@Brendan said:

It's easy to treat her like shit on the internet, but I feel for where she's coming from. She's far from my favourite internet persona but she's not an active asshole and seems excited and interested in games.

I like you. She is nice, she doesn't bother me on mass effect. I think she is getting more hate than she deserves, the internet is a shitty place.

Her voice acting is noticeably bad in the game but in fairness she isn't a professional actor, or at least I don't believe she is. Her role was a throwaway part that I didn't care enough about one way or another.

She is an extremely bad voice actor, but i feel for her. I don't think she deserves a shitload of hate. @mordukai said:

"Large companies do not just hand out careers to any random pretty chick who has some attention."

Umm...Yes they do.

And this. Whatever, i don't just give a shit about this girl.

Her being there is crass. Her being a romance option so all her fans can vicariously slip her a length is obscene.

It's kind of sad that she had such a harsh awakening to the fact that not everyone who plays video games is the kind of shallow lecherous creep that makes up her usual audience.

It's not her, it's what/who she represents that's the problem.

@pbhawks45 said:

I mean, look at some of the reactions in this thread. "Dumb whore" and "What a dumb bitch" were all over this thread. I know, it's the internet, but try and take a step back here. Let's say G4 hires a pretty girl who happens to be incredibly passionate about video games. Yeah, there will be a bunch of people who will obsess over her and worship the ground she walks on. But, there will be so many who will assume that she's only there for ratings, she slept with someone, etc.

People are calling her those things because she behaved in a way they see as shallow and self serving. If G4 hired a pretty girl who knew her shit and didn't obsess over self promotion and sexual gestures to build an audience I think most people would respect her.

@Insectecutor said:

@pbhawks45 said:

I mean, look at some of the reactions in this thread. "Dumb whore" and "What a dumb bitch" were all over this thread. I know, it's the internet, but try and take a step back here. Let's say G4 hires a pretty girl who happens to be incredibly passionate about video games. Yeah, there will be a bunch of people who will obsess over her and worship the ground she walks on. But, there will be so many who will assume that she's only there for ratings, she slept with someone, etc.

People are calling her those things because she behaved in a way they see as shallow and self serving. If G4 hired a pretty girl who knew her shit and didn't obsess over self promotion and sexual gestures to build an audience I think most people would respect her.

that's still fucking terrible, I don't care if she's the worst person in the world, but there is still no cause for that kind of language.

I think it's weird how people are saying she can't voice act, when she really just sounds like herself. To say she's a bad voice actor is to say she has a bad voice in reality. I disagree, it's ultimately fine though unexceptional. There's nothing to complain about.

@Animasta: The internet is a place where people can say stuff without fear of reprisal. It is kind of sad but if you do something people generally disagree with retaliation comes swift and without mercy. Smart people would have avoided putting themselves in the firing line.

@Animasta said:

@Insectecutor said:

@pbhawks45 said:

I mean, look at some of the reactions in this thread. "Dumb whore" and "What a dumb bitch" were all over this thread. I know, it's the internet, but try and take a step back here. Let's say G4 hires a pretty girl who happens to be incredibly passionate about video games. Yeah, there will be a bunch of people who will obsess over her and worship the ground she walks on. But, there will be so many who will assume that she's only there for ratings, she slept with someone, etc.

People are calling her those things because she behaved in a way they see as shallow and self serving. If G4 hired a pretty girl who knew her shit and didn't obsess over self promotion and sexual gestures to build an audience I think most people would respect her.

that's still fucking terrible, I don't care if she's the worst person in the world, but there is still no cause for that kind of language.

What Animasta said, what gives people the right to throw such awful names at her?

@Insectecutor said:

@Animasta: The internet is a place where people can say stuff without fear of reprisal. It is kind of sad but if you do something people generally disagree with retaliation comes swift and without mercy. Smart people would have avoided putting themselves in the firing line.

No.... just no. Yeah, people on the Internet are assholes. But I think the people here around these forums tend to be above awful sexist bullshit. The excuse that "she signed up for it" is a terrible one, one that not only ignores, but encourages the awful misogynistic behavior. It's a major reason why many females feel they are often de-humanized when they put themselves out there in the public, and I happen to see their point.

