Paragon actions are usually about building alliances, obeying galactic law, and basing decisions on sympathy and trust. Sometimes, Reputation carries a Paragon or Renegade connotation. And if your reputation gets impressive enough, people who would otherwise ignore you are going to take you seriously when you say something like, “I will wipe out your entire species unless you put the gun down.” Having a powerful reputation unlocks dialog options that wouldn’t be otherwise available, usually with better results than the normal options would offer. Over the course of a war raging across the galaxy, you are going to do a few things that catch people’s attention.

One system I’ve worked on over all three Mass Effect titles is the reputation system – and, like most of our systems, it has found some improvement in Mass Effect 3.

Although our main job focus is developing plots and characters and writing dialog, most writers at BioWare also work on other tasks, such as galaxy map logic and planet descriptions (Chris Hepler), enemy combat barks (Jay Watamaniuk), or embarrassing me at Vanguard (Sylvia Feketekuty).