Not really the dark ages, just made with the assumption that there wasn't free software that could do a better job. Softimage EXP (later named Mod Tool) was around at the time that Dragon was made and largely used. So many people used Max that they didn't realize that the free version of Softimage|XSI could do a far better job in a fraction of the time. You could also get way better movements out of the face, since it's a cut scene you aren't limited to "player" models, you could take the existing models, subdivide the meshes and add more facial bones to get much better movements. There is a separate skeleton they used for this reason that had a lot more facial bones for JK2.