Femshep: Crowdsourcing a female hero in BioWare's Mass Effect

A talk by Sean Gouglas Associate Professor in Humanities Computing and Senior Director of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta

This presentation investigates the significant attachment players have to their avatars in computer games, how they invest in those characters, and how game designers facilitate that attachment. Specifically, we explore in detail public reaction to BioWare’s campaign to place the female protagonist (nick-named FemShep) from the Mass Effect universe on the Collector’s Edition boxart for the game, Mass Effect 3.