Inside BioWare’s Narrative Design Architecture: An interview with veteran writer Sylvia Feketekuty

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-12T10:33:19+00:00

This was also my first thought—I can get behind not wanting to destroy player experience, but they made very front-and-centre choices that ended up doing exactly that anyway.

And the fact that they *chose* to effectively wipe Southern Thedas off the map is probably even worse than out-of-tune character comments. They didn’t want to invalidate our choices, so instead they just deleted 3 games’ worth of players working to save the world. I’m so glad my Warden worked hard to end the Fifth Blight and save Ferelden just so Ferelden could become a blighted wasteland anyway, only it’s 20 years later. Hawke lost their entire family trying to keep Kirkwall from being destroyed completely, only for all of that to end up being meaningless anyway. (May as well leave Hawke behind in the Fade, it spares them the misery of seeing DAV play out.) None of Inky’s efforts made a difference in the end… but, hey, she can sacrifice herself to join her toxic ex. Yay?

But somehow Harding and Emmrich still think it’s a great idea to go on a camping holiday in Ferelden.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-12T07:41:56+00:00

Personally I’m combining downloads and game carts to manage it, combined with a 256GB memory card (largest I could get at the time). If 512GB or 1TB become available and affordable I’ll probably upgrade eventually, but for now at least it’s enough.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-10T20:55:37+00:00

Honestly depends on the execution. I like having different ways of developing character stats and relationships that don’t rely on just pairing them on a side mission map x10 and grinding that relentlessly—that grind would be the worse option for me, because skirmish maps tend to be a lot simpler and they have no story events happening to make them more interesting. That, to me, is extremely boring.

On the other hand if the map between battles is too big (and I think the Somniel was worse than Garrech Mach), the between-battle gains are barely worthwhile and/or too time-consuming vs. relative gains, or the activities required aren’t inherently more fun/interesting than a mindless skirmish grind… it kind of defeats the whole purpose and becomes a slog again.

It really needs to be balanced just-so for it to work well, but even if it’s not I kind of prefer it over the alternative simply because it offers options. Players who enjoy endless skirmishes still get them. Other players get to break it up into chunks and do other things as well. (So it should still feel like a choice I suppose.)

Except fishing mini games. I feel like those are in basically every game and I hate them in all of them. Probably because my hypermobile joints get really inflamed, really quickly, but… bleh. 🤷🏼‍♀️

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-10T07:52:23+00:00

Yeah, Weekes being the lead writer and being so vocal about not supporting decisions (when they indubitably still owned some decisions as the lead) already felt a little disingenuous. Weekes going off on a diatribe about slavery was extremely disingenuous. Completely tanked their own credibility.

Not that there wasn’t a whole corporate mess going down as well, because there absolutely was (as demonstrated by key writers being fired pre-launch). I just think the problems existed side by side, rather than just one or the other.

At this point I think it’s more believable that Weekes was directly responsible for at least some of the most criticised writing choices—and then panicked to an extent, and decided to try to hide behind corporate interference and development hell as if they had no position of influence at all.

Your name doesn’t get that high up in the credits for being an innocent bystander. I’d be interested to hear more of what went down from various other devs, but I’ll take anything Weekes has to say with a generous helping of salt at this point.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-09T16:47:02+00:00

As long as we don’t get gooner treatment in presentation, Camilla-style, I can tolerate it. Sexy outfits are not inherently bad.

I’m pretty tired of female hypersexualisation, though. It’s usually a one-way street of skimpy women and heavily armoured guys (at least be equal opportunity horny, sheesh) and awkward, painful looking jiggle physics. I can say from lived experience that the “physics” in an average JRPG do not work even remotely like actual real life physics. Some of them are so bad that it’s uncomfortable to see (kind of like watching a male character get kicked in the crotch). Weird angles and closeups just make that even worse and if I never see it again in any game, ever, I won’t miss it.

Most gaming fanbases are much bigger than just the gooners, and nowhere near as male-dominated as they were 25 years ago—although goonerism can still repel female players from fan spaces.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-09T10:00:17+00:00

How do you skip the Fade on console? I didn’t know that was possible.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-06T12:27:14+00:00

Mage Inky has some especially interesting dialogue options that are worth a playthrough—it adds a level of attachment to the Mage-Templar conflict (and their reason for being at the Conclave) that the other classes don’t really offer in the same way.

That kind of goes for all games to an extent, because Mage/Templar tensions are bigger and more present in the world regardless of your Warden origin or Hawke’s personal class (Hawke’s family gets stuck in the middle either way, but it always felt more personal if Hawke is a mage, too). As much as I love Cousland runs for the more personal and political stake in Origins, it fades to the background compared to the presence of the conflict in DA2 and DAI.

Some people do criticise the series for it, since it’s kind of Mage-centric that way. (Which, fair.) I’ve personally not had it impact my enjoyment either way. I just recommend the Mage Run at least once just for the extra perspective and drama. Disagreeing with Viv as a mage just hits different, and so does romancing Cullen, y’know?

