429 réponses à ce sujet

[Ieldra]

I didn't follow the complete discussion, but let me say I'm completely fine with the Warden and Hawke not appearing in DAI at all. I can imagine what *my* Wardens and Hawke's are doing quite well on my own, and chances are if they put in an appearance they won't look or act like I would envision it.

What I would like, perhaps, is that we hear of them, but only in the most vague terms, maybe in form of rumors. For instance, if you romanced Isabela it could be rumored that Hawke was seen in her company at some port city, getting off a ship with a dubious reputation. This is very plausible, and since it's a rumor, the few people for whom even this little is too specific can say "It's a rumor. It's not true".

However, this can only be done if decisions were made that could plausibly result in a specific rumor. Not all Wardens or Hawkes have made such decisions, and of those it would be best if nothing is said at all.

The only plausibility problem I can see is that the Warden specifically could plausibly be imagined as a somewhat influential figure and that it would be very odd for them to drop off the grid, but even so, I find it better to be as vague as possible.

[wright1978]

Ieldra2 wrote...

I didn't follow the complete discussion, but let me say I'm completely fine with the Warden and Hawke not appearing in DAI at all. I can imagine what *my* Wardens and Hawke's are doing quite well on my own, and chances are if they put in an appearance they won't look or act like I would envision it.

What I would like, perhaps, is that we hear of them, but only in the most vague terms, maybe in form of rumors. For instance, if you romanced Isabela it could be rumored that Hawke was seen in her company at some port city, getting off a ship with a dubious reputation. This is very plausible, and since it's a rumor, the few people for whom even this little is too specific can say "It's a rumor. It's not true".

However, this can only be done if decisions were made that could plausibly result in a specific rumor. Not all Wardens or Hawkes have made such decisions, and of those it would be best if nothing is said at all.

The only plausibility problem I can see is that the Warden specifically could plausibly be imagined as a somewhat influential figure and that it would be very odd for them to drop off the grid, but even so, I find it better to be as vague as possible.

Yep i'd be quite happy if something like this was to be done.

[TheRealJayDee]

Allan Schumacher wrote...

Something like this logically leads to people believing/hoping their beloved character still has a role to play and might return.

I think people do themselves a disservice with this, however. People love our characters (I do too!) but if you fixate on wanting something specific from a previous game, you compromise your ability to fully appreciate and enjoy the new experiences because you're always measuring it.

Well, I'm not sure how much "fixating" on something specific from a previous game the players bring into this. Sure, many liked their characters a lot, but I think the real problem comes from what specific elements Bioware chose to carry over in future games - Leliana and Morrigan for example are characters that have a very high chance of being romantically involved with surviving player characters at the end of DA:O, and since those two seem to play a bigger role in future events it's not unreasonable for returning players to wonder about the fate of their character.

DA:O with it's epilogues provided a completely satisfying amount of closure for I'd say the majority of Warden's. Ah well, you agreed yourself that the cliffhanger-ish ending of DA2 was problematic. I just really hope there'll be some effort put into tying the lose ends of the previous characters - I want my Wardens to rest in peace again, narratively, and wish it would've never been disturbed after DA:O.

[Miltialdes]

Here some solutions with a little statisfaction.

Hawke and the wardens are in a jail in another dimension by the big bad villains of story at the end of the adventure you need to kill the bad guy to have the key to open the door of the dimension jail.

Carver kidnaps Hawke and lost the key of the jail where Coripheus was, like that he is the hero during DAI.

During Morigane doing her come back, papa the Wardens is busy with the kid.

For me, I expect the re-appearance because it is a world in danger and not a city or a country.
The last message in DA2 is clear enough, someone moves in the shadows and this unknown did that the place where the two heroes are unknown.

If they don't appear, I need an answer! . DAI is the sequel of DAo and DA2 otherwise why Bioware is looking for to upload our saves?

As I explained previously, you don't want their come back, I am ok. Choose the option to do not have in the story. It is not my case and for a lot of players.

[robertthebard]

TheRealJayDee wrote...

Allan Schumacher wrote...

Something like this logically leads to people believing/hoping their beloved character still has a role to play and might return.

I think people do themselves a disservice with this, however. People love our characters (I do too!) but if you fixate on wanting something specific from a previous game, you compromise your ability to fully appreciate and enjoy the new experiences because you're always measuring it.

