Well, I don't intend to buy the game as is. So my vote is a non sale for them. I really enjoyed the first one, but this change kills the game for me. There are other games to play both in my back catalog and on the horizon. After all, Witcher 2 and TES V are coming soon.

I didn't hate Mass Effect either. However I went into Mass Effect knowing Shepard was the character you play. The franchise was built around that idea. Dragon Age wasn't. I'm not a fan of the change they are making and thus will not support it by buying the game. Different franchises set up different expectations for what to expect from future games in that franchise. The multiple beginnings and the fact that the race and background you chose at character creation had effects on the game in how NPCs reacted to you and for me defined the franchise and is what made the game interesting to me. The move away from that goes completely against what I would expect from a Dragon Age game and by taking away what I thought was the most interesting feature also takes away my interest in the game.

For me, without the multiple beginnings and effects of race choice, the game just becomes another generic fantasy action game with RPG elements to me.

That's all it was for me, I didn't finish it. It was so boring... and the balance was either way too easy or way too hard (party wipe 6 times in a row, when at most you'd lost one before).

I suggest playing the demo. It didn't improve my opinion of it, but it may have a different effect on you. Since it's free it's worth the chance.

I downloaded it, intend to tonight. I'll chime in when I have, as all have noticed I'm not shy:)

I've come to the conclusion that there was either some sort of disagreement between the designers as to what kind of game they wanted to make or they just couldn't make up their minds which led to Origins being so bland. It simultaneously wanted to be thoughtful and badass, slowpaced and frenetic. They seem to have gone for badass and frenetic this time around, which was the opposite of what I wanted, but oh well.
I reckon you'll probably quite like it, it's just not what I was wanting personally really. I do think that even those who think they'll hate it's guts should still try the demo though, just to give it a chance.

I am currently playing the game and this is what really concerns me.
Is it worth playing the game as preparation to start/import into Inquisition?

For example, my Garrett Hawke character was very diplomatic with the Qunari, especially after you played Master of the Assassins DLC, which gives you much more insight into their 'religion' from different races point of view.
I was never really fond of Isabella and when the time came to decide helping the people of Kirkwall or finding some trinket for her, I went to support Avaline (Isabella left for good).

At the end of act2, I got challenged single combat by the Arishock and his people left the town.

I saw lets play, where someone is not so neutral, the only difference is dialogue and he had to fight all the Qunari in the throne room.

This makes me wonder, how much can you import into the new Dragon Age? In DA:O you could even influence who becomes king.

I know for sure, Isabella will be back in Inquisition, but will she remember or mention the Champion of Kirkwall? Is she still searching for that thing?

wow ok, major necro. xD
Haven't played Da:I yet but Apparently Hawke returns for the game. So it might be that you influenced things somewhat. :P
Take a look at DA Keep for major decisions.

Thanks for the hint to DA Keep (https://dragonagekeep.com/), it seems to have imported my previous plays but I cannot see any change :)
Weird, I did have a child with Morrigan in the end of Origins and I know for sure, I killed the architect and the brood mother in the end of Awakening!!!111oneone
And he went with Morrigan through the mirror...

In this thingy it says the hero died killing the archdemon.

There are some things to do with the imported saves in DA1. Check the dragon age wiki.

I will look once i get home and post what you have to do for a relatively proper import if you can't find the relevant entries.

You can edit it freely though so that shouldn't be an issue.

I think it is Fubar in my case. It also states my recent account with BioWare is from 2011. I know I had Dragon Age Origin before on Steam and didn't finish. I also started many time over before I settled with a race/class in Origins. It offers me to choose from 7 different heroes for example.

The ingame import for Dragon Age 2 seems to work quite well of the Origins story and it showed a quick overview on what is set.

Even Dragon Age 2 is mostly wrong and there is only one hero on the account.

Looks like a bad import...Kind of reminds me of ME saves. The ME imported in ME2 poorly, with the game not recognising some of the choices that i made in ME (like assuming that i treated Conrad poorly, which i did not or that i killed the drug lord instead of reforming her). Sure, i could use gib's save editor to straighten that states, but the point is that i should not use a third party program to set things right because the programmers did not check properly the quest states in imported saves.

I checked on my BioWare Social account for Player Profiles and they are set to Read Only. There is a helpful forum post linked, which explains what could prevent it. Enabling the developer console for example, which I think I have.

Later at home I will disable it and then sync manually :)

This keep website does look promising.

p.s. I guess the only information my bioware profile has, are the heroes names and this is why the keep info is all wrong.
//edit: not working, but they offer a survey to contact you with problems.

If all else fails you could always input your choices manually. :P

It did sync something, the archivements for DA2 are there now: http://i.imgur.com/EedfPZ8.png
Maybe they fix it somehow

But still everything is wrong :P
No romance in both parts, Connor died in Origin, stupid Isolde alive. Never kissed Tallis in Master of the Assassins. All plot decisions seem not synced.