In the time of chimpanzees...

psdo:

OH HI DEFAULT FEMSHEP

MEET PHOTOSHOP

Psdo, let me love you.
While it was nice to see FemShep finally getting her own trailer (after three games and no marketing beforehand other than that stupid beautycontest) I wasn’t really surprised that her face looked artificial and like any other female hot protagonists face ever. There were no distinctive features, no character. Just this very attractive blank (and frankly weirdly plastic looking) face of a woman Bioware wants us to believe is an expierenced soldier, leader. I wasn’t even disappointed. I was expecting it.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong about a woman being attractive, but I think it is alarming that apparantly a woman is only considered attractive if she meets our current impossible beautystandards. Flawlessness, smoothness, youth. The woman psdo created here is beautiful, she is attractive, but she is tough. She has seen her share of conflicts, she can take a few blows, she can headbutt a krogan. She’s a soldier.

With the face Bioware created I’ve got the feeling something is off. Something is out of place. Like when a young attractive actress is casted for a role she just can’t make it believable. Like you always get the feeling she’s trying really hard to make this character believable, but simply fails because you just can’t believe her when her face seems to repel dirt, her hair is always flawless and even after having wet hair two minutes later she got a perfect hairstyle again. It might not even be her fault, but when you see her you don’t ever believe that this her character is real, human. You know what I mean?

I’m not trying to say women who are attractive and young are incapable of getting things done, of being tough. On the contrary. I’m saying it is wrong to make them appear perfect no matter what they are going through. And in a game, where the facemodel will most likely not change, you want to have a believable and strong character design from the get go. Design your characters so they can fit their role in the game and be believable and relatable. They can be attractive AND fit the role, psdo is showing everybody how’s it done with style. Bioware, take notes.