An unforgettable rpg experience. It's almost as great as the Mass Effect Trilogy if not better in its own ways.
It also means that I can argue with strangers over the internet. Not sure which I enjoy more sometimes, especially as it pertains to mages and templars.
It mean Smooochie and adding ladies to my harem 
It mean Smooochie and adding ladies to my harem
*Gasp* It's Alrik! Get 'im!
*gets torch* where XD*Gasp* It's Alrik! Get 'im!
Epic Fantasy! Enough that I'm actually getting the PS4 deluxe 
Guest_Cat Blade_*
I really enjoy it. It showed me there are AAA games out there with women's representation in mind. Something that allows me to create a female character who is empowered without reducing my options to, "You can play a man or play a piece of femme fatale eye candy."
"what does dragon age mean to you?"
ANSWER: ALOT OF DEAD BODIES 
Well, it means quite a bit to me. I was living with my dad when I first got Origins. By that point, I was pretty late to the party.
I knew that because of the graphics alone to be honest, but I still loved the silent protag and multiple choices.
At that point, I hadn't played a lot of games like that. TES, Fallout, sure. None of those seemed to have as much impact though.
I wasn't happy. I dug a hole in videogames to live in and I couldn't think about anything else really.
I got Dragon Age II long before finishing Origins. I even finished II long before Origins. 
Long story short, DA was one of the games that kept me from losing it in a bad time.
Which, in the past few years, it's been a horrible time for me.
Well it means there is this age you see. thats a mesurement of time... and there are Dragons in it.. Yeeeaaah.
Dragon Age (and even Mass Effect because, for me, it's difficult to totally separate both as if they were polar opposites. Sure one's sci-fi and one's fantasy, but they're just two sides to a story) was an incredible experience.
I discovered DA last year, randomly picked out DA:O Ultimate Edition from EB Games, went home....and LOVED every second of playing. I was hooked. I just was. I cried and I laughed and I fell in love with Zevran and I met some wonderful friends with Alistair and Morrigan and it was amazing. It was cathartic and, frankly, an awesome story. I say that as a Creative Writing major, always looking for new venues of story telling, video games is a solid, if not sometimes "looked down" genre of story telling.
I got DA2 not long after and while, yes, a slight let down from Origins, still a good game and a narrative I followed fully.
I picked up the Mass Effect trilogy box set and played the first five minutes and I thought it wasn't for me. Because it was a shooter. And I don't like shooters. So it stayed gathering dust on my cabinet. Then this summer I was bored so I decided, why not, so I loaded ME1. And a month later (I was unemployed), I emerged the sole Shepard, champion, paragon, hero of the galaxy. ME1 -> ME2 -> ME3. EPIC. EEEEPPIIICCCC. I cried when Ashley died. I cried when Mordin died. I cried when Thane died. I cried when Legion died.
(Face it, I actually just really REALLY like crying).
CATHARTIC. AMAZING. THANK YOU BIOWARE.
Whenever I hear people insulting video games or gamers in general, I know they are talking crap or don't know wtf they are talking about.
Because everytime I play DA, I see a masterpiece. The characters could very well be real people and many situations shown in the game do reflect the harsh side of reality.
Anyone mocking such respectable work, made by a competent team, who evidently not only took inspiration from medieval lore and mythology, but also is highly qualified for writing such richly detailed and elaborated dialogues, is obviously a misinformed idiot.
That's what DA is for me. It's not children entertainment. It's not cheap fantasy like Disney. It's a sophisticated work with maturity. So yeah, I do judge people who criticise and demoralize gamers using DA as reference. Think gamers are idiots? You should go stare in a mirror more often, then, to grasp the meaning of idiot, pal.
Nugs beutyful Nugs
It means people better start showing me some respect. -Grey Warden to Wynne.
DA for me represents a a little shame, because of how obsessed I've been with the game since its 3rd installment was announced, honestly I had to engross myself in several different games to make it through the last few months, because the anticipation increased to bad levels with my high blood pressure and all. (God damn the many trailers that I love so much for this game)
But as for what it means.. In a way it linked to my spirituality & beliefs, Thedas is a troubled land that's been blessed with magic and adventure but on the flip side, it resented most of which makes it special. I've always been convinced I was born to be a battlemage, grown up on the 'Magic is wonderful' slogan of Disney and yet when you start off as a mage in any of the DA games, you're a pariah! A monster & in many cultures, you're treated quite poorly even if like Anders & myself, you're a healer or you just wanna travel the world helping people. There was a lot of moments where my strong views on religious devotion and childhood love of magic were tested and sometimes I went overboard.. But this series helped me learn to stick to my beliefs on various issues and if I ever go to far, have the courage to stand down and admit I'm wrong.
