Dragon Age II Interview

NowGamer took advantage of the weekend to slap up an interview they recently conducted with BioWare’s Mike Laidlaw, during which they pose a handful of accessibility-related questions to the Dragon Age II lead designer.

We understand that Origins is actually BioWare’s best selling game to date. Does it annoy you then that many still refer to it as a ‘˜niche’ game?

Not really, since I think that Origins was a bit niche in its overall presentation. You were hit pretty early on with a lot of statistics, and I think there were number of people who were a little turned off by that element of the game. Trying to figure out if you need a high dexterity or not is a little daunting when you’ve seen nothing of the game so far.

We have done a lot of work to make the entry into DA II be smoother and friendlier. You can literally start fighting within 15 seconds of pressing the start button, and then the complexity slowly unfolds, easing you into the experience over the first bits of the game. Will that make it less niche? Hard to say, but I think it’s a better experience overall.

If it’s still their best-selling game (even with Mass Effect 2’s massive sales throughout the year), then I’m even more confused about their decision to change the art style, dialogue system, camera viewpoints, and character creation/advancement options, while also adding “action” to its genre label. Why mess around so much with the follow-up to your best success to date?