They updated the FAQ.
Woah, happy we are seeing you on a good day, fable...
Hey, tony, nice to know someone is watching my progress through the internet mazes of information...
34. How will the map and journal work ?
Bob McCabe: "We've seen a lot of good journals and minimaps in other games - yep, we've been researching a lot of games.
And we're going to see what we can accomplish on this front, too. At the very least, as you said, we have to make sure all of the relevant information is always there. But at best? Well, there's lots of things we can do. And we're going to try to do some of them."
35. Are you going to avoid annoying dialogs ?
Bob McCabe: "We're always striving to make dialogue more interesting and realistic, and keep things from pulling you out of the experience... but there are also times when we need to make sure the information is always available for the player.
For example, a player might ask "What's this task you want me to do?" and the NPC might respond, "I want you to retrieve my briefcase from John." But you put the game down and come back days later and talk to that guy. We can change up the dialogue a little, like "What was that quest again? I can't remember," and have the NPC say, "I told you that all I wanted you to do was to find John, and get my briefcase from him."
But we can only write so many variations, especially when we have word budgets and time constraints.
This is but one (bad) example of how what we want to do is affected by what we can do. But we'll do our best to hide things and hopefully keep the experience as immersive as possible."
36. How long will be the story ? The same length than Baldur's Gate II ? Or shorter than Half-Life 2 (if it's possible) ?
Bob McCabe: "I beat Jade in a little over 3 hours. I beat KotOR in about 7. I beat Baldur's Gate I in 6 or 7. MDK2, I'm going on 5 years? 6 years? Heh.
We're aiming for something Jade-like with Mass Effect. I won't say a specific number of hours though because at this point it's too uncertain. How long will combat take? How long will dialogue take? I can play through Mass Effect now, in a sense, but that won't give anything resembling an accurate assessment of the playtime.
As for my preferences on length of game, I think the game should be as long as it needs to be. Some games seem to drag on with repetitive gameplay that gets boring. Some games feel like a tight story that last just the right amount. If that means 5 hours or 20 hours or 60 hours, then that's what it means. But my ideal range is about 15-25 hours, for most games. That is typically the range that works best for story."
Bob McCabe: " In regard to BG1, I had beat it a dozen times or more;I played that game too much! Anyway, during BG2's final days of development, they wanted people to send in BG1 character saves. I decided I would contribute by creating some BG1 characters. But then I couldn't just start new characters and not play them! So I stayed up over night. Played from about 11pm until 6am or so, then napped for a couple of hours and came in to work. Ah, the folly of youth...
We're definitely aiming for ME to be a game you can get through in a decent amount of time. And if you want to extend your experience, we're working on ways in which you can do that, too - but yet still have the game stay interesting and fresh. Like I said before, I can't suggest any numbers because it's just too early."