In ME Tali is presiding over the engine of the ship.
In ME2 Garrus is always calibrating weapons.
In ME3 Liara is ||operating the shadow broker network.||
In DA:O they sit around camp but are relaxing, like Oghren drinks.
In DA2 they actually occupy their homes, like Anders is running a clinic.
In DA:I they all occupy parts of Skyhold and act as your inner circle, like Iron Bull rests in the bar and commands his mercenaries.
It's kind of fun coincidence, but I keep DA:O and ME1 in mind as examples for Option 2. Yeah, companions in this games are performing some animations and occupying a place of their own, but that's all.
Same Tali in ME isn't actually performing as an engineer, we have our engineering staff without her, she just brings a bit of her quarian insight to them. That gives her some personality, but not life.
DA:O is even worse. Companions there do not have much to do even on screen, and off-screen they are practically do not exist.
When I'm talking about alive not lazy companions I do not mean companions, who have their spot in our base of operations, perform some animations there and then tell me from time to time that they talked to someone. I mean companions more like in ME:A (yeah, bad game, but it pretty much nailed this) who change space around them, spread around friendly settlements when we come there, leave some traces of their off-screen life, have tasks and projects of their own, interact with each other on regular basis.