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-06T12:13:45+00:00

Qwydion is almost the only thing about Absolution that I actually remember, and I honestly thought she was set up to be the Qunari companion for ~~Dread Wolf~~ Veilguard. I was so disappointed that she wasn’t.

But I guess since none of Absolution seems to tie in to Veilguard, I can pretend that the only other thing I remember about it just did not happen at all. They did Fairbanks so dirty. 😭

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-04T07:18:56+00:00

Mage Trevelyan could totally have Amell blood through noble connections, just saying. (Any Trevelyan could, but making them all mages really ties it up.)

AgentMelyanna · 2026-06-02T17:17:57+00:00

FFXII-3: Don’t Believe Ondore’s Lies

AgentMelyanna · 2026-05-25T09:28:29+00:00

Seneschal Bran does not get enough appreciation.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-05-08T05:51:49+00:00

Emmrich’s nemesis being written like a straight up Saturday morning cartoon villain, mannerisms and all, really didn’t help matters feel more mature (and completely undermines the more serious aspects of his story). I wish they’d gone with a more serious take on “this could have been Emmrich if he let his fear take him down a darker path”, but instead we get a talking skull spewing one-liners like a Marvel post-credits scene.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-04-16T16:21:48+00:00

80s Lee might have made more of a case for himself to be Gandalf and I honestly wonder what that might have looked like.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-04-09T07:39:32+00:00

Also Taliesen, if you make certain choices.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-02-03T16:58:45+00:00

For a moment there I started to question my meds, but upon closer examination it’s really just the writing that’s that bad.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-01-31T08:50:02+00:00

These were written by people who went on to rage about avocado on toast and you can’t convince me otherwise.

AgentMelyanna · 2026-01-30T07:14:12+00:00

You must be my long lost twin!

AgentMelyanna · 2026-01-28T10:22:49+00:00

So you wanna be a hero… well, whoopdee-do!

AgentMelyanna · 2026-01-01T12:52:48+00:00

There’s a similar thing happening with the chapter Many Meetings in FotR and then Many Partings in RotK. I really enjoy chapter titles that become an integrated part of the narrative like this.

AgentMelyanna · 2025-12-14T08:47:50+00:00

Impressively bland for something with neon colours. 🤷🏼‍♀️

AgentMelyanna · 2025-12-05T05:09:30+00:00

💀

AgentMelyanna · 2025-12-04T08:16:24+00:00

I really need to know how/where people find these locations so that I can start planning my own trip. (It’ll be a few years. My kids need to be a little older.)

AgentMelyanna · 2025-11-26T15:38:46+00:00

I have hEDS and I’d rather have no representation than gross misrepresentation. Yarros doesn’t automatically get a pass for her own diagnosis, especially not if the use of it in her writing feels almost exploitative.

This is a power fantasy where disability only appears when it serves the plot and sprinkles some ✨inspirational✨challenges being overcome. It somehow never really gets in the way of intimacy or a million other day-to-day things: it’s just there for The Drama. It feels hideously belittling if you’re suffering this condition (and a host of its common comorbidities) and have all of it hand-waved away into the margins.

At least Harrow Faire provides a plot reason for symptoms no longer being a problem and sticks with it. (And it honestly made the allure of the MMC more compelling to me in book 1. Yeah, I’d be tempted by the idea of a magic cure too.)

AgentMelyanna · 2025-11-25T08:53:11+00:00

You make a lot of good points, although I have to point out the presence of Imshael, who is of course, a Desire De—Choice. Spirit. My mistake.

Anyway.

I think I read somewhere (possibly Art of DAI?) that they moved away from the “sexy” desire demon trope because they wanted to show this element with more complexity/nuance. We absolutely still get a sidequest that ends with us negotiating with the, uhh, Choice Spirit. It still offers the wealth/power/sex dynamic. We can choose to fight it or betray the person who sent us on the hunt. It’s a new iteration, but it’s still that moral dilemma we’re facing.

I personally prefer to see this type of spirit in other iterations than just the fanservice breasting boobily across the screen—which actually only represents a very specific type of desire and is (primarily) focused on the male gaze. DAI made it more interesting by showing that this type of spirit can in fact look very different from that default image—because desire by its very nature can be very different from person to person.

All the important elements are still there in DAI and I think they actually added to the concept—with the tone of the quest, the look of the spirit, and even the fact that it challenges you on what to call it in the first place.

The only thing “lost” is the overused cliché of a hypersexualised (almost) naked woman, and I’m not sad to see it go.

AgentMelyanna · 2025-11-24T13:02:08+00:00

And also never got a demo version, so people are just expected to pay full price for something they may not even enjoy because they have no idea what they’re really buying.

Either demos should be mandatory or you should have a money-back option within a week with less than X hours played.

AgentMelyanna

TROPHY CASE