The Interactive Pasts Conference: L. Meghan Dennis
2Presentation at the Interactive Pasts Conference, April 4th 2016, Leiden University.
L. Meghan Dennis (University of York)
Looting, the Antiquities Trade, and Treatments of Mortuary Spaces in Dragon Age: Inquisition
"In the tradition of modern fantasy role-playing environments, it is not uncommon to encounter multiple racial types and cultural traditions. In the case of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third major installment in BioWare and Electronic Arts’ Dragon Age franchise, engaging with these cultures often takes the form of interaction within, and manipulation of, mortuary spaces. Through an examination of how mortuary spaces of differing backgrounds function as micro-narratives of culture, we will explore how the looting of those contexts impacts the player’s experience of culture and their perception of the heritage of others. Attention will also be paid to how mortuary monuments and sites of religious or cultural veneration are disregarded and privileged as cultural landscapes, and their common narrative function in providing a repository for objects that ultimately end up in formalized and Westernized collections, separated from their original context."
http://gingerygamer.com/