Dragon Age playthrough required before DA2?

I preordered Dragon Age 2, but I have never played Dragon Age:Origins. Am I going to be lost? My plan is to eventually play the first one, but should I do this before I start the sequel?

Are there going to be a save-game import feature for the sequel?

You shoudl definetly play the first one. You do not need to technically, but if you love good stories, than YOU HAVE TO!

Dragon Age was one of the best game that I ever played, I loved just spending hours not fighting but just talking with my party. It felt... real!

I wouldn't lose if I was you the opportunity to add this depth to the succession of the game, for sure the consequences of your choice in DA1 will have repercussion on DA2. It absolutely make sense to increase sells and to make the game more interesting.

DA2 it will be technically different, they made various modifications respect to the DA1, one of this is not able to create the character face (I just saw on the website that there is an addon feature that will permits to do that, but you will start as the standard DA2 character). But I am sure that many things like some combo spells or other features like giving gift to your party will be no different.

So my suggestion is try out DA1!

From what I understand, there will be a save-game import feature, but the main character in DA2 is wholly different from the character in DA:O. So it should be a completely new story, with references to your choices in the past game if you imported.

Given that DA2 has yet to be released, this is mostly speculative.

As with most games I imagine there will be considerable references to the previous game that will be missed if you haven't played the first one. I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't want do a quick play through of DA 1 prior to picking up DA 2 because its such an awesome game. But I imagine nothing will break if you don't have a saved game to import.