Mass Effect: Ready for a Transgender Protagonist

[binary solo]

So would the trans-woman be voiced by a man and the trans-man be voiced by a woman?

If you play Fem-shep in a certain way you could argue that she is mildly transgender, tomboyish at least.

I completely disagree with hard-wiring the PC as a transgender character. The thing with the Bioware PCs to date have been the ability to choose to be gay or straight (is it possible to be Bi in any of the DA or ME games?). So hardwiring. Whether or not you argue that there should be 4 equally recognised sexes (cis-male, cis-female, trans-male, trans-female), the fact of the matter is that making the PC trans is forcing a characterisation on gamers who may object. With the sexual orientation aspect you can be a raving homophobe and still play Mass Effect and strictly pursue the hetero path.

I would prefer Bioware take a smaller step and have one of the NPCs be trans. At least that way you can choose to recruit / use that character according to your own personal philosophy. It is one thing for art to challenge and question ideas and beliefs about sexuality and gender, it's another thing for art to cram those ideas down people's throats.

I'll still buy it and play it, if it's an actually good game, as I have no issues at all with transgendered people, I will merely disagree with that particular decision.

And now I want to play the ME series all over again.