Well, I'm not sure how much "fixating" on something specific from a previous game the players bring into this. Sure, many liked their characters a lot, but I think the real problem comes from what specific elements Bioware chose to carry over in future games - Leliana and Morrigan for example are characters that have a very high chance of being romantically involved with surviving player characters at the end of DA:O, and since those two seem to play a bigger role in future events it's not unreasonable for returning players to wonder about the fate of their character.

DA:O with it's epilogues provided a completely satisfying amount of closure for I'd say the majority of Warden's. Ah well, you agreed yourself that the cliffhanger-ish ending of DA2 was problematic. I just really hope there'll be some effort put into tying the lose ends of the previous characters - I want my Wardens to rest in peace again, narratively, and wish it would've never been disturbed after DA:O.

Check the number of threads concerning the Warden and/or Hawke being in this game, and consider this thread is about not only having them in the game, but also in the party.  I'd say that's pretty fixated.

[CARL_DF90]

The only thing I really "need" at this point is an answer to the burning questions, "What happened to the Hero of Ferelden (if alive) and the Champion of Kirkwall, and why did they vanish?" Have those questions answered and everything else afterwards would be negotiable gravy. 

Oh, and to Mr. Gaider and the rest of the team, despite the highs and lows, I for one appreciate all the hard work being put into the third installment, and armed with the knowledge and lessons learned from the past I am VERY confident in the end result in 2014. You have my support. 

Modifié par CARL_DF90, 15 août 2013 - 02:01 .

[Jamie9]

I'd really like them to have some purpose in the plot - even if we don't physically see them. It is certainly implied that both the Warden and the Champion disappeared to the same place.

Through an Eluvian? That all depends what Morrigan is up to, of course.

Maybe have a small side quest where you rescue both characters from *insert story location here* and then you simply hear about them helping out the Inquisition. That's better than nothing, for me at least.

[Lheila_Mahariel014]

Warden => yeah, probably, that would be interesting.

Hawke => er.................. no. Just, no.

[Fast Jimmy]

Allan Schumacher wrote...

I think there's also a degree of extreme analysis that comes with fandom (which isn't meant as a pejorative. Just that people that get invested start to go over things with a fine tooth comb). I remember when Michael Biehn came to Edmonton to promote a movie. There was a Q&A session with him and someone asked him about some detail that they had noticed in the movie Aliens, and in that person's mind this detail was some super cryptic nod that was meaningful. You could see his body language sag when Michael responded that he doesn't recall and that it was probably just something that people didn't pay much attention to or didn't bother thinking it was significant one way or another.

I will full on defer to the fanbase if anyone were to ever ask me about finer details of Dragon Age lore, because there's much better chance that you guys would actually know those answers.

As a side note, I believe this is why Bethesda actually has and consults a group of "lore experts" when floating out story and quest ideas. These people aren't writers or developers, but people (mostly devoted fans) who know the lore of the game world like the back of their hands, so any questions about "how did this happen" or "what has been presented in the games to date" is first vetted by them to have a fresh set of eyes review it and make sure it makes sense or, at the least, how they could explain a change.

I honestly think any series that has multiple game installments as well as lore through other media, such as books, video, other games (such as the Flash DA game or the iOS ME game) should also have such a team. Not neccessarily a paid team (I don't know the compensation structure with Bethesda's team), but still a team that is sworn to secrecy (in a very real and legally binding sense) that can analyze dialogue, quests, books, Codex entires, etc. before they are included in the main game to make sure they don't clash with previously established lore.

[The Teyrn of Whatever]

If they decide to use the same engine and art style for Inquisition for DA4 in a few years and there's some good plot reason for the Inquisitor to show up again, I'd be all for it. However, given the differences between DA:O, DA2, and DA:I, we can pretty much forget about Hawke and the Warden appearing. I for one do not want some dumb gimmick involving the Warden wearing a hood ot helmet and I really don't want my custom creations replaced by default blood smear Hawke (especially the male beardo Hawke).

[Raptr569]

I was thinking earlier today how this could work.

This is my thoughts.

I think as some sort easter egg/single mission all 3 heroes from the DA series should meet.

