This seems like the first thing BioWare has made in several years that has that really traditional BioWare feeling in terms of its setting and subject matter. With those intervening years, how does it feel to be getting back to that? And are there new things that you have to keep in mind when making that game in 2009?

DG: There's the obvious 2D to 3D difference. The 2D levels we were able to make back in the 2D days were like paintings. Part of me wishes we could go back to that. I don't know how much of a market there would be, but I would think there would be something. I always found that very beautiful and evocative. However, we're quickly reaching that place with the 3D games as well. We have access to facial animations, expressions, body animations. We no longer have to tell a story through words only. That can be done well -- [Black Isle's] Planescape: Torment is an example of a game that was told primarily through words, but maybe it wasn't entirely accessible to everyone because not everybody can deal with this wall of text, which is very sad. I wish there were more willingness to do that. But now we no longer need to do that. There was a transition period where we had 3D art, but not the ability to be emotionally evocative with it. With Mass Effect, we were feeling our way out a little bit with the ability to use facial expressions.

I'm trying to deal with this as a writer. I worked on Baldur's Gate II as my first game, becoming used to telling stories through words primarily. Normally, you'd have to write something like, "I am very angry." Now, you can have him look mad. I may not need him to speak at all. We've started to get to this point where when it comes to storytelling, it's not a solo endeavor for a writer anymore. We're starting to do this thing where we sit down with, say, a tech designer and an animator. There are people in each of these fields who are story-oriented. There are always going to be some who just want to be told what to do, and that's fine, but there are some who are very creative.

Andrew Farrell is one of the artists we have at BioWare; he's very creative and very story-oriented. I love that we're at a place where I can sit down with a guy like Andrew and bounce ideas off him. He looks at it from a slightly different perspective. He says, "How can I help you tell this story through art?" Then I'll have a cinematic designer. He'll say, "These are the libraries of animations and facial expressions I have. How can I help tell this part of the tale through gestures and interaction?"

It's neat when we bounce up against each other, and I'm thinking, "Really, can we do that? Is that possible?" and they say, "That's totally possible." That's a neat place to be. It's like I was saying earlier about Baldur's Gate II, where our 2D engine had reached its epitome, and we knew what we could do with it, so we had room to be creatively experimental.

I think we're reaching that point with 3D games as well. There are a number of RPG hardcore enthusiasts who I think have been a little embittered from the step away from the traditional style of games. We're still trying to remain accessible to a larger audience, but some of them will just never appreciate it. You can't help that. But I think they can be pleased to see that we're getting to a point now once again where we have the ability to focus more on storytelling and experimentation. I think we'll see more and more of that as time goes on, and I think it has some really excellent potential. But not every company is going to do it. Fortunately, like I said, BioWare values the writing process a little more. So, if we continue to do that, I think we can see better and better things. At least for a while, I guess -- until the next piece of big technology comes along.