Rylock

It's not completely compartmentalized... we have input on the process as a whole, and if anyone has an issue with something they see they can raise a flag about it and it is dealt with accordingly. But each of us does have our particular bailiwicks, as well as a degree of ownership over what we do. I may pass my vision of what things in the world might look like on to the artists, but I can't tell them what their job is. I know I sure wouldn't want them telling me how I should be writing things. Very often they'll come to me for ideas or input as the creator, but in the end as artists they know what looks good better than I do. Same goes for the technical designers who do the implementation. As I said in the interview, sometimes I'll leave a portion of the plot blank and leave it to them to arrange an action sequence or a puzzle or something else to fill that area in. Some of the technical designers specialize in this, in fact. I'm sure they prefer it if I have suggestions, and often I do have a number of ideas-- like you said, it's like building a module. Very seldom will I have no idea. But while I can set up an encounter, I'm just not as focused as some of the tech designers on making combats tactical and interesting. In other words, a writer may be the one who sits down initially and fleshes things out-- but the other folks down the line are not our clients, implimenting our vision to our specifications. It is a collaborative process, with each of us having our particular areas of expertise. When interests conflict, the leads try to work it out with the Project Director having the final call. Does that make sense? David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware corp.

I got to create much of the setting -- with direction, of course. And I had a bigger hand in the story creation, being a lead now, but otherwise it's much the same. I wrote a big chunk of BG2 and I've written a big chunk of DA. Some people like to ascribe all of DA's creative decisions to me (probably because I talk a lot on the forums), but that's just not so. I'll just say that I don't object to the above at all -- I will say, however, that some people seem to want us to do something different just for the sake of it being different. Fresh and different are great, but novelty for its own sake isn't a very worthwhile goal. Just something to consider. David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware corp.

I don't go there much any more, really. When Bangkok degrades to the point where all you can find are 12 year-old boys in lipstick it gets really hard to pretend you go there for anything else. Wait... inside voice! Inside voice! Doh! Ahh, that. That was dropped back in the conceptual stages, as opposed to an actual cut. I mentioned it on the forums as something that we had considered doing but that didn't really work for practical reasons. I suppose that could be diminishing, sure-- not to mention that cuts could always happen yet. Nature of the biz. David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware corp.

"Plebeian fare". Cute. I think the dialogue wheel existed simply to facilitate the cinematic quality of the conversations -- the idea was that you could readily read and select what you wanted to keep the flow of the conversation going. I wouldn't call it revolutionary, no, but it was an advancement of that particular technique. I thought it worked well enough for what Mass Effect was aiming at being. Glad to hear it. I'm not sure what you mean by diminishing, though... have they diminished? David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware corp.

Nope!

Before playing? I assume that information on the setting and the DA system will roll out with greater frequency as we get closer to the actual ship date. I think that ideally they'd like to put the information out there -- it's spoiler-free and yet builds up interest (from some, anyhow). We're still a ways from 1st quarter 2009, remember. We're not kicking into the high gear just yet. Mass Effect has a novel, yes. Whether DA has a plan for similar in the works hasn't been announced yet. David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware corp.

Sure (other than the forgotten part). But then if I were to simplify you in a similar manner -- you're just a person. How boringly repetitive is that? David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware corp.

Fair enough. "Tolkien with a twist" isn't exactly a terrible place to be, all things considered. As for my Blight explanation being "straight out" of Tokien's mythology -- I assume what you're referring to comes from the Silmarillion? I've never read it, myself, and was going more for a Paradise Lost feel, so it certainly wasn't intentional. Certainly the aspects of the darkspawn that make them what they are will affect the game as more than a footnote of the setting. Even so, people are going to be able to draw comparisons to all sorts of previous fantasy, most of them by accident. I'll assume that most of those comparisons won't be as esoteric as the Silmarillion, either. David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware corp.

That really depends on what you're asking. "Is it set in a futuristic science-fiction univers? Or a pseudo-Asian fantasy world?" -- Then no. "Is it an Action/RPG hybrid like Jade Empire or Mass Effect?" -- Then no. DA is just an RPG, focusing on party-based tactics and RTwP as opposed to the action-based "twitch" mechanics. "Does it focus on cinematic storytelling and cutscenes to the extent that Jade Empire and Mass Effect did?" -- we use some of the cinematic acting techniques we've developed in those games, sure, but we go back to the more traditional style of dialogue (exact player responses to choose from, no player VO)and rely less on cutscenes overall (though we do have plenty). DA focuses more on character customization and having the choices you made at character creation be recognized throughout the game. "Is it a short game? Because I like really, really long games." -- That depends on your definition of "short", as I've said in interviews in terms of the amount of content in DA it's the biggest game we've attempted since BG2. Just how long that ends up being is something we'll better estimate once we get closer to ship. "Will it continue to offend my delicately jaded palette like your most last few titles?" -- Of that I have no idea. David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware Corp.

