Do you prefer narrative starts, or 'instant action starts'?

I did like start of DA:O somewhat and DA:I, ME:A and ME1 a lot - for me they're kinda hybrids, you get some info but you are thrown into unknown pretty soon.

I prefer the slower start, build up the character, the setting, a playable prologue to me is literally the best, there's a reason why DA:O is my favorite DA game, I'm able to get a feeling for who my character is & how they might interact with the world. Maybe have an option to skip the prologue for those that have no interest in it, but for me, it's much better storytelling.

Just my thoughts.

Given that we're in completely different area of Thedas(likely anyway) with hopefully a noticeably different culture to the ones explored in the last games I think it would be helpful to have a slower start. Let us learn a bit about Tevinter culture and society before we go balls deep(kind of a graphic metaphor but oh well).

The instant starts in DAI and DA2 worked better because we were only popping down the road from where the last game was set but even that a bit of a problem in DAI. Aside from one quest I never really felt like I was 'in' Orlais and this was partly down to the country and the culture never really being introduced in any big way.

Well of course we started off on the Ferelden side of the Frostbacks. Where being able to wander around delegates at the Conclave would have been helpful was with regard to the mage/Templar situation that had caused it. It would have been helpful to have various views before someone blew it to hell as naturally that tended to colour people's perspectives from then on.

So far as Orlais was concerned they really dropped the ball there. Val Royeaux is said to be the most magnificent city in Thedas after Minrathous and the Grand Cathedral is meant to be magnificent. Seeing as the Conclave wasn't held there, so it wasn't blown away, and the emphasis on how we are meant to be appealing to the clergy, why didn't we go there rather than some backwater market place? Also why wasn't it visible on the skyline?

Also we never really got to see just how bad things are for the elves in the alienages or how all peasants are treated by the nobles with contempt, in particular the Chevaliers. Everything we had been told about their culture in DAO was largely ignored, apart from the masks (which people do not wear in battle, they are part of court life only) and Masked Empire specifically makes it clear that palace guards do not wear them either. Even the Game was largely toned down. The ruling elite scheme wherever they are, so Orlais didn't seem that much different from anywhere, as I believe both Dorian and Solas point out.

Anyway, let's hope they do a better job with Minrathous and Tevinter.

I believe the Inquisitor said "inane". I really love the aggressive disband option.

I couldn't figure it out tbh. In the Wicked Eyes and Wicked hearts I had no idea who Gaspard or Celene was and I could have really been helped by a prologue that introduces these main players. 

What was disappointing was that instead of getting a full picture from the participants and then being credited with enough intelligence to make your own decision, in the end what it boiled down to was how many halla statues you had amassed. It also completely took me by surprise when Leliana suggested the option of putting Briala on the throne as though in reality that was ever a possibility.* Naturally I took it because it amused me to think of an elven Inquisitor having an elf as the power behind the throne but knowing the way Orlais is meant to operate she surely wouldn't have lasted five minutes even if they were in awe of the Inquisitor. If they bumped her off what were we going to do? Throw Orlais back into chaos again? Of course not.

Now the sensible option, if you found enough halla, was to tell them to stop being so stupid and start working together because we have bigger issues to worry about but it was easy to miss all the things you need to get that one, plus you have to spare Florianne and really I got far more satisfaction from fighting her. However, lots of other people die too if you don't just expose her publically, so clearly not the best option.

*It was a similar situation when I got to the end of one run and discovered that Vivienne was Divine.  How the heck could that ever have come about?  It was nothing to do with me, apart from some arbitrary decision by the writers that certain choices I had made favoured her.   However, based on everything we knew about southern Thedas and its attitude to mages in positions of power, it ought to have never even been a possibility.     So the politics of the world had rapidly become a lot less credible in my mind, so may be it didn't matter if you really understood what was going on. 

I think, it is a big Problem.
In DA2 i don‘t feel the Game. Because we haven‘t Hear of it, Till Then.
It only work because our pc don‘t know easer. And we Running trough a big boring city and help Here and help there. Please not again. Than i am out. Denerim was big an overloud, no Green, no Story, only smal boring quest. The same.
In Inquisition i think it isn‘t perfekt but the amnesia worked. Yes we musst wait a lot Till we know whats happend, But i can work with That.
Origion was really good, but i can Unterstand that some People find it boring.
I want to say DAO is Dragon age and When people don‘t like that, look for a game that is different. DA isn‘t a egoshouter or only fightinggame.

You receive extensive information about them immediately prior to meeting them, and afterwards. The whole mission is information-gathering. I'm genuinely bemused and curious as to what good you think would come of having them "introduced" in a prologue section where (depending on how much free time an individual has), a player might not encounter them again for days or even weeks? How do you imagine that playing out? An opening slideshow of all the major players with accompanying text and narration? "This is Celene, she'll be important later?"

Or do you mean like a little scene?

"[CAPTION: MEANWHILE, IN ORLAIS...]

GASPARD ENTERS FANCY ROOM. CELENE IS SITTING IN CHAIR

GASPARD: Good Morning Celene, Empress of Orlais, the fictional country in which we live, which is basically The Simpsons version of France.

CELENE: Good Morning Gaspard, my scheming cousin who plots constantly to take my throne from me. Also you have some sort of military position, but that detail isn't particularly relevant. How are you today?

GASPARD: I am well. Have you heard that in Haven, which is a town far away from here, that the Chantry, which is like the Catholic Church except ladies, is supervising a peace summit between Mages -which is our word for magic-users- and Templars, which is our word for knights who use magic but we don't call it magic?

CELENE: Why no! I hadn't heard, but that is good news! I hope nothing bad happens!

[ SUDDENLY, A BURST OF MALEVOLENT GREEN LIGHT IGNITES THE SKY. DEMONS POUR FORTH]

CELENE: Oh no, it would seem that someone or something has torn a hole in the Veil, which as you know cousin, is a metaphysical barrier between our material world and some sort of kooky spirit plane that we call the Fade.

GASPARD: The Fade is also where dreams come from. Unless you're a dwarf for some reason.

CELENE: If only there were a fully-grown adult around who somehow made it their entire life without learning about any of the basic concepts of our known universe. This conversation would be very educational for them."

Nah I'm more thinking something along the lines of when you get to meet Loghain and the boys at Ostagar. 

Do you think that books also suffer when they don't spend extra time at the start explaining everything to you?

So you wanted Celene and Gaspard to be present at Haven in this hypothetical pre-Breach section of the game where your character gets to run around and personally meet everyone, even when they are a Dalish spy who shouldn't even be there in the first place?