Awakenings was an opportunity to place the franchise in an expanded and exciting WORLD, but instead created another forgettable dead zone. It would have been awesome to have Awakenings as a restart. To make it a 'Cap Level Extender' was a mistake. Plots points from Origins were neglected and new plots spawned that lead nowhere, connect to nothing, build on nothing and are ignored (again) in DA2. So from the beginning there has been a major failure of strategic vision about Thedas. There is still no map. How the hell does Denerim and Ferelden relate to Amaranthine. Where the hell are Olaise and Antiva? What happened about the awakening plot and speaking Darkspawn (etc). Where is Kirkwall in relation to all of this, etc etc etc. Its a DAMNED MESS. Why can't our adventurers go for a walk back to Lothering if they want? Because Bioware leadership has totally failed to treat Thedas seriously and to offer the kind of geographic and cultural BASIS required for a credible story or a credible level of emotional interest by players.

Hi Mike Laidlaw, Hope you read this one. I'm planning to send Bioware a 20 page elaboration on the company's mistakes with its Dragon Age franchise, which are many and which are in some ways compounded by Dragon Age 2. Yet despite many miscues and a lack of strategic vision, its all salvageable because of the quality of the IP you are working with and because of the talents of your team. First and biggest problem is the failure in the last three years to provide players with a proper FULL map of Thedas in game or out of it. The games are full of lore about a 'world', but we never see the world. Each game has been an episode limited in space and time to one area and one event. But each game has rendered the area 'DONE'. So there was no way to revisit or re-explore areas seen in one game. Thus there is no way to build familiarity, affection or meaningful memories of PLACE. This was a major blunder with Dragon Age Awakening. rather than revisit and deepen our experiences of Denerim, a rebuilt Lothering, and expanded Ozhammer, and added new areas (Amaranthine, etc). Awakenings sundered the relationship of the Grey Warden with the territory he had saved, which makes zero sense in terms of emotional continuity.