In terms of creating stories, how much of the toolset being released for other people to create their own stories - how big a part of the picture is it? How much do you want people to get in and create?

We really do want that. We have a toolset that is out with the beta community right now. It’s going to be released the same day the game is and we’re hoping that we’ll get a very strong response from the community and we’ll see a lot of creation from them.

With the game being multiplatform, 360, PS3 and PC all at the same time (or close to it), are there concessions that are having to be made in terms of design to make sure that you can accommodate all of these platforms?

Actually, that’s one of the things I’m really proud of, is that on the PC –this is a game that was designed for the PC first- and we actually made no concessions to the PC game at all. But the console game still feels like a console game. It is designed to be a console game. We took the GUIs (graphical user interface) back to the ground and built them back up again to make sure the user interface was a console experience, but as a result we didn’t have to make any compromises.

Is there any particular feature in the game that you are particularly happy with in terms of how it panned out from the initial planning stages to its actual execution?

I’m really proud of where we’ve gotten to with the toolset, but in the game itself, I just think the interaction of the different classes; the fact that you can make tactical choices in the way your party mixes that materially impacts the way you play the game. I think that, as a feature, is just very exciting.

Can you give an example of how one of those choices might impact the game?

Yeah. For example, you could play a party that has three mages in it and a tank to fill in the gap and the game is going to play very differently than if you play an all fighter party, which is also possible. Those tactical choices are very macroscopic and have a big impact on the way the game plays. And your combat choices go all the way down to what equipment are you going to equip or what spells or abilities are you going to pick. And I think the breadth or range of those choices is really interesting. That’s the kind of player I am. I like to pick and fiddle with the little knobs and this gives you a lot of opportunity to fiddle with knobs. But if you don’t want to, it’s easy to—

A lot of presets from which you can choose.

Yeah, exactly.

When you’re making those choices, like party composition, how much does that effect – not just how you play the game- but how the game responds to you in terms of the story and direction?

It does have a huge impact. So, if you have Morrigan in your party, she’s got very specific goals of her own, so she’s going to impact the way that the world reacts to you and what she has to say about what’s going on because she has very specific goals that she wants to get done in a specific timeline. Whereas if you have Wynne, who is the other mage that you can pick up, she’s a much more moralistic character and, again, that’s going to have an impact. She’s going to soften your interactions with people because she’s nicer and so it makes a huge impact. You’re really making choices based not just on the combat experience you want to have, but also the story experience you want to have.