Although the popular Mass Effect games have always offered players the ability to completely customise the appearance of their player character -- including the choices of both race and gender of Commander Shepard -- BioWare have only ever used the white male archetype (reportedly modeled on Dutch fashion model Mark Vanderloo) in the game's promotional and advertising material.

In response to an online protest movement calling for a bit of gender equality, BioWare are addressing that for Mass Effect 3 with an upcoming trailer expected to feature Commander Shepard as female, voiced by the talented Jennifer Hale as well promising that both male and female versions will appear on the game's packaging.

Before that happens however, they have to settle on her default appearance so they've thrown that one out to the fans. If you head over to the official Mass Effect Facebook page, specifically -- this post -- you'll see the six options.

Of course, the Internet being as predictable as ever currently has the blonde in first place so it seems inevitable that we'll see Samus Aran in the next trailer, but it's still a nice gesture.

Mass Effect 3 is due on March 8th 2012 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. For more information about the game, check out our recent in-depth preview.