64 réponses à ce sujet

[timebean]

I had to respond to this post!

 

My mother died suddenly in 2010.  It was very unexpected and there was a long period of grieving, as you can imagine.

 

All of the sudden, life was just very empty for me.  Nothing was fun anymore.  I stopped going out, preferring to stay at home alone and write.

 

Then, a friend loaned my a bunch of games.  I had bought a play station, for home entertainment more than playing games.  I was bored one weekend and popped in the cool looking one with the red and white cover.  I had never played an RPG before and had no idea what to expect.

 

I loved it so much.  I had no idea how immersive these things could be.  When Wynne started talking to my Cousland girl, telling her that things would be alright, I literally cried.  She reminded me so much of my mom...not that she was anything like her in reality.  But I didn't realize how much I needed to hear words like that until I heard them. I realized what I was missing in my life and it really helped me...complete the grieving process. 

 

I fell in love with Alistair, was desperate to get Sten to open up to me, sympathized with Leliana.  I found a world to remind me of all the things I valued...loyalty, trust, and duty.

 

It is now many years later, and my adviser recently made a snarky comment to our lab group, saying that he knows some of us play video games and that it is immature and a waste of time.  I wanted to yell at him. What does he know?  That game carried me through a very dark place in my life. It sounds silly and melodramatic, but it did.  i couldn't open up to real people, I couldn't bear talking about it with anyone.  Dragon Age gave me place to dream again, a safe place to find the things I was starting to lose. It was beautiful and sad and funny and smart.

 

I truly don't think i would have been able to come back out of that darkness without something like that to make me smile.

 

So..yeah..these games mean alot to me. And I really don't care if folks think they are immature or silly.  So are most people.  So is the world, most of the time.  I am just happy that they are still making them and I have a safe place to dream...

[Demon Velsper]

It means 50/50 chance of being a couple of hours of fun or complete ****.

[revan017]

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.

 

I agree. Completely.

 

The themes of gender, race, and class in this game are so distant yet such a parallel to what we experience. Discrimination. Hatred. Violence. Corruption. And the struggle to be better than that.

 

As someone who is LGBT, Asian Canadian, and struggling to survive -- there is no other game that just makes me feel more alive.

[full_metal_zombie]

The wait until the 20th is starting to be unbearable to be honest. I go through the day, counting minutes, bored, and everything I eat taste like ashes.

Funny. I always thought unbearable bordum tasted like chicken.

[EdwinLi]

as a Game a RPG that I can enjoy if they developed it right.

 

As for meaning, a lot of reflection on issues we do face in real life, question of morality, questions of different philosophies, what is right and wrong, what is good and what is evil, impact of different cultures, impact of different religions, what determines if someone is good or evil, and a bunch of other stuff that does happen in real life between different cultures.

[looonah]

It means procrastinating on important assignments. But really really fun procrastination. 

[Giggles_Manically]

Enchantment!

[Aren]

That the maker is everywhere even in this game hahaha.

[Veloric Wu]

As the topic title asks, what does Dragon Age mean to you?

 

What I mean is, how has this game impacted your life? To some, I'm sure it's just another game, but for others, it could mean so much more.

 

For me, Dragon Age is something I cherish greatly, when I was younger and Dragon Age Origins first came out, I was very depressed. I didn't have any friends, and, I was pretty anti-social. I loved video games, especially RPGs, but, Dragon Age was different from them all. ~~The game really hit me on an emotional level because as I grew to love each character, they became my friends. Friends that I didn't have in real life. ~taught me many lessons, made me laugh, and most importantly, cured me of my depression. ~It helped me break out of my shell and finally begin to make friends. Since then, Dragon Age has been my favorite game series, and it will always hold a special place in my mind.

 

So, what does Dragon Age mean to you guys? Is it important to you? Do you just view it as another game? Are you obsessed? Share your stories below!

 

I second this. I used to be quite addicted to video games~in a negative way. I literally rage quitted when people performed bad, and I could not really social with people in a normal manner when I am not in front of a TV (or computer) screen. Traditional video games put so much emphasis on killing, slaughtering things, winning trophies and earning rewards they do warp one's social value at some point.

