How big is that team?

DE: We're well past a dozen.

Just writers?

DE: Just writers. Dedicated writers, writing for years and years. One of the things I mentioned in the other pieces [is that] we have more story content than every other BioWare game ever made combined, so it is the largest project.

We realized at one point that we were doing enough content, just dialogue, to fit in dozens of books. It's pretty mind-blowing!

Does that seem like an undue expense for an MMO? Does that require any convincing to EA? Because, given the history of MMOs, there's no empirical proof that it's necessary.

DE: Absolutely, and remember that my background comes from being trained as a producer at EA. So, one of the great things is that EA is a very different EA than it was when I worked there originally. The entire way games are made has changed, the label system has completely changed -- how you get things approved.

Electronic Arts came and purchased BioWare, because of the games and the way that BioWare makes games. They have been massively supportive,  to the point of opening up the connections to all of the other people that they work with, and all of the other great, amazing triple-A developers who are now under the EA Games label.

We can talk with them and bounce ideas off and find out how to do stuff, but at no point has anyone ever come to me and said -- okay, yes, they've come to me and said, "You're budget is what?" But nobody has ever said, "Why are we doing this?"

BioWare's marching order has always been up on the wall in red and gray. When you go into orientation, it says, "To make the best story‑driven games in the world." It's been that for a decade, and they've never moved away from it.

So, when we say, "Hey, this is what it takes to make a great story‑driven game that you're going to play for eternity," then yeah, you've got to put the effort forth.

Why do you think that's still something that it seems difficult for this industry to grapple with? It's still something that most of the time is not considered to be a crucial part of development.

DE: Well, this is one I tend to laugh a lot about, because people say, "Oh, well, why aren't writers respected? Why don't they understand?" People will try to say, "Hey, it's a young industry," whatever. Writers aren't really respected in Hollywood, either, and they've got 100 years under their belt now.

(laughter)

DE: Right? Somebody's still going to rewrite their script entirely, and then put Godzilla in it if they think that's what's going to make the project. Commercial art will always be driven by the people who hold the purse strings, and get to have the vision.

We are extremely lucky that BioWare is run by two guys who are dedicated to the idea of story, so that's what they want to do. They're dedicated to the idea of dialogue and narrative, and that storytelling has to have great, punchy writing.

It has to get better, and better, and better, and be more like the best dialogue lines from movies, but it's done in an interactive, nonlinear system, that -- let's be clear -- 99 out of 100 writers don't even understand how to do, and never will.

So, it's hard to find the talent, it's hard to train the talent. It's hard to get the dedication from a [parent] company that's never done it, to say, "Hey, we're going to do it," but at the end of the day it is a known quantity. The difference is exactly what you're saying. Yes, no MMO has tried to do it before. So, how do you justify that?

At the same point, the only place you go in and usually find a massive success for a game is going into the whitespace that nobody is standing in. So, if you've got a company that has made its entire mark from never having a game cancelled, never having a game rated under 90% -- if that company's entire mantra and what they're known for is storytelling, it only makes sense to open it up and let them do their thing.