Dragon Age: Origins Developer Blog
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Many games, including other Bioware titles, rely on the dichotomy between good and evil, and even apply a gameplay mechanic so that you are receiving immediate feedback on your good and evil choices. There's nothing wrong with this, but employing such a mechanic requires that there be a sharp contrast between each decision and that the paths in question be easy to identify. In Dragon Age: Origins we instead focus on presenting situations where the (right) answer isn't always immediately apparent.
This isn't to say that there aren't such things as good and evil in the Dragon Age world. The darkspawn are evil, after all, and you are capable of doing good but sometimes that means having to work harder to achieve it. It also means that sometimes you're going to have to stop and figure out what you think is good and evil before making your choice. What's at stake is not the number of good and evil points you have on a meter, but instead the consequences you will face for your actions and the good opinions of your fellow party members.
Let's take a hypothetical example, something not from the game itself (I'm not big on spoilers). Your party is told of a dangerous witch in the forest who has been responsible for several deaths, but when you find her you see that she is a terrified woman who has lost control of powers. This does not make her less dangerous. In fact, she may even be dangerous to you and your party, and frightened enough to defend herself. What do you do? Do you do what is expedient and just kill her? Do you take pity on the woman, telling the townsfolk she is dead when you allowed her to run away? Perhaps there is a more difficult path where you provide the woman help to control her abilities and broker peace with the townsfolk. Perhaps someone in your party argues vehemently that she is a murderer and should be killed, or one that adamantly defends her? Depending on the outcome, the townsfolk could be angry, the woman could be grateful, and you could have very unhappy party members all this before we even figure out whether there were any other rewards for the player.