The total irony of the story is the cure~~the game series that has arguably become the most addictive of all that I play. The game series that is just totally different from everything else.

 

Dragon Age (and Mass Effect) put more emphasis on socializing with ingame characters. It demonstrated many correct ways (and as counter examples, other incorrect ones). It lets you observe those methods, and in a scientific way, analyze how to open up conversations with people, develop the relations, and become more than just friends with them. I managed to pick up a few lines along the way and you know what, THEY  WORK IN REAL LIFE! How has this happened! Something you learn in virtual reality worlds can actually work IRL

 

I am now studying abroad in United Kingdom and have managed to live a happy life in an environment where I am the ethnic minority. Dragon Age has indeed contributed much to it.

[Cerulione]

Love and life, companionships and all that matters. Live your best to reach your goal or die trying. All choices are not black and white, but only the shades of grey.

[Chari]

It usually means that I've spent an hout or more choosing a proper gear, doing quests and making virtual friends instead of spending an hour or more cleaning my room, doing my chores and making real life friends

[AdrynBliss]

For many, RPGs are about being someone else, for me it's always been about being me in that world.

I'll make the character look as much like me as possible, distribute stats initially in a way that reflects how I am in real life and usually never choose a class that has any kind of special powers.

Dragon Age, for me, is about my life in Thedas and what I would do, I try to be honest with myself with the choices I would make.

I find this approach is always the most immersive and makes the story far more moving and meaningful, the result is experiencing something that greatly transcends a 'simple' video game. 

[ShallowlLife9871]

I was about to leave this foram...but i saw this topic and I had to respond.

 

I was introduced to DA though my sister.{ She kept talking about it, and then gave me a copy for Xmas]

 

and yeah it was at a bad time in my life... I won't elaborate, cause it's was a deeply personal thing that still effects me to this day. But I know I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did without DA. it gave me something to look forward too. If things got bad, I could escape to Theadus and  be a dwarf, or an Elf, Or a mage and be a hero saveing the world form darkspawn. that if i could stop a blight, I could deal with my life. [ as sad and geeky as that sounds]

 

or hell, trying to save Kirkwall form it's self.

I got to play in a world with awesome characters and a great story.

 

so DA will always have a place in my heart.

[Statsman1]

As a kid, I was small, and unathletic, and a very good student.  The epitome of bully targeting if there ever was.

 

So I saved every cent I owned as a paper-routing pre-teen, and bought an Apple II, which allowed me to get into RPG games like Wizardry, Zork, and Ultima III, which I loved...and then there was Ultima IV.  Amazing, incredible, life-saving Ultima IV.

 

Choosing whether or not to partner up with characters?  Wow.  "Good" monsters that you shouldn't kill, even if they attack you?  Unheard of.  Karmic retribution for stealing when nobody's around?  Unbelievable.  Giving money to beggars even though I might starve?  Awesome.  Hours upon hours of searching, finding, returning, solving and then winning because you HAD to play as the good guy - this was the greatest video game I had ever played in my life.  Nothing, ever, came close.

 

And then came Dragon Age: Origins, which I found by accident.

 

Without even knowing it was happening, Dragon Age made me care about my characters.  Made me care about relationships, and not burning bridges, and making decisions that counted, and living with those decisions.  Knowing, at crucial points, that the decision I made RIGHT THEN would shape the rest of the game and I couldn't come back and undo it - it was AWESOME.  I got to live vicariously through someone else who took the hits for me, who did what I said AND suffered the consequences when I was wrong.

 

The magnitude, the scope and...well, everything.  When I finally, after at least 15 tries, killed the Archdemon...I felt like a freakin' hero for four days.  And then I went through the myriad play-throughs that allowed me to experience different things, different emotions with different characters and still, in the end, no matter what, I got to save the world.  No matter what mistakes I made, errors in judgment that occurred, quests forgotten and not completed - all of that happened, and in the end, every single time, no matter what - I was a hero.

 

And very, very few of us EVER get to be heroes.

 

That is what Dragon Age means to me.