It is a fact that TW3 has more environmental ambiance than DAI.
It's a clear and present fact that when you enter a majority of the villages in TW3, you'll find it teeming with domesticated animals, such as cows, pigs, goats, geese, chickens, dogs, cats and horses. You'll find people doing chores such as tending crops, cutting and gathering wood, women tending laundry, cleaning and children or babies, or simply scolding their husbands and kids. You'll find them wandering in the outskirts of the village gathering herbs, hunting and fishing. They are dressed as simple peasants and are shown to be uneducated, superstitious and untrusting of strangers, yet grateful and welcoming if you help them. The peasants have a schedule and seem to do different activities depending on the day/night or weather. This is a great dynamic and one that I think would have benefited some of the landscape in DAI. For instance, the very few farmsteads you come in contact with have no domesticated animals beyond some druffalo, which you find wandering in the wild all the time. They have tiny gardens next to their house and rarely have any occupants. You never see anyone riding a horse and there is the fact that only a few places even house one in their stable. The majority of NPC's seem to be pretty static in their activities and movements.
Another example is Novigrad. The slums on the outside are very fitting. Run down hovels, the prostitutes look worse for wear, the people are very poorly dressed and aren't very clean and lack proper speech and dental care. Inside the gates, the slums aren't much better and the docks are exactly what you'd expect. The "middle class", which is the market area, you see a different scale. While it looks a bit dirty, it is a different kind. The roads are littered with trash and mud, but people are dressed better. The strumpets are a bit better and you really have that feel that it's a working class area. There are advertisements for taverns, shows, plays. There are urchins who will try to lead you into danger, thugs wanting to beat you up, etc, there are gangs and corruption and factions. Then you have the upper class area. The streets are clean and cobbled and brightly colored flags hang off buildings. People are well spoken and dressed like nobles. It's a completely different dynamic. A dynamic I would have loved to seen in Orlais. I would have loved to have a Novigrad version of Val Royeaux and be able to tour the broken and poverty and war soaked streets of the Halamshiral alienage. You don't get to see any of the seedy underbelly of Val Royeaux or any other part of Orlais. You see one marketplace and a palace.
The fact that DAI contains much less than TW3 doesn't make it a bad game. It's okay to prefer a minimalistic world. It may be opinion that you prefer DAI's world and that it pleases you and that you see no need for improvement, but it is an actual fact that when measuring content of villages and cities, TW3 has more. Again, that doesn't make DAI a bad game. It's about what you prefer, but from the reviews, both professional and gamers, articles, videos and general chatter in forums, the consensus seems to be that people want, or at least appreciate seeing a more interactive and world that living and breathing and filled with details of what a village and city should be. I don't see how adding those dynamics can injure a game. There isn't need to defend DAI on what it lacks, as adding a zoetic world can only benefit it in the long run and open the opportunity for more DA games to be made. Which I am in constant support of, as I love the franchise and wish to see it expand and grow.
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