Dragon Age: Origins Interview
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VideoGamer.com: Mass Effect, and indeed Knights of the Old Republic before it, had a distinct karma system where you could make decisions that would feed into Paragon/Renegade. Dragon Age doesn't have that. Why?
RM: We were trying to do something different there. We always have some kind of system in our games that are sort of a system of moral choices and an ethical system behind the game. Sometimes we surface it. Sometimes we make it more grey. Sometimes we make it more black and white. Every game is different in a sense, right? That's one of the areas we're always trying to explore different approaches. In Dragon Age, there is a system behind it. It's underneath the hood, but it's reflected in the reactions of the companion characters around you, which is an interesting take on it. They're almost like the mirror of your choice, the lens through which you see the world.
VideoGamer.com: Is that system one you will take forward with other games?
RM: It could be. We never say never, but we never necessarily commit to that either. We always want to explore every game on its own merit. We might continue that in the Dragon Age franchise, or we might try something new. You never know. Did you like it?
VideoGamer.com: I found it refreshing. I love Mass Effect and indeed Fallout 3, which also has a karma system that reflects you choices bad or good, but what I don't like about that system is that my moral decisions are determined by what rewards are unlocked by getting all the way to the Paragon side or the Renegade side. I'll look down the tree and see what powers I'd prefer.
RM: But to work you need to have some rewards along the way, or for people who stay in the middle, too. Or you can allow them to maximise both, which is actually what we're doing in Mass Effect 2. We're allowing people to push the envelope on both sides.
