fair, when you have a game this LONG, and your main character talks by far the most out of everyone else, You gotta let the occasional hiccup slide from time to time. Ya the negative stuff stands out more but think about all the lines each voice actor delivered well throughout the game.

After watching the second video, I realized I could take it or leave it. There are plenty of scenes where the male VA fits the character I try to play Shepard as, and there are many scenes with Hale that make me cringe. This definitely didn't convince me to play a femshep on my next ME playthrough so that I could experience the INCREDIBLE performance.

But hey, to each his own.

After listening to the Mass Effect 2 comparison, yeah, definitely female Shepard sounds better. Male sounds so robotic.

Brad is quite right...holy shit she is so much better.

Should have chose the girl. Plus then you stare at female ass all game.

THE FEMALE SHEPARD IS THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR MANY MANY REASONS!

I think the female VA took it more seriously so she sounds serious and stressed but the male VA seems more relaxed and i think it males him better and the witty and casual parts

Thats your opinion Brad. I don't care about voice acting, I mean, you played oblivion and loved it; the voice acting in that game sucked balls.

I played a man because I want to be faced with the choices the game developed puts towards a male character, scenarios that are specifically made to see how a man would react to the situation. Lets call is Gender Based Decision.

In that respect you played out the role of a female, Brad, so what dose that say about your personality?

Brad in my opinion Jennifer Hale can indeed show some more flexibility with her tones of voice but honestly I feel they have simple, stiff moments and then sometimes great moments of voice acting. Just because you think it's the truth doesn't mean it's the final say. I've played as both FemShep and MaleShep and I can honestly say I prefer MaleShep's voice.

I like to play as both. I did the same for the first and second Mass Effect, I did the same for both KOTORs, and will keep doing that for any future RPGs that give the option.

I agree completely. The male Shep lacks any emotions. He sounds exactly the same in almost any scenario. And when he's flirting or being nice it just comes off as creepy. Jennifer Hale has a strong voice and puts realistic emotions into that voice. She's a phenomenal voice actress. It just seems like Male Shep VA (can't remember his name atm) doesn't even really try. It shames me that he's the face of Mass Effect (advertising and such) while Jennifer Hale, a remarkable Voice actress, is left in the shadows and anyone who doesn't really know much about the game don't even know she's there.

"However, Femme Shep can’t romance Tali."

Ah yes, but manshep can't romance Garrus.

I like and use both (two ManSheps, one FemShep) but Femshep has cooler delivery for renegade lines than ManShep (though this was improved with ME 2) but ManShep is a better paragon voice actor (especially during the suicide mission and Tali's trial).

Listened to tons of Femshep. She sounded like she was about to fall asleep. Maleshep has a certain heroic corniness in his voice that I find entertaining. I'm sure there was a good segment of players who picked Maleshep because the game is targeted towards the macho shooter audience. Nothing wrong with that. So long as they enjoyed the game.

Well, I feel more connected to male Shepard, because I am a male. It really is that simple.

I love you Brad, but you are wrong, wrong, WRONG.

Female Sheppard lacks the greatest line in the history of video games;

"Because he's a big, stupid jellyfish!"

I'm a huge MGS fan so I'm very used to Jennifer Hale and her great performances but I just prefer Male Shepherd. Mark Meer does a good jobthough not perfect and Hale overdoes it sometimes in Mass Effect I think. Besides that, the role of Shepherd is generic as it needs to be some kind of voice that can apply to all players so neither is going to be the best voice acting ever.
More importantly is why does this matter? In a game where there are romance options and consequences to choices, can you really say that the argument of someone wanting to try and put their own personality in a character doesn't apply? Does it annoy you so much that people were given an option in a game and they chose differently from you? How does that make them wrong? I don't get why femshep players get all up in arms and defensive when everyone knows Jennifer Hale is a great voice actress with the CV to prove it.

Sorry, but to everyone saying the male Shepard is better because the developers put more effort into him: WHAT?!? I think you need to play through both games again as the female Shepard. I played though both and at no point in either game did I think "wow, this scene would have been cooler if I was my male Shepard right now." In fact, I found the opposite to be true on a few occasions.

This does sort of worry me about Dragon Age 2, though. Does anyone know who they got to voice both the male and female protagonist in that?

I already accepted that, like this article, 80% of what Brad says is bullshit (first the Inverted/Normal thing now?!). He seems to be basing this off of a VAs performance without knowing that Hale as more experience than Meer.

That being said, I've seen this debate many times at GameFAQs around it's first few weeks of release. Like Brad, I agree that FemShep is far superior as well. But she should be the canon one. Why? Because YOU are Shepard. If you want them as a Man or Woman. So be it. Not for the sake of VA.

As for my opinion why I agree (and disagree) with Brad. It's this: Mark Meer = Renegade Shepard, Jennifer Hale = Paragon and Renegade Shepard.

Mark may get new roles after Mass Effect (not just games) and we may see range and improvement.

Oh and I forgot to add that I've played both Shepards and like them equally.

I brought this up to my boyfriend while he was playing male Shepard, and I think it's one of those issues you don't really notice until someone points it out. I found that the cinematics of the game were very awe-inspiring and sent chills down my spine, but as soon as I heard his voice it kind of ruined the moment to say the least. The second video really nailed it for me, especially when both VAs were inquiring about the half-alive Reaper Terminator fetus thing. Meer sounded really dry, while Hale sounded disgusted with the whole operation and truly reflected how I would react if I was in that position. I hope the voice acting improves for male Shepard in the third game.

I started playing Mass Effect with the male Shepard, and continued that into the second game. For me, the voice acting of male Shepard never squandered the experience for the game, not for a second.

I have no issues with the female Shepard, I simply just chose a male and stuck with it. However, it really pisses me off when people say "you made the wrong choice" by playing as a male Shepard. It's like telling someone they played an RPG incorrectly by making a decision that you didnt like. Who cares really? So long as people can appreciate the quality of the other gender's VA, why does it matter what peoples personal preferences are?

Female Shephard almost every single time has that cynical, Solo-ish "I'm too cool for school" turn to her words. If I ever choose to play as Renegade again, I'll play as Female Shephard. Maybe even the Renegade/Paragon 50-50 play.

But for the true blue Paragon, I'll stick to Male Shephard and his speechifying. He handles the whole 'noble boy scout' think a little better than Little Miss Sarcasm.

Thought certainly not THAT generic five-o-clock shadow male Shephard. My Shephard looks like Captain Kirk meets Ivan Drago, and a damn sight better for it!

His voice acting isn't offensive but it most definitely is not near the best. Hopefully he gets better tips and coaching before ME3 comes out.

The voice acting hasn't really affected my all that much and the only reason I prefer the male VO is because the voice actor is from my home town.

I agree that the female commander Shepard is the better voice actor but it probably isn't the reason a lot of people played the male Shepard instead.

[...] mShep and FemShep – to this day I prefer calling the male DudeShep). Writer Brad Simons shared his disapproval for this statistic and wrote, “80% of you made the wrong choice, because the female Shepard [...]