DA4's Writing Team - Who's in it and what did they write?

Other points I think may be relevant:

Mary Kirby (the writer for Sten, Varric, Merrill and Vivienne) is currently working on Anthem, as stated on her Twitter bio. She's open to the possibilit of working on DA4, though:

As has been pointed out on this very forum before, Andromeda and Anthem both featured stories with a generally lighter tone, quippy MCU-style dialogue and lackluster villains, which may have been due to Cathleen Rootsaert being Lead Writer for both. Last I heard, she's not working on DA4, so if you're worried in that regard, that's one thing the game's got going for it.

I believe the people that can fuck things up are:

Sheryl Chee: Leliana is cool, although it's a copy of Liara. From the rest, she didn't write one single interesting character, or at least one that isn't a stereotype. Also wrote crappy Andromeda characters. Watch out for her.

Brianne Battye: Wrote the most overrated character in DA, and also worked on Anthem.

Courtney Woods: Worked on DA:I's worst DLC and the shitty characters of Andromeda.

Luke Kristjanson: Long-time veteran, but wrote the worst character ever on a Bioware game (Liam). Also, Jacob and Kaidan, ugh.

The others look really solid. 

I see quite a few of my favorite characters among those listed so character-wise at least I’m confident.

Nice info
I really don't know jackshit about Dragon Age writers... who the writers currently are/were, who should I be wary of, who should I welcome, etc; so I'm glad you added explanations as of who's who and who wrote what for previous games.
I'd like everyone who worked on Trespasser personally. I rate it as one of the best if not the best DLC they ever done.

All I ask is please don't let Lukas Kristjanson do another "Average Joe" character. His last two attempts were annoying and swung far too wildly between insultingly stupid and weirdly esoteric.

Lol.

"I believe that the people who can fuck things up are all the women and one man."

Hahahahahahaha.

I think we shouldn't forget the element of peer review. People don't write in a vacuum, particularly as they have to interact with other characters. So the general character concept needs to be run by the rest of the team to make sure they aren't out of place in the lore or will be difficult to integrate into the storyline. (See the interview that DG gave about pitching Dorian's character to the rest of the team).

Everyone has their favourite characters and others they either hate or simply don't find interesting but that is not to say they are not well written, it is just a matter of taste. If you feel that Cullen was overrated, blame that on his fans rather than the writer. He was originally not meant to be more than an advisor but was made a romance as a late addition, presumably responding to fan pressure. I note that his writer for DAI had not worked on him in the previous two games.

I am less worried about their ability to deliver on interesting new characters as I am the plotlines that underpin the whole process. The writers listed have worked on some very interesting storylines in both previous DA games and MET. However, so far as DA is concerned, I was bothered by how previously established lore was changed in DAI and recent novels/comics, without a valid explanation for this. Introducing something as big as the Titans in a DLC and then asking me to believe that no one remembers their existence or has encountered them at all since the time of the Evanuris was rather hard for me to accept. I also found the Grey Warden plot hard to swallow, starting with their whole relationship with the kingdom of Ferelden (that contradicted events in DAA) through to their collective idiocy in trusting Erimond (who apparently had no previous connection with the Wardens) and his master plan, to the fact that given the timescale involved, they could and should have contacted HQ (Leliana was contacting people across the length and breadth of Thedas by raven in the same time period). No matter how well written a story might be, this is something that spoils it for me.

Also, it cannot be denied that Corypheus was a missed opportunity for a really interesting villain but the shallowness of his characterisation becomes more understandable when you find out that DAI only told half the story, plus elements that started to hint at something more interesting were only found on one side of the story. However, apparently the chief villain in the latest two games has been equally disappointing. The motivations of Corypheus' various followers were also not explored in any depth in game.

The writers have given themselves an interesting challenge in DA4. Solas is well known to established players, although his character is still something of an enigma, but will be a total blank to anyone new to the franchise. At least his development going forward is going to be overseen by his writer in DAI but I hope that the focus isn't going to be wholly on him and that there are going to be other well developed antagonists involved. Also keeping the plot development consistent with the lore not just in DAI but right back to DAO.

cool. but i was referring specifically to your comment about the main game sucking. that's what threw me off.

I didn't realize Weekes had written for ME1. Seems like a mostly solid line up.