As Dragon Age: Origins, the upcoming potentially hit fantasy-themed RPG from Bioware, makes its way to its November release date, we manage to pop by EA Asia’s office and have a video conference demo and chat with Dr. Greg Zeschuk. Here’s how it went:

GAX: Based on what you’ve did with Baldur’s Gate, it’s clear that your team is into Dungeons and Dragons. How far did you go back with role-playing games?

Dr. Greg Zeschuk: That’s something we all did when we were growing up; I’ll admit that I’ve been doing this for 30 years now. For all of us, I think all the passion that we have for this hobby translates to what we’re doing now. It all extends beyond just statistics; it’s all about the storytelling. That’s always important in the pen-and-paper experience, and it’s still important whenever we do our games.

GAX: Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins seem to be liberal with their use of sexual intimacy to convey relationships and its payoff. What made you go down this route in storytelling?

GZ: One thing that we love to do with our games is to flesh out actual human relationships. Intimacy is always part of a relationship, right? One thing we’re trying hard to do is not make it a “payoff”; it’s not as simple as that. Especially with the case of Dragon Age; there’s a lot of time and actual effort spent in creating a relationship and having an intimate relationship is not necessarily the end of it. We want to make sure that the relationships built with your party members resonate on an emotional level. The additional in-game benefits don’t hurt either. The friendship meter at the bottom of every party member helps you gauge whether they’ll support you or backstab you and attack you on the spot.

GAX: With your games setting the standard for “gray areas of morality” storylines, is there still a place for the classic “good versus evil” storytelling in this day and age?

GZ: We actually try and not do the straightforward good and evil thing. For us, it’s definitely not that interesting. It’s just too transparent and predictable. We actually make a real effort into making these moral decisions challenging for players. We want them to have a tough time making that decision. Again, we don’t have a morality bar or a good-evil indicator; just individual representations of how each character thinks of you based on your actions.

GAX: Let’s focus on Dragon Age: Origins now. Who are your main influences in Dragon Age’s writing?

GZ: Michael Moorcock is one of those influences. Also a little bit of George R.R Martin. The interesting thing about all of our games is that every influence we get isn’t just from just one source; usually it’s a mix of different elements from these fantasy writers. In Dragon Age’s case, you can see some elements of Martin and Moorcock there, there’s also some Tolkien and Peter Jackson’s fictionalization of The Lord of The Rings. All these things play a part in making us get a clear vision of what we’re trying to build.

GAX: Character classes: Aare they predetermined by the actions you take, or will it be the standard “pick your class at the start” venture?

GZ: The latter. At the start, you get to choose between three classes: Rogue, Warrior, and Mage. As you level up, these classes will have their own specialization trees: the Rogue will have sub-classes like the Duelist and Assassin. Unlocking these is dependant on how you do in the game’s story.

GAX: Dragon Age’s focus is on telling the gamer’s story, neither the character nor NPC’s. Could you elaborate more on this? How would this form of “player experience” be different when compared with last year’s Fable 2?

GZ: I think the key thing we want with Dragon Age is that, right from the core base of what you’re doing through the origin story, you’ll be seeing the world through your eyes; on how the people in the world judge you based on your actions. The story’s a first person experience; compare that with Mass Effect where you’re playing Colonel Shepard. Even if you customize and play out his scenario by yourself, he’s still a separate entity, meaning it’s still presented as a third person experience.

Dragon Age is intimate. You’re the one who’s making the decision. You ARE your character that you customize. The experiences that you bring with you are your stories; your character stories and your character scenarios.

Regarding Fable 2, I think it’s hard to compare with that game. What we’re trying to do is fairly different: we’re focused on party relationships which also happen to be deep. The key thing is that some games are more superficial than others in that aspect. We actually really try to put as much personality within these characters within the 40 to 80 hours of gameplay players will go through in Dragon Age. You almost feel that with all that time spent, you could almost predict what they’re gonna say and end up being really attached to them.

GAX: How did Dragon Age turn from “PC exclusive” on game magazines last year to a multiplatform game?

GZ: We were definitely making Dragon Age multiplatform from the start. We originally wanted to have it on PC first, then on consoles later on. Then it made a lot more sense later on to just have all of them come out at the same time (PC and Xbox 360 first, then PS3).

GAX: Now that the game is coming out next month, what’s the biggest problem faced by your team during the making of the game?
GZ: I wouldn’t say that this was a problem, but one very big factor in finishing the game was the online features. Even though Dragon Age is a single-player game, there’s some online functionalities include a community site which focuses on players sharing their own Dragon Age story and experience. You can upload your story in real time at the course of the game; think of it as an easier way to bring in your own watercooler discussion moments. There’s also a lot of post-game content (Dragon Age DLC) and also user-created content (via the campaign toolset where you can make your own Dragon Age: Origins-powered adventure). Whenever anyone makes a new scenario on the PC version, if they’re really well-made, they’ll be offered as DLC on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game.

It’s the last thing to work on, but also important too. It’s definitely a big challenge, but we’re excited that it’s all working on each of the game’s specific platforms.

GAX: Let’s touch a few things on Mass Effect 2 before we head off. Can we safely assume Mass Effect 2 to be the “The Empire Strikes Back” of the Mass Effect franchise?
GZ: I think so. You’re definitely the first one to make that reference. It’s a good observation: the key thing is that we want to make that second part meaningful. We want to make you look deeper into Shepard; poke in his psyche. We want to challenge players; take things familiar to them and turn them around for later. So all these things, all the elements of Empire Strikes Back; we’re doing similar things in Mass Effect 2, from learning about the galaxy to seeing it from a different perspective.

GAX: Any consideration on making Mass Effect 2 DLC missions like what Bioware did for the first game?

GZ: Oh yes. There’s going to be lots of content for Mass Effect 2. For us, it’s really exciting: one half of the team’s finishing the game while the other is planning on post-game content.

Dragon Age: Origins is coming out on November 3th on PC and Xbox 360, and November 17th on PS3. Mass Effect 2 will be coming out on Xbox 360 and PC early next year.