Seriously, how could you defend this behavior with a straight face? Because a fucking game didn't end the way you wanted it to? Shit like this makes me embarrassed I play games.

I'm just glad I chose to not let her on my ship. I think that (and not letting Garrus win our shooting contest) are the only renegade choices I've made in the trilogy as my main character.

In situations like this I recommend a healthy dose of apathy. It's worked for me in this situation. I don't think that the quality of the voice work is worthy getting up in arms about. It's easy to ignore and regardless of what actually transpired cynical people will think she got handed the job on a silver platter.

@TheBostonPops said:

@Arker101: I understand that sentiment, and, to be clear, I'm not talking about taking video games themselves too seriously. I just don't think the Jessica Chobot inclusion warrants the amount of vitriol it's gotten. This wasn't a malicious move on Bioware's part, nor do I think it was part of any sort of grand marketing strategy - it is what it was, the casting of a nerd celebrity (albeit a poor casting, to be sure) in a minor role. It was intended to be "fun," not ire-inducing. Bioware has used actors or real people for a lot of the roles in Mass Effect, and further no one complained when Yvonne Strahovski (famous for her role in cult nerd show "Chuck") was Miranda (and even had the character changed to Australian to match her dialect, unlike how she was originally planned) or when Tricia Helfer (another famous nerd "hot chick") was cast as EDI.

I just think everyone needs to cool their jets a little bit and stop taking this particular outrage so seriously. Let it go.

I completely agree, if someone wanted to cast the GB crew in something I'd be all over that. The problem that I see the rational people having, is that they would much rather have had the time taken to put Chobot in the game, and put it towards something else like not having an important character behind a pay-wall, or improving more vital aspects of the game. Also the Miranda and EDI characters were much longer lasting the Chobot's was. I don't think she deserves the hate she gets, at least most of the time. There are things in the game like the import bug, that many would rather have been worked on, instead of throwing a celebrity in the game, and I can't blame them.

The people who just hate her all the time and call her a whore are the worst, however.

@pbhawks45 said:

@Insectecutor said:

@Animasta: The internet is a place where people can say stuff without fear of reprisal. It is kind of sad but if you do something people generally disagree with retaliation comes swift and without mercy. Smart people would have avoided putting themselves in the firing line.

No.... just no. Yeah, people on the Internet are assholes. But I think the people here around these forums tend to be above awful sexist bullshit. The excuse that "she signed up for it" is a terrible one, one that not only ignores, but encourages the awful misogynistic behavior. It's a major reason why many females feel they are often de-humanized when they put themselves out there in the public, and I happen to see their point.

Seriously, how could you defend this behavior with a straight face? Because a fucking game didn't end the way you wanted it to? Shit like this makes me embarrassed I play games.

I'm not defending their behaviour and I'm not pissed off about the ending of Mass Effect 3. People are outraged at how crass and cheap this whole cameo is, she appears in the game in a skimpy outfit and will sleep with you if you give her the right interview.

It is not people on this forum encouraging awful misogynistic behaviour, it is Mass Effect 3.

I don't see what the big deal is.

@Insectecutor said:

I'm not defending their behaviour and I'm not pissed off about the ending of Mass Effect 3. People are outraged at how crass and cheap this whole cameo is, she appears in the game in a skimpy outfit and will sleep with you if you give her the right interview.

It is not people on this forum encouraging awful misogynistic behaviour, it is Mass Effect 3.

you have an odd definition of skimpy.

Man, ME3 sure gets a lot of hate.

@pbhawks45: Well, she signed up to let video gamers across the world have sex with her... so...

She doesn't deserve name-calling, but... that's... a pretty gross thing to do, for all parties involved.

The only problem I had with her in Mass Effect 3 was her voice acting. It was atrocious.

@Sooty: You are my hero.

@NTM said:

I think it's weird how people are saying she can't voice act, when she really just sounds like herself. To say she's a bad voice actor is to say she has a bad voice in reality. I disagree, it's ultimately fine though unexceptional. There's nothing to complain about.

Acting is not about being yourself or being real, it is about ‘acting’. Acting is about portraying a part, often conveyed using a heighten sense of reality. Voice acting is a profession, to do it well you need certain skills, someone who lacks those skills will stand out. The argument that she sounds like herself does not hold water, she should not sound like herself, to do so is the epitome of doing a bad job in this case. She stood out in a bad way. Just as gamers would be disappointed by poor voice acting, we can be disappointed by intentional bring in a non-professional that stood out in a medium sized role.

