RACE, GENDER, AND VIOLENCE IN MASS EFFECT

WARNING SPOILERS: if you ever plan on playing the Mass Effect Series read another final project as this will likely

contain spoilers.

WARNING SPOILERS:

if you ever plan on playing the Mass Effect Series read another final project as this will likely contain spoilers.

Andy WongRRS 280

Final Project

Themes Found In the Mass Effect Universe

RaceGender Roles

Human SexualityBiotechnical subjugation

Connections to reality

Brief Intro Mass Effect is a science-fiction action game developed by Bioware, in which the

player creates his or her own character (male or female) and will be named Commander Shepard, for storytelling and gender neutrality purposes. The player will be given many options to choose from which can directly affect the lives of an entire species or your dear comrades.

The story of Mass Effect game series takes place in the year 2183 CE, a few decades after humans discover technology on Mars from an alien species capable of space travel called the Protheans. This discovery dubbed The Mass Effect accelerated human technology hundreds of years in a few mere decades allowing for “faster-than-light” (FTL) travel. The humans also discovered the Mass Relays which is a network of devices scattered across the galaxy which can allow starships to travel between relays instantaneously, the travel time using FTL travel would take years or more. This technology is also supposedly made by the Protheans.

Race And Gender Commander Shepard

As far as being the main character goes, the player is allowed to customize how your character looks from a wide array of values such as skin tones, gender, hair styles, jaw lines and more.

This allows for very equal portrayal for race and genders. Especially when the astonishing statistic for video games being: 73% of playable main characters male, 12%female and 15% non-human. This is a statistic found in “Fair Play? Violence, Gender and Race in Video games” by Christina Glaubke, Patti Miller, McCrae Parker, and Eileen Espejo

Race And Gender•Heres a picture of creating their character reflective of Barack Obama•This character creation is done on the first installment of the Mass Effect series, thus having more dated graphics and technology people are still able to have the free range to create such a character

Race And GenderAlthough players can customize their characters, by default the protagonist Commander Shepard is Caucasian. This falls under the statistic of 52% white male main characters and 78% white female characters according to “Fair Play? Violence, Gender and Race in Video games”

More Mass Effect background

The main governing body is the Citadel Council, which is a committee of singular representatives from each species. Currently there are only three species in the council and the humans aspire to become part of the Citadel Council as their decisions directly affect the galaxy.

The council maintains order with their own covert intelligent agents called Spectres (Special Tactics and Reconnaissance). They only answer to the Council, are above all laws as they are deemed to do whatever they think is necessary to maintain galactic peace.

The Citadel CouncilSpecies: Turian, Asari, Salarian (from left to right)

•The all powerful governing body, The Citadel Council, is two thirds female (the Salarian is female and the Asari race only has one gender but retains female appearance as well as maternal instincts)

Race And Gender

Udina is a human ambassador to the Council whom strives to also become a member of the Citadel Council.

Anderson is a war hero and the first candidate to become a human Spectre. This is important because all Spectres were all of the same species as the Council.

Either Udina or Anderson will become a member of the Council (depends on players decisions)

Clearly race (at least within humanity) does not seem to matter any more as we see two colored characters that attain positions of great importance and power.

A parallel in reality to this would be Barack Obama reaching Presidency

Donnel Undina (left) and David Anderson (right)

Human Sexuality Mass Effect is infamous for its romantic relationshipsAs the main character there are several romantic relationships one can

pursue within your starship. Although Bioware slowly works on LGBT relationships, by the third installment of Mass Effect there are male characters in which a male Commander Shepard can romance and the same for a female Shepard.

Humans in the Mass Effect universe seem to be more understanding than humans in reality as one can be in a romantic relationship with anyone (male female or even alien) in and not be judged, whilst in reality the game series takes a hit from critics for containing such content.

Note: If you are really interested in seeing this content I recommend playing the game or Youtubing it!

Tying some of it downIn the world of Mass Effect,

there seems to be much equality between genders and races, but something beyond the world of Mass Effect is that the game still endorsed some gender stereotypes such as the body building male and the hour-glass scantily clothed female.

SOME of the species found in Mass Effect

Biotechnical Subjugation The Krogans lived in a harsh planet filled with predation and

scarce with resources. The Krogans were known to be to be powerful and highly physically adept, for example having two hearts, four lungs, back up nervous systems and much more.

Then along came the Salarians who provided the Krogans with advanced technology and a new peaceful planet to live on. The Salarians did this to use the Krogans to wipe out a threatening species called the Rachni. Without predation and harsh living conditions combined with the high birthrate of Krogans, they began to aggressively expand.

To stop this Krogan aggression within galaxy, the Salarians developed a biological weapon, called the genophage, that practically sterilized the Krogan species since nearly all reproductive attempts resulted in stillbirth.

Biotechnical Subjugation In relation to our texts The bio-weapon that the Salarians used on the Krogans felt

surprisingly similar to the virus in Legend, by Marie Lu. In both cases the bio-weapon was engineered to oppress a certain group of people to keep a sense of order within a governed space.

The manipulation by the Salarians is also similar to the Oankali in Dawn, by Octavia Butler. Both the Salarians and the Oankali promised for something better in order to gain something for themselves. In the case of Mass Effect, it was for military power and eradication of a species and in the Oankali’s case it was for reproductive and trading purposes.

Tuchanka Vs. Syria

On top is the Krogan homeworld, Tuchank, which has suffered civil wars, planetary bombardments, and nuclear wars.

And to the bottom is Syria…

In the article, A Microscopic Insurgent, Jenna M. Loyd examines the indirect effects of war. Loyd states that destruction of infrastrucutre, premature deaths, and diseases point towards structural violence and militarization.

In Conclusion I would like to say that characters and stories

within video games can be analyzed in terms of race, gender, and other themes that we have discussed within our class.

There is much more to Mass Effect than what you have seen as this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks and GOOD LUCK ON FINALS!

Sources