VideoGamer Interview With Daniel Erickson: The Action Bar Is The Best Way

VideoGamer.com scored a short interview with BioWare Writing Director Daniel Erickson.

In the piece, Erickson talks about pre-orders, longevity, companion deaths and even the action bar:

Daniel Erickson: We make RPGs and we use the best RPG interface we can put together. Not only did we not depart from action bar combat, the Dragon Age series adopted it right from the start for its single-player game. It turns out to be the easiest way to organize a complex series of powers. What we did bring was synchronized animations, more dynamic and movement-based combat (Force-push, explosions that send people flying, etc) and far faster fights. Which seems to be plenty marketable as a bonus.

He then goes on to answer a question regarding cross-platform MMOs, and what mobile platforms like iOS might mean:

VideoGamer: We’re beginning to see more MMOs being developed for console, and MMO-oriented apps for iOS, is cross-platform gaming the next logical step for MMOs?

Daniel Erickson: While there’s always been a push for cross-platform gaming, I don’t really see MMOs being the place that it takes off as a pure implementation. In a community where a one point difference in dps per character classes can cause major outcries, it’s hard to imagine accepting wholly different input devices. So until consoles have keyboard/mouse setups standard and enough users willing to find a way to use them in the living room, I imagine we keep the core game to one type of platform each. That said, using light console games or iOS games to enhance aspects of your MMO or explore other takes on the world is exciting.

Daniel’s comments about the iOS are intriguing, as that has been one of the hottest topics – extending the game to other platforms outside of the game, without necessarily playing it. The Crew Skills system would seem to be a great, natural extension for TOR onto iOS and hopefully we’ll see something like that sooner rather than later!

Hop on over to VideoGamer to catch the entire interview.