User blog comment:The Milkman/Mass Effect in Retrospect/@comment-4950455-20130417203249/@comment-2250460-20130419140957

Yeah, you also choose their backsory, military history, and major choices they make. And you choose how they respond to them. That's character development in the only way a series like Mass Effect can do it.

Unless you wanter Cliche Action-Renegade Shepard who gets character development but at the cost of player choice.