Bioware has one feature in its RPGs that only Lionhead with Fable II has even come close to reproducing:

Multiple Careers

The Mass Effect games and Dragon Age: Origins all allow you to create multiple careers, each with their own separate saved games. Not only does this allow you the gamer to maintain multiple games in-progress, but it also allows Bioware to do things like more easily offer a game plus feature or allow you to select which profile to import into an expansion pack.

So why don't all RPGs do this? Bethesda for example would do a great service to their customers by incorporating this feature into future Fallout and Elder Scroll titles. I shouldn't have to delete my existing saved games just because I want to play one of their RPGs a second, third, or even tenth time.

But I think this feature could be rolled out to other genres as well. I should be able to maintain multiple sets of saved games for Peggle and Call of Duty without having to create multiple profiles on the Xbox 360, for example. This might lead to some redundancy of features but ultimately it gives players more control over their data and is thusly far less restrictive.

What I find most interesting about this feature though is that the gaming press talks little of it. This makes me think that most people don't find it very exciting and that the existing saved game systems are sufficient for them. Maybe most of these people are only playing through a game once or they don't mind that a subsequent play through overwrites a previous one?

Bioware's multiple career feature was an exciting development when Mass Effect introduced it a couple of years ago and it's awesome that the developer has continued it in their most recent games. They seem committed to giving players the ability to role play endlessly within the game worlds they create and I for one appreciate it.

I now hope that other developers will follow suit.