BioWare Founders Talk Story in Games

Ripten has an interview up with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, likely taken at GDC, talking about stories in games and narrative and such. It isn't specific to any one of BioWare's games, but it gives a general view of how they see story in all of their games, as well as the possibilities for narrative in other kinds of games and settings.

Here's a brief excerpt:

There’s a narrative of an explorer, too. Like in a game like Dragon Age or Mass Effect or The Old Republic, where you’re going from world to world or area to area and you’re unlocking new events or areas in the game, and you feel like you’re an explorer. So you get that sense of discovery and awe that you’re the first person in the world or the universe to be there representing humanity, or representing your Grey Wardens in Dragon Age, or whichever group.

It's quite an interesting read. For me most interesting seems how they're talking about taking other kinds of experiences and making them into a roleplaying game. I've been saying for years now that roleplaying games could move out of the combat arena and include other types of gameplay, such as a racing RPG, a sims RPG or a sports RPG as they discuss in the article.

As such it wouldn't surprise me if one of their unannounced products goes more in that direction and brings BioWare's brand of story to another kind of game.

Either way though it's nice to read such thoughts and help fire one's imagination towards what could be. Oddly enough, perhaps, it makes me most excited about the Dragon Age toolset as that will give us an opportunity to experiment and try some of these things perhaps.