The Escapist - The Writers of BioWare

Another Shamus Young article, this time his regular Experience Points column at The Escapist. Shamus looks at the characters and writing in recent BioWare games (from KotOR on) and (surprise!) finds consistent archetypes. Some of the selections will no doubt be debatable, so you can also read his comments at his blog. A sample:

If you've played the BioWare games from the last decade, you may have noticed some really strong similarities between them. Some take place in the Star Wars universe, some in a high fantasy setting, some in a space-faring future, but the same elements, characters, themes, and plot devices appear again and again. Once you get to know these games, you can recognize what NPC archetype you're talking to within a minute or two of meeting them.
Think about how similar your companions are from game to game:
The Remorseless Killer
Examples: Sten (Dragon Age), Canderous Ordo (KOTOR), Sagacious Zu (Jade Empire)
The product of a warrior culture, the Remorseless Killer is just doing his job. His grim, scorched-earth, genocidal, baby-killing job. Don't take it personally. Most of the time his awful deeds served the greater good. Or seemed to. He thinks. It's all sort of a blur now. Still, he can't help it so it's best not to dwell on the past anyway.
The Berzerker
Examples:HK-47 (KOTOR), Black Whirlwind (Jade Empire), Urdnot Wrex (Mass Effect), Oghren and Shale (Dragon Age)
Unlike the Remorseless Killer, the Berzerker doesn't just go around killing people for some misguided cause. He does it for laughs! If you need someone to snap out a couple of witty one-liners while mowing down foes, the Berzerker is your man.

More information.

I am always pissed about the Captain Emo and Shrew characters. I guess thats why I never really went along with DA, because in DA those are your first and closest chars. I just hated Alistair aka Sir-whines-alot and Morrigan the bitch. No no.

Interesting analysis, tho.

They forgot BG2:

Anomen: Captain Emo
Korgan: Berzerker
Imoen: Pilgrim
Jaheira: Shrew

I'd also list the NWN henchmen but I can't remember them/be arsed. IIRC the bard was pretty shrewish and the monk was fairly remorseless though.

"Captain Emo" ? What kind of term is that ?

I only knew "Captain America" so far …

You could apply those archetypes to pretty much any character most any game or book. Its the nature of archetypes.

Either the archetypes are so vague that they don't mean much, or the author really wanted his little thesis to work and disregarded substantial differences between characters. I would say that the characters mentioned in the article differ enough to not be put into the same category. HK-47 and Urdnot Wrex? Leilana and Mission Vao? Wynne and David Anderson?

Originally Posted by coaster
They forgot BG2:

Anomen: Captain Emo
Korgan: Berzerker
Imoen: Pilgrim
Jaheira: Shrew

Imoen a "pilgrim"? Jaheira a "Schrew"? Not the way I experienced them. Perhaps they are both emo, if you want to use these templates.

Well, though there are differences I have to say I agree with the majority of what he's saying.

Not that I mind all that much, as the NPC interaction never really "did it" for me in Bioware games, which is perhaps why I'm not quite so taken with them. Too formulaic and rigid in structure, and back with BG - I always made my own party.

Still, plenty of good NPCs in there.

He didn't "forget" BG2. He just wanted to focus on the recent three titles. Of course, he only really stressed that on his web log, not in the article. And yeah, it seems silly to me that Shamus would write about this as if it were some sort of discovery. BioWare is aiming for (and achieving) something very specific.

I agree with his classifications, but not with his general statement that Bioware writers are masters. I usually love their dialogue, especially DA:O, but the stories have been lacking a bit. Dragon age was stale with a witless brute and a wannabe "anti-hero" for villains. Mass effect had a great villain, but quite a few plot holes. Hopefully they can fuse the best of both sometime in the future.

"If you played both KOTOR (made by BioWare) and KOTOR 2 (made by Obsidian) you can see the difference that a fresh slate of writers can make. The two games are very different in tone and style. While people disagree on which one had the better writing, it's obvious that a change in writing staff can have a powerful impact on the game as a whole. "

Yeah. KotOR was quite good. KotOR2 wasn't. By the end of 2 I was forcing myself to play just to see what the ending was and then the ending was totally lame. Oh well.

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
By the end of 2 I was forcing myself to play just to see what the ending was and then the ending was totally lame. Oh well.

That's pretty much how I felt about the first game, I had to force myself to keep playing after about 3/4 through. Never had any desire to even try KotOR 2 because of that.

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
"If you played both KOTOR (made by BioWare) and KOTOR 2 (made by Obsidian) you can see the difference that a fresh slate of writers can make. The two games are very different in tone and style. While people disagree on which one had the better writing, it's obvious that a change in writing staff can have a powerful impact on the game as a whole. "

Yeah. KotOR was quite good. KotOR2 wasn't. By the end of 2 I was forcing myself to play just to see what the ending was and then the ending was totally lame. Oh well.

Really? While I enjoyed KotOR, I thought KotOR 2 was 10x better. Better story, gray morality and deep, almost philosophical characters, excellent writing, and a departure from the traditional star wars tone/story: "redemption of good guy saves galaxy from evil giant sith dude." If only Obsidian had a few extra months…. could have been perfect, alas, that is why we have modders .

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
Yeah. KotOR was quite good. KotOR2 wasn't. By the end of 2 I was forcing myself to play just to see what the ending was and then the ending was totally lame. Oh well.

Myself, I never finished KotOR, and it's one of the very few RPGs I've never completed. KotOR 2, however, managed to keep me playing to the end. I found the core gameplay equally appalling in both, but relative quality of the character writing dragged me through the sequel. Perhaps the fact it was unfinished, and thus shorter, also helped.