Greg Zeschuk Interview

Crispy Gamer had the opportunity to grill BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk during this year’s PAX about Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Jade Empire, and more.

Crispy Gamer: I spoke briefly with Mac Walters about the Greywardens and their similarities to the Spectres in Mass Effect. These characters have leave to do whatever they want. Why do BioWare games tend to lean toward those sorts of empowered characters?

Zeschuk: I think part of that is fantasy fulfillment for the player. For us, a lot of fantasy is about being someone special. You’re right that it’s a pretty traditional thing in a lot of our games. In Jade Empire you were a Spirit Monk. People play these games to be special — to be someone that they aren’t today.

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Crispy Gamer: Is there ever the impulse to put your best story moments out in the middle of the road — to guarantee that players experience them?

Zeschuk: That’s one of the problems we’ve had over the years. In Jade Empire there was the Kang the Mad character — little did you know that he was a god who had forgotten he was a god. And the only way you could get there was in a sort of mini-game. But unfortunately it was really obscure, and most people have never seen it. It was one of the coolest things in the game. We made a little mistake there.

We have to make sure, at the very least, the overall story arc — the key events to the story that everyone sees — are really, really cool and impactful. So if we’ve done that, we’ve accomplished our mission, right? You don’t want to have a lot of amazing stuff off the beaten path. How much side stuff do we want and how much core stuff do we want? We have to put more side things, because that enriches the world.