Every Shade of Stubble

The next chapter in the gender stereotyping in games argument is finally here, this time over Mass Effect 3. BioWare decided to put up a series of options for the female marketing version of Commander Shepard and let fans vote on which one would make the cut. The winning entry was FemShep 5.

Cue people complaining about the typical barbie doll representation of women in games, and how the industry will never move forward while developers and their fans have such blinkered view of gender and something, something, something. For the record, here's male Commander Shepard.

As you can see, he has stubble and dark hair and is therefore not a bland male stereotype, just like the short-dark-hair-and-stubble-bedecked Kayden on the left, and the non-stereotypical characters from Shadows of the Damned, Heavy Rain, GTA 3, Uncharted, and Alan Wake.

And Gears of War, Serious Sam, Max Payne, Splinter Cell, Dead Rising, Just Cause 2, Space Marine, and Vice City.

I do understand that there is a problem with the treatment of female characters in games, I really do. I just get angry at the implicit assumption that the lack of depth is somehow in contrast to a wide diversity of well written and nuanced male protagonists.