Dragon Age III Inquisition

It’s never good when videogames directly copy one another—it is good, however, when developers look at what their rivals are doing, and find worthwhile points of influence in those efforts.

In a new interview conducted by Game Informer, BioWare Edmonton and Montreal general manager Aaryn Flynn notes that it’d be impossible for his company’s upcoming Dragon Age III: Inquisition to not be influenced to some degree by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

“You can’t look at a game like Skyrim and not think about how impressive what they’ve accomplished is—or [think] that’s an interesting new direction or that there was something that didn’t work well for them that we could take in a new direction,” Flynn says. “So, we’re always influenced by these games, especially in a relatively tight-knit genre like RPGs.”

Of course, one of Skyrim‘s most beloved elements is the game’s open-world nature, one which encourages players to revel in the enjoyment of exploration—something that we could end up seeing more of in Dragon Age III.

“In terms of where I think RPGs are going, I think we have to get back to more exploration in our games,” Flynn notes. “I think that’s not just because of some of the shortcomings in Dragon Age 2, but because there’s a heritage there, something we used to a lot of in games like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights, where exploration was one of the key themes. We’ve gotten away from that with Dragon Age and Mass Effect. We want to get back to those themes. Not only because they seem powerful, but they are things that fans want. They want to know more about these worlds we are crafting, and they want to chart their own course through it.”

So—what do you think? What elements of Skyrim would you like to see influence what’s going to be in Dragon Age III? What other ways do you think BioWare could make their upcoming RPG better?

Source: Game Informer (via Examiner Online)