Bioware’s David Gaider gave a talk in Melbourne last week, revealing just how many words have been written in their games over the years. Can you guess?
Gaider, who wrote the recently released Dragon Age novel, has been at Bioware for many years. He’s worked on many of their games and written many, many words of science-fiction dialogue and fantasy quest lines.
In his presentation at the Framework conference in Melbourne on April 23, Gaider revealed exactly how many words have appeared in the Bioware RPGs he’s worked on, including the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins.
Baldur’s Gate II (2000) – 1,200,000 words
Neverwinter Nights (2002) – 200,000 words
NWN: Shadows of Undrentide (2003) – 200,000 words
NWN: Hordes of the Underdark (2003) – 200,000 words
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) – 600,000 words
Dragon Age: Origins (2009) – 900,000 words
So those fearing that Dragon Age might be “dumbed down for consoles” can rest assured it will contain nearly as many words to read as the 100-plus hour long epic that was BGII. Indeed, Gaider said that dialogue with your party members accounts for approximately one-third of all text to be found in Dragon Age: Origins.
Gaider only counted those games he’d worked on personally, which explains why the likes of Jade Empire and Mass Effect are missing from the above list.
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