However as a twist you control the conversation for each of them - obviously certain parts of the Warden and Hawkes dialogue could be scripted to push the conversation in a certain direction. Then follow this up with a fun mission of taking control of each character in the usually DA way. Kind of the like the new GTA game.

I can't see the warden commander or hawke having any meaningful impact as permanent party members any other way. But as a kind of easter egg moment where all 3 characters bump into eachother it could be a light hearted bit of fan service much like ME3's citadel DLC.

[TheRealJayDee]

robertthebard wrote...

Check the number of threads concerning the Warden and/or Hawke being in this game, and consider this thread is about not only having them in the game, but also in the party.  I'd say that's pretty fixated.

Damn, okay, you and Allen win...!  

[robertthebard]

TheRealJayDee wrote...

robertthebard wrote...

Check the number of threads concerning the Warden and/or Hawke being in this game, and consider this thread is about not only having them in the game, but also in the party.  I'd say that's pretty fixated.

Damn, okay, you and Allen win...!  

I'm not really trying to "win" anything, simply pointing out an observed trend.

I, for one, am looking forward to meeting new "people" to love or hate.  I despise Alistair as a person, but love him as a character, because he was written well enough to make me despise him.  This isn't the first time I've had this kind of response from BioWare's characters, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they throw at me next.  The issue I have with either the Warden or Hawke becoming party members is that there is no way they can do either one 100% satisfactorily for everyone.  In fact, it's more likely that this place would blow up, yet again, because "my Warden/Hawke wouldn't do/say/think like that".  It is far better to let sleeping dogs lie than to stir up that hornet's nest.  The funny is, the people pushing hardest for inclusion would likely be the loudest detractors when the Warden/Hawke didn't live up to what they envisioned.

[Brockololly]

TheRealJayDee wrote...
Definitely. I just don't see though how the logical conclusion from this is to confuse the players who would've been happy with retiring their characters with a "your character mysteriously disappeared from his retirement..." scenario, which automatically seems to come with an implicit  "...for reasons we have yet to unveil" message. Something like this logically leads to people believing/hoping their beloved character still has a role to play and might return.

Right. When something like DA2 ends with Leliana and Cassandra ominously saying "The Champion disappeared... JUST LIKE THE WARDEN!" and what amounts to a giant TO BE CONTINUED! at the end of the game, it seems supremely aloof and out of touch for any developer at BioWare to then act oblivious that people might want to know what is going on there and have that explanation for those disappearances play out in game.

TheRealJayDee wrote...
As the others have said it's also pretty difficult to leave a character you got attached to behind when persons who were important in his personal story are brought back to be major players in the events of later stories, like Leliana and Morrigan. If the following games didn't use a partially familiar cast there would be less "where's my damn character?" questions. The characters and interactions with them are probably the strongest aspect of the DA games, and thus the feelings regarding them are naturally strong as well. 
 

Exactly. Take the ending to Witch Hunt if you romanced Morrigan and went along into the Eluvian with her. Allowing the Warden to go along with her would be a big character development moment for a loner like Morrigan and I think she even says something like "We'll face the future together" to the Warden. For probably a good amount of people, that's the time we last saw Morrigan and the Warden, going off to face the future together.

So for Morrigan to show up seemingly alone now in DA3, with no sign of the Warden? That's not some ginned up fan made headcanon that's being disrupted, that's the writers /developers stomping over how they last left that character / storyline. Now, there are certainly ways they can explain that in a way that can be satisfying but it also gets to a weakness of BioWare telling and not showing at that point either. In that instance Witch Hunt comes across as a giant tease, since its likely we're done playing as the Warden, even though the reappearance of Morrigan makes it seem like nope, apparently WItch Hunt's ending was a farce since whatever epic or super important stuff she'll be up to in DA3, she'll be doing it alone or at least with the Warden PC offscreen or otherwise not in the player's control. Which makes that all much less interesting, since you could have had a bunch of different motivations for going through the Eluvian with Morrigan.

Allan Schumacher wrote...
Clearly we recognize "people enjoyed the characters
from the first games" since we've shown that we're open to bringing them
back (I'd argue Morrigan and Varric are their respective game's most
popular characters). I do think, however, it's possible (and plausible)
for both of them to be involved in some ways without requiring
extensive references to either Hawke or the Warden, however.

It's
that tricky spot of balancing what the player is keen on wanting to
know more about, and recognizing that these characters are effectively
interacting with a new entity.
.

