"In peer review it kept falling flat," she said. "In order to spotlight those characters, we were allowing them to have ideas and think, and the players felt upstaged. We had to scrap that scene and start over because nothing could threaten that feeling of being in control. "I've done as much as anyone to foster that belief among gamers." - Hepler
She's correctly anticipating that fans (myself included) would react poorly to Bioware imposing values, lots of auto-dialogue, behaviors, personalities, etc. but attributes it to a childish need to be completely in control. It's one thing for Bioware to do this with NPCs (and they should -- that's what makes their stories so great but there's a reason why NPC stands for "non-playable character." She's implying that an objection to allowing Bioware to dictate how a former PC acts is unreasonable, even though that's one of the most immersion-breaking things I can think of, especially for a franchise that prides itself on allowing choices and characters to carry over. Bioware actually did come dangerously close to doing this with Hawke and his statement about how blood magic is always bad, disregarding views the player's Hawke may have had on blood magic. (It also rubbed me the one way when he said the inquisitor "is exactly who we need" which was pretty jarring since my Hawke was very pro-mage/anti-circle, racist against Quanri (even Vashoth) where as my inquisitor was hard line anti-mage, Vashoth Qunari and viewed him as a fugitive.) Her underlying contention is that I object to Bioware inserting an excessive amount of control over my former PCs because I'm used to games as a male fantasy power trip. I assure you that's not the case. Like many other fans, I just don't want Bioware to overwrite my old PCs' characters. (The best way to incorporate former PCs if Bioware wants is to give the player some control over them during the game, but I digress and that's a whole other discussion.)
Agree with you wholeheartedly here. She's way off on her understanding of why people weren't reacting pleasantly to the auto-dialoging of former PCs. The dragon age franchise is collaborative. NPCs are Bioware's characters. PCs are our characters, assembled from various pieces Bioware provides and infused with 90% of their personality and motivation from our own minds. This has nothing to do with some irrational need to control things or power tripping. Its about Bioware (and any other game company that might be in this situation) acknowledging and doing their best to preserve that collaborative effort by either not contradicting/retconning what we as players have done, or by allowing us to continue to assume our role as those PCs and take on the new decisions they're presenting for ourselves when the situation warrants it.
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... **Indianapolis once at Gen-Con in 2009 ...