I'm sure you are smart enough to realize that the whole "how dark is it?" question rests entirely on what someone considers to be "dark". There are whole gradients of relative darkness between such "dark and gritty" settings as the Witcher, Warhammer and George R.R. Martin's world... so it's simply not an easy question to answer without giving a whole list of "we do this, but not that"... something we're just not willing to do, yet. All I can really say at this point is that we're aiming for a more mature storyline and setting with a lot of violence. If people want to leap to conclusions such as "oh my god, you're saying there's baby rape?!" -- well, that just complicates things. But, no, we're not "innovating" darkness as a theme. It's been done, as recently as the Witcher. All we have for comparison, really, is our earlier fantasy titles-- which is really what people know us for best, no? David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware corp.

They look the way they do because that is how the artist's wished to portray them-- not much more that can be said on that point. I mean, whatever look they finally settled on could be criticized for any number of reasons that basically boil down to "I don't like it." I'm sorry that you don't, but I don't really get the whole "they look like orcs" thing, either. I don't think they do. Certainly they serve the function of an orc, which is to say they form the "evil horde". And in that respect you might consider them to be one and the same thing, and that's fine. They are not, however, an evil race that is out to conquer -- they are out to consume, to destroy. There is no reasoning with a horde of locusts, and that is a crucial point. They are also not the entirety of the plot in Dragon Age. There is much more going on than simply the existance of the Blight. David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware corp.

I'm curious as to why you think I'm trying to "distance" Dragon Age from LotR. Saying that Dragon Age looks like Lord of the Rings is not necessarily a bad thing-- on the surface any fantasy setting that uses the fantasy tropes such as elves and dwarves and the "evil horde" is going to immediately draw such comparisons, especially now when the movies are still very fresh in peoples' heads. In a way, sure, we are partly responsible for that. We used the archetypes and we will have to rest easy with the fact that people are going to draw such superficial comparisons based on the small amount of the game they've seen. All I've been trying to explain is that there is, indeed, more going on beneath the surface. People can and will jaw all they want about how the so-called "Helm's Deep" battle in the trailer must be the entirety of the plot (because it must be, right?) and how it bores their jaded sensibilities, and so be it, but I'm confident in time that people will see that there's more to Dragon Age than they might assume. That's ignoring those who figure they've got Bioware all figured out already, of course, them being such smart cookies. David Gaider Lead Writer - Dragon Age Bioware Corp.

My only regret from those old boards (the pre-BGII days) was that I think Lanfear was a bit offended by her appearance in BGII. She never contacted me about it, but I had several others mention it... and it's too bad, as I'd intended it only as a tongue-in-cheek tribute. She was always kinda crazy about Coran, after all, and she's one of the main reasons that he was in BGII at all. Mind you, between BGII and ToB, my experiences from putting forum member tributes into games has taught me only one thing: it's really best not to do that. Ah, well. David Gaider Witer, Bioware corp.

Hmm. Not to assume you're interested in the facts or anything, but you've obviously got some of them wrong. I wrote all of Bastila's romance dialogue, as well as the dialogue with her when you meet her on the Star Forge. Drew wrote her other non-romance dialogue and did the edits to her romance stuff near the end of the project (most of the teasing lines are his). Drew otherwise wrote Mission and the Taris levels and (I believe) the Unknown World and the endings. Peter Thomas wrote Juhani, Canderous and the Manaan/Dantooine levels. Luke Kristjanson wrote Zaalbar and the Tatooine/Kashyyk levels. I wrote Carth (including the romance), HK-47, Jolee and the Korriban levels. I may have missed a few things in there... it's been a while. James Ohlen was the design lead and he invented the characters... the individual writers were responsible for fleshing them out. Drew is a fantastic writer, has several novels published (and is working on more, I'm sure) and you may think I'm cheesy... but get your facts straight before you go blithering about, please. David Gaider Design, Bioware corp.

Heh. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Why not? My internet access is the same as yours. I also happen to be tapping my fingers waiting for the current build, so... It's not unusual. Writers were assigned jobs on KotOR according to area (I, for instance, was assigned "Korriban" so pretty much everything that gets said there is from me) or by plot. Drew was writing the critical path, for instance, which included all of Bastila's "main" dialogue, and I was writing the romances. He then ended up doing some extra romance edits for Bastila near the end of the project when I was busy doing something else. In other words, sometimes it just ends up that way. Generally, though, one writer will be responsible for maintaining the "sound" of the character. For Bastila, that was Drew. David Gaider Design, Bioware corp.

I wrote most of Bastila's romance dialogue, including the scenes with her mother. The only other dialogue I wrote for her was when you encounter her on the Star Forge... the final confrontation with her where you can convert her back to the Light Side. I don't know if that's the "ending" for her, per se, but it's certainly near the end. Drew Karpyshyn wrote the rest of Bastila's dialogue, essentially everything that happens outside of the romance and including the stuff that happens on Dantooine and the Unknown World. David Gaider Design, Bioware corp.