Sure, but with certain of hose returning characters you have to recognize where they were last left off from the POV of the player. Something like the Warden that romanced Morrigan and went through the Eluvian with her makes Morrigan's reappearance much different than Cullen or Varric showing up again in DA3, since those guys didn't end DA2 walking off into the sunset with Hawke.

Its the sort of situation where you have to acknowledge the previous ending of where the player character left off with the returning NPC, otherwise it seems like you're railroading your own endings and basically invalidating past player choices.

I just sort of wish DA would go one route or the other with old NPCs. Elevating minor NPCs to more prominant roles from game to game is great. Like Isabella from DA:O to DA2 or how it looks like Cassandra is going from DA2 to companion in DA3. That's cool! But bringing back old love interest characters who were closely tied to old PCs, only to conspicuously have the old PCs absent, off screen or rendered unimportant? Eh, that ends up feeling like a game design limitation more than anything. I'd just rather have a big time jump and geographic shift from game to game like the Elder Scrolls if we're not going to have at least some basic recognition of old PC's still being relevent or at least on the same course where we last left them in prior games.

Fast Jimmy wrote...
I honestly think any series that has multiple
game installments as well as lore through other media, such as books,
video, other games (such as the Flash DA game or the iOS ME game) should
also have such a team. Not neccessarily a paid team (I don't know the
compensation structure with Bethesda's team), but still a team that is
sworn to secrecy (in a very real and legally binding sense) that can
analyze dialogue, quests, books, Codex entires, etc. before they are
included in the main game to make sure they don't clash with previously
established lore.

I'd definitely agree there. That's one of the annoying things with some of the DA lore already and its not even on a 3rd game. Even just recently, I think Darrah mentioned on twitter how the default Origin ending for DA3 is a Dalish elf who died killing the AD, when I could have sworn they made the default ending for Origins in DA2 be a Human Noble who survived. That's maybe a bit different but still, consistency in building a world is important.

[Sylvianus]

Brockololly wrote...

TheRealJayDee wrote...
Definitely. I just don't see though how the logical conclusion from this is to confuse the players who would've been happy with retiring their characters with a "your character mysteriously disappeared from his retirement..." scenario, which automatically seems to come with an implicit  "...for reasons we have yet to unveil" message. Something like this logically leads to people believing/hoping their beloved character still has a role to play and might return.

Right. When something like DA2 ends with Leliana and Cassandra ominously saying "The Champion disappeared... JUST LIKE THE WARDEN!" and what amounts to a giant TO BE CONTINUED! at the end of the game, it seems supremely aloof and out of touch for any developer at BioWare to then act oblivious that people might want to know what is going on there and have that explanation for those disappearances play out in game.

Yeah that's totally ridiculous and almost insulting to our intelligence. I can't feel any indulgence toward this way of thinking. They messed up, and they cannot blame us for wanting answers in this new game even if DA is about a lot of stories, a lot of people, the inquisitor 's journey and blah blah blah.

Modifié par Sylvianus, 15 août 2013 - 09:23 .

[TheRealJayDee]

robertthebard wrote...

TheRealJayDee wrote...

robertthebard wrote...

Check the number of threads concerning the Warden and/or Hawke being in this game, and consider this thread is about not only having them in the game, but also in the party.  I'd say that's pretty fixated.

Damn, okay, you and Allen win...!  

I'm not really trying to "win" anything, simply pointing out an observed trend.

I just meant that I personally really didn't know about the extent of this trend, and wanted to admit that you and Allen might be right when using a term like "fixated". I'm not frequenting the DA board very much at the moment, and honestly hadn't seen how many such threads and discussions exist. After your post I skimmed through the forum, and yeah, it's quite a lot.

[Jessabeth]

I certainly don't want the Warden or Hawke coming back as party characters. To me, it wouldn't make any sense. I mean, why would either join a party (when they are both leaders) and in what capacity would they even join? Having three PCs just seems a little too much.
At most, I'd like to hear a little about what happened to Warden and Hawke, but I don't need to see them again (because unless we're making them over again, I don't see the looks transferring over in a way that would please everyone). And then of course, people would expect to talk for their old PCs, which again goes back to controlling three main characters again. It just wouldn't be worth it to the game creators and it just seems like it'd be a hot mess for us.

