(no subject)

[damselfish]

Every time I see manShep, I have a moment where I try to figure out who he is. "Who, among all the generic jarheads I've met in this game, is this generic jarhead?"

Oh. Right. It's someone else's Shep. It's even worse in fanart, because half the time I can't tell if it's Cortez.

But then I had a REALLY weird moment reading this article, on EA's greed and the decision to make a $20 DLC that dropped on launch day.*

And what caught my attention was: "From Ashes" follows Commander Sam Shepard and his squad.

I was like SAM!? HIS!? WHO THE FUCK IS THAT?

"Oh, wait, lol, that's manShep. ...Wait, isn't his name John?"

But srsly, his. In an article about the game. Way to overlook 50% of the human population (or 20% of Sheps, as of ME2). I also got used to law school, where a lot of books seem to use the neutral "she" instead of "he." Seeing "he" is pretty jarring, especially when I've got 120+ hours invested in "she." Seriously, is a singular they all that hard to come by? Or at least remembering that femShep even exists? Especially when femSheps are usually cool and distinctive whereas manShep (save uglyShep) is a generic jarhead. Even the official Shep is Gene McGeneric.

*A DLC that, mind you, was so vital to the story that I'm not even sure the story works without it. I mean, it probably does, I can see the points where characters say "oh this is the babblygook and it probably does this!" and then the DLC character steps in and goes "fools! That's space junk." (Not more specific than that because there are parties who shall remain nameless on my flist who don't want spoilers.)