Dragon Age Inquisition: Using Fantasy for Social Change

Google Doc Link: here

Resource link: here

Liam Dorsey

10/20/16

Comms 101

Danny Kimball

The Dragon Age of Social Change

When analyzing the prominence of social issues in popular culture few think of the vessel of video games to offer any meaningful impact. While a majority of popular console games produced in the last two decades do have some aspect of violence or absurdity added to them they should not be written off. In fact, some often contain overlooked ideas and stories that can be meaningful and applicable to modern day struggles. Many of these games fall under the broad term of an RPG (Role Playing Game) in which the player controls a character pivotal to the story, acting as a powerful and badass protagonist. The story that the player is taken through, while much more interactive than a film or book, will be written just as well if the game wishes to make an impact on their players. A poorly written story in a video game often feels as unsatisfactory as a poorly written book, sometimes even more so, as the player must allow themselves to 0be dragged along a horrible narrative in order to proceed. Part of what makes a story great is a sense of realism added to it, so that even if the player finds themselves battling dragons or hurtling through space they have real issues to ground them and real characters to bond with. One game in particular does a fantastic job of this: Dragon Age: Inquisition. The Dragon Age franchise has been a popular series for many years, produced by Bioware, a company especially known for its storytelling and worldbuilding prowess in this series and others. Having garnered over 100 awards and nominations,including Game of the year in 2014 (Gamesradar.com), for aspects from its design to story, this game has been constantly pushing boundaries in terms of what a videogame can do. Inquisition in particular used its story following the “Inquisitor” and other characters beautifully to address such issues as race, religion, gender, and sexuality very tactfully and carefully, allowing players to influence these discussions and actively participate in them. Dragon Age: Inquisition’s clever story and characters, along with its fantasy setting and player choice gives helps expand on key social issues of today like sexuality and race.

Sexuality in Dragon Age games and indeed in the video game industry in general has always been a deeply contested topic. The industry, since its real rise in the 1970s has focused on male, cisgender, heteronormative characters. Games as early as pac man featured only one male hero. Similarly ageless games like Mario by Nintendo focus on a male protagonist going off to fight evil and saving the stereotypical princess Peach. Games made nowadays feature similar issues, with many focusing on straight strong male characters with little option for other narratives. These results come about even in the midst of protest by various LGBT groups and other groups wanting more diversity in video games. There are several reasons for this, first and foremost being that the industry is historically targeted toward young straight men, therefore many companies simply never felt the need to change that. Also to blame is the lack of diversity in the companies themselves, which up until recently were predominantly made up of straight males (Putting the Gay in Games). However many companies are becoming more diverse in their hiring, leading to increased representation for underrepresented social groups like the LGBT community. From these changes in thinking and makeup companies are becoming more inclusive thus resulting in higher quality games. Many games now feature the ability to experience playing through narratives other than a straight white male, offering diversity in terms of minority representation, gender, and specifically, sexual orientation. RPG games are a particularly good vessel for these changes because they are expansive and driven by story and exploration, offering developers more opportunities to make these changes.

It is in this respect that Dragon Age: Inquisition has been particularly adept at creating narratives for voices of the LGBT community. The world of Dragon Age: Inquisition is one of the largest produced by Bioware ever, falling short only of their expansive MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). While this may not seem to have a direct effect on diversity it is a building block. In games like these the story is driven by the player going on “quests” which can be simplified to the player completing objectives. Each of these quests need areas to discover, explore, and complete the objective and in order for the game the feel less repetitive developers often choose to simply make the world larger. In other words the larger the world, the greater amount of possible and fulfilling quests to embark upon, in turn offering more story content. This adventuring and quest finishing also highlights another aspect of Inquisitions access to social ideas, the characters.

The characters of Dragon Age: Inquisition are incredibly diverse in every way. Hailing from distant lands, to having horns or pointed ears to wanting to sleep with everyone and wanting to sleep with everyone but you, the game offers dozens of complex personalities to encounter. Bioware is highly reputed for creating amazing characters to accompany their heroes or just influence them in passing. The care and depth put into each character means that even a character that shows up for five minutes can make an impact on a player. For instance there is a character named Witty Ritts, (a scout for the player’s faction named the Inquisition), which the player can encounter early in the game in the area called the Hinterlands. The player finds Ritts in a secluded area in the middle of an attack by the wrathful templar order who are fighting a civil war with magic wielders in the area. Should the inquisitor choose to save her, the player finds out that she was having a secret picnic with a female mage which was why the templars ambushed them. Though she claims it was in order to get information she admits it was also for pleasure. The player can further choose to involve one of their companions, Varric, to convince Ritts to become an agent, due to his knowledge of spying, and she agrees. From then on the inquisitor can frequently receive reports from her often comic exploits throughout the game, and in addition, the organization becomes stronger because of it. This is an example of how small characters can have a big impact on not just the story but the mechanics of the game itself. Furthermore, Ritt’s sexuality, while made a facet of her character, is not the only part that the character focuses on, which is refreshing. A pitfall of any media be it a video game, TV show, and everything in between, is when trying to be diverse or inclusive, the writers or developers make characters that only have one trait: what makes them different. People have complexity to them and all too often characters appear appear flat or unfulfilling because they are only gay or female or a minority. These aspects are very important but not the only thing that drives a character.

Also worthy of note is another less known character named Crem. Cremisius Aclassi formally served under the tyrants of the Tevinter Imperium, a place filled with slaves and injustice in the country’s military. Crem originally was a woman, but finding that she felt uncomfortable as a female decided to go into the army as male, and for years kept that identity hidden until one day a military doctor found his secret. Faced with either death or slavery Crem fled and joined up with the mercenary band called the Bull’s Chargers led by one of the companions in the game Iron Bull. When the player acquires Iron Bull as a playable companion the rest of the band including Crem comes along and a readily available to talk to. The inquisitor can learn Crem’s story and can choose to share a variety of opinions on the topic. This is an example of how player’s choice helps them understand the social issues like transgender identity. While most freely accept Crem and his choices, the player can express disgust, prompting a severe rebuttal from Iron Bull, who is in face an 8 foot tall dragon man, much to the player’s chagrin. Bull staunchly defends Crem on both religious and moral bases, because their shared experiences eliminate any fear or hate. Crem is a strong character and chooses to fight when he wants and not care about whether other accept his decisions because ultimately his own. This great, albeit small, facet of Dragon Age: Inquisition was a great method to expose players to new ideas.

Among the most developed characters are the companions of the inquisitor, who follow the player’s lead and help them fight and tackle various situations. They are referred to in game as the inner circle of the inquisitor, and in Inquisition they always have something to say. As the main character, the player can choose to talk to any of these characters about their personal story or about the adventures that the player shares with them, at any time. Each character is fully voiced and has opinions to lend at every juncture based on their own stories and personalities and as such some might not react the same way as others. One may oppose a decision on moral grounds while another thinks of it as a waste of resources or people and maybe another differs entirely because they thought it was great. These characters grow along side of the inquisitor as the story progresses lending them even more depth and realism. These qualities are highlighted as the inquisitor interacts through dialogue and specific quests that advance the storylines of the companions. This can lead to some odd flirting and eventually romances.

The term “romances” in this case means the romances between the inquisitor and the nine companions as well as the 3 advisors and several side characters. It is through these romances that the player can see that the developers took care to add sexual diversity to their game because the inquisitor has several options for romances based on gender and race. Female inquisitors have 3 options for all races, 4 if the player is human, and 5 if the player is an elf. The male inquisitor has 4 romance for all races. Of these relationships 4 are hetersexual (two of which are race specific), 2 are gay/lesbian, and 2 are bisexual/pansexual. All of these relationships have depth and flair and fun to them because of all of the character building that Bioware did and the story they create, and it is important to note that regardless of gender or race the Inquisitor does have the option to flirt with everyone. This also shows that there is a relative balance and representation in the game that is very hard to find in most others.