[Das Tentakel]

Brockololly wrote...

Fast Jimmy wrote...
I honestly think any series that has multiple game installments as well as lore through other media, such as books,
video, other games (such as the Flash DA game or the iOS ME game) should also have such a team. Not neccessarily a paid team (I don't know the compensation structure with Bethesda's team), but still a team that is sworn to secrecy (in a very real and legally binding sense) that can analyze dialogue, quests, books, Codex entires, etc. before they are included in the main game to make sure they don't clash with previously established lore.

I'd definitely agree there. That's one of the annoying things with some of the DA lore already and its not even on a 3rd game. Even just recently, I think Darrah mentioned on twitter how the default Origin ending for DA3 is a Dalish elf who died killing the AD, when I could have sworn they made the default ending for Origins in DA2 be a Human Noble who survived. That's maybe a bit different but still, consistency in building a world is important.

Some of us consider consistent worldbuilding important. But I suspect most players don't care that much; a setting is merely background flavour for being a badass, killing things and looting their stuff.
My own view is that, in practice, BioWare seems to regard Thedas mostly in an utilitarian way, that is as a background painted with a very, very broad brush, free of licensing fees, for an uncertain number of CRPG's depending on commercial succes, which they can blow up if they want to do so. Not as a carefully crafted fantasy IP that must be nurtured, because that would probably require more effort than they are willing or able to make.
It also has advantages; should Thedas no longer be considered viable, they can quickly create a different one for another set of games. It's a different approach from how Bethesda currently operates (I'm not talking about the early phases in the evolution of the Elder Scrolls, say pre-Morrowind, I don't know enough about that), but I'm not sure it's necessarily a wrong one. 
Should the DA series prove extremely succesful, they can always ' tighten' the lore a la Elder Scrolls, or what is maybe more likely, tack on lore after lore until you get extremely complex and internally contradictory 'lore bloat' , resulting in something really sprawling and baroque like WoW or Forgotten Realms, including major and minor retcons and periodic global cataclysms to 'clean up'.

Modifié par Das Tentakel, 15 août 2013 - 06:48 .

[Twisted Path]

Regarding the cliffhanger disappearances: I figure that was going to be resolved in the Exulted March expansion where you'd at least find out how and why Hawke disappeared because you'd be playing as him/her. Woops.

I know some elements of Exulted March got rolled up into the new game but playing as Hawke isn't one of them.

I should add that it wouldn't bother me if the disappearance plot point is never resolved. I care a lot more about picking up and playing a fun RPG then I do about "closure" or whatever.

[In Exile]

Brockololly wrote...
Exactly. Take the ending to Witch Hunt if you romanced Morrigan and went along into the Eluvian with her. Allowing the Warden to go along with her would be a big character development moment for a loner like Morrigan and I think she even says something like "We'll face the future together" to the Warden. For probably a good amount of people, that's the time we last saw Morrigan and the Warden, going off to face the future together.

So for Morrigan to show up seemingly alone now in DA3, with no sign of the Warden?

Maybe the Warden hogged the blankets? The implication that a relationship has to stay in a state of ideal fan-fiction statis over a decade is silly. The problem isn't that Morrigan shows up by herself - it's that there's no way to adequately allow the player (as the Warden) to deal with that 10 year gap. As a result, the player has to be railroaded with respect to their old character. 

But the only way to avoid that is to either only have a direct sequel with the same protagonist, or kill your protagonist off (whether via time passing or some endgame sacrifice). 

Which makes that all much less interesting, since you could have had a bunch of different motivations for going through the Eluvian with Morrigan.

How does it make it less interesting at all? It's not as if you as the player forcefully have your mind wiped of all the things that happened in DA:O. 

Sure, but with certain of hose returning characters you have to recognize where they were last left off from the POV of the player. Something like the Warden that romanced Morrigan and went through the Eluvian with her makes Morrigan's reappearance much different than Cullen or Varric showing up again in DA3, since those guys didn't end DA2 walking off into the sunset with Hawke.

Again, why should other characters exist in a state of stasis over years because of some interaction with the player? I appreciate - and agree - with the objection that having character development without the player present is bad. 

Why do we go back to the idea that affections have to stay fixed over decades? Maybe Morrigan or Leliana dumped the Warden because they found someone better or got tired of getting into arguments, like the majority of real relationships. 

