‘From where I stand, you're all legs’. Expectation, Desire and Queerness in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Abstract

As modern queerness advances, so do the expectations of the queer media audience. Queer media has traversed various tropes, such as the demonisation of queerness and the traditional “coming-out” narrative, but increasingly more queer narratives are steering away from queer-centric narratives to queer-additive narratives. The focus of these stories is less about who queer people are, and more about what they do as themselves. Games are a prime example of this, largely driven by the tastes of a queer audience that changes the onus of queer narratives. Games that focus on player choice and provide fantasy, especially roleplay games, benefit massively from an understanding of their audiences and their wants, needs, and, ultimately, expectations of queerness in modern games. Using a case study of games in the Dragon Age series and a longitudinal study of reflections collected from the Diversity Lounge at PAX East after the release of Dragon Age Inquisition, we look at expectation fulfilment of expressions of desire for queerness in games. We find that the latest in the Dragon Age series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard has largely fulfilled these expectations, though is not without its criticism