The male inquisitor actually on has one hetersexual romance option while the rest are either gay or bisexual. The gay romance option for males is the ever flamboyant Dorian Pavus a mage from a place named Tevinter, which is based off of ancient Rome. He is one of the last companions you can acquire but that doesn’t change his tendencies toward friendliness and flirting. One key aspect that shows Inquisition’s respect is immediate: Dorian does not flirt with the character outright (although his commentary is playful). If he had, then he would be labeled with that stigma by the player, in fact the inquisitor actually has the chance to flirt first, and only upon pursuing that option or by asking him directly does he tell the player. This is actually true for all romances, none of them start unless the inquisitor acts first, showing that player choice is a major factor in exposing the social issues tackled in this game. Upon investigating, Dorian can reveal his motivations for leaving his homeland. His home of Tevinter is a corrupt and dark place that is built upon the back of slavery and using dangerous magic to gain power, but not everyone there is bad in Dorian’s eye and so he joined the Inquisition in order to show that Tevinter can do good. Going deeper and flirting with Dorian also reveals that he is considered a pariah because of his sexuality, for in Tevinter mages rule, and their bloodlines are important because magic grows stronger when two mages procreate. This is part of a greater and tragic narrative all too prevalent in today’s society, where people can be shunned by their loved one’s and their community because of who they love.

As for the lesbian romance in the game, Sera presents as a unique character among romances. As a female inquisitor the player is able to initiate a romance with her immediately, but she doesn’t fully trust them at first. In order to build up trust, the player must show Sera that they can have fun and lead an army. Sera’s character is hilarious and outrageous and she specifically can give the player access to more missions than any other. Her brave face gives way to a hard childhood in the slums and orphanages in her youth, and she grew up fending for herself and caring about the little people. In this way she gets dangerously close to a stereotype that goes for lesbians in that she if very tomboyish and thus is taken less seriously. But that also sets her apart from the other females in the game and in fact all romances. Sera walks the thin line between serious vigilante to the nobles in Dragon Age’s world of Thedas and serious comedic sidekick and that is reflected in her relationship with the player. Regardless of the inquisitor’s gender or race Sera will call them out call she thinks are wrong and praise other just as quickly. Dragon Age: Inquisition used Sera to create an utterly unique and ultimately empowering narrative about how women and in particular lesbians, are perceived, precisely by the fact that her personality is like no other.

The two bisexual/pansexual relationship options for the player are very interesting, and there is one male and one female option. (One important note about the lack of distinction in this part of the essay about pan vs. bi -sexual, is that the game doesn’t distinguish between the two, it simply states that they are options for both genders). The female romance option is one other the inquisitor’s advisors, Josephine Montilyet, who is the political juggernaut that leads the player down less violent routes in the game. The player must first get to know Josephine well before romancing her becomes an option as initial attempts make her skeptical. Once the player breaks down the facade of ambassador Montilyet, the Josephine comes out and they learn that Josephine’s past is shrouded in adversity and hardship. This makes her a very endearing and caring romance option, as she constantly checks on the player after missions to make sure they are alright.

The male bi romance option goes from the opposite end of the spectrum. Iron Bull will both attack and romance everything and that has a lot to do with his backstory. Upon meeting the player Iron Bull is in charge of the Bull’s Chargers, but before he served his people, the Qunari as a secret agent. The Qunari are a race of giant men and women with menacing horns sprouting from their heads, and the follow the Qun which is a very strict social and religious code. All races are accepted under the Qun but the Qunari tend to be very aggressive with its spread, lending all its people the reputation of unstoppable and dangerous warriors. But despite this Iron Bull demonstrates a surprising cunning and intellect in between fits of frenzy and passion, making him somewhat of an enigma romance wise. It is in this respect that Iron Bull demonstrates another aspect of Inquisition’s social commentary. That love and romance are blurred and that not everyone understands each other and that is okay. There are many opportunities for the player to flirt with characters and NPCs (Non Player Characters), in fact the Inquisitor can almost literally flirt with most of Thedas. However most of this flirtation is unrequited such as the case of another companion Vivienne whom you can flirt with often but never romance. However Iron Bull’s romance is not a lost cause just harder to get to through dialogue and quest options, which is important to note because is shows that not all romances come are there fully at the leisure of the player. The inquisitor can romance Bull by appealing to his honor and his love of battle, while also not letting oneself get carried away, making him the hardest companion to romance but culminating in a string of hilarious and mature scenes in the game.

Bioware has always been known for pushing boundaries and taking risks in their games, whether with new technology or mechanics, or through new story options. This results in games like Dragon Age: Inquisition that can maturely address topics such as sexuality and other social issues. The story and characters of Inquisition are the key to creating narratives for gamers to follow and see topics like being gay or transgender in new ways. Inquisition proves that it and videogames like it can be a legitimate media vessels were people can enlighten people on issues of today even while battling demons and dragons with swords and magic.