Femshep Is Now Officially A Redhead

13 years ago

August 29, 2011 at 11:15 am

When BioWare let fans decide what the ‘official’ Femshep would look like via Facebook, there was a bit of backlash – a backlash towards the whole process, and the fact they were changing her from the default female option in Mass Effect 1 and 2, then a little bit of a kerfuffle when the blonde won. Then BioWare moved the goalposts – that vote was just for the facial structure, they claimed, before asking us to vote on the colour of Femshep’s hair.

When will the madness end?

Now, apparently, after BioWare has now announced that voting on the hair colour of Femshep has been closed. She is now officially a redhead!

To celebrate Bioware has released the concept art, which looks great — obviously — but we can’t help but wonder about the whole process. Why not go with the original default option, and is it wise to throw the ‘canon’ version of a main character to a vote?

Any thoughts?

Thanks VG247

Comments

55 responses to “Femshep Is Now Officially A Redhead”

READ THE COMMENTS

Blaghman

August 29, 2011 at 11:19 am

I figure that since everyone who cares should already have their own character, the whole thing shouldn’t matter.

I’ll be sticking with my derpy male Shepard.

Reply
1. Wormwoods
  
  August 29, 2011 at 8:21 pm
  
  Man has a point. When you have character customization it seems strange to have such a fuss about the default. Still, Redhead is nice.
  
  Blaghman,i’ve seen your player characters, they ALL look derpy.
  
  Reply
  1. Blaghman
    
    August 29, 2011 at 11:29 pm
    
    They look good to me! *runs off crying*
    
    Reply
charles

August 29, 2011 at 11:24 am

It was just an exercise in social media marketing, mission successful I’d say. Because everyone knows it doesn’t matter, who picks the default anyway.

Reply
1. Jiff
  
  August 29, 2011 at 12:07 pm
  
  I go with the default, simply because it’s the only face available that doesn’t have that Identikit NPC feel to it
  
  Reply
2. Neo-Kaiser
  
  August 29, 2011 at 12:29 pm
  
  According to resarch done by Bioware, a lot of people. They even found out that 70% of all players selected the “Soldier” class, as it’s the default option and many players don’t get RPGs and just want to play Call of Duty.
  
  Reply
  1. Richard
    
    August 29, 2011 at 12:34 pm
    
    I haven’t played Mass Effect, but if soldier seems like the obvious choice then it’s probably going to be a safe bet for a best-designed campaign (assuming BioWare put the most effort into what they think most people are going to see).
    
    Reply
    1. Neo-Kaiser
      
      August 29, 2011 at 1:12 pm
      
      Soldier is basically just shoot everything that moves.
      Kind of a shame, they create a world where people can hack robots, disable weapons, create barriers, use telekinesis, create drones, teleport, and the majority of players just play it like Call of Duty.
      
      Reply
      1. Reoh
        
        August 29, 2011 at 2:35 pm
        
        You know you can give your team orders right, to do all that stuff? :p
HotDamn!

August 29, 2011 at 11:25 am

kerfuffle, indeed.

Reply
Sage87

August 29, 2011 at 11:25 am

That. Is. Delightful! Love redheads haha. I’ve been thinking of replaying ME2 as a female – maybe I’ll model her on this so I can pick default when ME3 comes out =)

Reply
Corteks

August 29, 2011 at 11:33 am

I like the result!

It does align with my Femshep, who I’m currently playing through ME2 with, who is also a redhead 😛

Much prefer it over the blonde. Although they should’ve just gone with Crabcat’s Femshep (http://crabcat.tumblr.com/). After all she’s an epic cosplayer!

Reply
1. lambomann007
  
  August 29, 2011 at 11:38 am
  
  What, this? http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/9285266514/4/tumblr_lqdce7V3ua1qf1a8d 😛
  
  Reply
  1. Chazz
    
    August 29, 2011 at 11:41 am
    
    Her jaw is squarer than BroSheps :S
    
    Reply
  2. Corteks
    
    August 29, 2011 at 4:45 pm
    
    Hahah yes 😛
    
    Reply
Nate

August 29, 2011 at 11:34 am

I would rather play a game that didn’t use social media to vote in the looks of one of the main characters. Thank god the blond one never succeeded though, red-head-fem-shep is bad ass.

