Within the monolithic third-party publishing entity known as EA, BioWare is the cornerstone of a unit dedicated to crafting some of the world's greatest story-driven games. The latest was Dragon Age: Origins, a role-playing game set in a dark fantasy world that took players back to the glory days of the Baldur's Gate franchise. Next up: Mass Effect 2, the sequel to 2007's critically acclaimed sci-fi RPG.

I recently sat down with BioWare's co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk to talk about Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, the games we're playing, and much more.


GameSpy: We're primarily going to be talking about Mass Effect 2, though I'd like to pick your brain about some other topics. Did you catch that shocking story recently, that Mass Effect 2 will, in fact, offer downloadable content?
Dr. Greg Zeschuk, VP BioWare/EA: It's cool because Mass 1 had a bit. We learned some good lessons. It's tough to DLC. You've got Fernando [Melo], you've got him and Adriana [Lopez], their team have been doing DLC for quite a while, separate teams from the Dragon Age development team. That's the only way you can get it early, you have to really commit to it, you have to be dedicated to it, so that's kind of how we're looking at the Mass Effect stuff. It was good learning from Mass 1. We should have applied early but we kind of learned halfway through.
GameSpy: With Mass Effect, do you wish you had something similar to the Dragon Age Toolset and builder community? Some way for the players to expand upon this universe you've created?
Greg Zeschuk: Mass Effect's a different experience. That's one of the interesting things for us, is that Mass 2 is such a cinematic extravaganza. I just finished Mass Effect 2 this past weekend, and I'm playing it again. It's just a roller coaster extraordinaire. It's the kind of game that is just different, and fans will have the ingenuity to figure out some of the creative stuff. But I think it just seems more natural, the whole builder concept is more natural to the Dragon Age franchise. For some reason it just seems like it fits there, maybe it's our own history of creating that.

It's not as much a part of [Mass Effect], it just doesn't seem natural for it. One of the things that's exciting is that we want to make these long-term franchises and platforms that have all kinds of different offerings. One thing we're super pumped about is Dragon Age Journeys...

GameSpy: The Flash game?
Greg Zeschuk: Yeah, it's really good. The guys at EA2D, Mark Spenner and his team, a really good friend of mine made it. It's great and there have been lots of people playing it, pumped about it. What's cool is, it's definitely not just like our Dragon Age, but what's funny with 2D Flash, is this is what Dragon Age is, it's different, but it gives you a sense of the world. You go to Orzammar, you go to the Deep Roads, it brings you into the property. It's a unique entry point that will get people into it. I think over the years we'll be able to build these into monolithic entities.
GameSpy: Do you unlock anything in Dragon Age: Origins for playing Journeys?
Greg Zeschuk: Yeah, there's unlocks, unlocks in the full version of Dragon Age. That's one of the things that people are pumped about is that you get a ring, a couple other things, you get a couple items. So, all players aren't driven by this, but I know that I am really driven by getting loot. I'm totally a loot maniac.