Apologies in advance for the LOTR sperg, but I'm reading it right now (and anyone that hasn't is basically hate criming humanity) and I'm not saying that every piece of fantasy should ape the worldbuilding in LOTR but... goddamn they should at least TRY. Something that's struck me when I hold it up against failguard and most modern RPG's is the vastness of the world and the speed that information travels. Only really well traveled or nearby folk know the shire even exists. Under the growing shadow in the east everyone is frightened. Nobody knows wtf is going on in the south and the north is even scarier. The badasses that go those places to keep an eye on things are mostly pariahs. The path the fellowship travels is long and occasionally very rough. Getting lost usually means encountering places that have not been touched or seen by mortals for in some cases hundreds of years. Key places in the story are in some cases so secret like Lorien that only a few elves in Rivendell know how to get there and most people in Middle Earth have no clue it exists. In Rivendell, Boromir happens by as a representative of Gondor because he was seeking guidaince on a recurring verse in a dream. When he asks for the ring his desperation really comes through and he is actually quite convincing, especially because nobody else at the council would probably know the kind of shit he's seen. The hobbits are fish out of water but they aren't developmentally challenged children like they are in the PJ films. They are a bit goofy but still hardy and they are always faithful to each other. Frodo is witty and brave and Sam is an anomaly in that he is enraptured by learning about the history of other races in Middle Earth, particularly elves. You have to learn all these things gradually, though. There is no information superhighway and the people and creatures of Middle Earth all have their own motivations. Since races are so spread out and isolated grudges can be held for hundreds of years. Legendary characters leave to found colonies and get rich and "Oops, we haven't heard from Balin in like, a really long time. Not good!". Conversely, Gwaihir only rescues Gandalf because he helped him a very long time ago and was only at Orthanc in the first place to deliver news, not spring a prisoner. In spite of how bleak everything is and how hopeless the mission is, there is still so much joy in these books, often through singing, which is where the reader learns about the world and the stories that are near universally known.
Bioware RPG's are kind of already the Ur-examples of an RPG that technically shuttles you around and pays lip service to the illusion of vast distances and culture shock even though you are basically just in small corridors and arenas the entire time while still passing as an RPG. The zoomer writing is cringeworthy enough but it's worse that it's treated as if every person in Thedas would even know what the fuck someone was talking about when they say "So I'm non-binary", much less have an opinion on it, MUCH less that opinion be generally positive with the occasional "oopsie sorry for misgendering you". Even if you were to like this stupid cartoonish version of Thedas where everyone is an MCU character with one minor character flaw and a million one liners, it's impossible to believe it as a space because everything that has to do with the plot orbits around your party and there is nothing to actually learn about the world. Instead of joyful songs juxtaposed with crushing setbacks we get dinner table conversations about gender roles. Instead of companions telling us anything consequential about where they come from or any information that could help with the plot, the game just barfs clearly marked main plotline missions at us while your characters poke you to fix their petty 21st century identity issues. Is it unfair to hold the worldbuilding in this turd up to one of the most influential works of fiction of the last century? Yeah, absolutely. But it serves a really good point, and that point is, read LOTR for Godssake.