Reply
Chazz

August 29, 2011 at 11:36 am

If only this kind of effort had gone into making a worthwhile collectors edition. :S

Reply
Glenn

August 29, 2011 at 11:43 am

I’m probably the only person that plays the default male shep…

Now that I own ME1 and 2 on PC though I will probably play through as Fem Shep, will have to make a gorgeous red-head!

Reply
1. Akra
  
  August 29, 2011 at 12:00 pm
  
  Nah, I use Default Male Shep. His voice doesn’t suit any other faces
  
  Reply
PsyKoMunKy

August 29, 2011 at 11:53 am

So if you used default femshep for ME1 and ME2, will she look the same or will she change to the redhead?

Reply
1. Matthew K
  
  August 29, 2011 at 12:04 pm
  
  I’m guessing she’ll stay the same, since Femshep’s model was built using the in-game customisation, so she has a code you can use to recreate her if you want – she’s not a specially modelled face like Manshep was.
  
  I’m guessing if you import, you get the same old default – if you create new, or tell it to use default, you get new Redshep.
  
  Reply
  1. PsyKoMunKy
    
    August 29, 2011 at 12:07 pm
    
    That’s what I figured – which means the only difference is in the marketing material for legacy players…
    
    Reply
    1. Matthew K
      
      August 29, 2011 at 1:19 pm
      
      As far as I know, Femshep will appear on the cover art for the collector’s edition – that’s it. That’s what all the fuss is about.
      
      Reply
allanon10101

August 29, 2011 at 12:02 pm

Last i checked, the “canon” Shepherd is male anyway

Reply
1. Weresmurf
  
  August 29, 2011 at 12:45 pm
  
  There’s no such thing as ‘canon’ Shep. That’s ridiculous.
  
  Reply
  1. Aidan
    
    August 29, 2011 at 3:20 pm
    
    Exactly.
    
    The advertising material doesn’t equal ‘canon’.
    
    Reply
  2. Corteks
    
    August 29, 2011 at 4:48 pm
    
    Indeed. That’s what’s so great about Mass Effect! Everyone’s Shep is canon Shep.
    
    Reply
Art Vandelay

August 29, 2011 at 12:05 pm

A red-head? yeuk!

Reply
AussieSniper

August 29, 2011 at 12:38 pm

I had been looking forward to ME3 quite a bit before this. Now I just have a sour taste in my mouth about the game.

Between Dragon Age 2 and this nonsense, I am nearly over Bioware at this stage.

(my FemShep was a redhead in ME2 BTW)

Reply
garnet 23

August 29, 2011 at 12:54 pm

she has no soul

Reply
1. Chazz
  
  August 29, 2011 at 1:08 pm
  
  She’s a redhead not a ginger 😛
  
  Redhead;
  http://tinyurl.com/6y6ryxv
  
  Ginger;
  http://tinyurl.com/3dqalsu
  
  Reply
  1. Mark Serrels
    
    August 29, 2011 at 1:18 pm
    
    I fully expected the ginger to be a pic of me!
    
    Reply
    1. Chazz
      
      August 29, 2011 at 1:21 pm
      
      You mean it’s not?
      
      I can never tell, all you gingers look the same.
      
      Reply
mike

August 29, 2011 at 1:05 pm

Damn Ginge! Thought genetic disorders were removed in the future.

Reply
elly

August 29, 2011 at 1:11 pm

As a blonde female Mass Effect fan, the backlash was pretty stupid. So all blondes are helpless and not so bright? Way to reinforce the stereotype you “hate” so much guys.

Reply
1. Krystal Ruch
  
  August 29, 2011 at 2:16 pm
  
  I’m a blonde female gamer as well but I don’t see the issue being that blonde wasn’t picked because we are “helpless and not so bright.” I see it as the majority chose blonde because they considered it the best model – which, stereotypically, tends to be the case when you let people vote on appearance. There’s a reason why the term “hot blonde” exists.
  