Other than that, I also had a new found respect for reincarnation, because every time I played a new game, I just said I died as the Warden & was reborn as Hawke, then I died as her and will be reborn on Nov 21 as the Inquisitor. Though it's always painful, I did fall in love and become super protective of each squad in DA:O, DA:A & DA2, so seeing them and having them not love me back... Is going to hurt.
I am a vet, Not getting into politics but when DAO came out I was going thru PTSD and titanium implants in my head and leg, along with depression. My family pulled me thru that. DAO allowed me some breaks IRL to wind down. It is a great story and I love the world of Thedas.
It was the first game I ever played that felt like I actually made a difference. Before I would play a game but always felt I was playing the story of someone else and I didn't have full control of the situation. DA more or less allowed me to express how I really felt about a situation (and roleplay other characters). These kinds of games may have the illusion of choice, but it does a really good job on the illusion part.
I also noticed how inclusive the community was. I've been part of gaming communities for over 15 years and this is the first time I've seen such variety in terms of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, options etc. It's very refreshing and it shows how special this game is.
Also it's the first game to challenge my favorite game series of all time (Legend of zelda) which Inquisition could push DA in my favor.
"Not as memorable to me as Mass Effect but certainly has the potential to be, and has certainly been realizing more and more of that potential since Origins, which was well-written, and interesting, but extremely boring to play and suffering from a massive identity crisis, because it was basically trying to be every other fantasy world at the same time, and while DAII wasn't anything special, it wasn't horrible, merely lackluster, and did at least improve upon making the Dragon Age universe a more unique one."
That was a mouthful.
But yeah, Inquisition looks like it could tip the scales on my Mass Effect > Dragon Age mindset. Bioware is truly getting better and better at distinguishing it's worlds from generic stuff we see in every other wannabe blockbuster sci-fi and/or fantasy series.
1000 hours of entertainment (dances Irish jig.)
I wish I possessed the literary elegance to adequately encapsulate what Dragon Age means to me.
Dragon Age, and then Mass Effect, got me into gaming again. Of course it also colored my opinion on every other game ("What you mean this is only 20 hours? And I can't choose the outcome?!") but I hadn't given video games a second thought since I was a kid before playing DA:O. It was the first time I ever bothered to pay attention to a game's story, it made realize they could be just as powerful as a book or movie.
We also named our son Cailan, but that was more "Oh, cool name!" than "In honor of thy service, Bioware, I present thee my firstborn."
I'm really touched by what some people said about how this helped them with their depression at times or how they have had tough times outside of gaming as they are more introvert. I'm actually, the complete oposite, i'm too social and rarely are depressed even when things go really bad I just stay positive.
Now aboute DA. Actually I need to speak about Bioware. I first discoverd them trough Star Wars, the Old Republic, a game I bought in awaiting the release of Star Wars Galaxies (The MMORPG that was gonna rock my world, and did not). Waaaaauuuww, I never played such a game, it was not just star wars it was better then any star wars movie, it was so immersive, due to lack of a better word, waauw.
Then they launched Mass Effect, due to the graphical style this was just like playing a movie, damn the bad ending of ME3, but this series was just ground breaking.
In the meantime they also launched DAO: I liked the graphical style less, I wans't a great fan of the companions, only liked Zevran and Oghren, but that's another debate, but the world was so well fleshed out, the story didn't seem to end, each time I had like this, what, wait there is still more.... lol . It made me buy DA2 straight away without reading reviews (even tough DA2 is the least good Bioware game, in my humble opinion, thus far). As an Archealogist and historian, I've really enjoyed the Art of DAI slidedeck and I really enjoy the game and it's surprising level of detail.
Since Bioware, I dare play other games, they just disapoint me after some hours of play, as I just don't get that immersed, and I really really tried, Assessins creed (tried to play 3 of them, never got halfway in any of them), Dead space all 3 (only made it halfway in the first one), Tomb Raider (I was a huge fan).
So DAI, huge expectations on what i've seen thus far, and I really really like Vivienne (who knows she might knock Tali of the 1ste spot)
Getting to be the hero and getting to be gay.
Dragon Age and Mass Effect are really the only major opportunity to do that in media.
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