[Nerevar-as]

In Exile wrote...

Why do we go back to the idea that affections have to stay fixed over decades? Maybe Morrigan or Leliana dumped the Warden because they found someone better or got tired of getting into arguments, like the majority of real relationships. 

I´d say the majority of relationships endure time, so it´s natural to assume they would too.

[In Exile]

Nerevar-as wrote...

I´d say the majority of relationships endure time, so it´s natural to assume they would too.

Statistics says otherwise. 

[Brockololly]

In Exile wrote...
The problem isn't that Morrigan shows up by herself - it's that there's no way to adequately allow the player (as the Warden) to deal with that 10 year gap. As a result, the player has to be railroaded with respect to their old character.

Sure, its fine to have Morrigan off doing stuff on her own. The question is just how you balance the knowledge the player has versus the player character. As a player, I'd want to know why my Warden isn't with Morrigan or where he is and what he is doing. Last time I left him off, he was still a pretty influential and important person in the world of DA. How do the writers/ developers account for that? Certainly within the game, they don't need to say anything about that since your player character may be none the wiser as to who Morrigan romanced.

But that discrepancy between player knowledge and player character knowledge can lead to some major dissonance if they don't handle it appropriately. They could also use that to their advantage too, of course, depending on how they tell whatever story they're trying to tell.

In Exile wrote...
But the only way to avoid that is to either only have a direct sequel with the same protagonist, or kill your protagonist off (whether via time passing or some endgame sacrifice).

Or to temporarily allow control over an old PC in a new game. Or to somehow have some round about way to allow the player to state what the Hero of Ferelden or Hawke has been doing in between DA2 or DA:O and DA3. Maybe the Inquisitor is asked by somebody what they know about Hawke, the Warden or whoever and the player's response there fills in the gaps and sets their state in DA3. Sort of how Miranda asks Shepard about whether you picked Udina or Keith David at the end of ME1.

In Exile wrote...
Again, why should other characters exist in a state of stasis over years because of some interaction with the player? I appreciate - and agree - with the objection that having character development without the player present is bad.

There is no reason anyone has to exist in stasis but  conversely some people don't have to change a ton in 8 years either. Everybody is different. Its not about having things necessarily frozen in time but its also not about having boat loads of character development and plot happen off screen, as you pointed out.

Case in point, IMO, would be Anders from Awakening to DA2. I have no problem with him teaming up with Justice but the issue I had there is that the most crucial part of his character development is an event that happens off screen. So the Anders you first see in DA2 feels very much disparate from where you last left him in DA:A.

You can have some changes that have happened over time, but I think it would be best if were able to see those changes and events first hand as opposed to simply being stuck hearing about them or having to get a synopsis from returning characters of everything thats happened to them since we last saw them.

In Exile wrote...
Why do we go back to the idea that affections have to stay fixed over decades? Maybe Morrigan or Leliana dumped the Warden because they found someone better or got tired of getting into arguments, like the majority of real relationships.

Sure, all that could have happened. Or not. That's all head canon as we have no inclination one way or the other to think a given PC and their LI would break up or not, based on where things ended in DA2 or DA:O. Whatever the writers end up doing, I just hope they remember where they last left off players with regard to certain NPCs or PCs. So that when or if NPCs or PCs are mentioned again or brought back, that reappearance makes sense based on where we left them off. Whatever stuff that they have happen offscreen should make sense. At the end of Empire Strikes Back, Luke seemingly has some resolve to become a Jedi. So when we see him all decked out in Jedi robes in Return of the Jedi, that makes sense. You can easily connect the dots of what happened off screen between the movies. That's all I'm asking for. Is that whatever they have happen offscreen make sense based on what we've already been presented in game.

Modifié par Brockololly, 16 août 2013 - 01:14 .

[thebatmanreborn]

Brockololly wrote...

TheRealJayDee wrote...
Definitely. I just don't see though how the logical conclusion from this is to confuse the players who would've been happy with retiring their characters with a "your character mysteriously disappeared from his retirement..." scenario, which automatically seems to come with an implicit  "...for reasons we have yet to unveil" message. Something like this logically leads to people believing/hoping their beloved character still has a role to play and might return.

