BioWare Effect

I love Skyrim.  No, that's not a typo.  Stick with me here.  Skyrim and the other recent Elder Scrolls games are my all time favorite games.  I love just about everything about them.  I have played Skyrim for more hours than I'd like to admit.  But there is one aspect of the game that is really lacking: companionship.  Think of some epic tales of adventure.  Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Toy Story, etc.  What do they all have in common?  A group of characters each with their own motivations, their own personality, their own history, all working together in different ways to achieve the same goal.  How boring would it be if Luke just tried to take on the Empire by himself?  Or if Toy Story was only about Woody?  In this sense, it's strange that you are so alone in The Elder Scrolls.

Skyrim does have companions that can follow you on your journey, but they are not involved in the story at all.  They simply follow you around and fight what you fight.  They don't really offer anything other than a way to carry around more loot.  And rather than enhancing the story by offering a different perspective, they usually just become a nuisance by stepping in front of your fireball, or giving away your position when you're trying to sneak.  And if I had to hear Lydia bitch about being sworn to carry my burden one more time, I was going to lose it.

Don't you dare say it...(source)

And this brings me to what BioWare does so right.  In games like Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect, you're given a supporting cast of characters that feel so real, you actually care about what they have to say and what happens to them.  Each character has a unique personality and unique history that form their point of view which can often clash with your own.

After completing a mission I always look forward to chatting up everyone on my team to see if I can learn anything new about them.  At the risk of sounding like a huge nerd, I get attached to these characters.  I care about what happened in their past that seems to be troubling them, and I care about what might happen to them in the future.  And when one of my virtual friends dies, I feel that loss.

Bioware does an excellent job of integrating all of the characters into the story as well.  They aren't just there to help you.  They've each got their own stake in what's going on, and they each bring their own expertise and skills to the table.  You might be the main hero, but nobody can save the universe all by themselves.  Where would Luke be without Han and the rest?  Frodo would have died long before ever reaching Mordor if there were no Fellowship.

I know that it can't be easy to create compelling characters, and to script out all the possible ways a story can branch.  And I know that BioWare is probably really good at it because they've been doing it a long time, but I still wish some other games would give it a shot.

Quote images from wall321.com