Dragon Age: Inquisition: A Christian Message in a Postsecular World

Abstract

This article deals with the religious, specifically Christian, message in the video game “Dragon Age: Inquisition,” released in 2014 by BioWare. In order to understand the specifics of this game, the article in-cludes a detailed analysis of the conventional ways that religion, gods, and believers are presented in computer role-playing games (RPGs), the genre to which “Dragon Age: Inquisition” belongs. The study pays special attention to the way “Dragon Age: Inquisition” utilizes a common set of narrative techniques and game mechanics often present in the games of this genre. While borrowing many of them, the developers change them in small but significant ways. In doing so they manage to create a unique approach to the representation of religion that is shaped profoundly by secular ideology, which dominates the genre. This allows us to call “Dragon Age: Inquisition” a postsecular video game that adapts many traditional Christian narratives and conflicts to a new and unaccustomed medium.