  So the problem (if we were to continue your argument) becomes more “why didn’t you pick red in the first place?” and less “why u no pick blonde?”
  
  There were also six FemShep models to choose from; four of them were white (five, if you considered one as just a ‘tanned’ model). I think if you want to discuss stereotypes and unfair judgement, that’s the bigger issue here and not her damn hair colour.
  
  Reply
light487

August 29, 2011 at 1:21 pm

Hrmm.. but it’s just the “default”.. it’s not like you can’t change it… or that your previously created character from ME1&2 gets changed.. it’s just the default.. where is the problem??

Reply
1. Neo-Kaiser
  
  August 29, 2011 at 1:54 pm
  
  Promotional material.
  
  Reply
viperthejedi

August 29, 2011 at 1:44 pm

I’ll be using the same Femshep that I have used in the other 2 games. And she isn’t this ‘official’ one. Long live the true Femshep!!!!

Reply
doubleDizz

August 29, 2011 at 1:44 pm

Wow gee gaming nerds picked the redhead, stop the f*ckin presses…

Reply
Azza

August 29, 2011 at 1:58 pm

Looks just like my renegade femshep. Booyeh!

Reply
Krystal Ruch

August 29, 2011 at 2:00 pm

This is ridiculous. We all know women change their hair colour all the time by dying it different colours anyway.

Reply
1. Strange
  
  August 29, 2011 at 2:31 pm
  
  Ha! Good call. I didn’t even consider that. Regardless, this chick will never be FemShep to me, just like ManShep never looked like the guy on the box either.
  
  Reply
Jehan

August 29, 2011 at 2:14 pm

Looks a lot like my femshep :DDDD

Reply
KRiSX

August 29, 2011 at 2:43 pm

woooohooo red got in! i feel like my vote might of counted… lol

Reply
Pioneer

August 29, 2011 at 2:52 pm

My femshep has red hair and the same hair style but now it’s mainstream I’m going to have to change it.

Reply
Stevorooni

August 29, 2011 at 3:33 pm

RangaShep.. she’ll have to sprint through the outdoor areas to prevent sunburn.

Reply
Daniel

August 29, 2011 at 4:00 pm

Would

Reply
Linksterman

August 29, 2011 at 5:22 pm

Red heads are (mostly) hot, so I am happy!

Reply
warcroft

August 29, 2011 at 6:26 pm

She looks like an angry 14 year old.

Reply
1. Lillee
  
  August 30, 2011 at 12:24 pm
  
  +1
  
  Give me Morrigan any day
  
  Reply
Dark_Templar

August 29, 2011 at 8:23 pm

I’d tap that

Reply
Steve

August 29, 2011 at 9:27 pm

Don’t particularly care either way, but kind of hilarious that BioWare backtracked so hard with “that vote was just for the facial structure.”

Nearly all the Sheps had the same exact face.

Reply
AerintheADEQUATE

August 30, 2011 at 1:43 am

Mass Effect now starring ‘That chick from Paramour’ as Commander Shepard

Reply
Exaemo

August 30, 2011 at 3:46 pm

When will you folks realise that there is no such thing as “canon” in terms of Commander Shepard’s appearance or gender?

Reply

Stellar Blade: Release Date, Trailer & Everything We Know

Western Australia’s Government Wants Games To Help Boost The State’s Economy

The 5 Most Expensive Pokémon Cards Ever Sold

Internet For Gaming: The Best NBN Plans To Help Fix Your Ping

Here’s When McDonald’s Will Be Open On Anzac Day

Internet For Gaming: The Best NBN Plans To Help Fix Your Ping

The Best Gaming Deals In Australia Today

Where To Buy A Steam Deck In Australia And New Zealand

Big W’s Nintendo Switch Offer Is One Of The Cheapest In Australia Right Now

JB Hi-Fi Is Clearing Out Games For As Little As $2

Femshep Is Now Officially A Redhead

Comments

55 responses to “Femshep Is Now Officially A Redhead”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply