In terms of popular entertainment, I consider myself of the Dragon Age (DA) game series. There are three games, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and the most recent release in November of 2014, Dragon Age: Inquisition. When it was first released I got a copy to play on my Xbox 360, and despite the already old graphics of the hardware that I was using and the low quality that game out, I nonetheless enjoyed it. I played it as a casual fan through 2015 and then took what essentially ended up becoming a hiatus from it for about two years.
In 2017 I came back to the game with renewed interested; new downloadable content (DLC) had come out and more plot revelations had occurred, and although I didn’t know all about it, I was interested in what I could learn about the world. Playing it again, I found myself more invested in the lore of DA, as it was as deep and as dense as Lord of the Ring’s world. I now people’s attempts to make sense of the world in long or short-form essays (metas) and even read fan-written fiction in attempt to get even more enjoyment out of the series. In addition to this, I’ve bonded with my roommate who plays the game as well and finds art for us to enjoy. I even made a friend through interactions with DA, and she’s gone so far as to create art for me.
In the end, playing through all of the games of the DA series has led to me meeting new people and strengthening bonds that I already had. Although I’ve become more critical of the media that I consume, I still find it a fun game series despite flaws that I might find.