@MonkeyKing1969: That's the dumbest, and probably the only dumb thing I'll read today. Of course it's nice when someone has talent to be someone else and bring that character to life, but to say acting is about sounding different isn't correct. As I've said, what she does in the game isn't that impressive, but it's not "bad". I think people just can't get past the point of bias. In the end, it doesn't really matter. Sure, there are people that don't care for Miranda Lawson, but I've never heard one person ever say that because of Yvonne Strahovski sounding and looking like her character, it's bad. Which should be the same case for Chobot, even though her character isn't as important or as cared about. I think you're just spouting out nonsense.

I feel kind of bad for her. Was her performance great? No. But there were also a lot of other shitty VAs in the game. My experience was not at all negatively impacted by her presence. The internet is so eager to hate these days, especially in regards to Bioware and EA. I feel a lot of people are bashing her simply because they want something to bash.

@mordukai said:

"Large companies do not just hand out careers to any random pretty chick who has some attention."

Umm...Yes they do.

they really don't, unless your idea of a career is serving drinks.

@NTM: In the way that some people may think Keanu Reeves, Nic Cage or Paul Walker are bad/awful in this role or that while others don't see any problem, I think voice acting can be sorta differently heard by different people as well. I personally don't care at all about Chobot being in the game but I did feel that her VO work was considerably worse than all the other VO in the game including the one off lines for sidequests and such. So to me, she was bad relative the the high quality of the other voice work in the game. You know, whereas her performance would be excellent if it were crammed into the old Resident Evil games =P It also didn't help that I thought her character model looked sorta hideous. She looks fine IRL, but man. Something just didn't sit right with me about her in game model.

I'm sorry if I got the context wrong about her playing herself as a defense but from what I've picked up in briefly scanning, I don't think that really makes sense because even if she was doing voice work for a character named Jessica Chobot who works at IGN in the game, she's still acting as though she's asking questions to some kind of space badass while reporting on a bunch of different worlds. If you hear her on a podcast or on any IGN video or whatever, I doubt she'd sound as stilted as she does in the game. I thought the flirty parts w/Shepard were especially. . . like, unnatural sounding like (not a professional term). Though, part of the fault may have been the way the characters were animated in that sequence or something, i dunno.

Btw, I thought the reporter that was in ME1 and ME2 did some fantastic VO in ME3 =)

@Fobwashed: I agree, she looked like a dying grape.

Putting her voice and likeness in the game was such blatant pandering by BioWare. Her performance was terrible but I think the criticism should be directed at BioWare for putting her in it in the first place.

@NTM said:

@Fobwashed: I agree, she looked like a dying grape.

Everybody in this game looked like the second or third slide in a meth transformation slideshow..

jeez some of you are total dicks.

I know I’ll have less reputation and miss a tiny bit of war ass but I still choose to invite her on board then kick her out right away in the 3 playthoughs I've done, don't know why:/

She was TERRIBLE in ME3.

@sate2801 said:

I know I’ll have less reputation and miss a tiny bit of war ass but I still choose to invite her on board then kick her out right away in the 3 playthoughs I've done, don't know why:/

I see what you did there.

She really broke immersion, I felt. And I didn't even know who she was. She was just so bad and out of place in the game.

What's funny is that I didn't know the reporter character was someone from the gaming industry, but all I could help thinking about regarding her character was how contrived she felt and how it stuck out like a sore thumb among all the other characters in the game. Now it all makes sense. She might not have one ounce of actual talent, but I'd hit that shit six ways to Sunday. Does she like Wii?

@SamFo said:

jeez some of you are total dicks.

Welcome to the internets!

People put too much on her being a woman while overlooking the point.

She is with IGN, that's a much more obvious connection on the surface than all of those ads EA puts up and advance review copies that can be pulled if they dare say the game was poorly done.

There are much worse conflicts of interest where the big umbrella corporations are concerned, but she put a face on it by being rendered in to the game.

Bioware could never get famous people to look right in their games, just look at Potatohead Miranda.

