Dragon Age II Interviews
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Can you tell us more about the changes in Dragon Age 2 that were influenced by the Mass Effect series?
Well, probably the closest one will be the conversation wheel. I think it was something that we saw was very successful in Mass Effect, it was a great mechanic to use, we wanted to use that. One of the things that we saw is that it's not always obvious, not only in Mass Effect, but in other games that use similar conversation systems, even in Dragon Age: Origins at times, what the tone, intent of the line is based on just the text of the option. So we introduced the icons that tell you what tone you should expect from the line. The player will also play an integral part in shaping Hawke, the hero of Dragon Age 2. If you're constantly picking a sarcastic response, diplomatic response, aggressive response, over the course of the game, when you meet a character and make an introduction even before you actually have any choices in dialogue or if you're in the middle of combat and he's doing his combat call-outs, all of this will start to reflect the character you're making Hawke to be. It's a very clever system and I think people will feel, along with the player voice, that these are going to add a lot of character to Hawke.
I think the way we make games hasn't changed. We're trying to evolve Dragon Age a little bit, not radically change it. There's a lot of misconceptions in terms of the changes we're introducing. You've had a chance to see the game now, and you realized that the changes are quite subtle. The players who played Origins are going to feel at home. The BioWare style of gameplay is very much present.
While the other is with lead designer Mike Laidlaw:
Why did you choose to introduce a new protagonist in Dragon Age 2 instead of continuing the story of the Warden?
We've always perceived Dragon Age as essentially the story of the world rather than any individual character. The characters that you play are always going to be characters that have an impact on the world, but to me there is much more potential than just a single character. And to be frank, quite a number of people have a Grey Warden that's dead, so that makes it a little complicated to continue the story. We could have done that, we actually had ways of brining the character back, and so on, and so forth. But we decided it would be better to keep the focus on the environment, on the world, on the nations. And certainly to honor and reference the stuff that you did in Origins, but to tell that new chapter.
