Gameplay and historical consciousness in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II (Bioware)

Cecilia Trenter

Abstract

This article deals with the historical consciousness in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II (2009-2011 BioWare) which is a single-player third-person role-playing video game series within the fantasy-medieval context. In order to know how gameplay operates with its dystopian fictional present, the article analyzes how the two video games create a spatial and temporal connection between past, present and future in a fictional history inspired by dystopian Sword and Sorcery-fantasy. This article is based on the assumption that understanding the projective identity through a Playing Character (PC) as a part of a flow of time with a past, a present and a future in the game, is a crucial part of the gameplay. This article stresses that the two games within the series turn out differently according to the gameplay; Dragon Age: Origins develop from an apocalyptic and dystopian place (a world full of threats) into a eutopian place (a good place to stay) whereas Dragon Age II remains in a dystopian plot.