Can I just tell you how much I love that this game has different realistic outcomes based on how you play? Since I cut my gamer teeth on JRPGs that are far more linear in nature, I thought this was going to bother me, but it turns out that I love it, at least when it's as well-realized as DA:O.
I also prefer to roleplay rather than metagame in most circumstances, but I had already decided that I wanted to see what a hardened Alistair was like in my second game, so I picked the hardening options even though, in the moment, I felt that the line of dialogue was out of character for my dwarf noble. It bothered me to the point that I eventually had to write a fic to work out the contradiction in my mind -- and I came up with a solution that I really liked, and now I can't imagine that particular Warden having said anything else. But it did take some mental gymnastics to get there, and it'll be interesting to see what happens when I come to that point in future replays.
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I also prefer to roleplay rather than metagame in most circumstances, but I had already decided that I wanted to see what a hardened Alistair was like in my second game, so I picked the hardening options even though, in the moment, I felt that the line of dialogue was out of character for my dwarf noble. It bothered me to the point that I eventually had to write a fic to work out the contradiction in my mind -- and I came up with a solution that I really liked, and now I can't imagine that particular Warden having said anything else. But it did take some mental gymnastics to get there, and it'll be interesting to see what happens when I come to that point in future replays.