Right. When something like DA2 ends with Leliana and Cassandra ominously saying "The Champion disappeared... JUST LIKE THE WARDEN!" and what amounts to a giant TO BE CONTINUED! at the end of the game, it seems supremely aloof and out of touch for any developer at BioWare to then act oblivious that people might want to know what is going on there and have that explanation for those disappearances play out in game.

TheRealJayDee wrote...
As the others have said it's also pretty difficult to leave a character you got attached to behind when persons who were important in his personal story are brought back to be major players in the events of later stories, like Leliana and Morrigan. If the following games didn't use a partially familiar cast there would be less "where's my damn character?" questions. The characters and interactions with them are probably the strongest aspect of the DA games, and thus the feelings regarding them are naturally strong as well. 
 

Exactly. Take the ending to Witch Hunt if you romanced Morrigan and went along into the Eluvian with her. Allowing the Warden to go along with her would be a big character development moment for a loner like Morrigan and I think she even says something like "We'll face the future together" to the Warden. For probably a good amount of people, that's the time we last saw Morrigan and the Warden, going off to face the future together.

So for Morrigan to show up seemingly alone now in DA3, with no sign of the Warden? That's not some ginned up fan made headcanon that's being disrupted, that's the writers /developers stomping over how they last left that character / storyline. Now, there are certainly ways they can explain that in a way that can be satisfying but it also gets to a weakness of BioWare telling and not showing at that point either. In that instance Witch Hunt comes across as a giant tease, since its likely we're done playing as the Warden, even though the reappearance of Morrigan makes it seem like nope, apparently WItch Hunt's ending was a farce since whatever epic or super important stuff she'll be up to in DA3, she'll be doing it alone or at least with the Warden PC offscreen or otherwise not in the player's control. Which makes that all much less interesting, since you could have had a bunch of different motivations for going through the Eluvian with Morrigan.

Allan Schumacher wrote...
Clearly we recognize "people enjoyed the characters
from the first games" since we've shown that we're open to bringing them
back (I'd argue Morrigan and Varric are their respective game's most
popular characters). I do think, however, it's possible (and plausible)
for both of them to be involved in some ways without requiring
extensive references to either Hawke or the Warden, however.

It's
that tricky spot of balancing what the player is keen on wanting to
know more about, and recognizing that these characters are effectively
interacting with a new entity.
.

Sure, but with certain of hose returning characters you have to recognize where they were last left off from the POV of the player. Something like the Warden that romanced Morrigan and went through the Eluvian with her makes Morrigan's reappearance much different than Cullen or Varric showing up again in DA3, since those guys didn't end DA2 walking off into the sunset with Hawke.

Its the sort of situation where you have to acknowledge the previous ending of where the player character left off with the returning NPC, otherwise it seems like you're railroading your own endings and basically invalidating past player choices.

I just sort of wish DA would go one route or the other with old NPCs. Elevating minor NPCs to more prominant roles from game to game is great. Like Isabella from DA:O to DA2 or how it looks like Cassandra is going from DA2 to companion in DA3. That's cool! But bringing back old love interest characters who were closely tied to old PCs, only to conspicuously have the old PCs absent, off screen or rendered unimportant? Eh, that ends up feeling like a game design limitation more than anything. I'd just rather have a big time jump and geographic shift from game to game like the Elder Scrolls if we're not going to have at least some basic recognition of old PC's still being relevent or at least on the same course where we last left them in prior games.

Fast Jimmy wrote...
I honestly think any series that has multiple
game installments as well as lore through other media, such as books,
video, other games (such as the Flash DA game or the iOS ME game) should
also have such a team. Not neccessarily a paid team (I don't know the
compensation structure with Bethesda's team), but still a team that is
sworn to secrecy (in a very real and legally binding sense) that can
analyze dialogue, quests, books, Codex entires, etc. before they are
included in the main game to make sure they don't clash with previously
established lore.

I'd definitely agree there. That's one of the annoying things with some of the DA lore already and its not even on a 3rd game. Even just recently, I think Darrah mentioned on twitter how the default Origin ending for DA3 is a Dalish elf who died killing the AD, when I could have sworn they made the default ending for Origins in DA2 be a Human Noble who survived. That's maybe a bit different but still, consistency in building a world is important.

Fantastic piece right here. 100% agree.