Dragon Age - David Gaider Interview @ Gamasutra

BioWare writer David Gaider talks to Gamasutra about his background and the evolution of Dragon Age:

That party-based dynamic is something for which I think Baldur's Gate II still serves as a benchmark in a lot of ways.

DG: Yeah. Well, to this day, there are people who still talk about the followers. And we haven't really done a proper party since. When you only have two followers, there's a limited possibility of banter. Here, we have three, which allows a bit of exchange. For me, writing that banter is some of my favorite parts -- back in Baldur's Gate II, they'd talk to each other and tease each other and develop their own relationships. I think for a player, that's great.

From a writing perspective, when you have these followers, and you get a different range of their own morality and their own agendas, you get to use them almost as a cipher through which the story is told, because we've taken away the morality bar.

KOTOR had of course the Light Side and Dark Side meter. D&D games, of course, have alignments. And as soon as you attach a gameplay element to that, you need to put it into the gameplay and the writing. You need quests that have a very sharply delineated good option and evil option.

Taking that away allowed us to have different options for the quests and the dialogue, but we don't need to always have "evil" and "good." We are allowed to put in options that are just logical. They can be very different. You can think there's a good reason to do all of them. They can be a little in the gray area.