LGBT Representation in Video Games: Another Look at Dragon Age

zmh157
Oct 3, 2015
2 min read

Is it a coincidence that just last week I fangirled over Dragon Age: Inquisition as I looked at video games and storytelling, and now, this week, I’ll be talking about LGBT representation and Dragon Age? Yes, it's a beautiful coincidence.

But this isn’t just me trying to sell you a video game—I’m not the only one who’s excited to see BioWare putting fully actualized LGBT characters in its video games. As a matter of fact, Dragon Age: Inquisition received a GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Award for its LGBT characters.

BioWare has given players the option to be gay before, and players could have their avatars pursue relationships with the same sex, but those characters would date you no matter what sex your avatar was. While bisexual and pansexual relationships deserve recognition as well, Dragon Age: Inquisition saw the inclusion of exclusively gay characters as well as BioWare’s second transgender character.

This is Dorian of House Pavus, and he is BioWare’s first “fully gay” character. A mage from a country called The Tevinter Imperium, an incredibly decadent place in which mages are allowed to flourish (as opposed to the rest of the Dragon Age world of Thedas where mages are heavily monitored) and slavery is totally legal,

Dorian’s backstory is both complicated and heartbreaking, and for a more detailed look at Dorian’s backstory click here and I’ll tell you all about it.

But here’s a quick summary of said backstory though if you're not looking for all the nitty-girtty detials: Dorian’s father finds out about his sexuality, tries to force Dorian to change, and Dorian decides to cast himself into a self-imposed exile and leave Tevinter in the dust.

Makes sense, right?

By placing Dorian in a world where homosexuality isn’t widely accepted as opposed to some of BioWare’s other games where sexual orientation just isn’t noticed, BioWare manages to create a world similar to our own albeit filled with magic and demons.

It’s important to include LGBT characters in video games—it’s important to pay attention to representation of all kinds when it comes to any form of media. While young children shouldn’t necessarily be playing Dragon Age, they do play other video games and it’s important for children, as well as adults, to see people and play as people and be able to say “they’re just like me.”

Everyone should have someone to look up, be it a real person or a character in a video game—someone they can relate to on a deep, personal level.

There are other video games with LGBT characters (as seen above), and we can certainly take a more in-depth look at those characters some other time (or you can click here and I'll give you a brief look at them), but video games still have a long way to go in terms of representation.

As we wrap up this particular blog post, consider this: