Rambling response of someone who doesn’t know much..

I think that David makes a valid point. Admittedly, I don’t particularly have the correct credentials to wade in on a conversation regarding writing for video games. But, what I do understand is that creating something, or in this particular case someone (Taking Alistair from DA for example), can be quite a personal experience.

That particular character is potentially microcosmic of its creator, I can imagine, then, for someone else to propose a suitable continuation for that character to be a tall order indeed.

I like to think of it like this;

The vast team, or sometimes minimal team of developers are the architects of a potentially amazing universe. In other words, they provide the parameters of the sandbox. Then they begin to subsequently fill it with sand.

The writer, then begins to build the castle(s), using the sand provided by the architects to build something.

Fan-Fiction should not then, in my opinion, be a side tower of the castle built by the writer. Improving and changing it where he/she believes is best. But, instead, the author of the Fan-Fiction should use a different part of the sand. Building their own castle from the poole of lore and sand provided by the architects.

I say this as someone who is inadequately qualified to cast a scholarly opinion.