She was fine, she just sounded really bored, and uninterested. If anyone is to blame for that, it's the voice over director.

I'm also pretty sure she didn't animate herself and choose her virtual outfit, so none of the complaints against her are even her fault.

I would also do her, so I may be biased.

@sandweed said:

Bioware could never get famous people to look right in their games, just look at Potatohead Miranda.

The did fine with Shepard, Samara and Liara.

I'm not happy with fan reaction towards ME3.

Get the fuck over it.

The fact many giantbomb.com users are defending her saddens me.

I have nothing against her or her performance, but she "wore" a low-cut top in the game, the camera focused on her ass a couple of times as she walked in/out of shots, and you can have sex with her in the game. How surprised can she be about how her role would be seen by gamers?

@sully said:

I have nothing against her or her performance, but she "wore" a low-cut top in the game, the camera focused on her ass a couple of times as she walked in/out of shots, and you can have sex with her in the game. How surprised can she be about how her role would be seen by gamers?

I doubt she had anything to do with that. I think she just provided the voice work. Bioware was left with the anims. They probably reuse a lot of stuff from Miranda.

she was annoying in mass effect 3. nothing against her as a person but her character was lame and out of place, it made me think about IGN and her vids on xbox live. it was immersion breaking.

i liked the ending, didnt like chobot.

Haven't played Mass Effect 3, but Jessica being added certainly didn't help my opinion of the game before release. My issue was the huge review page IGN gave for Mass Effect 3, they went all out and it all felt a little shitty and wrong to me. Always respected that Giantbomb don't review games they have a degree of involvement in.

As for Jessica's opinion, I personally don't care. I actually think she is a pretty decent presenter when I've caught those IGN news update things, even if it's usually filled with disturbing perverted comments :D

@Roger778 said:

First of all, to all of the people who called her a bitch, and a cunt, I have to say that I'm seriously pissed off at you guys. Look, I agree that she did a bad vocal performance in the game, and yes her character was unnecessary, but that doesn't give you the right to say bad things about a woman who loves and is genuinely interested in video games.

When I first played Mass Effect 3, I decided to let her board the ship simply because I wanted as many War assets points as I could get. I kept her on the ship for the rest of the game. But that was a choice, I made, and now, I know I won't need to again.

You guys seriously need to watch what you say about people like Jessica Chobot. She's just a woman, not a slut.

You bumped this thread to try and troll people? Honestly you must be trolling. Why would you be seriously pissed at people for hating on a person you don't even know? Fuck what other people think anyways.

@laserbolts said:

@Roger778 said:

First of all, to all of the people who called her a bitch, and a cunt, I have to say that I'm seriously pissed off at you guys. Look, I agree that she did a bad vocal performance in the game, and yes her character was unnecessary, but that doesn't give you the right to say bad things about a woman who loves and is genuinely interested in video games.

When I first played Mass Effect 3, I decided to let her board the ship simply because I wanted as many War assets points as I could get. I kept her on the ship for the rest of the game. But that was a choice, I made, and now, I know I won't need to again.

You guys seriously need to watch what you say about people like Jessica Chobot. She's just a woman, not a slut.

You bumped this thread to try and troll people? Honestly you must be trolling. Why would you be seriously pissed at people for hating on a person you don't even know? Fuck what other people think anyways.

Hey, some people enjoy their virtual space prostitutes more than others I guess

@joles434 said:

The fact many giantbomb.com users are defending her saddens me.

Who are you, again? Is this the emperor of giantbomb's alternate account?

On a random note, when does Expendables 2 come out so I can read the thread of how horrible Jessica Arnold was in her his cameo appearance, and added nothing to the game movie?

@Roger778 said:

First of all, to all of the people who called her a bitch, and a cunt, I have to say that I'm seriously pissed off at you guys. Look, I agree that she did a bad vocal performance in the game, and yes her character was unnecessary, but that doesn't give you the right to say bad things about a woman who loves and is genuinely interested in video games.

When I first played Mass Effect 3, I decided to let her board the ship simply because I wanted as many War assets points as I could get. I kept her on the ship for the rest of the game. But that was a choice, I made, and now, I know I won't need to again.

You guys seriously need to watch what you say about people like Jessica Chobot. She's just a woman, not a slut.

Someone should really do something about that...........