Thorns

I'm only playing DA:O, so I'm not sure what of it holds later, but I've been pretty impressed by the intersectionality of the story and complexity of the world until now. My younger cousins played it first, so we're having a lot of interesting discussions. (Playing with an elf is pretty interesting, since you can have almost any reaction to the almost pervasive negative attitudes around you. It's very uncomfortable, since mostly we want to keep playing ahead and learning new stuff, often without antagonizing other characters*, but letting the issue go is very hateful. It reminded me of the two or three times I've had anti-Semitic reactions to my last name -- one in a job I was the new-young-person at, one in a reunion with classmates, one talking with a perhaps-future-friend classmate after a class. I wonder how people who get that type of thing all the time feel when playing an elf.)

Of course, the world has all the inherent problems of using real 'races' & differences in power/biology to parallel real world problems. That itself is a complicated discussion.

*we always play a 'helpful hero' character, and we're probably not very into characterizing our character -- we are just pragmatic, re:decisions, and make whatever will make our gameplay easier and/or more fun. :P